Intermittent Fasting – Is It Safe For Children?

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Fasting teaches patience and offers time for reflection.

Ongoing deprivation is certainly not something you want to impose upon your children, but it can be a great relief to know that when kids skip meals they will be fine.

Kids aren’t going to starve themselves and they aren’t going to fall behind in the weight and height percentiles just because they didn’t feel like eating breakfast this morning. There are a number of reasons to allow and even encourage kids to skip meals from time to time.

What’s So Great About Fasting?

Intermittent fasting is almost like a silver bullet against disease and aging. Without any alteration to the types of foods one eats, intermittent fasting has the power to increase longevity and quality of life by reducing brain insulin signaling, lowering triglycerides, fighting cancer cell rejuvenation, stimulating the production of growth hormone, and kick starting cell repair and waste elimination. (Note that calorie restriction produces many of the same affects but is widely shunned. Read more about this in my article about the science behind calorie restriction.)

Despite its many benefits, however, people often dismiss it, thinking they can’t handle the gnawing hunger. Without a doubt, fasting can be challenging for people eating an average modern diet, but it’s actually pretty easy once you’re already benefiting from the metabolic advantage of a reduced carb diet. When our bodies are efficient fat burners we don’t experience the “blood sugar blues” and barely notice the temporary caloric deprivation at all.

Intermittent fasting actually gives me an energy boost. Skipping a meal makes me sharper and more alert. It seems counter-intuitive but ghrelin, the hormone that makes us feel hungry, “enhances learning and memory” while at the same time makes us ready for action. J. Stanton reveals the brighter side of ghrelin in this short article.

As parents, we inevitably wonder if we could offer the amazing benefits of intermittent fasting to our children without harming them in the process. The answer is, yes, actually, we can. But before adding children into the equation allow me to delve a little deeper into the process of intermittent fasting.

How to do Intermittent Fasting

Intermittent fasting (IF) technically means to alternate not eating for some length of time with eating. There is no one way to reap the benefits of intermittent fasting. An IF schedule can be individually tailored as Mark Sisson describes in this How To article.

For example, a person could go 16 hours without food every day or take a whole day off from eating once or twice per week. Dr. Eades reported that he likes to fast for 24 hours from 6pm on the first day till 6pm on the next day so as to never actually go a day without eating.

Carlson and Hoelzel showed in their atricle, Apparent Prolongation of the Life Span of Rats by Intermittent Fasting that fasting every 1 in 3 days produced the longest life and conferred more benefits than other fasting schedules.

Personally, I don’t get super strict about my fasting schedule and I don’t think it makes much primal sense to do so. Food is not scarce on a regular schedule in nature. It definitely is scarce, though, sometimes. Occasionally every animal on earth experiences caloric deprivation. If we want to emulate the behaviors of our primal ancestors, then we too should go without eating from time to time.

Despite all of our attempts to mimic the physiology of our primal ancestors, many of us don’t even come close to having the metabolic efficiency and hormonal balance that our ancestors had. Some leaders in the field claim that fasting can help improve these processes while others claim that it can exacerbate them.

When We’re Not Ready for Intermittent Fasting
Robb Wolfe and Mat LaLonde discuss the cortisol increase (at about 18 minutes into the podcast) that can result from intermittent fasting in people who follow a super low carb diet or partake in high intensity workouts. Robb says that the situation is even worse when people don’t take breaks, don’t sleep enough, don’t get enough sun, and have stressful relationships.

Mat LaLonde reveals that he does a protein fast in the mornings. Rather than fasting all together he has a can of coconut milk upon waking. He says that if you eat a little fat but refrain from eating protein you will,

“still get some of the benefits of intermittent fasting, still get the autophagies (our self cleaning system) to turn on but not necessarily stress the system.”

Chris Kresser agrees that fasting can be stressful in people with poor insulin control, since fasting can elevate cortisol levels resulting in elevated blood sugar levels. He notes that many people switching over to the Paleo diet come from a background of high insulin and are at a higher risk for fasting’s potential negative effects. Waiting for the benefits of IF to kick in can cause a cycle of high insulin and cortisol. If this is the case, quit IF for a while, allow the body to heal, and then try again.

Children Can Fast Too

When physically active children become absorbed in play, food becomes no more than an annoying disruption to their games. Coming in for dinner seems another dumb thing parents make them do. But even children won’t let themselves starve. Our bodies are designed for survival. While we all have observed children whittling away the hours, not so much as a thought on food, they are perfectly capable of regulating their own appetites.

