Toddlers aren't usually known for their ability to stay seated and focused for very long. Even when it comes to mealtimes, sitting down at the dinner table as a family with a kid isn't usually considered "peaceful."
A recent study from The University of Texas at Dallas found that there are ways to create calmer mealtime with toddlers — and fathers play a big role in making that happen.
NTX Now's Miranda Suarez spoke with Dr. Jackie Nelson, an associate professor of psychology in the School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences about what factors can truly create calmer mealtime for families.
Structured mealtimes and working together
Dr. Nelson explained a structured mealtime is important to toddlers, but that structure can contradict the natural energy levels of a toddler, because preschool aged kids are highly active. Because of these opposing forces, mealtime can be a big stressor for parents.
"[Parents] need to provide a structured setting for them to eat," Nelson said. "How do they do that? How do the navigate that? And how can parents work together to try to facilitate a successful meal time with preschoolers?"
Details of the study
In order to observe this time in a family's day, Dr. Nelson and her team set up a small camera near where families ate dinner, and recorded that time for seven days. They also had parents fill out different daily surveys to learn more about potential stressors.
"The first day for some families, and then even sometimes subsequent days, it was not uncommon for us to have a curious preschooler's face right in the camera as soon as the recording started," Nelson said. "I think that they knew the camera was there. The beauty of the fact that many of these meals lasted at least 15 minutes, some of them lasted 45 minutes, [and] it seemed like they very quickly forgot the camera and just got into their normal routines."
Overall findings
Dr. Nelson said the beauty of this study was that the research team was able to compare findings from not just the different family's who participated in the research, but also between the mother and the father from the same household.
She explained on average, mothers tend to hold the responsibility of feeding their toddlers. But when the father's involvement was higher, the mealtime experience was more peaceful.
"When fathers were more involved in the meal, and that was rated through them prompting children to sit down and sit still if they were very active, or maybe encouraging the child to eat their food if they were not focused on the meal, that father's greater involvement was related to more supportive feeding co-parenting interactions that we coded between mothers and fathers," Nelson said.
Miranda Suarez is a co-host of KERA's NTX Now. Got a tip? Email Miranda at msuarez@kera.org.
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