Cooking With Kids: Food Pyramid for Preschoolers
What should your 2- to 5-year-old eat, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture? Beats me, because its website seems to have been put together by 2- to 5-year-olds, and when I tried to generate a custom pyramid for my 4-year-old daughter, all I got was “Could not download Redirect.aspx.” Maybe it will work better for you: Food Pyramid for Preschoolers
I’m having a hard time understanding who this material is geared toward, other than fans of Comic Sans. According to the Chicago Tribune, “The new MyPyramid for Preschoolers is intended to help parents make better food choices for preschool children, aged 2 to 5 years—a critical time when food habits and taste preferences are established.”
Really?
Think about your kids or about yourself. Most eaters age 2 to 5 are as picky as they’re ever going to get: pickier than 1-year-olds, 8-year-olds, senior citizens, whatever. The critical time when food habits and taste preferences are established, it seems to me, is somewhere in the range of age 16 to 21, when people move out of their parents’ house, take up vegetarianism, go off-campus for lunch at ethnic restaurants, and so on.
But it’s an idea worse than dumb; it’s dangerous. My daughter eats, for the most part, like a typical 4-year-old. She loves hot dogs and plain hamburgers, sweets of all kinds, teriyaki chicken with rice, salami, potstickers. With few exceptions (bok choy in the potstickers), she’s not interested in vegetables. She is energetic, alert, and growing steadily.
What if I started worrying that I was missing out on this critical window for food habits? Well, we’d argue a lot. I’d dream up clever tactics to make sure she eats some broccoli before it’s too late. We’d miss out the joy of sharing good food.
Not that I’m criticizing the Food Pyramid for Preschoolers, since I haven’t seen it. Maybe it has a potstickers group, a teriyaki chicken group, a hot dog group, and an ice cream group.
About the author: Matthew Amster-Burton lives in Seattle. His work appears frequently in the Seattle Times and Seattle magazine. He also maintains the blog Roots and Grubs. His favorite food is pad Thai.
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11 Comments:
I got the same Redirect.aspx error in Firefox. In Safari I get a blank page. It works in IE.
jamieforrest at 5:00PM on 10/27/08
It's like teaching them to say "please" and "thank you." It might take years before they do it consistently, but they won't do it at all if you don't start encouraging them when they're young.
juliec at 6:24PM on 10/27/08
They won't do it at all? Horrors! But I don't think there's evidence to back that up, even though it seems like common sense. There IS evidence that tastes and preferences change over time. And I'm of the opinion that a preschooler's strong dislike for a certain food is as valid as my own, as an adult. Kids WILL learn to overeat, or that mealtime is an unhappy time, if that's what their parents teach them inadvertently at a young age; they can also get set up for health problems early (especially dental problems). But it isn't like if you don't serve them the "right" number of whole grains and vegetables now, they'll never eat them.
Anyway, Matthew, I do agree with them that it's an important time for establishing food habits--it sounds like you do yourself, because you're reinforcing the habit that food is something to be enjoyed. There are few things sadder than children who have learned that being picky eaters is their only way of controlling their parents, or very young children who hoard food or eat until they throw up (both things I've seen in the hospital). Those might not be the food habits the authors were thinking of--but then again, they might be.
I did manage to make a customized food pyramid for Iris--in Firefox, with Adobe 8--but it was pretty useless. I'm no fan of the either the old pyramid or the new fancy one, but this preschoolers' one was worse than either. Assuming it's meant for parents to use, I don't know why it's dumbed down from the regular pyramid; and the pyramid concept doesn't add anything in this case, because it just tells you to serve her certain amounts of grains, fruits, vegetables, milk, and meat/beans, and doesn't display "choose often" and "choose seldom"; so a simple list would be just as good. There's also a mysterious unlabeled yellow stripe, which I think must be fats, but it MIGHT be potstickers.
Wendy79 at 7:41PM on 10/27/08
(When I said "There are few things sadder than children who have learned that being picky eaters is their only way of controlling their parents"--what I really meant was "getting attention from their parents". I don't think little kids need to have multiple methods for controlling their parents.)
Wendy79 at 7:49PM on 10/27/08
yes, that age group is very picky, but if you've never eaten anything but box mac and cheese, saltine crackers, chicken nuggets, and apple juice before you're six, chances are you won't be the world's most adventurous eater. Even though your taste preferences change alot after that time, important groundwork gets put down for how you eat in the future. people who were fed only crap usually dont evolve into well rounded, adventurous eaters.
and yes, the website is dumb.
delilah at 9:24PM on 10/27/08
"Anyway, Matthew, I do agree with them that it's an important time for establishing food habits--it sounds like you do yourself, because you're reinforcing the habit that food is something to be enjoyed."
That's not what they mean, Wendy. They mean that taste preferences harden during this time like yesterday's Play-Doh. It's absurd.
delilah, I know a lot of adventurous eaters who grew up eating crap. That doesn't make your argument wrong, since you did say "usually," but I'm skeptical.
mamster at 12:33AM on 10/28/08
well, i should rephrase what i said. it is perfectly possible, but it takes longer for the child to learn to love real food if they grew up without real food. my cousin never ate a vegetable but ketchup and fries in preschool, ordered chicken strips from the kids menu until he was 18, and his mom put *sprite* in his sippy- cup instead of juice, milk, or water. he is starting to come around to vegetables and such, but he is also 24.
delilah at 1:46AM on 10/28/08
They do give surprisingly sane advice elsewhere on the website--like "Picky eating is a typical behavior for many preschoolers. It is simply another step in the process of growing up and becoming independent. As long as your preschooler is healthy, growing normally, and has plenty of energy, he or she is most likely getting needed nutrients." I really think they--or at least SOMEONE there--mean something pretty reasonable about "food habits", even they are all wet about establishing food preferences.
Wendy79 at 10:44AM on 10/28/08
Yeah, a lot of stuff on the site is reasonable. Not the part about low-fat cheese, though.
mamster at 1:58PM on 10/28/08
Hmm...an interesting tool! I suppose if I DIDN'T know that if my daughter ate nothing but, say, bananas and cheese, this would be great. (Don't ever let your kid eat nothing but bananas and cheese, by the way. It's not pretty.) My daughter's two, and she pretty much works her way through the food pyramid. Yesterday, all she wanted at dinner was broccoli, chicken broth and orange juice. Today, she ate nothing but cold cereal, a pumpkin muffin and noodles. I'm sure she'll move on to cheese tomorrow - her protein of choice.
The point is, I believe that if young children are EXPOSED to a variety of foods, eventually, they'll follow what their body craves. My baby likes the weirdest things - tobiko with a bowl of rice, strips of seasoned seaweed and chocolate chips would make her just the happiest little diner in the house! Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think this really is directed at the parents - give kids whatever you're eating, and make sure you're eating healthily! Sure, they prefer hot dogs over chicken breast. A lot of people do! (Watch me eat my words when my second baby is old enough to eat dinner with us. Ha!)
Teahlo at 11:56PM on 11/10/08
I think food habits and taste preferences ARE established when the kid is areound the preschool age. I know a girl who's mm never fed her any vegetables. Now, she's gaining a little weight because she's eating junk food. So, by giving your children food earlier in life can result in them being used to it, and eating it later on. I'm not saying that you have to serve all vegetables and throw away all cookies. I'm just saying that you should try to get her to eat a little more healthier. If she absolutely doesn't, well there is probably nothing else you can do. But you should try.
CassieCullen at 8:18AM on 11/29/08