Child nutrition in 2018
Options
Replies
-
It seems that there are two types of people now: those that are very into taking care of themselves and their health and those whose kids eat only nuggets and fast food.
Wow. You should really edit that nonsense post out and pretend you never posted it. There is EVERY kind of people in the world. From extreme to extreme and everything in between.
13 -
nutmegoreo wrote: »nettiklive wrote: »Hm, maybe that depends on where you live, but I'm actually noticing WAY more awareness now around healthy eating, for both kids and adults, and way more healthy choices and less junk given to kids than when I was a kid. We don't buy or keep junk in the house, no soda, no crappy fast food etc aside from special occasions, they're not forbidden from it or anything but it's very limited and really easy to do because all our family and friends are the same way with their kids, I haven't seen anyone I know drink a soda in a long long time; schools encourage healthy foods only, school lunches aren't perfect as they're still highly processed but there is no soda, an unlimited fresh veggie bar, whole grains/ brown rice etc. My oldest will choose sushi over pizza or fries every time when we eat out. Funnily enough I just got blasted for all this over in the Debate forum, where I was told Doritos and soda are perfectly healthy food choices, and my kids would grow up to gorge themselves on junk food because we don't eat it at home...
This is certainly an interesting interpretation of that thread.It seems that there are two types of people now: those that are very into taking care of themselves and their health and those whose kids eat only nuggets and fast food.
So you don't think that a parent who is interested in health and well being could occasionally feed their child chicken nuggets? There's only the two extremes?
OP, my sister was an extremely picky eater, there was often a separate meal made for her. Personally, I think that making the separate meal was overkill, but had they not done it, she would have eaten nothing but cereal. You can't control what's being feed to them while not under your care, but I do think the idea of getting them involved in planning and prepping could be helpful. Of course, how much a 3 year old can do will be limited.
Another thing to consider is that many younger kids have certain foods that they just don't like. This is not new (my sister is nearly 40, so it's been going on for at least 38 years). Can you adapt and compromise a bit so that your idea of what she should be eating is a little closer to what she will eat? If she won't eat mushrooms, make most of the recipe, pull out a little bit, then add the mushrooms.
I'm going to be honest, I have compromised as much as I can. I have another daughters health to worry about and I can't compromise so much that I'm feeding them both healthy every once in awhile. She will eat no vegetable. Not a single one. The only compromise I can make with her is to not eat as many vegetables. And I'm already doing that, but she will cry, gag, complain, stall, spit, etc. It's not pretty. We're about to get her in therapy for some other behaviors though. Unfortunately we have to do it behind her mothers back, but she really needs to go. She has about a million phobias and yells in her sleep. I worry about that girl
4 -
I'm in a similar situation with my kids and their Dad. We eat a whole foods diet at my house, very little to no processed foods when I can avoid it. My kids eat just fine at my house because they know it is what it is, and they either eat what I offer or they starve. Getting their Dad on board has been impossible. That said, now that my kids are older, they have begun to understand why we eat the way we do and have even starting making requests from their Dad like Kale Chips and plain yogurt. Also, my daughter who is 11 really enjoys going food shopping and to the Farmers Market and often helps out now in the kitchen with meal prep. Ever since she started getting more involved in the whole process, she's started making better choices on her own. Not sure if that helps you, but thought I'd offer it up as an anecdote.
Since you are having problems with them not eating/gorging, I'd highly recommend this book.
https://www.amazon.com/How-Raise-Mindful-Eater-Transforming-ebook/dp/B01MZYTG6G1 -
Oof, it's really hard when you share custody and one parent is not interested in fixing the behavior. I'm not a parent but my 11 year old niece eats at our house pretty often and she pretty much just ate whatever we had from when she was very small. My mom did the "No, this is adult food you can't have it" trick (which caused her to INSIST that she had it and LOVED it when she was little). Now at 11 we mix- a snack will be an apple and bowl of sugary *kitten* cereal, or fruit funs and some cheese curds.0
-
One last suggestion is to google how to hide veggies in meals. I think there is a cookbook on this as well. Example pureed carrots can be mixed in spaghetti sauce used on pasta or pizza etc...0
-
I’m finding the same issue in the UK. A child in our family is only fed chicken nuggets, fish fingers, chips and ketchup from what I can see! Have never seen her eat a vegetable. And she is incredibly fussy with food. Trouble is, given the choice her mum will only eat those foods also!
