A Mother's Influence on Her Child's Diet

      Part One of this Science Friday series discussed a variety of ways that parents can influence their children's food choices. I know that I saw at least one finding discussed in Part one's post at our home this week- namely, a child's ability to control their own food intake. For Q-ball's birthday, we gave her sweet yogurt the day before her birthday, and she devoured it!  On her actual birthday, we presented her with her first cake and ice cream and expected the same results, but she barely touched anything!  I guess she knew she had had enough the night before!

And, that's about all the cake and ice cream she ate!

    This post is going to specifically explore a mother's role in her child's eating habits. As one of the studies I read explained, "Mothers are often one of the most influential people in a young child’s life."  It makes sense, then, that the mother is often the one to have the most influence on a child's food choices. Obviously, I'm a mama, so I found this a really interesting topic to research especially as I am working to instill healthy eating habits in Q-ball.

     Many of the studies I found dealing with parental influences on children's eating habits focused on preschool-age children.  However, I did find one that looked specifically at a mother's actions while she was just introducing solids to her child- from 6 months to 1 year. Even at this young age, at least two studies show, how a mother feeds her baby is related to a baby's weight.  Mothers are much more likely to pressure their "skinny" babies to eat than they are "chubby" babies. This is especially interesting as it is rather common knowledge that fat babies are happy and healthy babies. (Good news for Q-ball! Just the other day a 8- or 9- year old boy at the park came up to us and called her fat!) Mothers who were deemed to be "controlling" during feeding according to researchers were more likely to have babies with slow weight gain.  I thought this finding was so sad- mothers might be jeopardizing their babies' health because of perceived cultural norms!  What is especially interesting about this finding is that researchers theorize that the mothers then see their babies' slowed weight gain as a success.  As such, they continue to restrict the children's feeding in the coming years, and, as we saw in the last post, this will likely eventually lead to overeating by the child!  What a cycle!

     On the other side of the food control spectrum is pushing children to finish their food. The method of directing children to eat was discussed in Part One, but this week, I am going to look at the issue from a slightly different angle.  Many mothers actively encourage their children to finish their plates or to take a couple more bites. But, studies have shown these reminders last beyond dinner time.  In one study, children were given pudding to eat in a laboratory setting on multiple occasions.  When the children's mothers were present (not encouraging them to eat- just present), overweight children (this specific study was comparing normal weight children to overweight children) were much more likely to eat more pudding. Not only did they eat more, they ate faster and took bigger bites!  The researchers concluded that in these cases, the mothers were likely contributors to their children's weight.

      Finally, it is difficult to look through too much research that discusses women and food without coming across information about eating disorders. Unfortunately, little research has been done on any possible effects that a mother's eating disorder may have on how she feeds her child.  But, at least one study does compare how mothers with anorexia nervosa (AN), bulimia nervosa (BN), binge eating disorder (BED), and no eating disorders (No ED) feed their children.  No differences appear in pressuring children to eat across the groups. But, it found that mothers suffering from BN and BED were more likely to restrict their children's food intake.  Additionally, these mothers were much more likely to report that their children had anxiety issues and difficulty eating (although the researchers admit it is difficult to determine the causality of this reporting.)   The study is not a longitudinal study, so it cannot tell us the long-term effects on these children's eating habits. However, it is known that the odds of having an eating disorder are influenced by both genetic and environmental factors, so it can be assumed these children would have an increased risk of eating disorders.
   Another blog I follow, Parenting Science, recently published a post about the effect of a mother's weight gain during pregnancy has on the child's weight as an adult. I won't rehash the post, but it turns out that mothers the under-eat during pregnancy increase their babies odds of being obese later in life.  If you are interested, the whole post is available here.

     It's amazing to see the amount of influence that mother's can have on their children's daily habits! What struck me in these studies is that the mother's actions seem so off-hand or slight that she likely does not give them a second thought.  But, the long-term impacts are pretty profound.  It's certainly made me think about how I feed Q-ball and how I eat in front of her.  I vow to no longer eat peanut directly from the jar.  At least in front of Q-ball...

