The Science of Parenting
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The Science of Parenting
Kids & Food: Why We Eat What We Eat | S.10 Ep.1
When it comes to food, so many factors influence what we (and our kids) eat. Come explore those influences and meet a new face on the podcast!
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This institution is an equal opportunity provider. For the full non-discrimination statement or accommodation inquiries, go to www.extension.iastate.edu/diversity/ext
Welcome to The Science of Parenting podcast where we connect you with research-based information that fits your family. We'll talk about the realities of being a parent and how research can help guide our parenting decisions. I'm Mackenzie Johnson, parent of two littles with their own quirks. And I'm a parenting educator. And we are back for season 10. It's been a while. We always used to say like we're here. And it's like, no, we're not gonna say that every time but we are here. In case you were worried that we weren't. We're back for season 10. And honestly, I can hardly believe it. Ten seasons, holy cow. It's been great. It is weird. When we take a break, I feel like I get so disconnected. And that it's been like a long time since we've been on here. And because it's been a little while since we've had a season, there have been some shifts on our team, which you might be noticing so far. We're 30 seconds into this and we haven't heard a certain voice anymore. And so we are pleased to share some good news on behalf of our co-host, Lori. She has accepted an interim administrative position with Human Sciences Extension and Outreach. And because of this new position, we're going to kind of have limited access to her for this podcast season. And so we're all going to miss her great experiences, expertise and insight that she has so willingly shared. Our team really is celebrating for her. So you might be wondering, okay, wait, what's this mean? We're glad to say that we still get to work alongside Lori, just not like here on the actual podcast part. But the show does go on, right, so this is not me coming on to tell you that like season 10 is just one episode of me saying it's over. Nope, that's not the case. I'm not going to be a solo artist. That would be a little too much of my voice, even for me. So this season, we're bringing in a guest co-host which I am through the ceiling about. I am just ecstatic to bring in our guest co-host, Dr. Lyndi Buckingham-Schutt. Hi Lyndi.
Lyndi Buckingham-Schutt:Hello. Thank you for having me.
Mackenzie Johnson:Oh my gosh, I'm so excited. You're here. I think all of you are gonna like learn to love Lyndi, and all of the good stuff that she has to share with us. So a little bit about you. Right. So she is a Human Sciences Extension and Outreach state specialist on campus, in food and health content. What are we gonna be talking about this season? Right? Okay, so she's a state specialist in food and health. And you are an assistant professor in the Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition. And you're a parent. So you've got the credentials. You're invited. You're welcome to be here.
Lyndi Buckingham-Schutt:Awesome. Thank you. Yeah, so many hands. Like Mackenzie said, I am a state specialist in food and health. I'm also an assistant professor here at Iowa State in the Food Science and Human Nutrition Department. I'm on the human nutrition side of things. And I'm also a registered dietician, nutritionist. So bringing my nutrition expertise to this season. I'm also a parent of two kids, I have a 10 month old son, Kai, who is an eater. He loves to eat. So you'll be hearing a lot about him shoveling food into his cute little face. And then I'm also the mom of a daughter who would have been two in April. She was born premature at 22 weeks and lived for six weeks. And I just like to talk about her, too. Her name was Etta.
Mackenzie Johnson:Well, thanks, Lyndi, so much for sharing your experience in parenting and your professional expertise. And I hope this is a platform where we're able to share ourselves authentically. And that is a part of your journey. So thank you for sharing her with us and both of your kids with us today, too. I'm so pleased to have your experience and your expertise personally and professionally joining us for this podcast season and you know that we're just gonna get into so much good stuff, and I just can hardly wait. So the topic for today. So this whole season Lindy is going to be here alongside to co-host with me. But our topic for today is why we eat what we eat. So what influences us, and again, Lindy's expertise. She's our expert here and we're excited and so really though Lyndi, why do we eat what we eat?
Lyndi Buckingham-Schutt:Oh, man, I wish if there was a simple answer to that, we would not be having this podcast, right?
Mackenzie Johnson:Yeah, we don't know.
Lyndi Buckingham-Schutt:So to answer the question, I'm going to reference a framework model that KK Davidson and Ellen Birch published in 2008 and has since been adapted.
