It is sometimes overeating, sometimes undereating and trusting your body to make up for your mistakes in eating. Normal eating takes up some of your time and attention but keeps its place as only one important area of your life. A parent needs to be eating normally for a child to eat normally. They are capable of regulating their food intake. They generally react negatively to new foods but will usually accept them with time and experience.
Parents can either support or disrupt children's food acceptance and food regulation.
Doesn't Work The way to get a kid to eat is not to try. Let it be his or her idea. Pressuring your child to eat can make his or her eating worse, make him grow poorly and feel badly about his body and eating. Parents need to find the middle ground between being too rigid and controlling and letting things get out of control. Limits need to be set concerning eating, like having planned meals and snacks, allowing eating methods a child can master, and maintaining standards of behavior at the table.