Teaching children about weight and nutrition
Replies
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I'm sorry, but no. I'm all for people having differing opinions, but this is wrong. Period. End of story. Wrong.The idea was giving her the tools to manage her own weight when she gets to the stage where she is more in control of her food and habits.
This is not something you want to do with an adolescent. Modeling healthy behavior and making healthy foods the staple in your household are important, but don't even mention "managing" her weight. Please do not do this to your child.
If at some point she does seem to be getting out of control, talk to her doctor about it. But don't create a problem.
Everyone at some point needs to learn to manage their weight. It is a basic life skill. It is not something to be feared, not something to shelter kids from. Anyone who ever plays weight class sports gets a basic intro to this.
Managing weight does not mean get as thin as possible and then some. That is a body image issue and really has nothing to do with weight management.
The nuts and bolts of how to increase and decrease one's body weight (and by proxy fat and muscle mass), and the impact that water has on it, are basic life skills that everyone should know. As important as how to cook, how to drive a car, and how to manage one's money.
I think there is a difference here between boys and girls. When my son began wrestling, he got a crash course in nutrition. (And I had to "fix" a few things he was told) However, he was overweight when he started, and he lost about 35 pounds. It's been about 20 months later, and he is easily maintaining. My daughter has struggled. She has been overweight for the last few years and can't seem to lose anything. I try to be careful, and I let her know that we love her no matter her size.
I will say though that there is no doubt that my poor habits were what they learned, and the reason they became overweight as teens. I am trying to model better behavior now. With a little education, they both know more about calories and nutrition than I ever did. Part of the reason I gained so much weight as an adult is that I knew nothing about calories and I continued to eat like an athlete for years after I quit playing sports.
Being male I only understand the male perspective; even so, it speaks to more of a deficiency with how girls are raised than vice versa.
A pretty good % of males understand how to lose and gain weight by the time they can drive a car. Anybody that plays football will at least have some sort of intro into how to gain, as will anybody that spends any time in the weight room for any reason. If you wrestle you'll understand weight loss and water manipulation. The importantance of protein and calories in/out will be understood by mid-high school by most males, including virtually all athletes. We had that stuff in health class too.
If you graduate HS and don't know HOW to gain/lose weight, you're behind the curve.
Teaching girls HOW doesn't turn them into instant anorexics.0 -
Oh, goody. Another low fat diet. :huh: I hope the program is optional -- no wonder so many parents are choosing to home school.I teach preschool. My school has recently become affiliated with the "Discover/CATCH" program. It's a part of the JCC of America system. CATCH stands for Coordinated Approach To Children's Health. You can Google it.
We are required to teach nutrition and exercise as part of our daily/weekly curriculum. We must have 60 minutes of planned physical activity each day, in addition to our normal playground time. And we talk a lot (I mean *a lot*) about food. In CATCH there are no 'bad' foods. We call them Go Foods and Whoa Foods. Whoa foods are those things with lower nutritional value, that you can still always have but should pause when making that choice. Pause, say 'whoa', and remember that this is something to have in small doses. It's a sometimes food, not an always food. We don't forbid anything, we just help the children know that some foods have better health value than others. And those healthier foods are the things w want to choose more often, and eat in higher quantity. It's amazing. My class of three year olds, after just 3 months of this type of learning, can sort their own lunches into sections of Go and Whoa foods, they independently choose to eat their Go Foods first and take only small tastes of the Whoa Foods, they are instructing their parents during grocery shopping trips, they ask questions about which of their foods have protein or calcium or vitamins, etc. It's wonderful.
What? I didn't say anything about fats. This is really more about fruits and vegetables.
The school provides snacks every day. We used to have graham crackers, saltines, Ritz crackers, etc, alternating with apples, oranges, or bananas. Now we no longer serve the crackers at all. For the snacks that we provide, it's all fruits and vegetables. Only.
The children bring their own lunches from home. That's entirely up to the parents. Most of them bring things like tuna, eggs, yogurt, beans, veggies, hummus, rice, pasta, potatoes, fruits, etc. We've seen a significant decrease in things like Twinkies and canned Macaroni/Cheese.
It's not at all about 'low fat' and I never said that it was.
why do you no longer serve crackers?
We're not serving processed carbs anymore. They can bring it in their lunches and they get a lot of that at home. But we are now only serving fruits and vegetables. The philosophy is that the foods that we provide will be predominantly things that grow. Fruits and vegetables. And the kids also couldn't really be part of the food prep aspect of snack time when it was just pulling crackers out of a box. Now with the fruits and vegetables, they're doing it all. They help cut and prep the fruit or vegetable of that day's snack, they help make the hummus or dip or whatever else we're cooking. They are experiencing the whole process. My class has learned that cinnamon and honey tastes great on apples, but not so good on broccoli. LOL. We experiment a lot. You can't really do much of that with a package of graham crackers that were made in a factory.