Mackenzie Johnson:Framework. Okay. All right. You're here.
Lyndi Buckingham-Schutt:I am also a listener of this podcast so I know that frameworks are well loved. And as a researcher myself, I love a framework, love a model.
Mackenzie Johnson:Yes, you're bringing good stuff to the table
Lyndi Buckingham-Schutt:And especially, I love this model already. We knew it. that has been adapted over time, to talk about what influences particularly what kids eat. We can talk about in terms of what we all eat. But this is what I would call a systems model. So it's looking at different levels of a system or different levels of what influences a behavior. And so we can talk about it in different ways, and we're going to talk about it in the podcast, at those different, what I'm going to call levels. So when we think about it, how it builds off of each other is there's the innermost part of this model is kids, kids themselves, or the person and what behaviors they participate in. So a lot of those things are going to be inherent to the actual kid. But then as we kind of go out farther in this model, as we go out to a different level, we're gonna have more of the family level. So this is where, parents might feel like you're going to, your choices are going to come in a little bit more your behavior. So we're going to talk about what parents can do to influence that inner level of that kid and then if we go all the way out to the top of this model, that's more of our community, or environment, those systems level that again, have that influence down on you as parents and then have that influence down on on our kids and what they eat.
Mackenzie Johnson:Absolutely. And when I think of systems models, like yeah, this is a food nutrition one. And then you know, there's models in my area of human development, systems of like, the bio ecological. I could get real dorky, real fast, but essentially, yeah, it's like these rings, right? Like, these concentric circles like the nesting dolls inside of the other, all influencing the center individual, which is our kids. Right? Like, that's fair to say, though.
Lyndi Buckingham-Schutt:Yeah. Rings. Yes. Nested doll is a very great description of it. Especially it applies very well to the the littlest one is our kid.
Mackenzie Johnson:Yeah. You're bringing in Lori's word pictures, you're set. She's gonna be here all season. She passes. Okay, so it sounds like there's like three levels, essentially. So let's break them down a little. And I do you want to get people to preface we're gonna kind of like high level broad scope these a little bit today, just for the sake of getting started this season. But we will dig in with more specifics to some of these throughout the season. So know that we're gonna go kind of quick today. But we'll dig in a little more. So let's start off with this first level. So you're talking about that very center ring, that smallest nesting doll is like the child or the individual, right? What are some of those factors they say at that level?
Lyndi Buckingham-Schutt:Yeah, so some of these factors, a lot of these ones are going to be maybe inherent or innate to the person themselves, the individual. So I think about things like biology or genetics, and what that means, can be the temperament of the child.
Mackenzie Johnson:Okay. Hard sell for me.
Lyndi Buckingham-Schutt:Again, I've listened before, so I know that is a good word to bring. Eating behaviors, and then also the weight of the child, their dietary intake, those kinds of things. So those are some examples of that inner circle.
Mackenzie Johnson:Okay, so the child themselves talking about a mix of some of the temperament they're born with, genetics and biology they're born with, and then some of those habits and behaviors are some of the other component of it, too. So some that are innate, like already there they're born with, and some that can and probably will change over time, in all
Lyndi Buckingham-Schutt:Yes, you know, can be influenced by likelihood. you as a parent, or again, that outside of the circle, that biggest nesting doll, the community or systems level.
Mackenzie Johnson:Yeah. And so yeah, thinking about that we always like to, okay, so there's a portion of the research, that little nesting doll, the smallest ring of the individual child, and this model, what influences what we eat, there's things that are specific to the child. And so that's the research so of course, you know, we always love to bring in the reality alongside it. So do you think about any examples or any of these factors that you just really highlight that you'd love to share with parents?
