Because you can't be a neglectful parent their whole childhood & turn into a helicopter once they hit 13. You have to start building the good cueing habits as a toddler by exposing them to as many tastes and textures you can. Pre-school you introduce basic cooking techniques (pouring, whisking, mashing) then build up. By 10 they should know how to cook some basic meals (eg, grilled cheese and soup, how to follow directions for oven food, etc) and you're just reinforcing 'balancing' meals (carb, protein, veg/fruit) and regular meals/snacks. By teenagehood if you've done it right they can trust their own cues to give them good information & you don't need to force them to eat healthy or regularly. They'll want to explore new foods & enjoy fruits and veggies, and they'll naturally be hungry at breakfast ~ at this point you're actually supposed to start teaching them more specifically about nutrients, and intentional eating around certain needs like iron for girls, fuelling for different exercises (strength vs cardio), and closer to 18 that if they're drinking they need to eat before to avoid a hangover & how to stay in their limit. The problem is a lot of people give up as soon as their toddler doesn't want to eat something & load them up on processed junk because it's easier. Then they try to force an almost adult person to eat a completely different way & are shocked when it fails 😂 like they didn't allow it to happen in the first place.
Because you can't be a neglectful parent their whole childhood & turn into a helicopter once they hit 13.
You have to start building the good cueing habits as a toddler by exposing them to as many tastes and textures you can. Pre-school you introduce basic cooking techniques (pouring, whisking, mashing) then build up. By 10 they should know how to cook some basic meals (eg, grilled cheese and soup, how to follow directions for oven food, etc) and you're just reinforcing 'balancing' meals (carb, protein, veg/fruit) and regular meals/snacks. By teenagehood if you've done it right they can trust their own cues to give them good information & you don't need to force them to eat healthy or regularly. They'll want to explore new foods & enjoy fruits and veggies, and they'll naturally be hungry at breakfast ~ at this point you're actually supposed to start teaching them more specifically about nutrients, and intentional eating around certain needs like iron for girls, fuelling for different exercises (strength vs cardio), and closer to 18 that if they're drinking they need to eat before to avoid a hangover & how to stay in their limit.
The problem is a lot of people give up as soon as their toddler doesn't want to eat something & load them up on processed junk because it's easier. Then they try to force an almost adult person to eat a completely different way & are shocked when it fails 😂 like they didn't allow it to happen in the first place.
SUCH a great point!!!