Perhaps it is because it is one of the few things in our children's lives that cost us the most to control. Maybe it's because we still think that a child who marks the ribs will be more sickly. Maybe it's because it's what our parents did with us. The fact is that many parents still use the hateful (for children) phrase that says: "Come on, finish what is left on the plate".
They continue to use it with children and, what is worse, they continue to do so when they have already grown, since it has been seen that two thirds of the parents they keep pushing their children to eat everything they have on the plate when they are teenagers.
A study published in the magazine Pediatrics carried out with more than 2,200 adolescents and their parents, whose objective is to observe what behaviors or customs are modifiable to try to avoid the obesity and overweight epidemic suffered by the American population has been able to verify that, although many parents control the diet to try to get the food to be minimally varied, when talking about quantities, they do not take into account that eating everything on the plate can be eating too much.
This was what most impressed the researchers, who believed it was a custom that occurs in childhood (although it should not be done either), but then disappeared. A few decades ago, when our parents were young, telling a child that they should finish the dish had another meaning because the food portions were smaller. Not that it was recommended, but it didn't have to be excessively negative either.
Now, however, parents increasingly put food on the plate and many expect them to eat the same or more than themselves. Taking into account that they also eat according to the schedules proposed by the parents, children run the risk of ending up depending on the amounts we decide and when we put the food, instead of eating when they are hungry, the amount they need .
In the words of the study researchers:
Parents should allow their children freedom when they eat ... Parents can control the types of food on the table, and put many healthy options. Then, let the child choose how much he wants to eat. Let them regulate their own intake.
For all this, so that children can be guided by their hunger, so that they do not eat more and so that eating is something natural, something not forced, and that they can enjoy it without having, later, with age, to force themselves to eat less of what is on the plate to solve weight problems, the recommendation is put an end to "come on, finish what is left on the plate" and replace it with a much more logical "to force, never".