Lyndi Buckingham-Schutt:Yeah, I want to talk about the genetics because I want to tell parents that if you love sugar, if your child loves sugar, we are predisposed to love sugar, so don't be surprised by that. Our bodies are built for it. Our bodies are built for it. It's something that has evolved over time. Back when people needed to forage to survive for food. Sugar, if they tasted sweet, that meant sugar, which meant those things were more calorically dense, they had more calories in them, which meant they would be more likely to survive. So survival of the fittest, right? So we have become predisposed. Our genetics are built to like sweets so we can survive. Okay and then inversely to that, you might notice your kids love sugar, you love sugar, we're just predisposed to like those flavors. We're also predisposed to not like the taste of bitter. So vegetables, a lot of vegetables are bitter. And that is because bitter is an indicator of poison. So obviously something we don't want to eat. So if your kids don't like vegetables, that could be why. There's other kids who it can be part of their genetic makeup that they're even more likely to not like the taste of bitter.
Mackenzie Johnson:Oh my gosh. Okay, so this is gonna make me sound a little bit silly. I have a story about the word bitter. Like the flavor. This is a few years ago, I was just like having a conversation with some friends. And we were talking about something and they were describing a food as bitter. And I was like, okay, I kind of gotta fess up, though, that like what is bitter? Like what I mean, I don't know that I have a really solid grasp of that. And I learned as we talk through this that like, I'm not the only one who maybe does it. So it's interesting to learn that some vegetables are bitter. And I do think, I mean, it couldn't tell you from like the research, but it does seem vegetables are the things that parents get more worried about feeding their kids, right? It's harder to convince or we think it is or, like, yeah, it's trickier. And it makes sense that there's a level. And yeah, it's not the only influence on whether kids eat vegetables. But that is a component of what influences that decision of their brain says like sugar good, bitter bad.
Lyndi Buckingham-Schutt:Yes, yeah, definitely. Yeah. So it's always good for parents know that it's not like you're doing anything wrong if your kid doesn't like vegetables. We're going to talk about strategies for your kids to maybe eat more vegetables. Because even though they're predisposed to certain tastes, it doesn't mean that they're not going to eat certain foods. So you can provide, you know, you can't change what they taste, but you can maybe influence the foods that they're eating.
Mackenzie Johnson:Yes, yes. And so yeah, we love to say things coexist, right? Like those things coexist, that there was like a predisposition, or that our brains were built to say this one's great. We don't love that one. You got to work up to it, and the fact that we can influence it. As I think about your list, of course, the word that jumped out to me of this child factors is temperament, of course. And I think about, you know, I've talked about this before, I have two kids that are pretty distractible, pretty high in that perceptiveness temperament trait. And so some of the more obvious traits that I feel like we think about with food are like, sensitivity and regularity. And I'm like, wait, we have a whole episode for this. Don't get into that. But with my kids, distractibility is a trait that affects how and when and how much they eat. I even just think like, when we're sitting at a table, and the dog walks by, and the interest pulls my child away from the table. Or we get talking about something and she's talking so much she doesn't eat. There's so much exciting stuff happening in the world around them and they're taking it in. Okay, you have not taken any bites yet. And yeah, is that because you're not hungry? Or is it because you got busy or got distracted? So yeah, that's just one trait. And we have a whole episode to dig into all of that, but temperament, I definitely see how my kids' temperament plays into when and how much and how they eat for sure. So there's the individual, like of the child things that are like built in and things that can change over time. What about the second level? You said, that's kind of like the family factors? Right?
Lyndi Buckingham-Schutt:Yeah, I think this is going to be the meat of a lot of our conversations for important future episodes, for a lot of reasons. But largely, this is where you can, as a parent, this is a low hanging fruit for where you can maybe have easily the most influence. Yeah, and I also like to think of it as the place where the decisions you make as a parent or the tips and tools that we can impart to you, over the next couple episodes are gonna help you influence that inner circle, that little nesting doll, your little kid and then also, hopefully sustain it over time because I like to think, you know, hopefully you're tuning in because you want to hear a little bit more about nutrition and food. But really the overall goal and what we're going to talk about in terms of family factors of both, how do you raise a healthy independent eater. And I think hopefully this level is going to, again have a lot of the meat. No pun intended.