Non-processed carbs would pretty much be raw plants. :laugh:
Yes. Raw plants. Exactly. Raw cucumber. Raw broccoli. Raw carrots. Raw peas. Raw green beans. Raw bananas. Raw apples. Raw oranges. Raw cantaloupe. Raw grapes. Raw avocado. Raw pears. Raw celery. Raw cauliflower. Raw mango. Raw fruits and vegetables. It's just a snack, not a meal.0 -
I'm sorry, but no. I'm all for people having differing opinions, but this is wrong. Period. End of story. Wrong.The idea was giving her the tools to manage her own weight when she gets to the stage where she is more in control of her food and habits.
This is not something you want to do with an adolescent. Modeling healthy behavior and making healthy foods the staple in your household are important, but don't even mention "managing" her weight. Please do not do this to your child.
If at some point she does seem to be getting out of control, talk to her doctor about it. But don't create a problem.
Everyone at some point needs to learn to manage their weight. It is a basic life skill. It is not something to be feared, not something to shelter kids from. Anyone who ever plays weight class sports gets a basic intro to this.
Managing weight does not mean get as thin as possible and then some. That is a body image issue and really has nothing to do with weight management.
The nuts and bolts of how to increase and decrease one's body weight (and by proxy fat and muscle mass), and the impact that water has on it, are basic life skills that everyone should know. As important as how to cook, how to drive a car, and how to manage one's money.
I think there is a difference here between boys and girls. When my son began wrestling, he got a crash course in nutrition. (And I had to "fix" a few things he was told) However, he was overweight when he started, and he lost about 35 pounds. It's been about 20 months later, and he is easily maintaining. My daughter has struggled. She has been overweight for the last few years and can't seem to lose anything. I try to be careful, and I let her know that we love her no matter her size.
I will say though that there is no doubt that my poor habits were what they learned, and the reason they became overweight as teens. I am trying to model better behavior now. With a little education, they both know more about calories and nutrition than I ever did. Part of the reason I gained so much weight as an adult is that I knew nothing about calories and I continued to eat like an athlete for years after I quit playing sports.
Being male I only understand the male perspective; even so, it speaks to more of a deficiency with how girls are raised than vice versa.
A pretty good % of males understand how to lose and gain weight by the time they can drive a car. Anybody that plays football will at least have some sort of intro into how to gain, as will anybody that spends any time in the weight room for any reason. If you wrestle you'll understand weight loss and water manipulation. The importantance of protein and calories in/out will be understood by mid-high school by most males, including virtually all athletes.
A lot of it boils down to activity as well. There was barely a day that went by that I wasn't playing some sport (drove my mom batty). My son tries to stay active on a daily basis. My daughter tried soccer, but then decided she hates sports. She was riding her bike before the weather turned cold. The main differences between girls and boys are hormonal. There is something to be said for gender roles, but my daughter is quite the feminist.0 -
Oh, goody. Another low fat diet. :huh: I hope the program is optional -- no wonder so many parents are choosing to home school.I teach preschool. My school has recently become affiliated with the "Discover/CATCH" program. It's a part of the JCC of America system. CATCH stands for Coordinated Approach To Children's Health. You can Google it.
We are required to teach nutrition and exercise as part of our daily/weekly curriculum. We must have 60 minutes of planned physical activity each day, in addition to our normal playground time. And we talk a lot (I mean *a lot*) about food. In CATCH there are no 'bad' foods. We call them Go Foods and Whoa Foods. Whoa foods are those things with lower nutritional value, that you can still always have but should pause when making that choice. Pause, say 'whoa', and remember that this is something to have in small doses. It's a sometimes food, not an always food. We don't forbid anything, we just help the children know that some foods have better health value than others. And those healthier foods are the things w want to choose more often, and eat in higher quantity. It's amazing. My class of three year olds, after just 3 months of this type of learning, can sort their own lunches into sections of Go and Whoa foods, they independently choose to eat their Go Foods first and take only small tastes of the Whoa Foods, they are instructing their parents during grocery shopping trips, they ask questions about which of their foods have protein or calcium or vitamins, etc. It's wonderful.
What? I didn't say anything about fats. This is really more about fruits and vegetables.
The school provides snacks every day. We used to have graham crackers, saltines, Ritz crackers, etc, alternating with apples, oranges, or bananas. Now we no longer serve the crackers at all. For the snacks that we provide, it's all fruits and vegetables. Only.
The children bring their own lunches from home. That's entirely up to the parents. Most of them bring things like tuna, eggs, yogurt, beans, veggies, hummus, rice, pasta, potatoes, fruits, etc. We've seen a significant decrease in things like Twinkies and canned Macaroni/Cheese.
