Good question. This is a question I ask myself every single day to help guide me and keep me present. He is not fed a 100% raw diet right now. He has been in the past. Most days he eats all raw, but sometimes I feed him sprouted bread, rice cakes, quinoa, spelt pasta, cooked mushrooms, and once in a while he’ll have eggs. He has eaten meat in the past. He loved it a couple times and then said to me “No more meat.”
Here’s what we do: we listen to him. He may not be able to articulate “I am feeling like I need more protein today,” but he does communicate with us exactly what he needs and wants. We pay close attention to him. For the most part, it is very easy. He has access to all fruits, veggies, nuts, and seeds. Because he doesn’t have any emotional story around food, he gravitates directly toward what his body is needing, without judgment or question. He will mono-eat (eat only one thing all day long) at times and will fast other times.
I feel like in this area, we are excellent parents. We step out of the way of our own food story from childhood imprinting and trust that his body knows.
One of the most important things to me as a parent is that I instill in my child to trust his body, his intuition, his inner wisdom. How can I apply that to only certain areas of life that are easy for me and not to others where I may have more fear lingering? All areas must be supported. So, I practice what I preach when it comes to food.
Now, it is my responsibility to provide nutritious possibilities, and I do that. There is no refined sugar in my home. You will not see packaged foods in my cupboards or in my freezer. Am I against these things? No, not at all. Will my son ever eat them? Most likely he will. So why are you only providing fresh stuff, why no sugar? Because I feel it is critical to be conscious of how I am imprinting him. He has his whole life to eat Halloween candy, meat and potatoes, Ben & Jerry’s, if he so chooses. I don’t hold judgment around those things. What I do know is this: If I start him out on those things, then he has no choice. He WILL be addicted and his body will continue to desire the chemicals in these products.
Also, it is my belief that with a clean diet (let’s call it that, because he’s not all raw all the time) he will be better supported to be able to listen to his body and his intuition. Then when he is considering his options in the face of candy and cakes, he will have the tools to consider if he wants to put that in his body, even if this is a subconscious consideration. I’m not fooling myself in thinking that at 6 he’ll be like, “No thank you, no cake for me, I don’t want to have a sugar rush and then crash and then feel really sluggish tomorrow and not be able to focus on writing my alphabet!” It’s a process like all things. I’ve always heard that we return to our roots.
I hear a lot of criticism about our lifestyle. I can go on and on about my theories around that. But I will only say this, that people are worried that the backlash of Jonny not eating candy, for instance, will be that he will go nuts and eat only that the first chance he gets. I highly doubt it for many reasons. But the main point is that Jonny is not forbidden anything. I have control at my home over what is available. However, at other people’s homes he sees it all. He has been offered it all. When he told me he wanted to have a piece of cake at a birthday party, I said “Sure, I’ll have some with you.” We trotted off to get cake together and ate it snuggled up on the chair. No big deal. Not a regular occurrence. A healthy and happy experience. I am casual, and I am aware of what a rigid stance can do to a child. I will redirect him or say no to something that I know has MSG in it or high fructose corn syrup, just as I will intervene if he tries to step into the street.
I welcome your questions and comments.
So much joy,
Shawna