Table of Contents
1. Help Without Harming. Emphasize providing, not depriving. Trying to get children to eat less or move more in the name of weight control backfires. It makes them preoccupied with food, inclined to move less when they get the chance, and prone to gain too much weight.
2. Feed and Parent in the Best Way. Follow Ellyn Satter's Division of Responsibility in Feeding. Feed well, parent well and accept your child's natural size and shape. Your child needs to be able to trust you to provide; you need to trust him to eat and grow.
3. Make Family Meals A Priority. Family meals allow your child to do better socially, emotionally, and academically, as well as grow in the way that is right for her. Mealtime is essential for family time - it is about love, support and connection.
4. Help Without Harming: Food Selection. Children gain too much weight because of how they are fed, not what they are fed. To feed well, including providing family meals, choose food and put together menus that are rewarding to plan, provide, prepare and eat.
5. Optimize Feeding: Birth Through Preschool. Your child was born wanting to eat, knowing how much to eat and inclined to grow in the way that nature intended. Good parenting with feeding preserves those qualities from birth and throughout the growing-up years.
6. Optimize Feeding: Your School-Age Child. Your school-age child starts applying his eating capabilities in the outside world and begins learning to do for himself what you have done for him. Your role is to dole out tasks and responsibilities as your child is able to manage.
7. Optimize Feeding: Your Adolescent. Your adolescent finishes the jobs of learning to provide for herself and preparing to live on her own. Your jobs are the same: Challenge without overwhelming; provide support without controlling; give independence without abandoning.
8. Parent in the best way: Physical activity. Children are born loving their bodies, curious about them and inclined to move. Following a Division of Responsibility with Activity preserves those qualities.
9. Teach Your Child: Be All You Can Be. Love your child the way she is and teach her to be capable, including loving her body. Stowing your agenda about your child's size and shape opens the door to your parenting her well and feeling good about her.
10. Understand Your Child's Growth. Growth charts provide a snapshot of your child's physical, nutritional, emotional and developmental health. Most of your child's growth depends on genetics. To protect against interference, understand growth charts.
