Fed up with your toddler throwing your homemade meals on the floor? I heard that. Normal though it may be, it's slightly heartbreaking to see the meal you've just made from the freshest organic ingredients available, splattered on the baseboards, and running down the wall, isn't it? I also worry about whether my kids are getting enough protein and vitamins throughout the day - it seems as if they live on air and milk.
It's good to know that experts say that that toddlers will eat enough to survive and thrive on their own, no "here comes the airplane!" or "one more bite and you get dessert!" needed. Perhaps more importantly, though, toddlers are using the food in front of them to conduct important experiments, like testing gravity, as well as testing your reactions to what they're doing, and learning to exercise their own power.
Jan Faull, a child development and behavior specialist and columnist for The Seattle Times, recently put to rest a new mom's worry that her toddler son was not eating enough, and that she was setting him up for a lifetime of poor eating habits, and table manners, by letting him drop food onto the floor. A brief recap: kids throw food, kids rarely starve to death, offer kids healthy food choices, pick up as needed, no punishment necessary.
Food for thought, if not for tiny little bellies.