If they aren’t introduced to different foods early on then they start being fussy eaters and rely on these nutritionally void foods. I honestly think it is a lack of knowledge on my family members part and they genuinely believe they are giving her a healthy diet!
I have two children, twins in fact, who have been raised eating the same food. One is a picky eater and the other is not. The picky one it is a constant battle to get him to eat even 2 bites of vegetable at dinner, non picky child happily wolfs down all that I give him and relishes trying new things I introduce. If I didn't make some accomodations for the picky child he would not eat for lengths of time that would be unhealthy and he is already on the small side of the growth curve. He eats meat, bread, cheese and rice mostly, I have to bribe him to eat a bite or two of vegetable.
Everyone thinks they are an expert on kids, even kids they don't know. Early intro of healthy food is great, but if you have a really picky eater it won't change that. People seem to think picky eaters can be cured by just starving them until they get hungry, but if this works it means your kid was being a fussy jerk about food and were never truly a picky eater.
Honestly, it is exhausting trying to come up with ideas to try to get him to eat, so yeah from the outside it might look like I am just giving in sometimes and letting him eat just french fries for dinner.
It is hard to know what happens in peoples private lives and it seems like everyone is just so excited to jump on the judgment bandwagon.
9 -
While I would generally advocate making the child try a bite of new healthy things per meal, this extreme behavior of gagging and spitting may call for that in combination with a more stealth parenting tack---hide the veggies. It's fairly easy to add pureed spinach and/or carrots to marinara sauce.
What about having the little one help you prepare and cook some meals? Maybe she'll be quite proud of her handiwork and want to try it.
Hey, kudos to you and your husband for pursuing therapy for the kiddo and for trying to help foster and develop a healthier relationship with food for her as well. My oldest (a step) had a VERY limited typical American kid palate for a long time and is still a "picky eater." That was frustrating enough without the veggie phobia. We haven't had the same problem with our youngest, thankfully, because if it's on my plate, she wants it. If she's not in the mood to eat a particular item all I have to do is pretend I'm going to eat it and there will be profuse giggling as she 'steals' the bite. Good luck to you, and as as the parent of a nearly 3 year old...may the odds be ever in your favor. Toddlers can be real kittens.2 -
I just can't wrap my head around this. How is it easier to make a seperate meal for a child rather than giving them a smaller portion of your own meal (blended if they're not eating solids)? I can't speak on this too much because I don't have children and maybe I will feel very naive when the time comes but that is the approach that I intend to take.
When I was a child I always ate what my parents were eating (I think I had my first curry at the age of about 9!). This also definitely seems to be a western thing. You don't see children is China or India eating different food to their parents.4 -
A long time ago my husband used to own a bar. A wise regular used to say “a guy sitting on my side of the bar will always tell you how easy it is to run a bar, and someone with no kids will always tell a parent how they should be raising their kids”.
13 -
-
I'm a waitress and more often than not I see children make horrible meal choices and, even worse, the parents encouraging it.
It's so hard to bite my tongue when a child wants to order pop but their parent will say, "No you can have juice." I want to shake them so hard and scream that it's just as bad (especially the fountain lemonade).
How sad it is that I'm absolutely shocked when a child orders grilled chicken and broccoli. I never make a comment about poor choices but whenever a child makes a good food choice I always say something encouraging like "Ooh great choice. That sounds yummy!" something like that.7 -
I'm a waitress and more often than not I see children make horrible meal choices and, even worse, the parents encouraging it.
It's so hard to bite my tongue when a child wants to order pop but their parent will say, "No you can have juice." I want to shake them so hard and scream that it's just as bad (especially the fountain lemonade).
How sad it is that I'm absolutely shocked when a child orders grilled chicken and broccoli. I never make a comment about poor choices but whenever a child makes a good food choice I always say something encouraging like "Ooh great choice. That sounds yummy!" something like that.