Mackenzie Johnson:Right. And you said it's gonna be the meat. And we also said it's gonna be the low hanging fruit, like okay two food groups already. Yeah. But I do, I agree that as you walked me through this and shared some of this information with me that I see, yeah, this is like a sweet spot. There's another food group. But it is a sweet spot of like things that feel really practical right now. Like things that feel really easy as a parent, I can listen to this and immediately take away from it. And so I agree that like, yeah, the meat, the low hanging fruit. It's all of them. What a well rounded meal we have. What are some of these factors that fall into this kind of level of this model?
Lyndi Buckingham-Schutt:Yeah, so there are going to be things like parenting style, which I think applies beyond when we're talking about eating, right. So we're gonna talk about parenting style, and how that relates to feeding style. Sibling behaviors is another factor in here, which you will likely to be able to talk about. Food in the home, child feeding practices, modeling of eating behavior, nutrition knowledge, and then parental eating behaviors. So yes, we might talk about what you eat as a parent as well.
Mackenzie Johnson:So in our regulation season when we were like, Oh, I'm the parent here, and I have to reflect on my own. Every time we end up being the parent in these situations, every time. But in this list, of course, the parenting style, like, Oh, hey, when we have done episodes on that topic, and we were listing outcomes, I didn't even think of like, what and how much kids eat as being a factor, as being a potential outcome of our parenting style. We need to go back and add that to the list. Kenzi, producer, somewhere in there, back in those seasons, so we're gonna have to tag those. So yeah, parenting style being one thing that influences how much kids' eat. But then the other one that I immediately thought of examples for was that sibling behavior. With my two kids, they are roughly three and six. And I totally see how they influence each other in what they eat, right, one has something and the other one wants it. Which we are now in the stage of the concession stand. When we go to activities that my daughter is in, one gets something at a concession stand and the other doesn't and wants it, right? So that is one way we see that play out in far too much of our life. But I even think at the table, if one refuses something, or it's an unfamiliar food, or they liked it yesterday, and they don't today, kind of thing. And that when one pushes it away, the other one might be a little less likely to be interested in it. Or talking about distractibility, when one runs from the table the other one runs after. So I do, I see a lot of ways where like, if one is doing something, the other one is a little influenced by that and so I do, I see how that makes sense as its own kind of factor. What about one of these and the family factors? I know we're gonna dig in with more depth this season. We're gonna highlight lots of these throughout this season, but is there one in particular you'd want to share with everybody?
Lyndi Buckingham-Schutt:Oh, I mean, I think two really stand out to me and you asked me for one and I'm going to maybe talk about two.
Mackenzie Johnson:You can break the rules on the podcast. We make all the rules on the fly.
Lyndi Buckingham-Schutt:I suppose you can listen faster if you don't like what I'm saying. But yeah, nutrition education is one that stands out to me as a self-proclaimed and educated nutrition expert. Because I often, even as a parent who has a lot of understanding about nutrition, it's something that I question even for myself. Am I feeding my kid the right thing and all those things. But sometimes it's my blind spot where I'm like, oh, people don't always know. You're here because you want to learn more probably about nutrition and feeding your kids. What you think is the right thing or what's recommended as the right thing. So I think instilling more nutrition knowledge, creating nutrition knowledge, having people feel competent enough to to know what to feed their kids is very important to me. And then another one that I like to think about just more personally is the child feeding practices. And just thinking about my own son and thinking about the way that I was raised and we're going to talk about this but a feeding practice is in the structure component is family mealtimes and things like that. And well, we didn't eat every single meal together and there were times we didn't always eat together. We did try to have dinner together at a table and things like that. And those are important factors when we're talking about creating a healthy independent eater.
