Never force a child to eat. And its horrible to to tell them that unless they eat all thats on their plate they miss out on dessert. That really can force a child to stuff themselves full.

I grew up with this, and you can overeat as feel bad about wasting food. I think a good balance is making less food for the plate as our portions are too big.

‘in a recent survey’…. Which survey? Which COUNTRY

which childcare centres enforce this policy? You are linking to US research and a UK based newspaper. I have never heard of childcare centres in AUSTRALIA doing this.

Unless they are full, I don’t always finish everything

I can tend to make them eat all what’s on their plate, usually I have hardly given them anything to begin with! But I also do the whole, “ won’t get dessert if you don’t finish” thing and my son tends to eventual eat it all because he still wants to eat dessert.
He usually doesn’t want to eat his dinner due to fussiness rather than being full!
If he was truely full I wouldn’t make him eat it, which some nights I do let him off!

I only made sure that my children tried everything on their plate. If they were hungry they’d eat everything they liked

Whilst we were raised to eat everything on our plate, I now understand that’s not necessarily the best or right thing. My son was a grazer so we understood he might not want to eat everything on his plate. We would reduce what was on his plate, or allow him to serve up his own food.

My kids use to complain that they were “staving” and wanted something to eat ,”now” right before tea. But then could finish their tea lol
Our rule is, if you are too full to eat tea then no sweets (if there is something for sweets) they would be quick to finish or there have been times where they don’t won’t sweets because they are actually full

It’s a bit silly trying to force them to eat if they aren’t hungry.

You just turn kids into fussy eaters and make food about control if you do that. Every dietitian and speech pathologist recommends that the parents choose what goes on the plate but the kids can choose how much they eat.

As long as they eat enough we don’t force our kids to eat everything on their plates, a bit different to when I was growing up, I had to eat everything or couldn’t leave the table, I would fall asleep at the table a lot when I was a kid.

We had to eat everything on our plate before we left the table. We were always told that once we left the table we couldn’t come back for more to eat. I think this is a more sensible way of eating

I don’t believe in force feeding but moreso keeping an eye on them eating nutritionally well.

I definitely believe the way we were forced to eat everything on our plates came from the depression era of previous generations (everything was scarce and important, so no waste), but has led to us eating way more than we need. I noticed immediately that my kids have their own limits and I believe that’s natural. Just one more cultural expectation forced on us, that is not natural. I do not force my kids to eat everything on their plates. I put less out for them, to reduce waste and they can ask for more if they’re still feeling hungry.

It depends what is on the plate, and what they like and dislike. As an adult there are some things I like and some I don’t. Kids are the same. I do believe it is good to encourage children to at least try a variety of food, especially when it comes to fruit and vegetables. I’d rather they have something healthy that they like, than force them to eat something healthy that they don’t like.

depends on the situation. If they have eaten hardly anything and they are complaining they don’t like it or something I make them. But if they’ve eaten most of it I say ok if you’re full don’t worry.

I believe in “you provide and they decide”. There is nothing worse than being made to eat when you are not hungry. I would never do this to my children.

One theory is if you give them too big a serve the get overwhelmed and won’t eat.
Another is the position of their legs and feet on the chair they are sitting on. They have found that little legs and feet that aren’t supported comfortably get “pins & needles” or cramps so they just want to get down off whatever they are sitting on. Only give children the size meal you know they will eat. If they go to daycare check what they have eaten during the day. If they’ve eaten a lot there they may not want much tea at night, The same applies if they have been fed by another person during the day. We were never allowed snacks just before meals.

I serve quite small dinner which h they don’t have to finish. But they don’t get desert when they don’t finish dinner.