Sources:
Brown, A. & Lee, M. (2011). Maternal child-feeding style during the weaning period: Association with infant weight and maternal eating style. Eating Behaviors, 12. 108-112.
Munsch, S., Hasenboehler, K., & Meyer, A.H. (2011). Is amount of food intake in overweight and obese children related to their psychopathology and to maternal eating behavior? Journal of Psyhcosomatic Research, 70. 362-367.
Reba-Harrelson, L., Von Holle, A., Hamer, R.M., Torgersen, L., Reichborn-Kjennerud, T. & Bulik, C.M. (2010). Patterns of maternal feeding and child eating associated with eating disorders in the Norwegian Mother and Child Cohort Study (MoBa). Eating Behaviors, 11. 54-61.

Wordless Wednesday: Using Utensils

As I explained a few weeks ago here, I have been focusing on introducing Q-ball to utensils.  This week she has taken quite an interest and will sit and practice with a spoon or fork uninterrupted for quite some time.  This should not be confused with eating solids, as that hasn't really been happening!

We tried the Montessori spoon activity. She's a little young, so beans were everywhere- we'll try again later!

Montessori at Mealtime: Better Late Than Never

    While we love following Dr. Montessori's principles at home, we decided not to use her methods at mealtimes.  Instead we used baby-led solids (a.k.a. baby-led weaning).  These approaches do have similarities, but some very fundamental differences.  Melissa from Vibrant Wanderings did an excellent comparison of the two here, so I will not try to re-create. While we have been very happy with our decision to use BLS, we have decided it is time to introduce a few more skills.
   As I explained in a previous post, one of my primary reasons for choosing BLS when introducing Q-ball to solids was that it recognizes babies' developmental capabilities. I believe it is absolutely necessary to give babies and children opportunities to do things themselves.  This is critical for them to demonstrate and further master their capabilities.  Dr. Montessori absolutely agreed.  As she explains in The Montessori Method, "nature has furnished [the child] with the physical means for carrying on these various activities, and with the intellectual means for learning how to do them.  And our duty toward him, in every case, that of helping them to make a conquest of such useful acts as nature intended he should preform for himself."
    And, yet....a few weeks ago I realized that we have not given Q-ball very many opportunities to drink from a cup or to use silverware.  So, how do you implement Montessori feeding methods a little late?  Here's what we are doing:

Using A Spoon
    At least during one meal a day, I give Q-ball a child-sized spoon.  The first few times, I gave her the spoon after she had already eaten some food as that she would not loose complete interest in eating.  But, I realized that this was not as necessary as I expected.  While she was very excited about the spoon, she typically continued eating (except for a few times when I think she was pretty much finished eating anyway.)    
    When presenting her with the spoon, I demonstrate scooping up food from her plate (kept on the table- not her high chair) and then using the spoon to eat the food.  I've had the most luck doing this at breakfast when we are eating sticky oatmeal vs. dinner when we are eating rolly-polly peas. In accordance to BLS, I do not feed her from the spoon.  I simply place the spoon in front of her.When she requests more food, I continue serving her food on her spoon.
    Has it worked? Not quite yet.  At first, she looks at the spoon with a big smile, and then use her fingers to dig the food off of the spoon.  Now she does occasionally get the spoon in her mouth, but sans food.  I believe she has the concept, though.  She does hold the spoon correctly, and it hasn't been thrown to the floor nearly as much as I anticipated (unlike last night's dinner of potatoes and green beans...)

Using a Cup
    As for drinking, we have tried a variety of things, but Q-ball seems to big one of the biggest proponents of breastfeeding around and is confused as to why she should bother with anything else.  She refused a bottle, thought a sippy cup was a really fun teething toy, and did start to use a straw cup, but never really mastered swallowing.  So, now I am just presenting her with a cup filled with a little water at the end of our meals. Before placing the cup in front of her, I demonstrate how to drink from it. She gets very excited. Then she picks up the cup looks curiously at the water inside and rolls the cup around in her hands, moving the water in the cup. And then dumps the cup on her high chair table and tries to use her hands to drink it.
Has it worked?
   Obviously, not yet.  But, I'm certainly not giving up. She'll obviously get it soon enough. 


