How Instagram warps feeding experiences
This is an interesting take on the downsides of social media for parents, not children!
I recently came across this article from The Conversation, an Aotearoa NZ publication.
The arguments made by the academics who conducted the Australian study discussed in the article really resonated with me, so I wanted to both explain what they had found and add my own comments.
How Instagram can make parents feel unjustifiably inadequate
The title of the article was as follows:
Feeding kids can be a daily battle. But you wouldn’t know it looking at Instagram
Authors – Georgia Middleton, Eliose Litterbach & Emily Denniss
As I don’t want to contravene any copyright, I will paraphrase what they write in italics and then add my own comments underneath.
(Also, just to clarify, the article is not aimed at parents of fussy eaters, but at caregivers in general. For me, this makes the points they make even more important, as in general, parents of picky eaters are already struggling with feelings of guilt and frustration).
Feeding children is a constant challenge for many families. Children suddenly refuse a favourite food or are grumpy because it’s been a long day and brothers and sisters argue at the table.
Just this passage alone highlights the truth of family meals. Yes, for many they are challenging on an ongoing basis. Yet, despite this, many families feel they are alone in their feeding battles or that their situation is unique.
However, turning to social media for advice may be more harmful than good. Instagram portrays feeding children as being exceptionally easy.
To be honest, I’m not an Instagram user, so this was not really on my radar, however, I know enough about the pictures that get posted and the glib advice dispensed to go YES. YES, this is so true ☹ Sadly so …
The authors explain that their recent research discovered that Instagram is awash with hyper polished content that reinforces unrealistic mealtimes and standards to achieve. They caution this could add to the guilt and frustration that parents already cope with.
YES, this ☹
Their study is based on the understanding that parents are known to combat many pressures when feeding their children, but the authors wanted to understand more about the impact of social media and whether this contributed to the pressure that families feel.
To establish how social media portrays family meals they explored what was happening on Instagram with its 2 billion users and endless page of photos and videos about cooking, food, meals and feeding.
The authors downloaded the most popular 15 posts from specific hashtags #family meals # familybreakfast #familylunch and #familydinner each week for 14 weeks last year.
What they found were lots of photographs of meals on the plate, the way to cook foods or recipe instructions. The majority of posts included ‘healthy foods’ although breakfast contained the most ‘unhealthy foods’, for example pancakes, waffles and full fry up breakfasts.
I’m going to intervene here as there is nothing about a pancake, for example, that is inherently ‘unhealthy’. A basic pancake is flour, egg and milk. Protein-rich and without any additives or preservatives and minimally processed (particularly if using wholemeal flour). In fact, a pancake would be ‘healthier’ than most processed cereals in my opinion.
How Instageram is unrealistic
The researchers go on to say that there were hardly any photos that represented realistic, normal family meals. The majority were pristine kitchens that were staged, with foods and mealtimes to match.
YES! The reality is that the kitchen is often messy (how else does one cook?!) and that plates and mealtimes are often not photo-worthy. And I can say that as someone who focuses on presentation of foods and has all the knowledge and skills required to have successful mealtimes (plus older children – which makes a HUGE difference).
In fact, one of the big findings of the study was that there was no mess. There were few photos of benchtops with ingredients, sauce around the edges of plates or children whining at mum as she tried to cook.
Whereas the reality is that meals are often prepared in a rush between school, daycare pick ups, work and children’s after school activities. And if you ask parents’ they will often describe mealtimes as noisy, messy and chaotic.
However, the captions on the images frequently described the recipes as ‘family-friendly’, ‘quick’ or ‘easy’.
Despite this, posts were focused on the food and did not often show families eating the meals together. The researchers therefore questioned whether the recipes were indeed ‘easy’.
Further, the posts seem to suggest that meals always go smoothly and so children happily participate and eat what has been served, even though we all know that is not always the case.
There were also few photos showing people, the focus was on the ‘perfect’ food. When people were shown it was generally a female or mum with dads and children rarely photographed.
Similarly, most of the content is uploaded by women, which the researchers suggest may reinforce gender stereotypes.
The researchers then explain what is important for parents to understand:
Yes, Instagram may be a source of simple, quick and child-friendly meals, but that not everything that is depicted is real.
And, of course, algorithms play into this because they push content that is popular. Because Instagram is a visual platform, the posts are often designed to be perfect, eye catching and aesthetic. A chaotic kitchen or messy mealtime does not conform to this brief!
Therefore, the researchers advise parents not to compare their offerings to the curated content that is popular on Instagram, particularly as it’s unlikely to reflect what the poster cooks or serves every day. They may even use professional photography/video.
Similarly, as families are different, what works for one parent may not be a win for you. Which is not to say don’t experiment or try new things but don’t be disheartened if something doesn’t work.
YES, 100% this.
There are no ‘magic’ numbers
Then they explain it may take up to 10 exposures for a child to even agree to taste a new food.
I’m not sure where this magic number comes from, but I do know that this is just as misleading as a curated Instagram picture. If it were as simple as showing a child a food ‘up to’ 10 times for them to agree to taste it, we would not have any picky eaters!
Ignore these ‘magic’ and misleading numbers and think of feeding like reading. Ongoing, loving, gentle exposure – with interaction, if possible – that can take a long time, but pays off long-term is the goal.
The researchers also remind parents that ‘healthy meals’ can be straight forward and simple, but look out for ones with plenty of vegetables.
This of course is aimed at a parent with a competent eater. I would reframe this as finding a recipe that meets your child where they are at.
They also say there is no necessity for family mealtimes to look perfect.
Hallelujah!
Therefore, their takeaway is the importance of posting everyday meals in all their imperfections so that content is relatable and more realistic. This in turn helps other caregivers feel less uncomfortable about their own meals.
What an awesome idea. I may start posting some of my hodge podge meals with pans, Tupperware, and drips in all their glory at the table (and don’t even get me started on the kitchen – particularly if my husband cooks 😉)
They also acknowledge that lots of dads are involved in family meals so should also be depicted, helping other men feel less uncomfortable cooking and prepping. Plus, if men are better represented in the kitchen it helps to promote men taking some of the cooking thinking and preparing burden away from mums.
As I only have men in my house besides me, there is a LOT of male energy in our kitchen. However, as it’s ‘my thing’, both my boys have been raised to cook, and my husband role models that superbly too.
On a final note, I wanted to just reiterate how Instagram often does not portray real life and that many of the claims like ‘simple’ ‘a food that any fussy eater will love’ just do not hold up under scrutiny.
If your kitchen is a mess, your feel rushed and pressured, the table does not look like something out of a magazine and the children are whining or kicking each other under the table, that is all part of the chaos of real life, mine included.
Link to original article: Feeding kids can be a daily battle. But you wouldn’t know it looking at Instagram
Judith, MA Cantab (Cambridge University), MSc Psychology (first-class honours), is working on a PhD, an AOTA accredited picky eating advisor and internationally certified nutritional therapist. She works with 100+ families every year resolving fussy eating and returning pleasure and joy to the meal table.
She is also mum to two boys and the author of Creating Confident Eaters and Winner Winner I Eat Dinner. Her dream is that every child can approach food from a place of safety and joy, not fear.
Learn more about Judith here: https://theconfidenteater.com/about/