7 Tips for Successful Feeding Strategies for the Holidays

 

The holidays can be a wonderful time filled with fun and family. It's likely that you will be attending at least one, if not several, holiday gatherings. Sometimes parents worry about how their children will eat at large family gatherings. Here are a few tips to help you manage successfully feeding your kids during the holidays.

 
1. Keep perspective. As my husband likes to quote (often!) from Dickens' A Christmas Carol, "Tis but once a year, sir." If your children end up eating more cookies and drinking more sugary drinks at a few parties than they usually do, I don't think you need to stress out about it. I have found with my own kids that after a day of excess junk, they're usually pretty ready to re-set and eat less junk and more vegetables soon afterwards. If you are consistently offering a variety of healthy food for them to eat throughout the year, I don't think you need to worry too much about holiday eating affecting their health or eating habits.
 
2. Consider what's available. Chances are, there will be multiple foods available at your gatherings, including appetizers and snacks, main courses, salads, and desserts.  If you know in advance that it's not likely that there will be any foods familiar to your children, consult with your host and consider bringing something that they usually like to include with the other food offerings. If the setting permits it, help your kids survey all the available options before they start making choices about what they're going to eat. You might want to make some suggestions, but if you're making demands or requirements about which particular foods they choose and how much of them they eat, you're violating the division of responsibility in feeding.
 
3. Share family traditions. Holidays are rich with opportunity for sharing family traditions, and often many family traditions include food. Again, don't force your children to eat new and unfamiliar foods, but holidays are the perfect time to introduce new foods and offer the exposure.
 
4. Consider the timing. Sometimes holiday meals are later than your child's typical mealtimes. You may need to strategize the scheduling and content of snacks and other meals on party days.
 
5. Monitor and understand the natural disruptions. This time of year brings with it not only disruptions to everyday family meals, but also to routines and schedules. Some children (frankly, people) handle disruptions to routine better than others. Consider how your individual children typically respond to change in routine and make allowances and adjustments when possible.
 
6. Don't forget your weekly meal plan. Even though several meals may just be planned as "eating out," it's important to still think about your family's food for the week. On those party-free days, consider planning to make something light like soup and/or sandwiches.
 
7. Avoid serving the kids separately when possible. Granted, space does not always allow for adults and children to eat at the same time at large gatherings, but regardless of the timing, I would suggest that mostly the same foods be offered to the children and the adults present. While it may be easier in the short term sometimes to offer the kids "kid food" (e.g., mac and cheese, chicken nuggets, etc.), in the long term that undermines the kids' chances to learn to be successful eaters. As mentioned above, the holidays are a perfect time to expose kids to new foods. Holidays also provide kids with the opportunity to practice eating and behaving at tables other than their own. Help them learn to "make do" with what's available to them rather than catering to them and bringing a separate meal for them (assuming that they're physically capable of eating table food.)

 

And finally, remember to ENJOY!!

 

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