Sources:
Montessori, M. (1912). The Montessori Method. New York: Fredrick A. Stokes Company. (Trans. Anne E. George).

Discovering a New City and Organic Foods

Welcome to the January 2012 Carnival of Natural Parenting: Experiments in Natural Family Living
This post was written for inclusion in the monthly Carnival of Natural Parenting hosted by Hobo Mama and Code Name: Mama. This month our participants have reported on weeklong trials to make their lives a little greener and gentler. Please read to the end to find a list of links to the other carnival participants.
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     One of the reasons that I opted to use baby-led solids was that it made more sense to me and sounded easier than traditional baby-food.  Just give Q-ball what we were eating. Selfish, I know. But, as the days go on, I often find myself fixing meals for Daddy and me and thinking, "I can't give this to Q-ball!" The most common reasons are: the the food is too salt-laden because it is a canned vegetable or because of pesticides in fresh, conventional produce.  So, I asked myself, if Q-ball shouldn't eat it, should my husband and I be eating it?  Thus, I opted to revamp our eating for at least a week (my standard meal planning and shopping schedule) to be as natural and local as possible.   Here's what we did.

THE SHOPPING-

At one of the markets

   First stop- the farmers' markets to pick up produce.  The timing actually worked out perfectly.  My husband and I have always loved visiting farmers' markets, but since moving to our new city, we haven't found the time.  I was excited to learn there are farmers' markets four days of the week here- all across the city!  So, it was a great way to visit different parts of our new town.  We found lots of yummy fresh produce as well as salsas and jellies and bread.

   Second stop- a "local" meat market.  I'd noticed a small, family-owned meat market in the center of town.  Since Daddy likes meat, I thought I'd check it out.  I'd assumed they would sell some local meats and other ingredients and possibly organic/natural meat.  Well, I could not have been more wrong.  The owner's son couldn't even tell me where any of their food came from.  And, to top it all off, most of their meats were frozen (for who knows how long!)   

   Third stop- local natural, grocery stores.  In the past, I have purchased very few packaged organic products, with the exception of my frozen veggie meals and the occasional splurges. Cost has been the primary prohibiting factor in shopping for organic products, but our main grocery store also sells very few organic products.  We live within a five minute walk of a small store that specializes in natural foods.  Q-ball and I have been going a few times a week to get produce for her meals, but this week we expanded our search.  We bought milk, eggs, OJ, pasta, pasta sauce, cereals, bread, coffee- everything we needed for the week.

THE EATING-

Chicken and Eggplant Parm

   We kept our standard cereal with berries and milk breakfasts and fruit, yoghurt, and sandwiches for lunches, but just ate organic versions.  Some of our dinners included butternut squash and spinach lasagne, a cookout with beef (for Daddy) and veggie (for me) burgers and veggie skewers, crab meat and spinach quiche, and chicken (for Daddy) and eggplant (for me) Parmesan over pasta.

    The food didn't necessarily taste any different than conventional food, but we did eat more fresh (vs. frozen) vegetables than normal.   And, we did get to try some products we never would have otherwise, such as sprouted wheatgrass ziti.  It was delicious!  I'm also now a big fan of sprouted sandwich bread.  The organic spaghetti we purchased was the one item in which I could tell a big taste difference in our normal pasta- the texture and taste were much, much better. 

LESSONS LEARNED-

1. Plan Ahead.  The selection at some of the markets was more spares than usual because of the holidays, which made finding variety more difficult (luckily we like butternut squash...)
2. But, not too much. I usually make a pretty detailed weekly meal plan before shopping, but as I did not know all of the ingredients that would be available, so meals were planned at the store.  
3. Do not assume "local" means local. Out meat shop expereince taught me to always ask about your food.
4. We love outdoor markets!  I love the fresh fruits and vegetables and other specialty items, and Q-ball loves checking out all of the sites and the attention from the vendors!
5. Taste.  I was surprised that some of the food did taste better.  I love sprouted bread!
6. Cost.  It's true that buying organics can be much more expensive than conventional fare, and, as a frugal person, this is what I still struggle with.  However, Charise from I Thought I Knew Mama shared the following a while back that struck a chord with my American and capitalist values,  "every time you go to the grocery store, you are voting." With this idea in mind, I have been more likely be buy organic, despite the price.  

