Creating positive food environment for kids
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mrgmama
Posts: 8 Member
Hi all,
I am new-ish to the group. Apologies in advance if this is covered somewhere in the discussions or helpful links - please feel free to direct me if that's the case.
I'm just wondering how those of you with kids in the house try to keep a pantry that serves the whole family well. I don't talk about my disordered relationship with food or body image AT ALL in front of my kids, and of course, I'm hoping that they don't end up with similar issues. But I struggle with how to maintain a "normal" pantry, with a small amount of snacks & treats around for them, versus keep the kind of pantry that would really discourage my binges.
At the moment, I mostly only try to bring things into the house for the kids that aren't tempting to me - like fudgsicles and pretzels for example. And otherwise most other "treats" are purchased at the time of consumption - a trip to the ice cream store or individual cookies at the grocery to be eaten by them that day. It's kind of all I can handle at the moment. It is a disaster for me to bake at home or bring home a whole package of cookies, etc.
Anyway, if anyone has any tips or strategies to share, I'd very much appreciate it! I also haven't read any BED books yet, so recommendations for any that address these kind of issues would be great.
I am new-ish to the group. Apologies in advance if this is covered somewhere in the discussions or helpful links - please feel free to direct me if that's the case.
I'm just wondering how those of you with kids in the house try to keep a pantry that serves the whole family well. I don't talk about my disordered relationship with food or body image AT ALL in front of my kids, and of course, I'm hoping that they don't end up with similar issues. But I struggle with how to maintain a "normal" pantry, with a small amount of snacks & treats around for them, versus keep the kind of pantry that would really discourage my binges.
At the moment, I mostly only try to bring things into the house for the kids that aren't tempting to me - like fudgsicles and pretzels for example. And otherwise most other "treats" are purchased at the time of consumption - a trip to the ice cream store or individual cookies at the grocery to be eaten by them that day. It's kind of all I can handle at the moment. It is a disaster for me to bake at home or bring home a whole package of cookies, etc.
Anyway, if anyone has any tips or strategies to share, I'd very much appreciate it! I also haven't read any BED books yet, so recommendations for any that address these kind of issues would be great.
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Replies
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I don't have kids, but I think you are absolutely doing the right thing to keep out of the house foods that you will binge on. Your health matters! However, if it is a goal for you to be able to have a wider range of things at home, you could work towards that with exercises in which you practice being with/eating part of one of your challenging foods and then not binging. You would want to do so one food at a time. It might make sense to do so with homemade baking since that is a nice thing to do with kids.
However, I think it is also appropriate over time to help them learn that part of managing the food environment is noticing what foods they have a tendency to overdo with it and keeping those either out of sight or out of the home, but still having those foods when they really want them by making a special occasion of them. I think it is good to be able to normalize that many of us struggle with food and that's not our fault, but it is our responsibility to manage our environments as best we can.0 -
It's something I've been thinking about a lot. I'd say that you're making good decisions in keeping things that you binge on outside of the house.
I think that tying food to celebration all the time is not a good thing. So try not to treat them with food treats and emphasize actions for celebration rather than the food. From a young age, I started realizing that if I did well, I'd get a cupcake or my favorite dinner, and then I started obsessing about them. I kind of wish I'd thought to reward myself with a trip to the park, a bike ride, a supersoaker, a run with the dog or something like that instead of foods.
I've also seen children react negatively to healthful foods when they're pushed. Normalize those healthy foods and don't push your children to eat them. Treats should also be considered a normal part of once-in-a-while life and not used to reward.0 -
Thank you both for your supportive and helpful comments. I totally agree with "normalizing" both healthy foods and a small amount of snacks & sweets (and not using food as a reward). This was not done in my childhood home and I suspect is one of the reasons that I tend to binge on "off-limits" foods. I wish that I could give my kids more at-home access to these treats at the moment, but I have much work to do on myself before I can trust myself with treats around.0
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You'll get there, and if you don't, that's OK too!0
