Do you think it is right to force a child to sit there and finish everything on their plate?

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• Perfect answer! +2

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  by whippet on February 22nd, 2007

• It is so good to see people that actually use logic when raising children instead of doing whatever thier parents dud to them! Kudos!

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  by cristnalyn on February 22nd, 2007

• Thanks very much! :-)
  

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  by GoodTimesNoodleSalad on February 22nd, 2007

• I rated your answer too its a good one.

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  by pagan-babe on February 22nd, 2007

• Didn't work for Joan Crawford now did it? Excellent answer. Very thoughtful and thorough.

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  by Andy Is Wicked Married to Penal Colony on March 11th, 2007

• 100%- Good answer GTNS!

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  by Penny The Wise on May 29th, 2007

• I totally agreed with you. Great answer!!

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  by dannia on November 11th, 2007

• i think its not good thats how kids get obese oz there mama efeds them too much

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  by armsock on December 17th, 2007

• right on

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  by Maelstrom on January 27th, 2008

• Dead on!! more points for you!!

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  by ArasJ on February 29th, 2008

• thanx

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  by Maelstrom on March 1st, 2008

• trueeee

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  by Life is beautiful...so am I on March 2nd, 2008

• u betcha

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  by Maelstrom on March 7th, 2008

• What a great answer, couldn't have said it better myself.

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  by Stoney on March 11th, 2008

• Well I also want to add an important part to this is to let your kids serve themselves. I read about a study done on this and kids can actually deem for themselves proper portions and they will finish it.

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  by Uncensored_Optimist on April 6th, 2008

• your right ... perhaps they really are full.
  
  I have two young children and right from the start I have had the same rule in place.
  Veggies must be completely gone but as long as they have eaten them then they can stop when they think they are full.
  That way your making sure its actually because they are full and not just because they dislike whats on the plate.

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  by casspandra on May 3rd, 2008

• Well, my rule for my kids is that they get like 5 small pieces of meat and 1 tablespoon of whatever else we are having. I do make them eat it or they dont get a snack. Sometimes they wont eat dinner but 10 minutes later they want a snack...lol

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  by Loo on May 12th, 2008

• My friend gives her kids small portions of the "favorite" food of the meal and slightly larger portions of the vegetables. When the kid say 'I want more chicken' she says eat your green beans first. That way they eat healthy.

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  by medicgirl on May 29th, 2008

• All good ideas above!! My parents always made me sit at the table until I 'cleaned my plate' and I hated it, if your child won't eat what you've made, put it in the rerigerator, and tell them they cannot have anything else (snacks etc..) until they've finished that meal (whether its an hour later or 3 hours later)believe me they will eat when they're hungry. But I would never make my kid sit at the table till they were done.

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  by lizardqueen on July 19th, 2008

• A lot of us were members of the "clean plate club". I wonder if that is why we are an obese country. We feel we need to clean our plates and with portion sizes being served now being 2x or more then we should have...it makes sense.

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  by Teri on September 9th, 2008

• AMEN Teri

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  by lizardqueen on September 9th, 2008

• Yes it's ok to make them sit there until they finish their plate(s). My parents did it to me and I'm doing it to my kids. Don't fill your plate up with food if you're not planning on eating it. And by the way, neither myself or my kids are overweight. Exercising and doing chores works the body fat off alot more then sitting around watching tv and/or playing video games all day.

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  by Anonymous on August 8th, 2009

• No, I feel that more times than not, we as adults put far too much food on a childs plate. Each portion should not be any bigger than the childs fist. America is grossly overweight and if smaller portions are not enough for a child, they will ask for more. Forcing them to each all on the plate will not only stretch their stomachs resulting in larger portions in the future but will also teach them that being full is not an option as long as food still remains.

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  by Shay-J on August 20th, 2009

• I agree with you on some points but taking into consideration that my kids are not yet at the age where they can "fill their plate up" I am not going to be the one to tell another person how much they should consume.
  Here's some food for thought...
  When you go to a restaurant, do you eat every bit of food that the cook in the back has put on your plate? Have you ever asked for a "to-go" box because you just cant eat another bite?
  And by the way.... I was not suggesting that those of you that eat what is put in front of you are overweight. I simply stated a fact that is discussed all over the country.

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  by Shay-J on August 22nd, 2009

• This is a great answer. +

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  by Girl4Nowhere on September 14th, 2009

• + amazing answer. i dont think i could say it better than you have.

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  by Romantic Faithful on October 25th, 2009

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• Good answer, I truly believe a child is capable of knowing when their full or just simply not hungry.