THE FUTURE-

   One of my goals in the next few weeks is to continue to integrate more organic food into our routine by replacing conventional items that I currently have on hand and by trying some new recipes.  I know that I won't buy us organic products 100% of the time, mainly because of price and/or availability.  But, I am now be a much more educated consumer in that I know what products are available and where to get them.  Additionally, I know that if I make some swaps to items that we currently buy (like replacing my cold cereal habit with organic oats), our grocery bill will actually not increase too dramatically, if at all.

   Does your family only eat organics? Why have you made the switch, or why haven't you made the switch? Do you have shopping tips to keep my budget in check or other ways to integrate organics into our routine?

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Visit Hobo Mama and Code Name: Mama to find out how you can participate in the next Carnival of Natural Parenting!
Please take time to read the submissions by the other carnival participants:

• Make your own moisturizer! — Megan at boho mama whips up a winter skin-friendly moisturizer.
• Cold Water Only — Brittany at The Pistachio Project talks about how you do not need hot water to wash laundry.
• Family Cloth... Really?? — After lots of forethought and consideration, Momma Jorje finally decides to take the plunge with family cloth.
• Reduce, Reuse, Recycle : 5-5-5 Things A Day — Luschka from Diary of a First Child writes about decluttering her home in an attempt to create a gentler living space. She takes on a new project where she sets a goal of reducing, reusing and recycling every day.
• Pros and cons of family cloth — Lauren at Hobo Mama would love to continue replacing paper products with family cloth … if she could only get over how damp she feels.
• Craftily Parenting — Kellie at Our Mindful Life finds that crafting makes her a better parent.
• Changes — Laura at Pug in the Kitchen couldn't choose just one area to experiment with, so she wrote a long post about all the fun changes initiated in her life!
• Life without Internet: Not all it's Cracked up to Be — Adrienne at Mommying My Way tries to go a week without the Internet, only to realize a healthy dose of Internet usage really helps keep this stay-at-home mom connected.
• My Progression to Raw Milk — Kerry at City Kids Homeschooling shares her natural parenting progression all the way to trying raw milk.
• mama's new little friend. — Sarah at Bitty Bird tries a menstrual cup to "green her period," and is pleasantly surprised when she falls in love with the product!
• Before you throw it out, try homemade laundry soap! — Jennifer at Practical OH Mommy shows visual proof that homemade laundry soap is cheaper, easier, and works better than the store-bought chemicals!
• Oil, Oil, No Toil, No Trouble — K from Very Simple Secret talks about her foray into the oil-cleansing method.
• I Need a Hobby — Amanda at Let's Take the Metro couldn't decide which experiment to run, so she did them all.
• 7 days of macrobiotics for a balanced family — The Stones make a [successful] attempt to release the "holiday junking" with 7 days of macrobiotic meals to balance their bodies and souls. Elisabeth at Manic Mrs. Stone includes an explanation of macrobiotics.
• Chemical Free Beauty Challenge — Jenn at Monkey Butt Junction turned to natural alternatives for her daily beauty and cleaning routine, with great results.
• Greening my Armpits!? My Green Resolution — Shannon at The Artful Mama talks about how she decided to give up her traditional antiperspirant and make the switch over to crystal deodorants and definitely isn't looking back!
• Going Raw (for a while) — Jenny at Chronicles of a Nursing Mom shares her family's experience with raw food.
• Do we get to eat gluten today? — Sheila at A Gift Universe has been trying to figure out if her son does better with or without gluten in his diet … but it's really hard to tell for sure.
• Hippies Can Smell and Look Fabulous Too! — Arpita of Up, Down And Natural details her experience of going shampoo-free and overhauling her cosmetics to find the balance between feeling beautifully fabulous and honoring her inner hippie.
• Our cupboards are full...but there's nothing to eat — Lucy at Dreaming Aloud takes on the challenge of chomping through the contents of her storecupboard rather than going shopping — but there's something that she just can't bring herself to do …
• Elimination Experiment 3.0 — MudpieMama recounts the messy adventures of her baby daughter trying to be diaper free.
• Family Cloth Trial — Amyables at Toddler in Tow talks about making and using family cloth wipes in the bathroom for the first time.
