Bored children eat more – a lot more, a study shows. Within four minutes, bored children consumed an average of around 80 percent more calories than children in a control group, reports a research team led by Claire Farrow from Aston University in Birmingham in the journal “Food Quality and Preference”. If children consume so many calories during a single four-minute bout of boredom, the potential for excessive calorie intake over a day, a week or a year is great.
In certain situations, such as long train or car journeys, it is generally okay for children to eat more, said Antje Gahl from the German Nutrition Society (DGE). Parents could even take advantage of this by putting healthy, otherwise perhaps not so popular things in the box. “Children then eat what is there.” In general, it makes sense to take healthy things such as fruit and vegetables with you when traveling; a small chocolate bar or a handful of gummy bears are also okay.
Dangers of Emotional Feeding
Apart from such rare situations, children should not eat out of boredom or for comfort in everyday life, explained Gahl. This can lead to harmful habits that last into adulthood. “Eating behavior is largely shaped in childhood.”
It is tempting to use food to calm children, explained study leader Farrow. But this behavior, called emotional feeding, can lead to children later responding to negative emotions with food even as adults, she also warned. “It is important that parents and caregivers understand that this short-term solution may cause problems in the future.”
In the British experiment, around 120 four- and five-year-old children were divided into groups. Everyone was given the chance to do a puzzle and then receive a small gift.
Some of the children – the bored group – first had to sit at the table and wait for a few minutes. Each of these children then had to wait another four minutes, but could now either help themselves to snacks such as cookies, chips and carrot sticks or play with toys. Only then were they allowed to do the puzzle.
For other children – the control group – waiting times did not cause boredom. They solved the puzzle straight away, after which they were also given the choice of helping themselves to the snack bowls or playing for four minutes.
A versatile and varied offer
Children in the boredom group consumed an average of 42 kilocalories – almost 80 percent – more in the four minutes of snacking than children in the control group. The effect was particularly pronounced when parents regularly used sweets in their everyday lives to calm or keep their children occupied.
According to the DGE, children aged four to six need 1,300 to 1,800 kilocalories (kcal) daily. It is important to have a diverse and varied range of foods, said Gahl. Sweets and snacks should therefore make up a maximum of one tenth of your daily energy intake. “For four to six year olds, that’s around 150 kilocalories a day. That’s equivalent to around 20 gummy bears, 40 grams.”
Conditions such as “First the vegetables, then there is something sweet” or withdrawal of sweets as a punishment should be avoided, as should snacking while watching TV. “It’s easy to lose control, and that’s no different for an adult watching TV.” The key is to eat together, where cell phones etc. are banned from the table, says Gahl. In this and in many other situations, parents should be aware that they are also the role model for their children when it comes to nutrition, for better or for worse.