Most *people* aren't ordering grilled chicken and broccoli when they're going out to eat (that's more like a home kind of meal for many people) so I'm not sure it's reasonable to expect children to regularly do so.10 -
I'm a waitress and more often than not I see children make horrible meal choices and, even worse, the parents encouraging it.
It's so hard to bite my tongue when a child wants to order pop but their parent will say, "No you can have juice." I want to shake them so hard and scream that it's just as bad (especially the fountain lemonade).
How sad it is that I'm absolutely shocked when a child orders grilled chicken and broccoli. I never make a comment about poor choices but whenever a child makes a good food choice I always say something encouraging like "Ooh great choice. That sounds yummy!" something like that.
I avoid judging others as much as I possibly can. Especially on such petty things as you mention. I find that it distracts me from my own areas in need of improvement.2 -
I'm a waitress and more often than not I see children make horrible meal choices and, even worse, the parents encouraging it.
It's so hard to bite my tongue when a child wants to order pop but their parent will say, "No you can have juice." I want to shake them so hard and scream that it's just as bad (especially the fountain lemonade).
How sad it is that I'm absolutely shocked when a child orders grilled chicken and broccoli. I never make a comment about poor choices but whenever a child makes a good food choice I always say something encouraging like "Ooh great choice. That sounds yummy!" something like that.
Mm, I consider juice to be a much better choice than pop, assuming it's real all-natural juice with no added sugar and not one of those 'fruit drinks'. Yes, juice is still sugar but at least it's natural fructose, has some vitamins, and is not full of artificial flavors and colors and high fructose corn syrup, with zero micronutrients, like soda. Mind you my kids don't drink juice on a daily basis but it's an occasional treat, like when we go out, and yes I'll encourage them to get juice over soda (they never ask for the soda anyway because they weren't brought up drinking it, I think my 8 yo has maybe tried it twice in his life and my three old never).4 -
KalesBagel wrote: »nettiklive wrote: »Hm, maybe that depends on where you live, but I'm actually noticing WAY more awareness now around healthy eating, for both kids and adults, and way more healthy choices and less junk given to kids than when I was a kid. We don't buy or keep junk in the house, no soda, no crappy fast food etc aside from special occasions, they're not forbidden from it or anything but it's very limited and really easy to do because all our family and friends are the same way with their kids, I haven't seen anyone I know drink a soda in a long long time; schools encourage healthy foods only, school lunches aren't perfect as they're still highly processed but there is no soda, an unlimited fresh veggie bar, whole grains/ brown rice etc. My oldest will choose sushi over pizza or fries every time when we eat out. Funnily enough I just got blasted for all this over in the Debate forum, where I was told Doritos and soda are perfectly healthy food choices, and my kids would grow up to gorge themselves on junk food because we don't eat it at home...
Thats ridiculous lol. It's one thing to say that on occasion its fine to let your kids have junk food, its entirely another thing to say that its healthy for them to eat it. Maybe its my location then. I live in Indiana and a lot of my family live in urban areas in the cities. Indiana is a pretty fat state. I'm the only person I know besides my husband who is actually eating healthy and trying to lose weight.
Actually what's ridiculous is that nobody said that in that particular thread. This particular individual has reading comprehension issues. People said that those things in moderate amounts aren't detrimental to one's health.3 -
cwolfman13 wrote: »KalesBagel wrote: »nettiklive wrote: »Hm, maybe that depends on where you live, but I'm actually noticing WAY more awareness now around healthy eating, for both kids and adults, and way more healthy choices and less junk given to kids than when I was a kid. We don't buy or keep junk in the house, no soda, no crappy fast food etc aside from special occasions, they're not forbidden from it or anything but it's very limited and really easy to do because all our family and friends are the same way with their kids, I haven't seen anyone I know drink a soda in a long long time; schools encourage healthy foods only, school lunches aren't perfect as they're still highly processed but there is no soda, an unlimited fresh veggie bar, whole grains/ brown rice etc. My oldest will choose sushi over pizza or fries every time when we eat out. Funnily enough I just got blasted for all this over in the Debate forum, where I was told Doritos and soda are perfectly healthy food choices, and my kids would grow up to gorge themselves on junk food because we don't eat it at home...
