Imagine this- you're eating dinner with your child and you look over at their plate to see that just the vegetables remain- namely some broccoli and brussel sprouts. You might be tempted to not only use some pressure to get them to eat their vegetables, but also bribe them into finishing their veggies as well.
However, did you know that you should not bribe a child to eat? Why not? Bribing seems like an easy way to get a child to eat vegetables while at the same time giving them something else that they enjoy right?
Well, bribing a child with a shiny new toy or a sweet treat in order to get them to eat their vegetables might work in the moment, but in the long-run it can actually hinder a child's ability to make their own food decisions. When a child is given something else in exchange for eating their vegetables, they end up seeing food less as something to enjoy and more as an incentive to get something else they want (dessert, toy, etc.). Research shows that bribing a child with dessert, increases the liking of the dessert, but decreases the liking of the foods they need to eat to get to the dessert, which usually ends up being the vegetables. If children are trained with rewards, they won't be incentivized to “ grow up” and make their own food decisions down the line.
Luckily, there are strategies you can use to avoid having to bribe a child in the first place. The best method to employ would be using the Division of Responsibly. In this method, both the child AND the parent/caregiver carry their own responsibilities during mealtimes.
The parent/guardian decides:
WHAT food is being offered
WHEN it is being offered
WHERE it is being offered
The child decides:
HOW MUCH to eat
IF/WHETHER they eat the food being offered
Through this method, parents/guardians are able to offer both nutrient-dense and less nutrient-dense food options in the quantities they have chosen, while the child is still able to decide how much of each they would like to consume.
Furthermore, research has shown that increased exposure to a certain food leads to increased liking over time. However, if a reward was used to get the child to eat that food, there ends up being no significant increase in the liking of that food overtime. Thus, using rewards to get a child to try new foods actually stops them from liking that food more over time.
"If parents do their jobs with feeding, kids will do their jobs with eating." - Ellyn Satter
Overall, it is important to remember that a healthy plate for a child will look different than a healthy plate for yourself. Allowing children to grow into healthy eating habits without the use of rewards, will actually make mealtimes more enjoyable for everyone in the long-run.
References:
Raise a healthy child who is a joy to feed: https://www.ellynsatterinstitute.org/how-to-feed/the-division-of-responsibility-in-feeding/
Galloway, A. T., Fiorito, L. M., Francis, L. A., & Birch, L. L. (2006). ‘Finish your soup’: Counterproductive effects of pressuring children to eat on intake and affect.Appetite,46(3), 318-323. doi:10.1016/j.appet.2006.01.019
Añez, E., Remington, A., Wardle, J., & Cooke, L. (2013). The impact of instrumental feeding on children's responses to taste exposure.Journal of Human Nutrition and Dietetics,26(5), 415-420. doi:10.1111/jhn.12028
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