As mentioned previously our biggest challenges to total unregulation and trust with our children related to food & tv. I have previously discussed our moves towards unregulating tv from having no tv to our 4yr old daughter having her own portable dvd player. She is content with the dvd option for now and generally this has been less confronting than the food question.

We are into organics & nutrition. We start our day with a vegetable juice and generally avoid processed food and chemicals as much as possible. So deregulating food has been a huge challenge.

We have lessened control with view towards total unregulation but at this point we regulate still. Chips and ice cream are of the most appeal and she still asks us before each time she eats it (because we dont have it here). She is happy with the organic apple juice ice blocks we make which is great. Today we talked about making our own mango ice cream which she is also happy about. Now we have to look at the chip thing – she just eats plain ones (no chemicals) but wants to eat a lot.

So we recently set up a cupboard for her full of her chips and other nutritious snack food. So far she has been loving going to the cupboard and helping herself. In general our shift in this first stage is not to go to the shops and let her buy anything. But it is to make a shopping list away from the shop and ask what she wants ( i hate impulse buying, even for anne & i). If she made requests (lollies, ice cream, chips) i would express my desire for her to lessen the chemical intake (the numbers) to help her grow strong and remain happy etc.etc. Then see if we could get a win win by us choosing that might meet some of these criteria or even making them ourselves where she is still happy with the outcome.

Is this regulation? i think so at this stage and for where we are at I see it as a useful process to go through… i am hoping it is a transition where we are moving towards more unregulation for food. When she asks for something now i try to say something like, “well, listen to your body… what do you think it really needs right now?”

Am still working on being less judgemental about some of the food choices she makes and am feeling that total unregulation around food is possible and that we are on the path towards it…

A big shift for me is prioritising the underlying goal of getting out of the way so my daughter can get in touch with her body’s needs rather than simply having the short term goal of having her eat nutritious food. Part of this has meant not being quite so “anal” about what she eats and having confidence in her and her ability to achieve balance once she is empowered around food.

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