Fasting in Paleolithic Times
It is a little narrow minded to assume that children have been eating three squares since the dawn of time. Life isn’t so easy outside of our opulent kitchens where refrigerators, boxes, and cans unnaturally prolong the shelf life of food. Hunter gatherers actually have to leave their camps to kill or gather foods, collect materials for a fire, return to the camp to light the fire, and then wait for their catch to cook. I’m guessing this ordeal takes a little longer than it takes to open a box of cereal and pour pasteurized milk over it.

J. Stanton just published a great article this week about hunter gatherers skipping breakfast and says that skipping lunch is probably even quite normal.

The guide standing next to the Masai man is six feet tall.

The Maasai people of Africa generally eat two meals a day – in the morning and at night. The Masai are exceptionally tall people and some of the healthiest that Weston Price observed in his study of traditional peoples in the early 1930s. This was before modern foods had been introduced into the diet of the Masai.

Clearly, their bodies don’t lack nutrients. They eat plenty of food at meal time. They aren’t calorically or nutritionally deprived. They merely condense their intake between longer intervals.

Intermittent fasting does not significantly reduce calories. In fact, the object of intermittent fasting is not caloric restriction. Regular large, high nutrient meals satisfy a person’s nutritional needs and provide the building blocks needed to grow. Not only does fasting not stunt growth it increases growth hormone. An increase in growth hormone can actually boost a child’s height making them grow taller than they otherwise would.

The effect of boosting or at least maintaining average height of mammals while fasting was observed in one of the most famous studies done on rats and intermittent fasting called Apparent Prolongation Of The Life Span Of Rats By Intermittent Fasting. The study was performed with baby rats.

“The fasting was begun at the age of 42 days and was continued until the rats died.”

Rats are not fully grown until 6-7 months of age and have an average life span of 2-3 years.

“In some cases, the average femoral lengths of the fasted rats at death were greater than, or equal to, those of the controls and, in other cases, the rats were only a little smaller. In short, intermittent fasting seems to make it possible to increase the life span to some extent without stunting the rats.”

A Tradition of Fasting Through Illness
Traditionally, people fast when they’re sick, often called a cleanse. The same trend is observed in animals both domesticated and wild. The healing mechanism is called autophagy.  Alice Villalobo describes how autophagy benefits our cells.

“Scientists have observed that cell debris—proteins and organelles—gets encapsulated by tiny rearrangements of membranes and moved into empty spaces called vacuoles. The transportation of the cell debris is a pathway now called “cytoplasm-to-vacuole targeting,” or the Cvt pathway. Autophagy is the sequestration of the cargo material, bulk cytoplasm or specific organelle within double-membrane structures and its delivery to the vacuole for further degradation.”

It almost seems abusive to prohibit the process of autophagy in children by denying them the right to fast. While children may not need to fast for as long as do adults, the benefits and safety of short, intermittent fasting has its roots in the history of traditional cultures, illness, and even in religion.

Examples From Religion
You don’t have to be religious to see the value in fasting – primal man definitely wasn’t an Orthodox Christian – but these days religious people are about the only ones among us who offer the practice to their children.

In an article called Teaching Our Children to Fast the author writes,

“To teach fasting to our children at a young age will help them in years to come to control themselves in many ways,” and “Fasting from food lowers our energy level thereby making it easier to pray and be more contemplative.”

Religion aside, the value in fostering discipline and compassion through restraint and quite contemplation is clear. Fasting helps to strengthen the control of impulses and helps encourage good behavior.

In Orthodox Christian churches, children over the age of 7 are expected to observe the Assumption of the Holy Virgin, which is a fast lasting 16 days in the month of August. Islamic children are not required to fast until adolescence but they are encouraged to start as early as six in order to prepare for it. They are given the option to for an entire day or just for a meal. They are praised when they make it any length of time.

Cultivating Fasting Habits in Children
Religion offers some valuable insights for Primal Parents – that teaching children to fast is a process and that it is actually possible. Kids don’t have to start out strong. At first they learn about the idea. Then they may try going without an afternoon snack.  Next, they may try postponing breakfast a little while, until finally skipping an entire meal.

It is wise to teach children restraint with food in a society of gluttony. Teaching disciplined eating habits is one way to do this. Of course, if they are forced to fast, or themselves choose to fast for too long, the intended affect of placing distance between themselves and food could be reversed.

