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Saturday, March 10, 2007

Perceptions

One of the many things that I have discovered with parenting is that perceptions are very important. You can take two kids who have the same type of cough and one parent will say that her child is sick with a cold and another will say that her child just has the sniffles. It's the same thing with two kids crying in a grocery store. One parent might say that the child is having a full blown temper tantrum and the other will say that she's just tired.

I was in a great parent group from the time my older son (OS)was 18 month until he was 3. I heard the following conversation many times.

Parent A: My child doesn't eat enough vegetables.

Parent B: My child eats a ton of vegetables.

Social Worker: Parent B, could you explain what you do to get your child to eat vegetables?

Parent B: He just really likes them.

Parent A: No matter what I do my child just won't eat vegetables.

Social Worker: Any any at all?

Parent A: Well, he does eat a little. He eats about 6 green peas with dinner and a slice of apple with lunch.

Parent B: Hey, that's how much my child eats too. So your child is a fruit and veggie lover after all!

Social Worker: A serving size for a child is a tablespoon of food per year old. So if your child is 1 year old, a serving size of peas would be 1 tablespoon which is about 6 peas (give or take a pea or two depending on their size.)

A tablespoon is also about the size of your thumb. I learned that nifty fact on my first day of Weight Watchers and of course the scientist in me had to take out a measuring tablespoon and test a spoonful of margarine against margarine that was the size of thumb. They were about the same.

I was reflecting on this as I gave my son a serving of chicken for dinner last night. He's 8.5 months old so a serving of chicken for him is a less than 1 tablespoon. I gave him 2 diced pieces of chicken not thinking that was too much. He ate one piece. I gave the other to the dog. In a day and age where dinner plates and bowls are bigger, and restaurants serve very large portions, it's hard to remember how small a tablespoon of food really is. I swear it seemed like more times than not, when a parent would say in parent group that her child wasn't eating enough fruit, vegetables, meat, dairy etc. in reality the child was eating the amount that was appropriate for the child.

As always, if you have concerns about how much your child is eating or not eating for that matter, please talk with your doctor.

A. Elliot's Lesson Learned: A serving size is one tablespoon per year.

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Name:Alex Elliot
Home:MA, United States
About Me:Professional Mom of two cats, a dog, an ant farm, and oh yeah...two boys: a 6 year old and a 3 year old. Also found in my house is my husband who is known on this blog as The Big Giraffe.
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For those of us who didn't get an instruction manual with our babies and for whom parenting hasn't always gone as planned. On a more serious note this blog is about supporting a woman's ability to make her own choices about parenting including the choice, for whatever reason, to bottle feed her babies formula.

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