Should we Think like Parents of Toddlers about what we Eat?

HelPur25

I once heard some good advice that I've since passed along to anxious parents I encounter. The advice was: Don't necessarily worry about what your toddler eats in any given meal or single day. Think about what they eat over the course of approximately three days to determine if they're consuming appropriate calories and nutrients.

The logic is that toddlers will naturally fluctuate in their level of hunger or interest in eating. Parents shouldn't obsess over each and every meal because it causes a lot of unnecessary stress around eating, both for the parent and for the child. Instead, they should take a "big picture" approach when thinking about their toddler's nutrition. As long as they're offering nutritious choices, and the child is consuming appropriate calories and nutrients over the course of a few days, they're fine.

So, now I'm wondering, should we take the same approach to our own nutrition? Instead of obsessing over each meal or each day, should we be thinking about it in a more holistic sense, over the course of a few days or several days? Or do you already do this? What do all of you think?

cwolfman13

I already do this. Good nutrition isn't about an individual food or meal in a vacuum. A nutritious diet has to be looked at in the whole. If I do pizza and movie night this Friday as planned, that doesn't magically undo the very good nutrition I've taken in all week. If I have desert after dinner tonight, it doesn't undo my nutrition for the day. Obsessing over every meal or every particular food is basically taking an all or nothing type of approach, and I've never seen that work for anyone long term.

ETA: I also splurge more on weekends calorie wise...but I'm also much more active on weekends.

COGypsy

I've always balanced calories and nutrition over a week or so. My schedule and activities aren't identical every day, why would my intake need to be?

AnnPT77

Well, as a non-parent (no diss implied), I don't look at it exactly that way. But IMO it's short-term averages (one to a few days) that really matter for nutrition.

If a person wants to get compulsive about it, different nutrients maybe have different timing horizons for optimization, depending on how each nutrient is metabolized. I'm not that deep, personally, and humans (looking at the sweep of history) seem to be adaptive omnivores, so I think we have a little wiggle room, and maybe more than a little.

Consistent excellent daily nutrition is a great boon, a huge global and historical privilege, that truly fortunate developed world folks may have. Subjectively speaking, I think it's a shame that quite a few of us don't recognize, celebrate, maximize that.

But I only control me. I do . . . OK. I'm kind of a flake, over on most good stuff, but sometimes over on sodium, cholesterol, more rarely sat fat. I'm grateful (so grateful!) though, that I have those choices.

ciaoder

So much depends on the sensibilities of the individual. Ann flakes out on maximizing her macro and micro nutrition for a best outcome every single day but she’s been at this a long time, is motivated, and has the expertise to do so correctly. Someone else, perhaps early in their journey, might be much better served by looking at a trend over days. I’d never want a newbie to obsess over a single reading on the scale. If you feel the need to weight yourself every day, track it as a 5 day average. Likewise I don’t want them fixated on single meals without also looking at their dietary trends over time.