I think parents will find that if they simply offer the idea of skipping meals here and there, abstaining from food when not truly hungry, or taking a break from food to be calm and reflective, a child’s body will guide itself into a natural rhythm of intermittent fasting.

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30 Comments

  1. Hey there. Glad to see you are discussing fasting. I wish that my parents had taught me to fast as a child, I know I would be healthier and happier today. Last year in April I did my first fast ever, 37 days of fruit and vegetable juice, which tapered off at the end to a 9 day water fast. It was truly one of the best experiences of my life and after that realized that fasting would become a part of my life until I die. Last year I also fasted all month for Ramadan and plan to do it again this year and most likely every year from now on. It’s a little easier to discipline yourself when you known entire religion of people are going through the same thing.

    I have heard someone say: the less you eat the longer you live. Again glad you are talking about this; we Americans eat soooo much more than ever need to, one of the many reasons why we are so sick.

    I don’t think anything has ever made me feel quite as good in so many ways as fasting does. Whether it’s postponing breakfast, skipping a meal, or going on a longer more intensive fast. Especially on longer fasts for me. I don’t think I’ve ever felt happier than when on a long fast. As far as “intermittent fasting” goes, I think it is a vital part of health and longevity, JUST AS MUCH as high quality food or exercise.

    Also, isn’t it odd how we have to intellectually discover basic intuitive human things like fasting and then give it a fancy name?!

    • Wow that is a long time! What strength of will that must have taken. I wonder if you felt better while doing the water fast? I’m pretty sure that a constant dose of fruit sugar would mess up my blood sugar and ability to utilize my fat stores. I think I would get depressed, but then, I’ve never tried it. There may be other factors at play…

  2. Don’t believe you touched upon it…

    But, the best benefit that fasting has brought me is freedom. Finally realizing that the conventional wisdom surrounding meal frequency is largely bunk. You know what I’m talking about:

    – Breakfast is the most important meal of the day
    – 3-8 meals a day like clockwork
    – Keep that metabolism “up” by eating all the time
    – Eat eat eat

    Too much food. Stressful having to think about what you’re going to eat. Buy it, prepare it, package it, etc.

    What? No post-workout protein shake? Oh no! My muscles are going to wither away into nothingness!!

    The funny thing? I’m less hungry fasting 16-20 hours a day than I ever was eating a 200-400 calorie meal every couple hours.

    • No kidding Evan. I love the way you presented how shackled we are to food! That was totally me until I started burning fat. What a blessing! I discus this concept in another post actually because it means a lot to me too.

      I had wanted to note that Mat LaLonde and Robb Wolf mentioned freedom in the podcast I cited but I just couldn’t mention everything! The article is pretty long as it is. But that’s what the comments are for, right?

  3. I am surprised you haven’t been flamed for suggesting with-holding food from a child! I really expected it and was cringing as I started through the comments. Anyway the idea of feeding children three squares and snacks being associated with being a good parent has been particularly on my mind recently. I am a mother of 9 children and when the oldest were quite young I stopped vaccinating, after a lot of study and thought. However it was difficult because I had been raised that good parents vaccinate. Recently my dentist requested that I stop giving the children food at least 2 hours prior to bedtime and not allow food closer than 3 hours together, (no grazing) because of cavities. It was emotionally difficult to withhold food even though I knew they were not truly hungry, they are all healthy and robust. Made me think about the American culture of food. Great article, Thanks.

    • I bit my nails as I clicked publish, believe me! I searched far and wide for references to back me up but caloric restriction is about as taboo as it gets in our society. It is a bold claim to make in a food-centered society without a doubt. Thank you, Jennifer, for the support!

      • I agree, I’m glad you wrote this article to encourage parents to allow our kids to eat when hungry, and that it’s OK to skip a meal! Even if they don’t fast, I hate it when I see kids being force-fed! Thanks for a well-written, insightful article.

        My son is only 1 (he’ll be 2 next month). I wonder when you started teaching yours? He doesn’t understand yet, but when is a good time to start teaching them?

        I have recently started skipping meals, and I feel pretty great. I haven’t done a longer fast yet, but I’m working up to it!

