Toddlers and Appetite
What Adults Can Learn From What Toddlers Already Know
Children are born with an innate ability to know how much food they need to eat even if it appears to their parents that they eat “like a horse” or “like a bird”.
Most young children can self-regulate their intake of food across meals based on hunger and fullness cues without a large influence from other environmental factors though as they grow, this ability appears to diminish.
Young children adjust their intake of food based on a variety of factors such as:
fluctuating activity levels
calories previously eaten
constant growth as well as growth spurts
They appear to do this quite well. It is reassuring to parents who feel worried when their young child may ask for triple servings at one meal or simply pick away without eating much at another.
In studies of children vs adults, children were better able to calorie compensate by adjusting their intake of calories at future meals depending on if a high or low calorie food was previously offered.
In another study, children were unknowingly served either a high fat (and therefore high calorie) food or a low calorie fat substitute. Over the course of 2 days, regardless of whether they received the high fat/high calorie food or not, both groups consumed about the same amount of calories overall. The children served the low calorie food adjusted their intake at other meals to account for the lost calories from the fat substitute they were secretly served. It’s pretty incredible.
Ramsey eating pumpkin pancakes topped with greek yogurt topped with lox: weird toddler creation or the next “it” brunch dish?
Unfortunately this amazing ability to self-regulate seems to naturally wane around 2-3 years of age.
One study showed that serving size influenced how much 5 year olds ate but had little effect on how much 3 year olds ate. It seems that with time kids may listen a little less to their body’s hunger and fullness cues and be more swayed in how much they eat by external factors such as serving size, pressure to eat more/less, eating behaviors of those around them and access to foods they really like.
Below are some factors that might affect a child’s ability to regulate appetite and intake as they age:
Encouraging kids to eat more (or less):
Though most parents have moved beyond “the clean plate club”, it’s still temping to encourage kids to keep eating or finish certain foods at mealtimes. I have found myself desperately saying “just three more bites” or “eat a little more and then I’ll give you a banana”. One study that observed families with kindergarteners found that 85% of the parents tried to get their kid to eat more and 83% of kids did eat more with this encouragement. Parents encouraging kids to keep eating might inadvertently socialize kids to ignore their appetite self-regulation and eat past their fullness cues.
Inconsistently providing food:
Children who are food insecure may consume a lot when they are given the chance. They may also become preoccupied with food.
Following an eating schedule is one way that kids know that they will regularly be offered food and have the ability to fill up throughout the day.
Programs such as WIC, SNAP and school lunch programs are intended to help address issues with food insecurity in families with children.
Trying to keep emotions out of feeding:
Food rewards, praise, pressure and stress at meal time might inadvertently teach kids that we eat in response to our feelings rather than eating in response to hunger/fullness.
The above mentioned study, found that parents often used reasoning, praise and food rewards to get kids to keep eating. Fathers were more likely to use pressure tactics with boys while mothers were more likely to use praise when girls ate more.
Another area where feeding and feelings can become intertwined is repeatedly turning to food as a source of comfort. Try not to constantly use food to sooth kids when hurt, upset or bored.
