Do you influence your kids' food choices?

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Lisa1971
Lisa1971 Posts: 3,069 Member
in Food and Nutrition
I know I do and I love it. My daughter is 5 and she already tells me how she wants to eat healthy every single day. She even will ask for seconds on her salad, her broccoli, and her green beans. She will choose cherry tomatoes for a snack over candy and tells my husband how unhealthy white bread is. He even went to make her a BLT the other day and she INSISTED that he make hers with spinach instead of boring old iceburg lettuce! My husband is NOT a healthy eater in any way, shape, or form and actually gets MAD at me because he keeps saying that our daughter is a healthy eater because of ME! Like that's a bad thing????? GEEEEEEZ! My MIL is a horrible eater (McDonalds about 4 days a week!) and has heart disease and diabetes and I know my husband is headed down the same path. Just because he is thin he believes that he is healthy. No so.

I may not be able to influence or change the way my husband eats but I am sure going to try and instill healthy eating habits for my kids. My son is 14 months and already loves his veggies!:love::love:

So I guess my question is...

Do your kids eat healthy? Why or why not???

Replies

  • seemichellerun
    seemichellerun Posts: 219
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    I have a picky 3 year old that somehow seems to survive off of apple juice and thin air.
  • LaurenRose2011
    LaurenRose2011 Posts: 86
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    It sounds like you are doing an amazing job with your kids! :) As for your husband, just keep trying to educate him. He'll either come around now or come around later when the health complications make themselves apparent, but hopefully before. Good luck!
  • jessieleah
    jessieleah Posts: 204 Member
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    That's wonderful! I don't have children of my own, but I told myself I was going to clean up my own eating habits before I had children. I don't want to teach them to eat chips and fast food and crap that will make them fat! :(
  • Lisa1971
    Lisa1971 Posts: 3,069 Member
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    It sounds like you are doing an amazing job with your kids! :) As for your husband, just keep trying to educate him. He'll either come around now or come around later when the health complications make themselves apparent, but hopefully before. Good luck!

    Thanks. No, I've pretty much came to the realization that my husband will always pick a big mac over a nice salad with some grilled chicken on the top anyday. He's going to die young and it breaks my heart but I've tried and tried. He just refuses to eat healthy. :grumble: :noway:
  • LaurenRose2011
    LaurenRose2011 Posts: 86
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    I am sorry to read that. :( Maybe it's time for an intervention. Do you think you could get his doctor, his friends, his family, and maybe even a doctor or nurse not currently with the family together for such a thing? What do you think his reaction to the intervention would be if you could organise it?
  • kelsully
    kelsully Posts: 1,008 Member
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    My hubby and I eat differently. He is a meat and potatoes kind of guy where I have been a vegetarian for 13 years. I was incredibly picky as a kid and always thought I was chubby. I was not chubby but I had a stockier frame with posture that made me stick my belly out. In no way looking back was I chubby but the messages we get from out minds. With all that, I make sure I serve reasonable kid portions for a first portion to my kids. They eat real food...not kid food most days/nights. There is a veggie in everything....oh where you can put carrots ...LOL. They know that I might something completely different for myself and that they are always welcome to try it...I do insist they sample everything...it must be given a one bite "fair shake" as you never know if one day broccoli will rock your world...or if there is a preparation you prefer over another if you don't try. If you don't like dinner I will give them healthy choices they may make themselves after dinner...ie fruit, yogurt, a sandwich etc.

    They know that exercise is very important and that food is fuel for your body so you should put the best things you can into your body.

    My annoying hubby thinks they should eat more of everything he serves and thinks if he tries hard enough he can convince the kids to like what he has made...it aggravates me to no end...
  • Lisa1971
    Lisa1971 Posts: 3,069 Member
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    I am sorry to read that. :( Maybe it's time for an intervention. Do you think you could get his doctor, his friends, his family, and maybe even a doctor or nurse not currently with the family together for such a thing? What do you think his reaction to the intervention would be if you could organise it?

    He doesn't really have a doctor because he rarely goes, his family has horrible health problems including heart disease and diabetes and they have a horrible diet, and his friends think all men should eat the way he does and that I am nuts. lol. But it would be a nice idea! :)
  • ajbeans
    ajbeans Posts: 2,857 Member
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    I have a picky 3 year old that somehow seems to survive off of apple juice and thin air.

    Ha! I so know that feeling. Only with my daughter it was saltines and cranberry juice. :huh: She's grown out of it now. Now she lives on peanut butter sandwiches and steak. :laugh:

    I influence my kids' food choices by not letting them have a choice, quite honestly. I've had to be a dictator, because my oldest wants nothing but peanut butter and my youngest just wants toast. They're both carb fiends, and then once in a while they'll go through a week-long phase of wanting steak and chicken because they're so desperate for protein. So I try to save peanut butter and toast as a once-a-day thing (usually lunch) and the rest of the day they have to eat what I give them. They haven't hated anything I've given to them yet, they just fight me because they want what they want. Urf.
  • alliecore
    alliecore Posts: 446 Member
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    Definitely! I believe that kids need guidance; if you give them the option of eating twinkies or an apple, the average kid is going to choose the twinkie. So I say, take the twinkie out of the equation! :smile:

    My two oldest kids (6 & 5) love healthy foods and beg for "green smoothies": organic vanilla yogurt; bananas; strawberry; sometimes kiwi; flax seed and organic baby spinach. (Or any other fruit combinations!) I make them into popsicles for a special treat. I keep fresh fruit and veggies on hand; I bake our whole wheat bread; etc. We have very little processed food in the house. Kids will naturally pattern their eating after what they observe their parents eating.

