FRUITS OF LIFE

Sensible dietary habits are a sine qua non

BY Goolbai Gunasekara

The vexatious problem of getting a child to eat what is healthy will always reduce parents to despair. All too often, I have had to ask parents what they feed their child for him or her to be so overactive; or alternatively, listless, distracted in class, uninterested in sports, getting poor grades and a plethora of other drawbacks to a student’s progress in school.

I get the expected answer: ‘He won’t eat anything, Mrs. G; he only eats rice with chicken. And he doesn’t like greens or vegetables. He dislikes any type of fruit.’ And so it goes on… a litany of what a child will not eat.

I lay the blame squarely on extremely poor early training.

Here’s an example…

A slightly overweight child was brought along to my office one morning. He was in the Upper Kindergarten and ready to go into Grade One soon. His teacher complained of aggressive behaviour and a highly restless nature. So his parents were sent for.

This is the how the conversation went…

“May I know what Amar’s daily diet is?”

“Cornflakes in the morning, fish or chicken for lunch, sausages and mash at night…”

“No vegetables?”

“He likes potatoes.”

I could see where that extra weight came from but was appalled by the ridiculous menu. So I gave his parents a lecture on dietetics and said I’d see them in a month. A month to the day, his father arrived.

“Is he eating any better?”

“Mrs. G, it’s useless! If we don’t give him what he likes, he won’t eat at all.”

“You mean, he simply misses the meal?”

‘No, no! His mother takes him to a restaurant for him to eat something he likes other than what is cooked at home.”

I realised there was nothing to be done. That poor child could have serious health issues as he grew older and his progress in school wouldn’t be scintillating.

And so on to another problem affecting teenage girls – the issue of anorexia: it’s far more common than parents realise. The desire to be slim is carried to extremes and can become obsessive.

Teachers noticed that Andi’s work standard was dropping and she wasn’t looking healthy. A few well phrased questions revealed that she hardly ate. Fortunately, she had wonderful parents who recognised that it was a psychological issue and whisked her off to a psychiatrist. I am glad to say that today, she’s happily married with two children and is even slightly overweight!

However, not all anorexic cases end this happily because of the prejudice against psychiatric care. Parents would do well to look into this problem and check their daughters’ daily food intake.

Then there is the overindulgent parent…

A four-year-old boy arrived in my office for entry into the Lower Kindergarten. Within minutes, he had snatched my pen from its holder, rung my office bell so hard that two maids came running into the room, pulled a few books off a shelf that contained the works of Jane Austen and was so rambunctious that I had to ask my secretary to help me distract him.

“He is so interested in everything,” his mother said, fondly.

I replied, sternly: “He is overactive, Mrs. W!”

Of course, I asked after his diet…

It seemed to be a sensible one until his father added that the boy also ate a chocolate bar a day. That sugar intake was speedily halted and the parents agreed it was for the better.

The battle between parents enforcing sensible eating habits and their children’s acceptance of the same is formidable. If the child is very young, it can be handled by a firm parent who will simply refuse to change the menu.

Witness another four-year-old who sat on her highchair and refused lunch…

“All right,” said her mother. “You can sit there till the rest of us finish eating… and if you haven’t finished, you’ll get the same food for dinner.”

Little Priti fell asleep at the table and was carried to bed. She was ravenous when she awoke but had to wait until it was time for dinner. When dinnertime came, the same food was reheated and put in front of Priti who was so hungry that she ate everything without a murmur. There were no quarrels about food after that.

The point that parents must accept is that the enforced skipping of a meal can do a child a world of good. No child would want to starve. He or she will eat eventually. It is really a matter of which side holds out the longest. Motherly panic may eventually allow a child to win the food battle; but if parents stick to given rules of eating, it will make the arena less combative.

Properly handled food is one of the pleasures of life. Children should not be allowed to let temper tantrums play havoc with their health. Sensible eating when one is young guarantees a lifetime of good health.