Want more? Serve smaller portions. If they finish their plates and ask for seconds, you can always give them more. Increase the portions if they continuously get seconds.
Feed your child the right portions.
Want more? Serve smaller portions. If they finish their plates and ask for seconds, you can always give them more. Increase the portions if they continuously get seconds. Other than the eating of a wide range of foods, the amount eaten also plays an important factor. Feeding your child the right portion is a matter of balance—portions should be big enough to cater for sufficient nutrients but not too big that he gets an overdose of calories!
Benefits of Portion Control
Most parents commonly serve themselves and their children huge portions of food. Sadly, most of it gets thrown away! Therefore, put portion control into practice to understand how much food is needed, and control what goes onto the plate. This will reduce wastage and save money.
Our judgment of what makes up a portion of food has increased over the years. The result is that we tend to feed our children more than they need. Portion control is a great way of keeping the amount of food eaten in check and preventing extra calories from their diets. This inadvertently promotes healthy eating habits. Find out how you can instill this discipline in your children!
Hand-y Rule of Thumb
Although the need of each child is different, the ideal plate in general, should be split into 3 even portions—one-third lean protein, one-third carbohydrate and one-third vegetable.
A simple way to estimate the right portion size is to use your child’s hands as a visual cue. The size of his protein portion (meat, chicken, fish, eggs, tofu, etc) should be the size and thickness of his palm. Carbohydrate portions should be the size of his closed fist. Lastly, all main meals should include two cupped handfuls of vegetables and fruits.
Use child-sized utensil for young children —this will prevent overeating.
Use Me-Sized Utensils
Using smaller utensils such as child-sized plates instead of gigantic restaurant sized dinner plates can help to limit the amount you can serve at one time. The same goes for the size of glasses. When he wants soda or juice, use a small glass. However, water should be served in a normal glass.
Sharing is Caring
Restaurants today serve larger amounts of food, compared to 10 years ago. When dining out, encourage your child to share his meal with another sibling. If they can’t agree on what to eat, or if he’s the only child, ask the waiter to serve half of the portion and pack the other half for you to take away.
Family-Style Dinner
Bring the food to the table straight from the stove in pots and pans to let your child scoop it himself under your watchful eyes. At the same time, explain to him why it’s important to eat the right portions. That way, he can learn how to serve sensible portions to himself in future.
Portion control is not about putting children under a diet to lose weight. It’s about parents educating their children, putting them one-step closer to a healthier lifestyle they would value later on.
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