The Science of Parenting podcast connects you with research-based information that fits your family. We talk about the realities of being a parent and how research can help guide parenting decisions.
In the tenth season of the podcast, Mackenzie Johnson and Lyndi Buckingham-Schutt will be talking about kids and food. Throughout the season, we will talk about how temperament, age, environment, our parenting styles, and more, influences how our kids make decisions about food. And YES, we’ll talk about picky eating!
The first episode talks about three levels of influence on children’s food decisions.
The first level is child factors. This includes weight/dietary intake, eating behavior, biology, and temperament.
For example, a child’s temperament can influence how they eat because if they are more sensitive, they might not like the texture of a certain fruit! Or, if they are adaptable, they may be willing to try whatever is set in front of them.
Next is the family factors level. This can include parenting styles (authoritative, authoritarian, permissive, or uninvolved, which originated with Diana Baumrind), sibling behavior, food available in the home, child feeding practices, modeling of eating behavior, parent’s nutrition knowledge, and parental eating behavior. This is the level where what the parent or caregiver eats affects the child’s choices, so it’s great place to think about what we as the adults are consuming (and the words we are using around food!).
The last level is the community factors. This includes food advertising, culture, socioeconomic status, policy, neighborhood food accessibility, childcare, school, and peer behavior. This would be when kids are out in the world, and we have less control. Making sure to engrain healthy eating habits at home will help children to navigate the choices they make when they are outside your walls.
These factors are just the beginning of the topics explored in this season! The first episode released Thursday, October 6, and a new episode will release each Thursday for nine weeks.
If you are interested in listening, The Science of Parenting is available on almost every podcast app, including Apple and Spotify, or you can find the episodes online at https://thescienceofparenting.buzzsprout.com/. You can also watch us on video each week, either on our Facebook page