Thats ridiculous lol. It's one thing to say that on occasion its fine to let your kids have junk food, its entirely another thing to say that its healthy for them to eat it. Maybe its my location then. I live in Indiana and a lot of my family live in urban areas in the cities. Indiana is a pretty fat state. I'm the only person I know besides my husband who is actually eating healthy and trying to lose weight.
Actually what's ridiculous is that nobody said that in that particular thread. This particular individual has reading comprehension issues. People said that those things in moderate amounts aren't detrimental to one's health.
Erm, no, people repeatedly stated "there is NOTHING wrong with Doritos/ soda/ fast food" and that there is no point or benefit in trying to avoid these foods as much as possible3 -
nettiklive wrote: »Erm, no, people repeatedly stated "there is NOTHING wrong with Doritos/ soda/ fast food" and that there is no point or benefit in trying to avoid these foods as much as possible
I believe you said you were done arguing this debate while weeping for the children on your way out. I trusted you at your word. Don't let me down.4 -
nettiklive wrote: »cwolfman13 wrote: »KalesBagel wrote: »nettiklive wrote: »Hm, maybe that depends on where you live, but I'm actually noticing WAY more awareness now around healthy eating, for both kids and adults, and way more healthy choices and less junk given to kids than when I was a kid. We don't buy or keep junk in the house, no soda, no crappy fast food etc aside from special occasions, they're not forbidden from it or anything but it's very limited and really easy to do because all our family and friends are the same way with their kids, I haven't seen anyone I know drink a soda in a long long time; schools encourage healthy foods only, school lunches aren't perfect as they're still highly processed but there is no soda, an unlimited fresh veggie bar, whole grains/ brown rice etc. My oldest will choose sushi over pizza or fries every time when we eat out. Funnily enough I just got blasted for all this over in the Debate forum, where I was told Doritos and soda are perfectly healthy food choices, and my kids would grow up to gorge themselves on junk food because we don't eat it at home...
Thats ridiculous lol. It's one thing to say that on occasion its fine to let your kids have junk food, its entirely another thing to say that its healthy for them to eat it. Maybe its my location then. I live in Indiana and a lot of my family live in urban areas in the cities. Indiana is a pretty fat state. I'm the only person I know besides my husband who is actually eating healthy and trying to lose weight.
Actually what's ridiculous is that nobody said that in that particular thread. This particular individual has reading comprehension issues. People said that those things in moderate amounts aren't detrimental to one's health.
Erm, no, people repeatedly stated "there is NOTHING wrong with Doritos/ soda/ fast food" and that there is no point or benefit in trying to avoid these foods as much as possible
IN MODERATION AND AS PART OF AN OVERALL BALANCED DIET!!!
Interesting how you keep missing that point.10 -
lporter229 wrote: »It seems that there are two types of people now: those that are very into taking care of themselves and their health and those whose kids eat only nuggets and fast food.
Am I the only one that thought this post was intended to be sarcastic?[/quote
Seems like it. I know there are moderate people but those two stand out the most and garner the most attention. I wasnt being literal. Lol.0
Categories
- All Categories
- 1.4M Health, Wellness and Goals
- 391.3K Introduce Yourself
- 43.4K Getting Started
- 259.6K Health and Weight Loss
- 175.6K Food and Nutrition
- 47.3K Recipes
- 232.3K Fitness and Exercise
- 387 Sleep, Mindfulness and Overall Wellness
- 6.4K Goal: Maintaining Weight
- 8.5K Goal: Gaining Weight and Body Building
- 152.7K Motivation and Support
- 7.8K Challenges
- 1.3K Debate Club
- 96.2K Chit-Chat
- 2.5K Fun and Games
- 3.2K MyFitnessPal Information
- 22 News and Announcements
- 911 Feature Suggestions and Ideas
- 2.3K MyFitnessPal Tech Support Questions