Part of me does not need academic studies to support our radical unschooling path. Another part of me is glad I can find them if i need to… and its that part that is typing this post now

Firstly an old study that has been cited by Alfie Kohn… The 1994 paper entitled “Parents’ and Children’s Adiposity and Eating Style” looked at 77 children between 3 years to 4 years.

A relatively obvious finding was that children with greater body fat stores were less able to regulate their intake of energy (calorie). Surveys with the parents established that there was a direct link between the level of control parents applied over food and a child’s ability self regulate energy intake.

Control may be related to restricted times of eating (”wait until dinner”), external influence over amounts eaten (”finish what’s on your plate!”) and food as rewards (”if you do x you can have some cake”). It seems as though such interference and control actively dismantled a childs inherent awareness and body cues about their calorie need and intake. The study also noted parents who had “food issues” tended to pass them on through such control.

When I was digging around looking at that study I also came accross a 1999 one entitled, “Restricting access to palatable foods affects children’s behavioral response, food selection, and intake”.

This second paper concluded that, “Restricting access focuses children’s attention on restricted foods, while increasing their desire to obtain and consume those foods. Restricting children’s access to palatable foods is not an effective means of promoting moderate intake of palatable foods and may encourage the intake of foods that should be limited in the diet.”

This study looked at 3 to 6 year old children and the impact of restricting access to “palatable food” which was defined as foods high in sugar and fat.

The children who had restricted intake of such food responded more excessively to pretzel shaped snacks rather than fish shaped ones. I had wondered if children with restricted diets responded this way because physically such food was novel and their bodies were not used to it. However the different responses to the pretzel vs fish shapes implied that the key factor was attraction to food they perceived to be “off limits”.

In the words of the paper’s authors, “In conclusion, restricting children’s access to a palatable food within their eating environment does not promote moderate patterns of intake and paradoxically may actually promote the very behavior its use is intended to reduce.”

THE MOST IMPORTANT RESULTS FOR US

Great to read that stuff but the most important thing for us has been our own experience… Our 5 year old daughter now has full control over what she eats including constructing the family shopping lists and when she eats. While her choices are challenging at times, when she requests cake, ice cream, chocolate or the like, she is the one that often eats a few bites and leaves the rest on her plate. Just the other day she passed back a chocolate brownie saying “it’s too rich”. Having not had much of such food in our house previously it is Anne & I who tend to wolf down the rest!

Once we get out of their way it is clear that we have a lot to tremendous amount to learn from our children!

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