• Taking a Hiatus — Amy at Peace 4 Parents shares how her experience of much less internet interaction affected her family and how it will change her approach in the future.
• Trying Out the Menstrual Cup — Lindsey at an unschooling adventure ditches the tampons and gives menstrual cups a try.
• Managing Food Waste in Our Home — Tired of the holiday waste, Robbie at Going Green Mama takes a weeklong focus on reducing food waste in her home, and learns some lessons that can take her through the new year.
• Going Offline, Cloth Tissues, and Simplicity — Jennifer at Hybrid Rasta Mama muses over her time away from blogging and social networking. In addition, she shares her newfound love of cloth tissues and simplicity.
• The Oil Cleansing Method — Erica at ChildOrganics explores an easy, organic and natural way to tackle skin care.
• Experiments in Natural Family Living - Natural Toys! — Lani at Boobie Time enjoys the silence of natural toys and being more present with her son.
• Discovering a New City and Organic Foods — Amy at A Secure Base describes her family's switch to and search for organic foods for one week.
• My Experiment in Homemade Bread — Crunchy Con Mommy tried — and loved — baking her own homemade bread.
• Menu Planning: Stop the Excuses — Gaby at Tmuffin stopped the excuses and started planning her weekly meals, drastically cutting her grocery budget and stress level and improving the quality of foods she fed her family.
• My First Menstrual Cup — Mandy at Living Peacefully with Children was pleasantly surprised with her first experience using a menstrual cup.
• My Natural Beauty Regime — Christine at African Babies Don’t Cry shares the results of banishing cleanser and soaps from her bathroom, as well as a couple of natural homemade recipes that have worked well on her skin.
• Unplugging and Creating a Rhythm: Our Experiment in Natural Family Living — Dionna at Code Name: Mama focused less on gadgets and spent more time with her family to create a healthy rhythm for the new year.
• Experiments in Natural Family Living: 5 First Steps Toward Preparing for a Natural Birth — Charise at I Thought I Knew Mama discusses how she tackled the pressing matter of how to begin preparing for a natural birth.
• All you need is...vinegar! — Kristen at My Semi-Crunchy Life learns that one household product can replace all the cleaners in her cabinet.
• Nope Nada Ixnay Negative Pass Decline — Zoie at TouchstoneZ finds out what shakes loose if she says, "YES!!" to anything anyone asks of her over the space of 10 days.
• Reducing our exposure to toxins found in plastics — Syenna at Gently Parenting Twins throws out the melamine and BPA plastics which have been hanging around the kitchen for too long.
• Duh! — Kat at Loving {Almost} Every Moment shares how she began the process of helping her 2-year-old son stop physically acting out.
• Experiments in Natural Parenting: Starting, Stopping, and Gaining Perspective — Melissa at Vibrant Wanderings explains how pregnancy brain interfered with her attempts to complete an experiment, but how she gained some interesting perspective as she started and stopped several.
• From Experiment to Lifestyle — Abbie at Farmer's Daughter shares her experience avoiding processed foods for a month, and deciding to make it a permanent lifestyle change.
• From Disposable Paper to Reusable Cloth – AGAIN! — Terri at Child of the Nature Isle stops flushing trees down the toilet and switches to the softest ever butt-wiping material: cloth.
• Extra! Extra! Water Heater Turned Down, Mom Doesn't Notice! — Thomasin at Propson Palingenesis finds an energy-saving experiment that's so easy she didn't even realize it was happening.
• Worm Tea — CatholicMommy isn't sure how successful her worm bin will be, but she's having fun anyway.
• Miles to Go ... — Rachael at The Variegated Life learns that when it comes to sleep debt, she's in real deep.
• My Month With Water Kefir — Paige at Baby Dust Diaries experiments with a new fermented probiotic drink homemade in her own kitchen.
• OMG Mom is Home... All Day Everyday: A Week-Long Experiment in Connecting — What a difference a week makes! Ana at Pandamoly is afforded a week off from work and takes the chance to reconnect and reattach with her 16-month-old son through an experiment in simply being there.
• Creating Healthy Family Recipes — Deb Chitwood at Living Montessori Now shares her experiment with healthy, gluten-free recipes and a chocolate muffin recipe that was created during the experiment.
• Adventures in Alternative Haircare: No 'Poo — This guest post at Natural Parents Network from Amy at Anktangle chronicles a months-long journey into the world of no 'poo.
• My Experiment in Natural Family Living: Natural Family Planning — Birth control options are seriously limited for those of us trying to live a little closer to the earth, so Mama Psalmist experiments with natural family planning.

