Fiona Rowell; Mealtime Madness
Fiona Rowell is the Treasuring Mothers dietician, who is interviewed on the podcast every four weeks.

Family Mealtime Madness

Treasuring Mothers’ dietician, Fiona Rowell, explains the benefits of sitting down to eat meals with your children. And they are numerous! While it can often feel like family mealtime madness, the cost is worth the effort, Fiona explains.

It’s mostly mothers who prepare food and present it to their children. So it’s good for us to know the benefits of having a family meal together. There is so much more going on than we realize. The “easy option” of kids and adults eating separately, isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.

GUEST: Fiona Rowell
HOST: Jenny Baxter

Show Notes

During the interview Fiona refers to the book: Secrets of Feeding a Happy Family by  Dr Ellyn Satter

Children do so much better if they sit down to regular family meals together. Research shows that if children sit down to a meal with parents there are benefits in many key facets of life:

  • They are much better off nutritionally, so enjoy good health.
  • Their academic results are better.
  • They will manage friendships and social behavior better.
  • The tendency is for a less fraught emotional life.
  • Children tend to be more in the normal range for their weight.
  • The incidence of eating disorders is greatly reduced.
  • And early sexual activity is less likely to occur.

In fact, it appears this one thing – eating meals together – is the most important thing in a child’s development! 🙂

To listen to Part Two of Family Mealtime Madness, please subscribe to the podcast.