It's not at all about 'low fat' and I never said that it was.
why do you no longer serve crackers?
We're not serving processed carbs anymore. They can bring it in their lunches and they get a lot of that at home. But we are now only serving fruits and vegetables. The philosophy is that the foods that we provide will be predominantly things that grow. Fruits and vegetables. And the kids also couldn't really be part of the food prep aspect of snack time when it was just pulling crackers out of a box. Now with the fruits and vegetables, they're doing it all. They help cut and prep the fruit or vegetable of that day's snack, they help make the hummus or dip or whatever else we're cooking. They are experiencing the whole process. My class has learned that cinnamon and honey tastes great on apples, but not so good on broccoli. LOL. We experiment a lot. You can't really do much of that with a package of graham crackers that were made in a factory.
Non-processed carbs would pretty much be raw plants. :laugh:
Yes. Raw plants. Exactly. Raw cucumber. Raw broccoli. Raw carrots. Raw peas. Raw green beans. Raw bananas. Raw apples. Raw oranges. Raw cantaloupe. Raw grapes. Raw avocado. Raw pears. Raw celery. Raw cauliflower. Raw mango. Raw fruits and vegetables. It's just a snack, not a meal.
For just a snack, that works. But for lunch, I want some bread or crackers. :bigsmile:0 -
But I think my friends on the whole must be pretty extreme with their kids because they do not give them pudding cups, frozen chicken nuggets, etc...and they would never allow full-size chocolate bars unless it was a special occasion - and definitely not for a 3 yr old, ever. Are my friends that unusual in this?
If so, then, I'm unusual, also. My daughter (2.5 years old) only gets frozen chicken nuggets at school (go sucky daycares in Texas--I can't find a single one that doesn't serve frozen garbage, and they all think corn is a veggie. *facepalm*). We don't serve that type of stuff at home (although, we're not perfect, either--we DO try to cook most nights) and she certainly doesn't eat entire pudding cups or full-size chocolate bars ever. She's allowed sweets, in small portions. At birthday parties, she's totally allowed to have cake and pizza, that sort of thing, but she still has water with her meal. So, yeah, if that's weird; count me in.
Frozen garbage?
I usually don't laugh too hard at the images in these posts...but this. is. fantastic!0 -
I so worry about this too. Like you I have a weighing scale in my en suite bathroom, I am the only person, apart from my OH, who uses it. So, not a problem. I like you, have put on over the years, dieted and lost, and put back on. No - one has commented, apart from the comments when losing or lost. Like you, I worry about my boys.
My 19 year old eats a lot of junk....I physically have to make healthy food for him to eat...and he is doing a physical education diploma
My 12 year old eats well, generally!, as we as his parents, still put his meals in front of him.
I am finding, to my dismay, that their choices are rubbish when they are in situations we are not in control of.
At school / college, they choose their food; the youngest eats ok...just eats the same thing for lunch, but I tell him!
The eldest is a big worry...diet sounds high in sat fat and salt and sugar. This does worry me and upsets me.......0 -
I'm sorry, but no. I'm all for people having differing opinions, but this is wrong. Period. End of story. Wrong.The idea was giving her the tools to manage her own weight when she gets to the stage where she is more in control of her food and habits.
This is not something you want to do with an adolescent. Modeling healthy behavior and making healthy foods the staple in your household are important, but don't even mention "managing" her weight. Please do not do this to your child.
If at some point she does seem to be getting out of control, talk to her doctor about it. But don't create a problem.
Everyone at some point needs to learn to manage their weight. It is a basic life skill. It is not something to be feared, not something to shelter kids from. Anyone who ever plays weight class sports gets a basic intro to this.
Managing weight does not mean get as thin as possible and then some. That is a body image issue and really has nothing to do with weight management.
The nuts and bolts of how to increase and decrease one's body weight (and by proxy fat and muscle mass), and the impact that water has on it, are basic life skills that everyone should know. As important as how to cook, how to drive a car, and how to manage one's money.
I think there is a difference here between boys and girls. When my son began wrestling, he got a crash course in nutrition. (And I had to "fix" a few things he was told) However, he was overweight when he started, and he lost about 35 pounds. It's been about 20 months later, and he is easily maintaining. My daughter has struggled. She has been overweight for the last few years and can't seem to lose anything. I try to be careful, and I let her know that we love her no matter her size.
I will say though that there is no doubt that my poor habits were what they learned, and the reason they became overweight as teens. I am trying to model better behavior now. With a little education, they both know more about calories and nutrition than I ever did. Part of the reason I gained so much weight as an adult is that I knew nothing about calories and I continued to eat like an athlete for years after I quit playing sports.
Being male I only understand the male perspective; even so, it speaks to more of a deficiency with how girls are raised than vice versa.
