Clean plate club

Cathy92

I had 3 kids none of which were overweight. When they were little, When they were 2 , I'd help feed them, but. If they didn't eat , I didn't worry...kids eat when they're hungry. I never let them eat whenever they wanted..just when I made meals or snacks....Don't cater to him too much. He won't starve. Also, your other option is to have another baby...lol...it really makes for an eating competition!.

AlisonH729

Maryfullofgrace wrote: »

I was once a kid with a "clean plate club" upbringing. My mom didn't cater to what our likes and dislikes were. Granted she made family friendly dishes, and she never over-fed us. She portioned our plates as young kids. None of us were overweight during our life under her roof.

I'm also from a Clean Plate Club family. (I didn't even realize this was a universal term until right now!) My parents split the cooking but it was typically a meat-veg-starch combo. We were not catered to either. My two oldest brothers were teenagers when I was born and my other brother is 5 years older than I am. We were served different portions, but all the same food. "This is not a restaurant." You could trade in extra meat for more vegetables or visa-versa. One time I remember being told I had to stay at the table until I finished a 'hamburger'. (Which had been cut for me and was probably a quarter of a hamburger.) Edit: We weren't always forced but my Mom knew when we'd be hungry in an hour. "The kitchen is closed." Oh, and forget dessert if you didn't finish. "If you have room for dessert you had room for more broccoli." <- Okay, maybe that one could have messed us up. But I understand the logic now as I see my nieces and nephews eat two pieces of spaghetti and then ask for cookies.

So sure there will be days when your kids (or you) are sick or tired and you just want them to eat SOMETHING and give up when they won't. But for the most part if you feed them good food in responsible portions I see no problem enforcing encouraging that they eat what you serve them.

cwolfman13

This puppy is over three years old....

What's up with the zombie thread resurrections lately?

AlisonH729

cwolfman13 wrote: »

This puppy is over three years old....

My bad! I didn't even realize until after I had posted. I had searched something else and this thread came up in the results and like I said, I've never heard anyone else talk about the clean plate club. I always thought it was a family-ism.

lemurcat12

I think there's a distinction between forcing a child to clean the plate--we didn't have to do that, but we were expected to try everything and weren't permitted to skip the vegetables and then have dessert--and making a special dinner that caters to that child's preferences and allowing him or her never to eat (or even try) foods that don't immediately appeal.

A 2 year old is really young, though, and I'm thinking more about a slightly older child. With a smaller child as others have said the portion control is even more in your hands, and you can encourage the child to eat enough without using terms like "clean plate club." Not that it's the worst thing in the world, but I too have struggled with enough weird guilt about leaving too much food on my plate that I hate making some kind of virtue about finishing everything vs. eating to hunger.

3shirts

My parents were big on this and it's definitely affected me. Even trying to eat very consciously I still feel compelled to clean the plate. I don't 'blame' them as such, they grew up when food was much more scarce and couldn't help but pass that down.

I don't have kids but I would definitely say you want to find a balance between making sure they eat properly and forcing them to eat 'too much'. Like everything with kids, you need to make sure you don't create unhealthy associative behaviour that will stick with them

esjones12

Talk to your child's doctor and make sure they are getting the right nutritional balance and intake. Other than that it's up to your parenting style. There are probably plenty of kids who grew up with no issue being part of the "clean plate club", while others developed issues.

Honestly I see the behaviors that have been mentioned in my nephews and other kids I'm exposed to...and they are behavior issues. I can't say too much since I am not a mom, and don't plan on being one any time soon. But I see way, way too much disrespect from little kids to their parents. Too many parents just shove cell phones at their kids to shut them up, etc. You teach people to treat you the way you want to be treated, including little kids. But that is a discussion that doesn't belong on a weight loss forum