  4. Thanks for the article. While I’m open-minded about the idea, I am personally going to wait till there is more evidence to support the safety and benefits of intermittent fasting for my kids. Children do often have different needs to adults, and they do often eat on a different schedule to their parents in natural/hunter gatherer cultures. So for this reason I’d like to see studies where children fasted rather than adults. I understand there are unlikely to be many for ethical reasons. Until that point, I’m confident they can get the benefits of healthy, primal-inspired eating without fasting.

    “Fasting helps to strengthen the control of impulses and helps encourage good behavior.” – do you have any evidence for this? I know it sounds intuitive, but I would be very interested to see if there have been studies reporting on this. I’m interested in general on what can be done to improve impulse control in children.

    • I would like to see more studies on fasting in children too or at least more data collected from around the world. Unfortunately, there isn’t much out there. We know that traditional peoples eat fewer times per day in general, we have the studies done on rats, and the traditions of various religious entities.

      I am not suggesting that children take 24 hour fasts. Who knows, maybe it’s fine but there isn’t enough evidence out there for me to risk it. What I am suggesting is that children CAN skip meals, it is instinctual for them to do so. Parents have a tendency in our culture to force their kids to eat every meal and to clear their plates. This is not only unnecessary it is contrary to their own reliable physiological cues.

      I haven’t found any studies on how fasting controls impulses and builds self-control, but I am personally willing to take it as obvious.

      Abstinence kind of exercises the self-control muscle if you will. Abstaining from food takes will just as does saying no to peer pressure and not yelling when you feel angry. While fasting, one resists the temptation of food.

      Fasting is proof that we don’t actually need as much food as we think we do in order to function. As an extension, we don’t need most of what we have in order to function and be happy. In general, we are greedy and fasting can help bring light to that.

      I suppose you could reference studies proving that teaching kids values in general works. A child will learn as much from fasting as his parents decide to teach him. Stick a kid in the corner and make him fast and we’ll see how much of this he comes up with on his own (that would be super interesting) but as a parent you have the power to teach the connection between fasting and self-control.

  5. Thank you Peggy for such a well researched article.

    I converted to eating paleo recently and haven’t scheduled a fast because I still remember too well the hunger cylce of a high carb diet. I discovered the joy of skipping a meal accidently. Just as you mentioned in your article about children at play, I was working in the yard, feeling good, being productive, when I noticed the time. I had worked through lunch. The amazing thing was my body still wasn’t hungry, but in my mind I was thinking I should eat. I didn’t. In my short time in the paleo lifestyle this has been the biggest validation that I made the correct decision. My next step is to fast for a day Dr. Eades style.

    • The same happened to me. I unintentionally went a long time without food and was amazed that I didn’t feel hungry at all. In fact, it still amazes me!

  6. I have to echo the comments from the others about your bravery in publishing this. :-)

    I eat once a day, at lunchtime, with just a small snack in the evening. I absolutely love this way of eating.I’ve also done 10, 13 and 20 day fasts. The most energetic day of my life was the final day of my longest fast.

    I’m still mulling over how I can get my kids more primal. Breakfast and school lunch are still a problem. I like the idea of making them wait a little longer, gradually drawing it out.

    Thanks for a great post.

  7. Thanks for this interesting post. I don’t have kids yet, but it’s in the picture in the next few years, and I’m kind of stockpiling all your information! I’ve been migrating towards a more paleo way of eating over the last few years, much more intensively in the last few months as I learn more. I am interested in letting my body dictate my eating, ala IF, but I am a teacher – if I get that “gotta eat NOW” in the middle of a class, my classroom is not a nice place to be! However, I will say that as I got a better grip on the nutrition my body wants, the environment in my classroom has really improved along with my mood, I am just more tolerant of those middle school hijinks. I guess I will just have to wait to IF until summer vacation… I tend to naturally skip breakfast if I am not on anyone else’s schedule, and I feel great about it.

  8. Thanks for such a great article, and follow up responses. I learned about eating primal when I was a teenager, but I was late night surfing the web for “acne cures” and a doc suggested a “curious thing to note” that people who ate a “stone age diet” had no acne. While I was open minded about it (my family was always fairly healthy, and if we had mac and cheese in a box and a can of tuna for dinner, well, we missed out of the regular supply of soda, and junk food others get) I just wasn’t ready for it I guess. I spent several years following the advice of the W.A.P.F. and I still respect their work. Anyways, the whole point of this was to say that I got into fasting a few years ago, and I’ve done 3 long term fasts – 8-11 days long, and one (the last one) 3 day fast. The last one gave me the jump start I needed to go primal. While my time without food was intentional, I had been discussing going primal with my husband, and it gave me the clairty to just go for it, and quit playing around. We are all still adjusting, although I’m %100 committed, your website, and the MDA give me the support and knowledge I need when I don’t know how to explain to my kids and husband why we are doing what we are doing. I.F. is a great goal to work towards, and if we dont bug our kids about coming in to eat, they’ll do it naturally anyways, no research needed for that. It’s a great stress reliever to, as we’re not trying to force our kids to eat, and their not being made to stop playing, or to eat something they dont want to. I dont think anything is good for you, if you’re not in a good place while your doing it! I think one of the best things we can do for our kiddos is to teach them to do things in joy, rather than in anger, resentment, or compulsion.