A pretty good % of males understand how to lose and gain weight by the time they can drive a car. Anybody that plays football will at least have some sort of intro into how to gain, as will anybody that spends any time in the weight room for any reason. If you wrestle you'll understand weight loss and water manipulation. The importantance of protein and calories in/out will be understood by mid-high school by most males, including virtually all athletes. We had that stuff in health class too.
If you graduate HS and don't know HOW to gain/lose weight, you're behind the curve.
Teaching girls HOW doesn't turn them into instant anorexics.
Good thing I had some useful knowledge from my mom because strangers and their dog thought it was their life mission to tell me how to gain weight in the eighth grade. I heard them all: six pack of beer, drink lots of raw eggs, "coke made me put on the pounds."
Of course, i completely agree this is stuff tons of kids learn in health class. I looked at some of the 7th grade health courses here in CA. One had sixteen days on nutrition and physical activity. Topics included: "Explain how to use a BMI score as a tool for measuring general health. Evaluate the accuracy of claims about dietary supplements and popular diets. Analyze the caloric and nutritional value of foods and beverages. Contrast healthy and risky approaches to weight management."
I don't think girls are somehow not bombarded with this stuff, too. Actually, I just assumed it was worse. I think it is reasonable to assume most kids are going to get info for "managing" (whatever that may mean) their weight somewhere. Me, strangers and their dog. Others, their friends. Others, a magazine. Others, Google. Others, The Biggest Loser. Others, their parents. Others, health class. I guess a parent has to decide if they want to discuss those types of things in a reasonable and educational manner or not. Not doing so in this day and age seems like one would be hoping that all the outside info a kid took in was just useful and correct info. I helped with many basketball camps in high school/college where some junior high age boys thought slamming protein shakes and overloading on creatine would make them gain tons of muscle mass. Kind of scary.0 -
It's easy to teach kids how to safely cross the street, so that they know to look both ways and not step out in front of cars, without teaching them that some cars are good and some are bad and out to get them and filling them with irrational fears.
I don't understand why it's so hard to teach kids how to eat in moderation.0 -
There is so much in this question. I didn't read through the whole thread, but I will share my experiences.
In my house when my daughter was young, there was a starch, a meat and a vegetable option. I never forced her to eat anything. However, if you didn't finish your vegetables you couldn't have a candy or any kind of desert. I allowed the candy and cookies, partly because of my husband who eats crap and partly because I know not allowing any makes them want it more once they can have it. I would explain simply, even at age 3 that eating veggies will help you grow big and strong, but just eating candy will keep you little because there is nothing to help you grow.
My daughter always loved vegetables and said YAY when I bought broccoli. She was also naturally thin. I was asked when she was 2 years old by the Dr "Does she eat" and the answer was Yes she just had 3/4 of a hamburger from Burger King on the way over here (we had short time and kid had to eat, it was a rare treat, trust me). In first grade they told her she was too skinny. In second grade her teacher was all about nutrition but as a reward for doing certain things she gave cupcakes.
By third grade she had a friend who was like 2 years older, they hung out a lot and in the elevator of our building the mom told my daughter she was too skinny, a third friend was perfect and her own daughter was fat, in front of other people. When the babysitter told me I thought she was going to have a break down she was so angry. My daughter checked calories on packages already at this age. I always struggled with my weight, but told my daughter that I wanted to watch what I ate so I could be healthy, not about looks.
In High School the kids ate out everyday and there was McDonald's as one of the choices for lunch. She hated going there and when she did often got the salad. I gave her a large allowance so she could eat the more expensive healthy choices and not just chicken nuggets. A friend says to my daughter one day, oh you should eat the 99cent chicken nuggets everyday and save the rest of your money. WHAT???
Well all said and done, my daughter lost 15lbs (which was bad) her first year in college from stress and the fact she had a bad stomach that year (well she had it since she was 8, but freshman year it got really bad, dr put on meds that helped). End of Freshman year, she went Vegan. She has stuck with it since May, even when she got back to school. She says she feels better, stomach and overall. She is gaining weight back again and she looks so much healthier.
What we do at home is KEY, but be prepared for the stupidity of other people saying things like "she is thin she can eat whatever she wants". She even had a kid ask her how to lose weight, my daughter had grilled veggies and salad and a hot dog on her plate the girl asking has a hot dog and potato chips, well there you go that was the difference.
Just do your best to teach her what is good for her and what is not. My daughter went through a soda kick and drank it everyday, now she doesn't want any. She forces it because she wants the calories, but otherwise just wants water. Balance, life is about balance and so is nutrition and health
BTW, I am overweight, grew up eating too fast, sneaking junk food and I didn't get one milky way when I trick or treated till I was allowed to go alone because mom ate them all while we were out. She also didn't make veggies with every meal, diet was not balanced and she was always trying to lose weight.0
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