Food rules for your kids?

I have never given my girls soda. Period. I haven't told them it will make them fat. I simply told them the house rule that was in place while I was growing up:

You must be 21 years old to drink alcoholic drinks and 13 to drink soda drinks.

It's about developing good tastes and habits. By the time they finally do drink it, it will seem to sweet and gross them out. My sister found this out when she tried to give them some sweet tea she had made. My little one spat it out in shock. We drink tea a lot at home but it's always either unsweetened (berry teas), or we use a bit of honey.

My girls are 6 and 8. They consider root beer a big kid drink and don't bother asking for it. They are more than happy with chocolate milk (which is a treat).

I don't buy into the notion of 'kid food'. I cannot afford to buy for two different palates and I want them to grow up enjoying good food. My little one LOVES balsamic vinegar with fresh mozzarella and basil. She loves most soft white cheeses. My oldest not so much. She's a cheddar girl, all the way.

Both like dark chocolate as they've not been introduced to milk chocolate. My little one likes spicy chocolate (cayenne) or salted with a high cacao count. My oldest prefers dark with berry tones. They both love vegetables, preferably fresh.

The only foods I cannot get them to like are mushrooms (I hate them, too), bell peppers, and cooked spinach although they will devour spinach raw in a salad (I think it's a texture thing).

How will child ever miss a food if they've never had it? Our problem isn't healthy foods, it's healthy portions.

Wtf? I am not even going to comment on what you said.

To answer your question, I do have some rules for food. She can't have too much sugar, she is VERY sensitive to sugar. No one wants a severe blood sugar crash or watch their child have one. She also can't eat straight from the PB jar... but thats because its rude to eat all of the peanut butter. (She will also run off to her room with a jar of pb) She pretty much can't eat all of anything that is supposed to be for the whole family. That's just common courtesy though...

I think it's not unreasonable to say to her that food shouldn't be eaten in her room and that pb straight from the jar is a no (I say to my 9 yr old he can't have food in his room because he leaves bits around and bowls etc rather than bringing them out for washing and I would rather he sit to the table and eat as he is asd and needs to have good social interaction reinforced)
The only thing I would say is at three I think it's better to focus on the positives (ie It's nice when you eat food that will make you grow up strong and healthy , if you're hungry can you come with mummy to the kitchen and help find something really healthy to eat . I'll be really happy to see what a clever girl you are making good food choices)
I wouldn't bring up the issue of getting fat because her understanding of what you've said may not be what you intended (three year olds can still have some 'magic thinking' which is things like 'I can't see you so you cant see me)
Another thing that may be worth trying because we've always had it in communication lectures (I'm a student social worker) is that people and especially children don't take on board the first word of sentences so when you say to her 'Don't take the pb jar to your room' what her brain is hearing is 'take the pb jar to your room'
It's not easy being a parent and you can only do the best you can with the best intentions in which case you're doing fine x x

I'd have just told her that it's the same principle as double dipping veggies or chips into dip - saliva gets on the spoon, and goes back into the jar and makes it unsanitary. My daughter is 4, but she understands germs, and why if she wants to double dip something, she has her own bowl of it. That's just me though, to each his own. *shrug*

Here's my rules:

1) My kids aren't allowed to eat unless it's at the table - and that's special snacks if we eat away from the table (movie night, for instance).
2) They're allowed to have fruit any time of day, meal-time or not, but are only allowed to have certain snacks between meals (I choose those snacks for them and they're allowed to pick between 2-3 different options, which depends on how much dairy, fruit, etc., they've had so far that day - I might offer them a cheese stick or a yogurt (my son has a dairy allergy, so not him), some whole grain crackers, some cut up veggies, or more fruit.
3) They MUST try one bite of each food on their plate - if they don't like it, they don't have to eat it, but they must at least try it.
4) They do not have to clean their plates, but if they are hungry after not eating dinner, they're limited to a snack (of my choice, again, depending on what they've eaten that day so far) or their dinner reheated, but I will not cook a separate meal.
5) We only drink water at dinner unless we're eating out, and then they're allowed to have juice or lemonade as a treat (my daughter doesn't like milk, and my son can only have almond milk, so no restaurants around here offer that as an option), but pop and iced tea are "grown up drinks" and they're not allowed to have that (I let them try a sip here or there, but they never get their own).

