"They didn't buy me a sad strawberry yogurt and now custard for dessert every day in summer for my grandson." Those who have children have surely heard something similar these days in the reunions after the holidays and where the excesses of the last few weeks and the return to school are usually a recurring theme. Leaving aside that curious conversion from fundamentalists of vegetables to candy dealers that many grandparents experience, it is time to return to the normality of September, to schedules and routines and to exchange ice cream for fruit. A drama? It can, so we have asked experts in the field to give us some advice to better cope with it.
"Tranquility and good food" says that phrase that we have all used at some time. Apparently its origin is in the recommendations that were given to tuberculosis patients in the middle of the war. Luckily, going back to school is milder than pulmonary tuberculosis but that combination of calm and a healthy diet is the perfect recipe for this season in which it is time to banish summer habits and return to normality.
“Children will express more sadness, irascibility or nerves. We, as adults, can reassure, accompany, empathize and connect with our children so that this return to normality in September is calm”, explains Elisa Molina, early childhood education teacher, specialist in positive education and author of the book Educar en Calma. and the web with the same name.
We turned to her to see if there is any scientific explanation for this scene so common in many families during the summer: grandparents who defend that a soda does not hurt either, delighted grandchildren and horrified parents thinking that all their healthy eating strategy has just gone overboard because the sapling will become a lifelong addict of sugar and bubbles.
“Spending time with grandparents is something that kids generally really enjoy because they tend to be a lot more flexible than their parents and a little over-indulgent. What is behind these behaviors that sometimes make moms and dads desperate is a deep love for their grandchildren and that they want to continue going to see them,” says Molina.
A recent article published in Current Nutrition Reports that reviews more than twenty studies published in the last decade on the subject concludes that the complaints of your friends after the summer have some foundation: grandparents do not perceive the feeding of their grandchildren as a responsibility that corresponds to them and many parents see them as a barrier to healthy eating and a source of conflict and frustration.
But let's leave the grandparents alone because meals out, trips, the lack of routines and the very rhythm of summer means that everyone, including children, is also part of those dynamics in which appetizers, ice creams and more desserts than usual make up the agenda. How do we go from that to daily breakfasts and fruit for dessert and snack time?
"If we have spent a summer without routines, neither in rest nor in food, now it is normal for the little ones (and not so little ones) to want to maintain that chaos, although the lack of control also causes them a lot of discomfort," says Elisa Molina. Anticipating what they are going to eat through a weekly menu agreed upon by everyone can be a good start to recover normality and good habits.
And also watch out for the schedules, he warns. Routine and rhythms are a key element, also in food, so having some room for adaptation is highly recommended. “It is important that we go to sleep earlier so that the day you have to get up early to go to school is not something sudden,” recommends Molina.
Returning to order in timetables is also one of the keys recommended by Natàlia Chaves, a dietitian-nutritionist at Ecoarrels, a company that manages the canteens of various schools in the province of Barcelona.
They are, in a way, in the front line in this food aspect of going back to school. As he explains, the September menus are worked on, as always, depending on the season.
"We use some combinations where the first courses are colder and seasonal salads are prioritized, with sautéed tomato and cucumber being the protagonists instead of stews, which we leave for the end of the month," explains Chaves.
And for home, two tips that can be of help so that everything flows better at mealtimes: plan a purchase to fill the pantry with basic and healthy foods and do batch cooking once a week, in order to have recipes prepared for the following days".