  9. Laura,

    Waiting until summer when you’re mentally prepared to try IF is a great idea. But if you’ve gone all the way paleo by then, I think you’ll find it’s easier than you expect! Maybe you’d find the kids aren’t so bad as long as your blood sugar is stable.

    Grainne,

    I’m glad I am able to help support you and your family transition. That’s my goal! Thanks for adding your experience. You really hit the nail on the head about stress. All of these changes we make towards a more primal diet and lifestyle reduce our stress levels so that we can act and live in joy. That is exactly the environment our children need!

    Alison,

    Thanks for commenting! Those fasts are so long. Your body must have gotten some serious autophagy action! Just out of curiosity what do you eat if you only eat once a day? I did that for a little while during my couple of year stint with the raw primal diet. I ended up preferring twice per day so that I didn’t have to eat so much raw meat at once!

  10. I remember very distinctly being little and waking up a few hours before my parents every morning, and then lying in bed with them until breakfast. Every morning, I would get a “happy” feeling in my stomach, a little joyful flutter. I had no idea what that was until I incorporated IF into my current routine, and it returned in small bursts. Curiouser and curiouser…

    Great post!

  11. If I think of this as ‘trusting her body’ rather than fasting, it sits better. I *know* that my attitude to my child’s eating is not what it should be. I just don’t know what that IS; there is a red-button instant reaction of anger when she won’t eat. WTF? That parenting red flag went up pretty much as soon as she started eating solids, and I still haven’t solved it. Certainly I skip meals and always have – if I have a new book all I want is a cozy pace and occasionally a toilet! – but somehow my logical mind can’t remind my lizard brain of this when our small person says she’s not hungry.
    How does one negotiate this without encouraging picky eating? I like Chelo’s idea of simply not offering meals, but I’m not sure *I’m* ready for that.

    • Lauren: I would feel that way too if my kid never wanted to eat.

      If I hear from one of my children constantly I don’t want to eat or I’m not hungry and it goes on regular basis it will raise my red flag!

      Much I know, my oldest eats less than my second and my third is only 11 months and eats like a 3 year old. they all have different appetites and needs, and depending on whether they are going through a big growth pahse or not,hunger will kick in. Then once you’ve figured that out, I already know more or less how much to feed them… they really only eat twice because the’re breakfast is much loaded with protein and fats!!!

      And when I mean not offering meals, I mean also things like when I’m out and about, driving, they ate just way too much breaksfast or simply they are not fricking out…

      Eventually later in the day my kids will realized hey! mom has been too busy she forgot to feed us and here I have the mass of chillens asking for food : )))

    • I think it might take time to retrain your brain. At first you might cringe when your child doesn’t eat a meal, but then after a few months of just letting her trust her own body and seeing that she is still growing, still healthy, still pooping, still active, etc, you will truly believe that it is natural for all of us to skip meals from time to time.

      I think it just seems so weird because the types of foods that we eat here in the US encourage us to eat so much. Our hormones send signals that we need to eat even when we don’t. We’re used to being hungry all day long and eating 3 meals and 2 snacks or more. But it’s just an imbalance. We don’t need to eat that much.

      • you are right peggy… and really the whole 3 meal thing started right after world war II because farmres where getting only really bread and corn mush.. the government wanted to make sure that america didn’t keep on going in starvation and prepare people to be ready to fight… is not a problem anymore like you’ve stated… in most cultures 1 or 2 meals is just plenty.

