How do you feed your kids? / brain fog
Options
Replies
-
jessicaesqueda0409 wrote: »Regarding the munchkins, we do a "limited carb" diet. They certainly still eat candy here and there, and have some carbs with their meals. However, I've begun to limit the amount and increase proteins and fats. This looks like limiting to 1 piece of toast instead of 2, making just a half a sandwich (with extra meat and cheese) etc. My daughter, who is 6 and was a few pounds overweight, is now in a healthy weight category!
I make inside-out sandwiches, sort of. I buy cheese in bricks (why pay extra for them to slice it for me, right?), so I just cut pieces of cheese and sandwich lunch meat between two pieces of cheese. My 3-year-old carboholic loves it! My 2-year-old isn't as much of a fan and lately has been eating the cheese and leaving the meat behind, but whatever. And baby boy will eat anything.
Did you know that you can still buy the brick and pay the brick price, but take it over to the grocery deli and most will slice it for you free of charge - we do that all the time!
I'm working on lowering the amount of carbs in my kids' diets, although I have no plans to make it anything other than "limited carb" as described above. We use those Carb Smart tortillas now, I make low carb crackers and I pack low carb baked goods in lunches, I tried sending Fathead Stromboli the other day but got 2 thumbs way down haha. A big part of our problem is where we live - it was 91 degrees yesterday (yes, in February, and we're in the US) and not a lot of the low carb options hold up well in a lunchbox that you can't keep cold/enough. There's no way a cheese-and-meat "sandwich" would hold up, for example! There are no indoor lockers at schools here, back packs hang on the wall outside the classroom in the sun. I'm definitely open to ideas that can withstand 80-90-100+ degree school days, we have plenty of them to deal with.0 -
Reducing sugar is HARD with kids. Parties, school snacks, this or that event. It is hard to wrap their brains around the idea of "health" at a young age. Especially, when they see their friends having chips, cookies, juice boxes in their lunch and a pop and chips for a snack. Sugar tastes good (don't we all know!) and I think it is hard for them to equate something that tastes so good as being unhealthy.
Also, my middle child has ADHD and we notice a marked behavior change when he eats a pack of Skittles (dyes and sugar) or even ice cream.
So, we feed them a healthy (low carb) breakfast and dinner with us and their lunch contains cheese & crackers, PB and J sometimes. I just try to buy better crackers , organic PB, and low sugar jam. They do like dark chocolate, so I throw that into their lunch bag for a treat now and then too.0 -
I remembered this article being shared before, so I dug it up.
http://universityofcalifornia.edu/news/cutting-sugar-kids-diets-improves-health-just-days
As I recall, overall carbs were not lowered, but sugar and processed foods were.0 -
inspirationstation wrote: »Reducing sugar is HARD with kids. Parties, school snacks, this or that event. It is hard to wrap their brains around the idea of "health" at a young age. Especially, when they see their friends having chips, cookies, juice boxes in their lunch and a pop and chips for a snack. Sugar tastes good (don't we all know!) and I think it is hard for them to equate something that tastes so good as being unhealthy.
Also, my middle child has ADHD and we notice a marked behavior change when he eats a pack of Skittles (dyes and sugar) or even ice cream.
So, we feed them a healthy (low carb) breakfast and dinner with us and their lunch contains cheese & crackers, PB and J sometimes. I just try to buy better crackers , organic PB, and low sugar jam. They do like dark chocolate, so I throw that into their lunch bag for a treat now and then too.
I hear you on this one! I don't mind so much if they go to a birthday party or out to celebrate a special occasion and have cake or pizza. Is it really necessary to feed my son doughnuts every Friday? Pizza and cookies/ cake/ brownies every time a holiday rolls around? My youngest (8) has a really hard time with "if my teacher gives it to me, it must be a health food."
I e-mailed the teacher last week when I found out that he was rewarding the kids with candy for every little thing. It's frustrating. I don't ban any food, but please don't reward my kid with food- he's not a dog. He also has ADHD and I pointed out that if we notice a marked behavior change when he doesn't eat candy all day, surely the teacher must notice one as well.0 -
jessicaesqueda0409 wrote: »Regarding the munchkins, we do a "limited carb" diet. They certainly still eat candy here and there, and have some carbs with their meals. However, I've begun to limit the amount and increase proteins and fats. This looks like limiting to 1 piece of toast instead of 2, making just a half a sandwich (with extra meat and cheese) etc. My daughter, who is 6 and was a few pounds overweight, is now in a healthy weight category!
On the other hand, my 13yo son (5'11", maybe 115lbs) almost needs carbs, just because his caloric intake is through the roof. Dinner last night for him was about 9oz cooked (so 12oz raw?) sirloin pork chop, about 1/2 cup mashed potatoes and half a cucumber, along with 2 cups of 2% milk. Two hours later he had what is a fairly common evening "snack" for him. 1/2 cup full fat plain Greek yogurt, 1/2 cup low-fat vanilla Greek yogurt (the lowest sugar kind I can find without being all AS), 1/2 cup frozen berries and 1/2scoop ON vanilla protein powder.
He can easily down 4 whole eggs scrambled with cheese in butter, three pieces of high fiber toast with natural peanut butter as a weekend breakfast, plus milk and/or oj.
In general though, I do at least try to balance the carbs my kids eat, guiding them towards better choices and etc.
None of my four children have anything near a weight problem, verging from nearly underweight, though strong, through slender to at worst the lighter side of normal, and my husband has always been normal bodyweight. He is one of those natural regulators.
