36 LISTENER AUGUST 24 2019
G
ETTYIMAGESMore carrot,
less stick
Make vegies routine with a
pressure-free approach that
shows faith in the child.
Question:
Both my children leave their vegetables until last at
dinner time and then say they’re too full to finish them.
I don’t want them to eat more than they need, but how
do I encourage them to eat their greens?Answer:I
t’s time to ditch short-term
thinking and instead play the
long game when it comes
to creating healthy eating
habits in our children.
Although it might seem
impossible in the midst
of broccoli battles and crucifer-
ous conflicts at dinner time each
night, it’s better to lose the battle
but win the war. The long-termgoal is for children to enjoy eating a
wide variety of nutritious food when
they leave home as young adults.
The best way to do this is by
respecting the autonomy of children
in determining how much of the
food you provide they want
to eat, as outlined in the
division of responsibility
(DoR) model developed
by US registered dieti-
tian, feeding expert and
bestselling author Ellyn
Satter.
The DoR is considered
internationally to be theby Jennifer Bowden
NUTRITION
THIS LIFE
Ellyn Sattergold standard for feeding children. It
encourages parents to take leader-
ship with the what, when and
where of feeding, while allow-
ing the child to determine
how much to eat of what you
provide.This gently encour-
ages them to learn good
eating habits.
The goal of the DoR is to
teach children to enjoy veg-
etables over their lifetime. The
model encourages an unpres-
sured environment for children
to learn how and when nutritious
food is included in meals and snacks.
They watch you prepare it, but face
no pressure to eat it.