Eating well -talking to children about food and their bodies

Mealtimes provide great opportunities for language development, which in turn can also make eating a joyful experience and reinforces the child’s positive view of food. Equally it is important to avoid using inappropriate language when it comes to food and bodies, as this can have negative impacts on how a child perceives themselves and others.

Adults often describe some foods as ‘good’ and others as ‘bad’ or ‘naughty’. Children may internalise this description and feel that they are ‘bad’ for eating something or for looking the way they do. From a very early age, this can instil feelings of guilt and shame.

So what can you do to make language more neutral at mealtimes? Here are my top five tips:

• Remind yourself that food doesn’t have a moral value. Could you give a more accurate description, such as ‘sweet’, ‘gooey’, ‘smooth’, ‘fresh’, ‘crunchy’? Children love this as an activity so get creative with them!
• Talk about non-food topics at mealtimes – focusing too much on the food can put some children off, in particular those who are reluctant eaters. Talk about things that they might enjoy; for example, what they did that morning.
• Don’t make an example of other children, such as ‘Jamal isn’t eating well today’ or ‘Susie always wants seconds’. This can make children feel like there is an expectation on them to finish all their food or not to eat more.
• Use age-appropriate nutrition topics – for very young children, the word ‘healthy’ is far too abstract. They may be more interested in talking about where food comes from or in exploring it with their hands.
• Don’t make food conditional. For example, ‘Finish your dinner and then you can have a pudding’ is a sentence many of us have grown up with, but one that elevates the pudding to a pedestal and relegates the dinner to something we have to ‘get through’. It can also override a child’s internal hunger and satiety cues by making them eat more food than they ideally want because they may still want the pudding and eat it regardless of whether or not they are still hungry.