Mackenzie Johnson:Yes, yes. And I think in hearing you talk through that I am just having a little warm feeling inside that I'm just like, Lyndi is so great. She fits so well. But Oh, yeah, there's no silver bullet to make your kid eat the hearing you talk about the knowledge, right, the nutrition knowledge part of it that I hear you playing with your language a little bit. And I feel like what she's getting at is this idea of wanting to share the information so parents can make informed decisions. And even you being willing to acknowledge like, well, sometimes I feel like I know so much, it's almost a blind spot. That yeah, as parents, we have these things we can be passionate about but we get to take in information, which will we hope you can do here on the podcast. And then yeah, you make your own decision about how that works with the feeding practices, with the parenting style, with those kinds of things. And so I do, I'm just listening to you and I'm like, Oh, you're such great fit for what we believe. Yeah, sharing that knowledge with others. And, yeah, I think that that's one component. And I think that's part of the beautiful thing about this model, is it's laying out all of these things. It's not one thing. And actually, I feel like that gives me a little grace as a parent, like, it's not just what I do that influences my kids. Like there can be lots of other positive influences, too, that can influence what my kids eat. And so there's a lot of power in that, I think. thing you want them to eat. There's going to be a lot of factors in it. And I don't think there's any perfect way, no matter what you hear, there's no perfect way to eat food. And we always say there's more than one way to raise great kids. So there can be more than one approach, right, or variation within that approach, and still raise healthy independent eaters as they're saying. So let's talk a little bit more about that third level. So this is that broadest level, the biggest nesting doll or the largest ring, whichever visual word picture we're going to follow, that community or system level factors, and I know, you kind of have like, this is kind of a sweet spot for you, right? You love this kind of stuff.
Lyndi Buckingham-Schutt:Oh, yeah, this is where a lot of my passion lies. Because I think this is where we, maybe you as a parent, don't feel like you have a lot of control over the things I'm going to mention here in a second. But I think I want to instill in people that they do have a lot of control over these things. And these are things that can be changed. And you know what making some of these changes to these things is gonna make all the other things that we're talking about a lot easier, right? So this community, this the systems level, this is where things that, again, you might feel like they're out of your control, like food advertising, or your socio-economic status, policies, neighborhood food accessibility, childcare, school, peer behavior. I kind of ran through those really quickly. And then culture is up in here, too. And so maybe you feel like, oh, you know, I can't control what my kids eat in school, or what they have in childcare and those kinds of things. But those have, obviously a very big influence on what your kids eat potentially. Research shows stats show that between about 30 and 50% of most kids who are in childcare, or school are eating their meals outside of their home. So those are outside of your influence, right, like if they're getting their meals at school.
Mackenzie Johnson:Not every meal is in your home with you. Yeah.
Lyndi Buckingham-Schutt:Yes. And so, you know, what does that mean for when you think about all of the other points and levels of influence that we talked about? And so I think that this is a very important level that influences as we go down to those family factors and that individual factor.
Mackenzie Johnson:And I love that you point out that these can feel broad and tricky, almost like we can't control what food advertisers do or can't control American culture. But there are places where we have influence within these things. I even think of, I talk with my daughter about advertising is meant to try to get us to want something. We say they try to trick us or try to give me the gimmies to try to like get you to, Oh, give me that, give me that. And so that's an influence I have right? These intermix, I have an influence on maybe how much my child has access. So I talked with my older child, I talked to my daughter about what advertising, it's kind of trying to trick us. And with my son, he's not really developmentally old enough to grasp it yet, so I kind of try to limit the amount of exposure he has to that. You know, and then I even think about culture. And I think, that one's multifaceted, right? We're talking about culture, in terms of like our heritage, ethnicity, around us the way we were raised. The more immediate and I think when we were talking about this? I can't remember exactly when you said something about how we talk about broccoli a lot. Midwest, white women, we talk about broccoli, but other families are talking about bok choy. Or maybe they're talking about collard greens, or they're talking about some other green staple vegetable in their diet that's not broccoli. That's a part of culture. Right? And I never thought to worry about if my daughter or my kids would eat bok choy. Right? That wasn't on the list of foods I wanted them to master. Like, okay, I didn't think about that. That's culture. But then there's also the layer of the broader culture of diet culture. And so that can influence what our kids eat or don't eat. And you know, we think of they might be worried about body size, and that that culture can create certain expectations. And I especially think with our teens, that that's something also as a parent, we can parent through, right? We can talk about, we can have some influence in some of those. Of these factors, I know policy kind of has your heart a little, right?