My daughter isn't picky at all - she'll eat anything except raw onion. My son has a lot of allergies, and is picky on top of that because he has texture/sensory issues, so his dinners are pretty limited and aren't as healthy as I'd like, but we're working on it. I try to involve both kids in choosing what we're having for dinner (I offer two or three options off of my weekly meal plan, and they get to pick what I make). They are also allowed to choose their food at restaurants - and I don't insist they get a vegetable instead of fries, because it's a treat for us, and we eat vegetables at home, daily. My daughter will 9/10 pick a salad at a restaurant, but I don't force her to do so.

My daughter loves to grocery shop with me, and also loves to help in the kitchen, so I feel like I'm (hopefully) setting her up for healthy habits down the line. We eat healthy as a family for the most part, and while we do bring in treats and I try to explain how and why we eat things in moderation. I try to teach the physical reasons WHY we want to be healthy, rather than putting an emphasis on wanting to look a certain way, just because I have my own issues with my body and appearance, and I don't want my kids to suffer the way I do.

I can't believe you told her that she would get FAT.

What an awful word to use around children. Is that all you care about? Fat and skinny? Skinny and fat? Why couldn't you have stressed the important things? Food is good for you; peanut butter is healthy, but those habits are not.

Um, did you not read the OP??

I did.

All I saw was 'fat', and I'll bet that's all her 3yo daughter heard too.

You told your child she'll get fat and she doesn't want to be fat?...


Yikes.

I was a thin child, a fat kid, a thin teenager, and a fat adult. From personal experience, I am telling her that habits matter. There are too many kids with obesity related illnesses in the US right now. My sister has diabetes, after years of eating peanut butter from the jar. We tell our kids they can't have unlimited candy because it rots teeth - if I said, you can't have anymore candy because you don't want to have an ugly smile - you want to have a healthy mouth, right? No one would be saying yikes about that. I am supposed to train my child in the way that they should go. Allowing her to go through a jar of peanut. Utter in one fell swoop with my genetic history would be ignoring my duty to her as her mother.

I wouldn't tell a child "you don't want an ugly smile" either.

I think one of the bigger issues is letting the kid grab food out of the fridge whenever she wants. What the heck? How about set meal times and certain allowed snacks? Getting into the fridge whenever she wants is probably a good way to get fat.

Our rules:
-Eat at the table
-Snack on fruits and veggies first; if you're hungry, there's apples, bananas, broccoli, etc ready for you
-Drink water through the day
-Stop and think: make sure you're hungry before eat, not just bored
-Try everything I serve, at least 1 or 2 bites
-Don't gobble your food. Eat slowly and stop when you are done, even if there is food on your plate. Of course, you don't get to come ask for treats an hour later if you didn't eat a reasonable amount of dinner.

I don't make anything completely off-limits. Cookies are okay, 1 or 2 in a day. Soda is okay, once a day when it's in the house (which isn't always) - even Coke (caffeine) once in a while. This is on the advice of our pediatrician who said that if something is forbidden it makes it more desirable. (This doesn't apply to tobacco/alcohol/drugs - the key there is education, not forbiddance)


ETA: I guess I better add, my kids aren't little any more. They are older school age to teen (with one exception). We've been working on this for years and it's taking hold, mostly.
I also have rules about activity level. They need to do 30 minutes or more of activity (bikes, basketball, etc) before they turn on any screen-based items. I follow this rule myself, most days

I would have gone with "you aren't allowed to take the PB jar up to your room because we don't bring food out of the kitchen." I would have paired it with "it's rude to eat out of containers" and "next time you want a snack, you need to ask permission first."

I would have left any discussion of health, fat, or habits out of it. We're talking about a 3 year old, here.

Exactly.

And I think it bears repeating that healthy, normal 3-year-olds do not overeat. She was probably hungry, so after the explanation, I would have made her a PB sandwich and sat her at the table to eat it.