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  by brijake0306 on November 26th, 2007

• During wars, ecpesailly WWII, parents wanted their kids to eat everything off their plate, because there wasnt much food, and it got very expensive, plus there were alot of people dying of starvtion during wars, because the wars took up o much money.

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  by Biscuthed12 on March 4th, 2008

• Does that mean that just because there isn't a war on (being fought locally), it's okay to waste food?

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  by smitch999 on September 17th, 2008

• It's not waste if you put it in the fridge and have them eat it later when they get hungry and they more than likely will.

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  by Anonymous on September 14th, 2009

• There are lots of ways to wasting food, and one of them is feeding a child abuser.

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  by morrislook on November 3rd, 2009

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• Great answer.

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  by DavidHume on February 22nd, 2007

• Exactly! They won't starve. If they are hungry, they will eat.

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  by Jenniferocious on February 22nd, 2007

• I starved i would not eat some think i didnt like!!!
  

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  by pagan-babe on February 22nd, 2007

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• My youngest son takes a disliking to food on sight. It bothers me how he can claim not to like something he hasn't even tried. If he tried it, then fine but at least try it.

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  by letmespeak on February 19th, 2008

• I completely agree. The rule in my house is you must try everything on your plate. If you don't like it fine, but you must try it. That goes for everything but veggies. You have to eat all your veggies if you don't then you won't eat desert or other snacks.

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  by Anonymous on June 22nd, 2008

• I completely agree. I heard a friend tell me once, that she makes her kids take a no thank you bite. When they havent tried something and they tell her they dont like it, she makes them take a bite and say no thank you. After the first bite, she normally gets requests for more. I think that children see something and they say they dont like it because it might look funny. Sometimes once they have tried it they do like it.

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  by vanessashibley on July 3rd, 2008

• I made my kids a 'food rating slider'. There was a 'yuck' face at one end, and a slider all the way over to a 'yum' face at the other end. It made trying new foods much more fun, and they could take a bite, then give the food a rating between yuck and yum. I also found that if I got a yuck rating first time round, if I kept trying them with the same food (just a bite) at regular intervals over a couple of months, the rating usually moved further over to 'yum'. This also taught the kids that their tastes can and will change, and just because you don't like something at first, it doesn't mean you won't ever like it.

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  by smitch999 on September 17th, 2008

• I like the last comment, Smitch.
  
  In my house I knew there was a possibility of allergies. I also remembered my own childhood when certain foods simply made me gag. Some of my kids were horribly picky eaters. So I told them they were allowed to have only one (maybe two) foods they would not have to eat. I would cook around that and provide a different meal if necessary. But whatever food they chose, they had to stick with it, give it up, or prove to me they had an allergy to the food. It worked too! Now everyone's in great physical shape, eats a well balanced diet, and nobody's picky.

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  by snowberry on September 4th, 2009

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• No it doesn't sitting on their fat little butts and never going out to play encourages obesity.

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  by Moogie on May 8th, 2008

• Yes it does, my dear. Look at medical evidence. ALso, there are many aspects to obesity, both dietary and exercise related.

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  by singwell-is off researching a lot on May 8th, 2008

• They need to get outide more ans exercise. My step son has never wanted to eat at our home or his mother's. His parents did not make him eat. They shoved a muli-vitamin and a video game at him, said he would eventually get hungry and eat. This has gone on for almost 10yrs. He has lost weight, has no energy and has been hospitalized 3 times. He is very unhealthy. I make my children finish their plates and make them go out and get exersice. TV and video games are limited. The are much healthier and are not picky eaters.

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  by mystifyme on June 15th, 2008

• Moogie, sorry to say, but you are COMPLETELY wrong when you say "No it doesn't". I took a Food & Nutrition course last semester at school and in that course we learned exactly why it DOES contribute to obesity. If they are full, they are full. If you make them overeat, that is bad. North Americans tend to be the people who are the ones who get their children to finish off their plates. Guess which continent has a large perecentage of obese people on it? North America. There are a lot of other countries who don't have a problem with obesity because they don't teach their children to eat everything on their plate just to eat everything on their plate. North American plates also tend to be very large, so that is another problem. Mystifyme is right, though, about children needing go outside and exercise. Unfortunately, not every neighbourhood is safe enough as there is more crime and there are more things to worry about than there has been in the past.

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  by AnonymousGirl on July 11th, 2008

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• and your way of thinking is why kids kill each other because everything is ok let them be free to decide THEY ARE FREAKIN' KIDS BE A PARENT!!!

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  by Moogie on May 8th, 2008

• You know, I don't think they were really talking about letting a small child have control of America's armies or anything... it's just a matter of how much they want to eat at dinnertime.