    HOWEVER: when kiddo #3 came along, I had so many words to eat!!!! LOL! She is 2 now, and will. NOT. touch fruits or veggies. She was exclusively breastfed until 7 months, and then she only had fruits and veggies till 8 or 9 months. She gradually got more and more picky until today she will only eat a few things willingly. I learned that parents really have no control over kids' taste buds! The only way I know to handle it is to give her the few healthy things she WILL eat; and continue to offer the other foods until hopefully someday she'll eat them.
  • newmeat30
    newmeat30 Posts: 766 Member
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    I'm all about brainwahing my kids into thinking that healthy food is delicious. :devil:

    Seriously, I figure if they get used to the healthier choices now they will be less likely to want the bad choices later. We cut out the fast food (well, grandma takes them to McDonalds or Chick-fil-a once a week). Our pantry is stocked with low cal, low fat food that is better for all of us as a family. We are a home of whole grains, fruits, veggies, and lean protein. I just want to make sure that my children are healthy and active (especially since childhood obesity rates have risen so much over the last few years).

    If my kids had it their way they would live on cheese puffs, fruit snacks, and macaroni. But until my kids are old enough to buy food for themselves, it is my job as a parent to provide them with healthy meals. And I hope that by the time they do buy their own food, my brainwashing...I mean guidance...will influence them to make healthy choices on their own.
  • godblessourhome
    godblessourhome Posts: 3,892 Member
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    when my boys were young, we ate in 'stages'. first course was veggies (usually 2 servings) and once that was gone, they got fruit (one serving) and then came the meat/main meal. if they didn't finish the main course, i was fine with that, they ate what i considered most important with the veggies and fruit. now they love veggies and choose to eat their veggies first! :) i have seen too many kids get filled up on chicken nuggets, or mac and cheese, or peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, and have no room left for 'the good stuff' so i am glad i fed them the way i did. it definitely influenced them in a positive way.
    dawn
  • Anidorie
    Anidorie Posts: 291 Member
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    geat job but make sure your daughter understand the difference betwin skinny and healthy. more and more children are developing eating disorders! most of them do use healthy eating habits as an excuss. It doesnt sound like this is the case but just make sure she gets that you dont eat like that because you want to look skinny but because you want to do whats right for your body.
  • BethanyMasters
    BethanyMasters Posts: 519 Member
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    Great job! I know how hard men can be. My boyfriend was a skinny guy at 190 6'3" until he had an accident and made it impossible for him to walk for a good 8 months and will cause him to never be able to walk without pain for the rest of his life. Since then he's gained a good 30 pounds and he doesn't go boxing with his brother anymore.
    He will go to work out with me but the only cardio he can do is the bike. The rest he just does strength training.

    That's all well and good but he eats terrible. He doesn't like most of the healthy food I buy and will often eat an entire pizza by himself if I don't make dinner. :( He thinks he can just exercise the weight off but as most of us know that's really not the case if you are eating whole pizzas and only doing 60 - 90 minutes of cardio a week.

    So I can't really get my boyfriend to eat good but I do hope when we have kids that I'll have enough influence over them that they make healthy choices. My mom and stepdad were a terribly example for me as far as diet and exercise went and it did not at all help my struggle with my weight and appearance. I really really really don't want my kids to go through that.
  • abyt42
    abyt42 Posts: 1,358 Member
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    My kids are great eaters of good food, and they've inspired my husband to eat more healthfully as well. They've been the driving force, however, behind binge baking. Since they're helping, and kneading, and reading the recipes and working the fractions, I'm still a supporter. (The latest binge: 12 blueberry muffins, a small loaf of french bread and a small pan of monkey bread using the Cooking Light recipe.)

    I love that they'd prefer vegetables plain (a plain baked yam instead of one with onions and smoked cheese, steamed brussels instead of roasted, raw carrots). Not only is it easier, it's just good.

    Right after they began speaking, they were in the shopping cart as we went through our local store holding up the broccoli I'd added to the cart and asking me to "open brokky." Fortunately for me, it's been a trend they've continued (so far, at least.)
  • toxicbox
    toxicbox Posts: 22
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    My kid IS my husband. And like yours he is skinny already. I feel like the lady on the Slim-Quick commercials...anyway I think it is awsome when kids have parents that take responsiblity for their children. (It seems to be a little lacking in todays society) I hope to clean up my eatting so when we do have kids they will see that eatting healthy is a good thing and not all yucky! Thank you!

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