Lyndi Buckingham-Schutt:Oh, yes, yes. Policy has my heart. Policy and everything that I talked about, food advertising, socio-economic status, food accessibility, childcare, schools, all of that is influenced by policy. You know, again, we think about schools and childcare and maybe this is hitting very close to home for me because my son is eating solids. And oh, yeah, I look at the daycare menu and I might pick through it a little bit more closely than some parents do. Oh, I don't know about that. But I also know that there was a Healthy Hunger Free Kids Act passed in 2010. That really changed what schools provide, are required to provide in terms of nutrient density of their foods, the quality of their foods, that really improved kids' diets. And so I know that because of that policy, and that influence it had on school meals, and childcare and those kinds of things made it easier for me as a parent to feel competent, like Oh, my kid is able to have access to those healthy foods that I would want to serve them in my home. So it's making that option easier. Again, if we think about these levels, that top level, it's making it easier at the family level, it's making it easier at the child level, all of those.
Mackenzie Johnson:they're required to serve and things like that. And I think even the childcare that my kids have gone to, yeah, the food that's offered, is it similar to the type of food that we have? Does our childcare provider have similar beliefs around those practices around feeding, right? I remember, someone we used to be with that used to kind of care for our kids. A concern for me was a lot of the time we'd pick our daughter up and it was just like crackers. She'd have crackers and be walking around. And not that we don't eat crackers. But it was like they didn't have a menu. It didn't and so it was just that I wasn't sure. And so that did influence, you know, how my daughter is raised and what she's eating was what was being offered at childcare. And so there is, there's a lot of things that yeah, why we eat what we eat? Well, there are. There's systems and community around us that are going to influence that for sure. I do think that, you know, there's so much to take in. So yeah, we said some child factors that he talked about, like biology and dietary intake, the family factors or some of our practices, and things like that. Also, you know, siblings have a role in there. And this kind of community level of the culture around us and childcare and school and policy and all this great stuff. And so how do we take all of that? Right? This is a big belief of The Science of Parenting, all right, if we're going to share research, we got to do it with a dose of reality. And we have to make sure we have a way to make it concrete. So it's like, All right, cool. Mackenzie and Lyndi, you told us lots of cool stuff. What are we gonna do with that? What are gonna do with this framework? And so I would say, you know, my personal take is that I feel like as I personally think about it with my kids, and I think about sharing this with my co-parent, my partner, and sharing this information, that it's an opportunity for us to kind of slow down and non-judgmentally observe. Right and so I think just, I can even use this as an awareness for the week of what do I see in how much my kids eat and what they choose to eat and thinking a little more about maybe child care or school and what's offered. And, yeah, I think that this is a really great opportunity with this model. Like I said, we're gonna dig into the specifics, it's gonna get real concrete through these next episodes, which I'm excited about. But I do think that opportunity to just observe and reflect, you know, how you were raised, how you offer food, and your access to food and all of these influences that roll together with your kids. So I would say that's a great strategy from this model for the week right now. What about you, Lyndi, what comes to mind of how we make this concrete?
Lyndi Buckingham-Schutt:Well, I think we can make this concrete by talking about it for an entire season of your Science of Parenting. But, I mean, we went through this model, and I thought, oh my gosh, this can be overwhelming to parents, how much influences what your your kids eat. But I want you to take away that there are tools and tips that are research-based, evidence-based that we're going to talk about, that will hopefully make it easier for you, tangible for you to take those things and apply it to your parenting and to your kids. And, you know, with a goal of whatever you want it to be for around food, but we're going to talk about and I'm going to keep coming back to is this is important to me as a parent and I hope to a lot of you is creating a healthy, independent eater. I want to raise a child who will go into this world and I feel competent that they will feed themselves eventually and make positive choices in terms of their health.
Mackenzie Johnson:I love that. Yeah. So yeah, there's so much good stuff here. And yeah, more strategies to come for sure, all throughout the season. But for now, this brings us to something we call our Stop. Breathe. Talk. space, which is based on our flagship parenting strategy of stopping, recognize what's happening with us, taking a breath, and then speaking with intention. And so Lyndi, you're gonna get your first taste of this off the cuff thing we do where our producer, hey, Mackenzie, comes in and asks us a question based on our topic for the day. So what do you got Kenz?
Mackenzie DeJong:Lyndi, are you ready for this?
Lyndi Buckingham-Schutt:No.