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  by Anonymous on May 23rd, 2008

• http://www.dizmex.com

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  by bocman1 on June 7th, 2008

• SPAMMER..dont put your spam in the comment boxes

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  by Lippycow on June 7th, 2008

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• “Warning”
  
  Sometimes a child will pretend they agree with you forcing them to eat; Just to please you,
  
  If that doesn’t bother you I don’t know what will.

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  by morrislook on November 2nd, 2008

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• No.. my father use to do this to my brother when we were young.. now, i believe he created a fear in him for some food and a stubbornness. I don't think my brother eats a healthy enough diet because of it now.

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  by heath3r on August 12th, 2008

• Yeah, I didn't eat peas for 30 years. But now, I like them.
  Thank you.

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  by BenThere HR on August 12th, 2008

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• My other rule for my kids when they were young was this -- they had to try what was on their plates. If they didn't like it, they didn't have to eat any more of it. Over time I found that some foods were accepted as my kids developed a liking for them and some foods were rejected at an early age and remain that way to this day. They could stop eating any time they felt full. I taught them to try not to waste food, and to try and be adventurous eaters. But, the final decision of what they ate was up to them.

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  by u.. on June 18th, 2007

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• Nicely put:)

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  by pam i am on August 14th, 2007

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• That is what Tupperware is for.

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  by Sheriff Raff -Answerhag on May 29th, 2007

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• another note, you get 5 points for reporting nonsense, spam or offensive posts. You do it where it says Flag this Answer.

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  by Tegarst on August 17th, 2007

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• My parents kept me at the table too, even when I really WAS full. I think instead of forcing them to eat it, making them go hungry will make them eat their next meal. Plus when they HAVE to finish everything on their plate, but they're stuffed full, that encourages them to always eat past their natural full stage. Plus it is possible to expand a stomach- so you can expand their little stomachs to want more and more food until you have those poor little kids that end up on Oprah or Dr. Phil. That's not good.

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  by Penny The Wise on August 14th, 2007

• I think my Mother pretty much cooked things we all liked and catered to our varying sized appetites. We were always healthy and I had a large appetite as a child but then we all did a lot of exercise and needed the fuel. Yes it is a shame to force a child to eat loads of fattening stodge.That will affect their appetites for life.
  Mind you I was away at school a lot of the time so my Mothers cooking was a treat.:)

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  by Firebrand on August 14th, 2007

• It's not necessarily about the content of the food itself, but healthier foods are MUCH better for you, and much more filling so you don't actually NEED as much. But the point is, making a child sit and eat literally every piece of rice on a plate tells them that even when you're full, eating every little morsel is more important, so they don't stop when they are full, leading to excessive weigh gain. If you're hungry, especially from excercising and you WANT to eat as much as you can and don't feel like a stuffed sausage about to explode, that's great! Growing kids NEED food. But to MAKE a child eat until they are physically uncomfortable and possibly in pain is unacceptable. Just because our parents always made us eat everything, that doesn't make it right.

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  by Penny The Wise on August 14th, 2007

• No my Mother did not do that, if we were full (I never was) we had to ask if we could leave the rest but still sit until everyone else had finished eating.

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  by Firebrand on August 14th, 2007

• Bu that's the point of the question. It wasn't "Did your mother do this" but "Do YOU think it's right to FORCE a child to finnish their entire plate", and you answered yes.

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  by Penny The Wise on August 14th, 2007

• Yes I realised that when I was rereading the question,what I meant to say I believe (it was six months ago)was that parents should know their children well enough to put a small amount on the plate and allow the child to have more if they wished. I did not mean shovel it down a childs throat. I do not think you can really force a child to eat.You are making it sound as if I would put mounds of unhealthy food on a plate and force a child to eat the lot.If a parent knows what a child likes and how much they usually eat I think they should finish their meal. That is not always possible but as a rule of thumb.

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  by Firebrand on August 14th, 2007

• True, but there ARE parrents out there that aren't as intuitive so you have to make "general" rules about these things.

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  by Penny The Wise on August 14th, 2007

• Lots of parents put mounds of food on a child's plate, and expect them to eat half their weight in food. It's totally unacceptable!

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  by Penny The Wise on August 14th, 2007

• No it is not "intuition", just sad that parents do not use common sense. I no longer have a child to practise apon so can only go by feeding a very young child and my Mothers behaviour with my siblings.Since I was the youngest by a few years sometimes I have to take advice on family/children matters.

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  by Firebrand on August 14th, 2007

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• Great answer!

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  by Kdmichaels on July 23rd, 2008

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• good answer!

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  by Chopsy the Diver on January 18th, 2008

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• Nice move.

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  by BenThere HR on August 21st, 2007

• Long story...but I really did.

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  by Scifisuz on August 21st, 2007