Wordless Wednesday: Cinnamon!

Q-ball has continued to enjoy baby-led solids.  She seems to now demand any food with cinnamon or Cheerios.  Here, blueberries + oatmeal + cinnamon = bathtime! 

Tips for Travelling

I did get a new haircut for our new city!

Well, we are finally pretty much back to normal- new house, 90% unpacked, and we even now have Internet!  It was quite difficult to keep the blog updated without access to the Internet...

         Over the past 2 weeks, Q-ball and I have traveled over several states, slept in five different beds, lived out of suitcases, and without regular access to a kitchen and washer and dryer.  Should you suffer the same fate with an infant, here are the top ten ways that I survived...

1.       Parenting on demand- Crossing time zones, day-lights savings time, and major shake-ups to a normal schedule obviously affected Q-ball's sleeping, eating, playing, moods, etc.  We had to be extra cognizant of her needs and wants to prevent meltdowns (hers and ours, obviously...)

2.       Breastfeeding- Can't get much more convenient. Nothing extra to pack or carry.

3. Babywearing-

a.        I thought this was essential to get through the airport.  My hands were free for check-ins and security, Q-ball was happy, and I wasn't banging around a heavy carseat while running past crowds.  

b.       Also, this became totally necessary as days when naps just weren't going to happen under a roof (movers coming and going, maids in the hallways, another new place.)  Some days the only way she would sleep was for me to go on a walk with her in the Ergo. It ended up being great for both of us as I got fresh air and exercise (needless to say, we weren't eating our healthiest.)

4.       Hand-washing station/cloth wipes- Q-ball was crawling all over the hotel room. After just a few minutes of being on the floor her feet, legs, and hands were be black.  It was gross, but there was little we could do except wash her.  In addition to her normal baths, I would wipe her down with cloth wipes and a pre-made solution of 2 parts water and 1 part baby soap (I keep it in a water bottle with a leak-proof valve top) several times a day. 

5.       Plan your diapering system.  I already discussed this in a previous post.  If you use cloth have a detailed plan for washing. 

6.       Pack a nightlight.  The rooms are new to you and baby- not friendly for moving around at night with the lights off.

7.       Work with the hotel staff.  We often requested room service at specific times to try to accommodate Q-ball’s anticipated naps.  It didn’t always work, but at least we tried.  This was also necessary because we were travelling with our darling cats who needed to be caged for housekeeping.

8.       Baby-led solids.  I didn’t worry about packing or buying any special solid foods for Q-ball for this trip.  Frankly, I didn’t put much emphasis into her eating solids at all during this trip, but with BLS she ate some toast and bananas from the hotel breakfast bar and some pieces of fruit at lunches.

9.       Pack an extra-duty  garbage bag to cover the car seat when it is checked on the plane.  I did this previously, but didn’t this time and ended up with a big spot on the car seat.  (Which I subsequently have not been able to wash without a washer and dryer…)

10.    Pack outlet plugs.  Again, we didn’t do this.  But, it would have been great to have in the rooms we were visiting as the outlets were the first places Q-ball headed for.