So most toddlers have no fixed way of eating. Some days they eat "normal" or what the books written by "experts" (most of whom have no children), say is normal, i.e. they sit down and eat whatever is placed in front of them. Just sitting down should be considered an event.
Other days they eat almost nothing, six or seven teaspoons of rice in a 24 hours, other days they eat a big breakfast and then refuse anything else, some weeks they go off on milk which is so exciting for parents and the milk industry, other months they want pizza and sweet drink (check out what ads they are watching on your idiot box). The point is, there is no pattern to their eating, they do not do the expected, the "customary", which is not customary but rather the unsubstantiated imaginings of so-called experts.
Yet, they somehow manage not only to survive but to thrive. How is this possible? Years ago, in the 1930's, an experiment was conducted, impossible to replicate now. Someone would report you to the Childrens Authority right away. A group of small children, three to four year olds, were basically locked up in a room for 12 hours a day and allowed to eat whatever they wanted to eat whilst people observed what they ate and carefully noted it down. All this was done without anyone interfering and nagging the children to eat properly. And the children did their thing. Some didn't eat one day, some ate "properly" for some of the time, others the entire time, some pigged out on chocolate, some went of on a cereal scene, others ate only nuts or fruits or vegetables or meats for days and days. But all changed their eating habits during the period they were under observation and over that period ate perfectly. They ate exactly what they needed to eat but they did not do it in a standarised manner, i.e. three meals a day, day after day.
Not at all. At the end of the experiment, all of the children had eaten almost exactly the same amounts but had done it in each one's unique, individual way. All of them had eaten the correct daily amount of calories, protein, fats, carbo, minerals, vitamins and water, required for proper growth, averaged out over the period. All were healthy and well except for the usual coughs and cold that children give each other when they play together in an enclosed room.
How could they do that? They did not have a degree in nutrition or chemistry or child psychology or developmental paediatrics. Yet, left to their own devices, food freely provided for them, good and bad, they ate exactly what they needed to remain healthy and to thrive.
There is something called homeostasis in medicine. Homeostasis is the tendency of the body to seek and maintain a condition of balance or equilibrium within its body despite being faced with changes outside the body. It is really the internal drive of an organism to maintain biological stability or health, in the final analysis, to maintain life. It is a very powerful force and it is totally out of our control. It works automatically, under our consciousness. A simple way to understand it is to consider the way we manage to maintain our temperature, under customary circumstances, at around 37 degrees Centigrade, no matter what the temperature is outside.
Healthy newborn babies are born with their homeostatic mechanisms intact. There are internal clocks, levels of hormones, concentrations of substances etc, that feedback into each other and into our primitive brain that tells us what to do and when and how long. The human baby's body knows exactly how much water, how much fat, how much sugar etc it needs to maintain it's health and to grow and develop. It's when man tries to interfere that things go so terribly wrong.
You see this happening when doctors try to interfere with pregnant women in labour and cause labour to stop. You see it when people interfere with mothers breastfeeding. For example, by trying to push the baby's head on to the breast. All that does is cause the baby's head to turn towards the pushing hand and away from the breast. You see it when grandmothers try to force their grand child to eat, and the child stops eating.
A fascinating way of observing homeostasis in action occurs during the rehydration of children who have been dehydrated by the loss of water and electrolytes (salt and potassium) that occurs during the vomiting and diarrhoea of gastro. Dehydrated children will eagerly drink glucose electrolyte solution or GESOL whilst they are dehydrated. GESOL tastes awful. Try it and see! As soon as they are well hydrated they refuse to drink any more GESOL. You can safely let them go home at that time. The internal mechanism for maintaining the correct amount of water and electrolytes within the body is so finely tuned that you use that refusal to determine full hydration.
Inexperienced doctors make a common mistake. They calculate losses of water and electrolytes based on some formula from a book and may insist that the child must drink more. Result: vomiting and dehydration leading to unnecessary hospitalisation. Or they try to stop the drinking, saying the chid has taken too much and similarily, end up hospitalising the child.
Respect for homeostasis, respect for the wisdom of the child's body seems to be going out the window with each new publication, book, Internet page, Facebook comment or whatever, advising parents what to do with an ill child.
Poor parents. Poor child. Poor humanity.