Family Mealtime Makes Children Happier Eaters (Scotsman)

HAVING recently become a mum, the subject of infants and their eating habits has become of great interest to me.

Having survived breastfeeding twins, I did not want to fall at the first hurdle, so I am pureeing carrots with a vengeance. This was a new departure; I have only just learned (in my twins’ honour) how to use a blender.

My poor babies had to celebrate their six-month birthdays with carrots washed down with water. I harbour high hopes about their future diet.

Perhaps they will manage the easy relationship with food that has eluded their mother. But coming from the west of Scotland I live in trepidation that this may be harder to achieve than it first appears.

Given the epidemic of obesity in Scotland, we are clearly getting something wrong. How long before my two demand a lunchbox of Dairylea Dunkers, Monster Munch, Coke and a Mars bar? Can I ever expect them to request wholemeal pitta, hummus, fruit, mixed seeds and water for lunch?

I was delighted when Children in Scotland asked me to chair their forthcoming conference on young children and eating. I was anxious to learn how I could get it right for my children and what public policy should be doing for the next generation. Evidence gathered for the conference suggests what matters is not just the quality of the food we give our children but also the social experience of eating. In short, how, where and with whom we eat can be as important as what we eat in shaping our attitude to food in later life.

Almost unnoticed in our lifetime is how “production-line catering” – at home and at nursery – has become the norm. Family mealtimes are a thing of the past in many households and at nursery or other pre-school services the emphasis is too often on getting children in and out of the dining room as fast as possible. Young children are too rarely given a chance to enjoy eating as a fun, social and communal experience in a relaxed environment.

The conference aims to start changing that in Scotland’s pre-five sector. The lessons are out there in Europe, particularly in those settings where the focus, in the earliest years as in later life, is more on eating as an enjoyable social and cultural experience.

In Pistoia, Italy, Donatella Giovannini, the city education co-ordinator, describes lunchtime in nurseries as “an important social and convivial occasion in daily life”. It lasts around an hour. Children lay the table and take turns in waiting. Adults eat with them but children take the lead. Lunch ends with rituals: lighting a candle, having “pretend” coffee and singing. Young children start to see themselves as part of a group, reinforcing a sense of identity and “belonging”.

Eating and cooking also takes time in the Swedish pre-school on the island of Essingen. Children often eat outdoors, helping to gather wood, light the fire and cook their own food. “Everything tastes good when you are outdoors,” says Annica Grimlund. “Maybe it’s because all the senses are activated at the same time.”

In a Berlin kindergarten, staff, parents and children work with cooks to prepare food together. Children help choose the menu and assist in the cooking – grinding flour, mixing dough, shaping and baking rolls.

This approach to food and eating in Europe contrasts sharply with the Scottish experience. The lunchtime experience in early years has understandably attracted less attention than in schools, because many three- and four-year-olds do not attend a single service full time. As a result there are fewer opportunities for them to experience eating as a social occasion.

Earlier this year, the Executive published welcome new nutritional guidance for early years services. But guidance by itself cannot encourage children and families to make meals into an enjoyable experience at the centre of the day. Likewise, the Executive’s rightly-praised Hungry for Success initiative has raised awareness about the content and context of meals for children in school. However, there has been little serious consideration as to how this might be extended to cover pre-school children.

Looking to the future, we need to consider how children can be directly involved in preparing their own food; the time spent eating; the importance of food being a shared experience with peers; the quality of the dining environment; and the positioning of lunch in the pre-school or school day.

It was encouraging to see the Executive announce that it is considering the reintroduction of cookery classes in schools. I hope both my son and daughter have the chance to benefit from school-based cookery courses.

Perhaps, in due course, they can then give tips to their mother, raised in the days when a Victoria sponge was the highlight of home economics!

The challenge is a big one rather than a small one. Turning around our record of poor child health will require more than offering more fruit in schools or swapping burgers for salads, important as these steps are.

It will mean ditching our “fast food” mentality towards how we eat as well as what we eat. Self-evidently, we don’t have all the answers.

Scotland can learn a lot from those cultures that have a more social approach to food and have been more successful in curbing the rise in obesity. For the sake of our children, we should make changes quickly.

When Children in Scotland approached me, I thought I was just agreeing to chair a conference. What I have learned since then has really made me think about how we should approach “eating” in my home as well as what I put on the twins’ plates.

Perhaps for a few more weeks I can get away with stuffing pureed carrots into my just-weaned children’s mouths. But fairly soon I realise I am going to have to learn the patience to let them eat at their own pace.

Then I will have to learn to let them eat with us and consciously plan for as many family mealtimes as we can manage.

Finally, I will have to let them get involved in preparing meals as soon as they are interested. With a little luck, we should have fun along the way!