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My mom used to totally make me finish my plate before I left the table. I used to complain that I was full but she'd make me take at least 3 more bites. Thankfully I didn't end up obese but I could completely see how that could easily become a bad habit. I never even thought about it but now I'm gonna be more conscious of that when feeding my son. Thanks for the article!

I think the clear your plate and snacking are wrong. I find wasting food very rude, especially when Im the one cooking. There's always the option of not filling a plate as full and taking 2nds or 3rds. And as long as the snacks are healthy most studies show its better to not be starving when you eat and little kids have little bellies.

Oh this is a great article! My parents always made me finish my plate and I always thought it was bad and encouraged over eating. I use these neat things that are plates and bowls that are exact healthy portion sized. So now I give Liam his food on them. Not only are they cute but I know he is eating the recommended amount and not more.
Also he loves sushi, haha so I think I'm going to get lucky with keeping him on track with a healthy diet.

I find cleaning your plate interesting because of my husband. He likes to eat and he is overweight. He was brought up on the "clean your plate" idea. He still has a problem not doing that today. I try to make our dinners in smaller portions and on smaller plates but then he'll eat what's on his plate, fill it up again and even though he's full halfway through the second portion, eat the whole thing. Same goes for eating out - restaurants give us huge plates and huge servings that could be 2 or 3 people's dinner. He'll eat everything b/c he was taught to at a young age. I think it does become ingrained in some kids heads and sticks with them. I don't think it will happen to everyone, though.

Now mind you - this is his excuse, I'm sure he could stop if he wanted to. We are working on doing the leftovers thing and sharing a dinner when we're out to eat so that doesn't happen.

I'm not sure what we'll do with our kids but I think we'll find what works for us and keep healthy foods in the house as much as possible (like we do now). I do worry about food pickiness and stuff and see my friends feeding their kids chicken nuggets, pasta with butter, etc. We never got that as kids. If we didn't eat what was on our plate, we could come back to it later but we couldn't have a "substitute." I know it's hard to deal with and I'm sure we'll struggle with it when the time comes.

@Navy_Mommy: We never had soda at home either, and had the option of having it when we went out. But I always chose to have the cash instead!

@Navy_Mommy: Bran cereal. I say this while laughing. You're right - who would choose BRAN cereal or even better - the original Fiber One - over real food??! Lol

I don't make my daughter clear her plate. If she is full then she is full. I do the same thing when I'm at home or out. Sometimes her eyes are bigger than her stomach and she won't finish a large portion so I will just throw it in the fridge for the next day.

I think it's important to establish healthy eating habits. There were nights I didn't eat my dinner, and I literally had to sit at the table until it was gone. I don't want to resort to repeating that with my LO but I also don't want him to rule the roost and require a separate meal.

I think the hardest thing is seeing your kid not eat and feeling like you have to give them something otherwise they won't grow. For some kids, food is a control thing, they can't control much, but when they are old enough they can choose not to eat. They also get exposed to peers and kids that were awesome eaters, suddenly don't want to eat their regular food because they got made fun of at lunch.

It's hard!

I am guilty of sometimes telling my child they won't get dessert if they don't eat her dinner, thankfully the first thing she always eats is her veggies! I also think we could cut down on tv time. But, I never force her to eat all of her food, I just tell her that if she doesn't eat it she will not get any food until the next meal. She is limited to one maybe two snacks per day and I only give her drinks other than water at meal time and she only gets one cup and if she is still thirsty she gets water. As far as meals go, I will let her choose between two options that I provide for her, she doesn't get to come up with her own idea. She always goes to bed at a decent time and gets plenty of sleep. Also, we havn't used a stroller since she was able to walk pretty good. I guess two out of 8 isn't so bad...

My mum never enforced the "clean your plate" rule, but she did ask that we eat all the protein on our plate, because protein was scarce and expensive where we grew up. We could leave the starch though. And we usually ended up eating everything anyway because there wasnt much food and we were hungry! I plan to not enforce the "clean your plate" rule for my kids either.

I think the only thing I would be guilty of is offering sweets as a reward. We never had to clean our plate when we were little, just had to take at least a bite of everything, and I would never make my child clean their plate. If they are done, and ate well, then they are done.

We don't have TV, just Netflix, so we really don't watch much TV. He gets to watch a show in the morning. His snacks aren't all the time, and are healthy, getting lots of food groups in. He also doesn't use the stroller very often. If we know that we are going somewhere with LOTS of walking, we will bring it, but give him the option of walking or not. He likes to walk

My parents made us try everything on our plates, as well, but rarely made us finish everything. Except when my dad would force me to eat a banana. We called it the 'banana wars,' because I hated bananas, and he made me sit there until they were gone. I still hate bananas.

Anyway, this is a really great article. I can understand not wanting to be wasteful, but the 'clean your plate' logic has always seemed wrong to me. If the wastefulness is an issue, just make smaller portions.