KIDS NEED LESS SUGAR AND MORE FAT

ndvoice

Dragonwolf wrote: »

Ugh, that's a battle I'm fighting on all fronts, including my son, himself. I wish I'd known 5 or 6 years ago what I know now, because I would have completely ignored the "cereal first" approach (thankfully, he was never keen on baby cereal, so was largely introduced to fruits and veggies first) and would have kept him off the sugar as long as humanly possible.

Thankfully, my son doesn't have much of a sweet tooth. He's not one for baked sweets, except donuts. Halloween candy is a different beast, but I don't keep that stuff around, so he has a few pieces at the candy holidays and the rest "mysteriously disappears" after a day or two.

My biggest fight right now is getting him to eat meat of any sort. Right now, I'm resigned to hotdogs, fish sticks, and chicken nuggets. I get the best quality I can for them, but I really wish he'd eat more "pure" forms of meat (steak, ham, chicken, anything), but no amount of anything will get him to do so. His main source of pure sugar is from fruit -- namely, apples, blueberries, and strawberries -- when I can keep him away from the donuts. Unfortunately, we have a Tim Horton's right by our house, in such a place that we have to go by it to get anywhere, so he's constantly reminded of that, and it's the only thing offered that he'll eat whenever we go to a coffee shop.

Then...there's grandma's. Sugary cereal, sweetened almond milk (he's lactose intolerant, so no fluid dairy milk), endless chocolate almond milk, M&Ms, and whatever he wants to eat when eating out, which is usually macaroni and cheese with french fries.

And he's at that age where he doesn't want to try anything new (even if it's the same thing he's had and just looks different), so changing anything currently established is a fight unto itself.

It's a hard transition. I don't worry about the grand parents, or going out to eat, or a treat at school. The only thing I control is what comes into my house. When the preferred options aren't here, he's a lot more likely to eat the healthier options. In my sons case, I didn't have a choice due to health concerns for him. So it was a sudden change & not easy since he has Aspergers & mental illness. He does not do well with change. At first he would say he didn't like any of the snack options & be upset. Then he started eating them.....NOW - he's excited when I restock his hard boiled eggs, cheeses & such. It didn't take too long actually for him to adjust.

inspirationstation

I try to focus on feeding my kids healthy foods at home with the occasional treat and not worry about what they eat at Grandmas or birthday parties.

I don't restrict protein, veggies, cheese/yogurt, or fruit. Carbs aside, those are not the things that will make a child fat, because they are filling and they make it easy to self-regulate. They eat breakfast at home (usually eggs) and I send them with their lunch, and they eat dinner with us. They are 10, 8, and 2.

So, I am basically abiding by the 80/20 rule. If I can give them healthy foods 80% of the time and they see what "real" food looks and tastes like, then the other 20 % of the time will allow them to make those choices for themselves. Overall, they do pretty well.