None of them complains about a good meal of meat and veg, and my husband can always have a quick baked potato, which none of the kids is fond of, if he wants it.0 -
This is why I am in some ways "glad" there are so many allergy concerns these days - at my kids' school food as a reward is pretty much nonexistent. Kids can bring in individual wrapped treats to hand out on a birthday or holiday, but the students must wait until they get home to eat them; many of the classrooms are nut, egg, and dairy free zones, and the teachers generally hand out stickers, pencils, or small non-edible trinkets as rewards. My girls generally prefer to bring their lunches (though my six year old does like to buy lunch sometimes; I'm not going to get upset over something that happens two or three times a month), they eat breakfast and dinner at home. I don't worry too much about treats they get at birthday parties, holiday get togethers and the like (generally those are "cheat days" for me too). Now for kids who actually are sensitive to dyes and sugar (obvious behavioral changes) I imagine it must be much more challenging and don't get me started on what the school provides for breakfast options (their lunches are bad enough, but breakfast quite often consists on juice and donuts or, I *kitten* you not, pop tarts... Then they wonder why little Johnny can't sit still and pay attention in class...).0
-
Sunny_Bunny_ wrote: »I remembered this article being shared before, so I dug it up.
http://universityofcalifornia.edu/news/cutting-sugar-kids-diets-improves-health-just-days
As I recall, overall carbs were not lowered, but sugar and processed foods were.
Sunny_Bunny_ I'm so glad you posted that! It both confirms that we're sort of on the right path and gives us a little more latitude in what we can still allow while trying to improve our obese son's health markers. I heart that article, thank you thank you for sharing it.0 -
jessicaesqueda0409 wrote: »Regarding the munchkins, we do a "limited carb" diet. They certainly still eat candy here and there, and have some carbs with their meals. However, I've begun to limit the amount and increase proteins and fats. This looks like limiting to 1 piece of toast instead of 2, making just a half a sandwich (with extra meat and cheese) etc. My daughter, who is 6 and was a few pounds overweight, is now in a healthy weight category!
I make inside-out sandwiches, sort of. I buy cheese in bricks (why pay extra for them to slice it for me, right?), so I just cut pieces of cheese and sandwich lunch meat between two pieces of cheese. My 3-year-old carboholic loves it! My 2-year-old isn't as much of a fan and lately has been eating the cheese and leaving the meat behind, but whatever. And baby boy will eat anything.
Did you know that you can still buy the brick and pay the brick price, but take it over to the grocery deli and most will slice it for you free of charge - we do that all the time!
I'm working on lowering the amount of carbs in my kids' diets, although I have no plans to make it anything other than "limited carb" as described above. We use those Carb Smart tortillas now, I make low carb crackers and I pack low carb baked goods in lunches, I tried sending Fathead Stromboli the other day but got 2 thumbs way down haha. A big part of our problem is where we live - it was 91 degrees yesterday (yes, in February, and we're in the US) and not a lot of the low carb options hold up well in a lunchbox that you can't keep cold/enough. There's no way a cheese-and-meat "sandwich" would hold up, for example! There are no indoor lockers at schools here, back packs hang on the wall outside the classroom in the sun. I'm definitely open to ideas that can withstand 80-90-100+ degree school days, we have plenty of them to deal with.
Who has time for that? But no, I did not know that.
Also, my kids don't go to school yet, so I hadn't considered the lunchbox dilemma. Good point.0 -
@Phrick No, I didn't know about the brick cheese thing. I'll try it and see how the deli responds. I usually come home and slice it all up. Annoying to slice, annoying to find containers to put it in!
School lunches will be the death of me! I'm trying out the bento style now, but damn, it takes time. My kids don't like sandwiches for the most part, and due to all those damn kid allergies, so many foods are restricted. My 4 year old can't have any nut products of any kind (I will continue to lament not being able to send almonds), no dark chocolate, nothing with seeds especially sesame, including sesame oil, which means, no nori snacks.
It's frustrating and boring for the kids eat apples/bananas/yogurt/crackers/cheese/cucumbers, every single damn day.
*Disclaimer: I'm on my 3rd (yes 3rd) "period" this month. So I'm a grouchy mo-fo right now.
0 -
So I'm lower carb for health reasons. My family still likes pasta. I just do substations. So they want spaghetti. I make the sauce. Boil their whole wheat pasta then my ribboned zucchini for just a second. It isn't more effort and the whole family eats the same thing together. Tonight I'm making a lasagna it's exactly the same except the left side row of "noodles" is my zucchini noodles
0 -
My kids' school has healthy snack guidelines that are both low-sugar and low-fat. So I agree with half of it at least.
But the nice thing is, they are only allowed two parties per year and any birthday or other snacks/treats that kids bring in have to follow the guidelines so it's often something like goldfish or pretzels (the most sugary thing that fits the guidelines is rice krispie treats, which they've had a couple of times all year); no cupcakes, cookies, or candy. I'm glad of that b/c they got a lot of junk at preschool. 0 -
@workathomemama I love your disclaimer. Made me laugh. We all have moments like that. Hope your day gets better.0
-
My daughter is three. I generally go old school four food groups with her. A bit of everything every day. She's super picky and generally eats one food serving an hour. For example: she won't eat a cheese sandwich but would eat a slice of sourdough bread and maybe an hour later eat a slice of cheese. Not helpful, just like talking about my weird kid.0