Mackenzie DeJong:So first of all, I have to say I might have to add a food counter to the bottom of this video or the top or wherever I fit it in. We'll see.
Mackenzie Johnson:This topic is really built for it, isn't it? I was probably 23 when I started eating lettuce. So my question
Mackenzie DeJong:But it might be there. We'll see how much time I have. So some of us, some of us, are the type of people who can be, and you experienced this when we first started talking about this, I can be very resistant to talking about is, what advice do you have for a person who is resistant to talking about food and the picky eater as we go forward in this season? Why should I listen? Like why? Or how can I bring food and to food itself. I like basics. I like bread and I like pasta and I like cheese. down my walls so that I'm able to listen? And I will, as they say, hang up and listen because my internet is a little touch and go. So I will leave and then I'll let you answer that question.
Mackenzie Johnson:All right. Well, I mean, obviously I'm gonna defer to Lyndi.
Lyndi Buckingham-Schutt:Oh, that's such an interesting question. I think you bring up, going back to our model we're talking about, this is one of those family factors that we're gonna talk about. I think a parent's own attitudes and beliefs around food have such a strong influence on our kids, what we impart to them on our kids attitudes and influences about foods. So maybe I'll try to anwer this in a couple of different ways. First I'll answer in the way that I think it's easiest when I think about, well, if you're listening to this, and hopefully if you're still listening to this, and you're like, oh, nutrition, you know, maybe you're like ugh, nutrition. Maybe I shouldn't use the word, maybe we should have just used the word food because I feel like sometimes nutrition just turns people off right away. Just food, which I guess Mackenzie said food turns her off. So maybe we should just use the word mouth. I don't know. But I think parents, we're going to talk about the first 1000 days of life and pregnancy. And a lot of parents, women, expecting parents are interested in talking about food during pregnancy during that expected time, because they see it as this, like window of opportunity to just start to think about how they can influence what their kids eat. So if you're maybe scared, like Mackenzie, about thinking about and talking about food, maybe you just need to think about, well, I'm talking about food, that's scary, but with a goal of talking about food for my kids, so I'm having a positive influence on what they're eating. So yeah, I just think of this as that window of opportunity.
Mackenzie Johnson:I love that. And I think some of that highlights something we do often as parents is like, putting a part of ourselves aside for the benefit of our child because they need so much from us. And yeah, but like, this could be an opportunity where we can use that skill we've used in lots of other ways.
Lyndi Buckingham-Schutt:Yeah, I know. And hopefully also, Mackenzie, we are not going to make food scary. And again, that's why I'm hoping people didn't turn this off at the beginning and like, I don't want to hear someone tell me that this is the right way or the wrong way to eat. I am not here to do that. I'm here to talk about strategies to help your kids eat the way that you would like them to eat. And again, just raise a healthy independent eater. Yeah, and there is a judgment free zone about how people eat.
Mackenzie Johnson:Yes. Okay. And I want to say there's two that come to mind, as I think about how to answer this question. One is temperament. So I'll get to that. The other is kind of this idea of the reflections we see in ourselves. And I mean, in the common term that I feel like I'm hearing a lot about is breaking the cycle. And I think sometimes we can bring an empathy to our kids when we have our own experiences. Sometimes it requires unlearning on our part, which can be uncomfortable. And I'm not saying that's what you have to do, like, Oh, if you're a picky eater, you have to unlearn that. That's not what I mean at all. I mean, if there were things that negatively influenced you that you can look at them a little more objectively, sometimes as a parent, think about passing them down to your kids, and because you maybe had a negative experience with something or a certain way that you can say, I don't want it to be that way. And that can be a strength for you. And so I think sometimes viewing that as a strength of like, I'm a selective eater, right? I know what I like. That can be a strength, and that can be a strength kids could have too. And so the way that I think temperament fits into that is, again, that empathy component of if you're a selective eater, maybe you have like high sensitivity, high perceptiveness. You know, you have some of those things that might influence what you choose to eat, that you can understand and relate to your child. Right? When that child is like, no, I get that My husband doesn't like mushrooms or avocado, and for a long time, I was like, I just don't get it, just eat them, like suck it up, right? That's what I thought, you just need to suck it up. And then the more I've learned about him, the longer we've been together, you know, the texture. He's very sensitive to the texture of foods, and just like recognizing that and learning about it. It's like, okay, are there other ways? If that food is important, it doesn't have to be, you can say, hey, that food is not for me. But I think that opportunity to use temperament to reflect on yourself and your child and how that's going to intermix, right? That goodness of fit we talked about, like I would consider myself, I am high approach. So I'm a pretty adventurous eater. I love novelty and food. I want to order the thing on the menu I haven't had before. Neither of my kids are that. But I see, I'm able to kind of coach them in that. So even when there's a difference, you can coach them in that so one, a phrase that I would say I've been using with my kids is, that's an interesting combination, right? Like when they put ranch on something that I'm like, eww, or the ketchup or whatever it is. And so I do, I think there's opportunities for that, having that experience as a more selective eater, or you can bring an empathy to the table and finding ways to see it as a strength, if that makes sense.
