Maybe in the early days, you brought baby’s high chair up to the table and voilà!—instant family dinner. But as babies turn into toddlers who turn into picky eaters with busy schedules, the family dinner starts to fade away. A new study is calling attention to the benefits of making it a priority, and reminding parents one thing, in particular: It’s not so much about what you’re eating; it’s about making the time to eat together.
Using 6-year-olds as their starting point, researchers from the University of Montreal looked at the lasting effects of eating dinner together as a family. Parents of the 1,492 involved in the Quebec Longitudinal Study of Child Development were asked to report on what the environment of the family meal was like. But by the time the kids were 10, researchers asked for much more context, polling parents, teachers and children themselves about lifestyle habits, academic achievement and social adjustment. The results were published in the Journal of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics.
Here’s what those years of family dinners brought to the table: lower levels of physical aggression, misbehavior and soft drink consumption, along with higher levels of fitness.
So how can you make more family dinners happen? Try some of the recipes bloggers swear work for their pickiest eaters to avoid the standard “I’m not eating that.”