      • Oh, I know the problem is all mine. What surprised me was that I had no idea I had that little landmine in my parenting personality until the first time she stepped on it. You now?
        Now of course I can’t remember where I read it, but I came across a blog that said, ‘I tell my kids we eat for one of three reasons: it tastes good, it’s good for our bodies, or because we respect the person who cooked it for us.’ (She felt that most kids get a free pass out of reasons 2 and 3.)
        Personally I think that the kitchen table is the cornerstone of society, so I’m going to have to think about how to negotiate my child’s right to choose not to eat, and my expectation for social dinnertable behaviour.

  12. Thanks for posting this. My son, 6, usually eats a breakfast of eggs and either sausage or bacon each morning before school. Last week for 3 days in a row he did not eat his packed lunch or snack at school. He just drank his kefir. After school he’d eat a small snack then eat dinner. I was a little worried about him not eating enough and my husband freaked a little because maybe he’s not liking his lunches and ‘starving.’ He told us that he just wasn’t that hungry. Now I realize that he was just listening to his body. Like we all should do. Thanks for helping me to feel better.

    • I know the feeling of wondering if my daughter didn’t like her lunch! Especially when I know that she eats a really different diet than her peers, I think is she eating their food? Is she not eating because she doesn’t like her diet? But no, she just doesn’t feel like eating. I think it’s a great sign actually. Persistent ravenous hunger is not natural.

  13. I’ve been really wanting to IF, but I think I still need to get my regular diet under control first. I’ve been blaming insatiable hunger on nursing my 9.5 month old, but after cutting nuts and fruit for just four days it’s very obvious that one or both of those things was to blame. Shocker, right? Ha. Still having mega fruit cravings though. For the last couple of days instead of cooking a lunch, I blend up a half can of coconut milk with ice and coconut oil, and that’s all I eat between breakfast and dinner. I still feel blood sugar sensitive, a little tired, like a mini low carb flu. Once that passes I’ll give IF a real shot.

    • If your fruit and nut cravings are insatiable, I think that’s a good indication that they aren’t a good match for you. Just like how we crave junk food.

      If you’ve cut the fruit, though, are you low carb now? That may cause cravings too. Be sure you eat enough protein!

      • You know, I’m honestly really awful at estimating how many carbs I’m getting; I should probably do a fit day track for a few days. In a nutshell, my diet lately has been meat/seafood and veggies two or three times a day…eggs a couple times a week, plenty of coconut cream and oil, bites of ferments at each meal, and pastured cream in my coffee once or twice a week. I used to not be able to tolerate dairy at all, but with the ferments I seem to do fine with a little cream and butter in cooking. I’ve had two fruit servings in the past five days. I feel great, no cravings and I feel sated with far less food than usual. The idea of IF used to terrify me, but now I can totally see how it can be done without misery.

  14. Peggy excellent topic! I agree with you!

    I grew up in a country where fasting was more like starvation.. yes,,, I wouldn’t call it “we fasted and that’s it”, we just didn’t have enough food in regular basis (but that’s another topic : ) ….. That been said I was raised on the fact that food was nothing like in America: eat eat eat, 3 meals a day….. it was more like today we had one meal and yesterday 2, NO BIG DEAL I never really noticed until i got older and when I came to the states where I started feeling overfed!

    But, my family still has the tradition of fasting before LENT starts, basically we gorge ourselves a night before a 3 day period of fasting (no food, only liquids)… I’ve done this for years. I am raising my kids to where I teach them that skipping a meal is not a huge deal and when lent comes we kinda push the envelope, not entirely, but my oldest now likes the idea, whereas the 2 and 10 month old look at me like why is there only apples today or something like that.. still won’t hurt them and i only do it for one day not three.

    … and if they had 1 meal a day or none (which my oldest does once every month or so just because her body says so, like you said she guides herself to fast when neccesary) I never go against it, where I would bet other parents would be rushing to the doctor sounding almost like their child didn’t eat for one day: Doctor he must be terribly ill, you know?

    • I have known several eastern Europeans who moved to the US and gained weight because they suddenly start eating so much more. Food is definitely not so plentiful elsewhere.

  15. I was just curious about children and IF. My four children would refuse to eat when we spent the day at an amusement park (about 12 hours). I didn’t worry, because I knew they would make up for it when we left. We never had to worry about them throwing up on the rides.

  16. Great post. My oldest stopped eating breakfast this year. she is 11 and a straight A student and tested gifted. For months I was trying make her eat breakfast and then it hit me that I was forcing her to eat and that was horrible especially since she see me not eating til 2 or 3 in the afternoon. Stop i stopped forcing her to eat and its been great for her no problems or anything.

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