Lyndi Buckingham-Schutt:It does. I thought that was beautiful. It was like, this is why I listen to this podcast. So well said.
Mackenzie Johnson:Thanks. Because I get nervous and I'm like, did that makes sense to anybody but my brain.
Lyndi Buckingham-Schutt:No, and I think we're gonna talk a lot more about that in future episodes, especially as we talked about picky eating, but there's definitely with anything right, we can use certain phrases to help our kids instead of using things to hinder our kids. So again, like how do we use words good and bad when we talk about food? After I just said we shouldn't talk about good bad foods, there are bad ways to talk about food. We're going to talk about those bad ways. Yeah, and there's words or phrases that help just like with anything with parenting, right? You know, the way you talk to your kids about, like the clean plate club and those kinds of things can definitely create negative habits. But I loved everything you said. And I think coming, coming at it that way is a great approach.
Mackenzie Johnson:Oh, thanks. Well, Kenz. I hope we kind of answered your question. She did sneak into the background but that internet's been a little feisty for her today. But I know that we're gonna get to it even more throughout the season. So that's great news. So for today, we have covered a little bit of this model that helps us kind of understand why we eat what we eat, and why our kids eat what they eat, or don't. There's a multitude of influences in there. And like I said, we're going to dig into these, because throughout the season, we're going to kind of look at some of these topics that maybe fall in that child realm, like temperament will be one I know we're going to talk about in those family factors. Like we said lots of sweets. I mean, can I roll up the food puns here, right? Do I get to count these again, if I keep saying them? But where we get a lot of those really great strategies are going to be in that family realm. We have lots of direct influence right there. And so we'll have plenty of episodes on feeding styles, on practices. What am I missing, Lyndi? Oh, so picky eating. Yes. And then we will look at a little bit of that kind of broader perspective of the community and culture topics all over the board here. So you'll hear them throughout the season, which, holy cow, I'm so excited that Lyndi is going to be here along with us for the whole thing.
Lyndi Buckingham-Schutt:I'm excited to be here. Like I said, I'm a listener and now it's a joy to be a talker.
Mackenzie Johnson:Oh, we love it. Well, you can be a talker but we'll also let you adopt the guest co-host title if you want but I like talker. Talker is good.
Lyndi Buckingham-Schutt:I was just trying to think of a food pun to go with that.
Mackenzie Johnson:Missed our chance. Well, hey, everybody. Thanks so much for joining us today on The Science of Parenting podcast. Remember that you can subscribe to our weekly audio podcasts on Apple, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app. You of course can watch the show on video each week. And join us on social media with Facebook and Twitter@scienceofparent to see our content in your feed.
Lyndi Buckingham-Schutt:So come along as we tackle the ups and downs, the ins and outs, and the research and reality all around science of parenting.
Anthony Santiago:The Science of Parenting is hosted by Mackenzie Johnson, produced by Mackenzie DeJong, with research and writing by Barbara Dunn Swanson. Send in questions and comments to parenting@iastate.edu and connect with us on Facebook and Twitter. This institution is an equal opportunity provider. For the full non-discrimination statement or accommodation inquiries go to www.extension.iastate.edu/diversity/ext