Paleo and kids?
impyimpyaj
Posts: 1,073 Member
I know there's the Paleo Kids blog and the "Eat Like a Dinosaur" book and all that, so I know it's not a difficult thing for a parent to move their kids toward a paleo diet. I'm just wondering, who here has done it? Any tips? My son (4 years) has chronic allergies and some behavioral problems, and we've already seen a vast improvement just cutting dairy, dyes and added sugar out of his diet, but I think we can do more. Both my kids love eggs, meat, fruit and at least some vegetables, and my son will actually eat plain salad greens because he thinks of them as leaves, which in his mind makes them non-food, and he has a thing with eating stuff that isn't food. Like dirt. And crayons. Anyway, I think our biggest hurdle will be toast. Both of them really like toast with their breakfast, and for the occasional snack. So I'm not really sure what to do there, because I don't want it to seem like I'm saying, "This is a forbidden food!" Because we all know that kids want what they're not allowed to have, especially my son.
Any thoughts?
Any thoughts?
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Replies
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My 5 year old has transitioned with us and is loving it, he loves having veggies, fresh cut up and raw. We read the Paleo Pals book together and it's on the ipad so he looks it when he wants too.
We talked about how food makes us feel and food that's healthier than other food, we don't ban anything but he's naturally making the choices we make and we don't make separate meals for him so he eats what we eat.
We've noticed he's' considerably calmer and still has tonnes of energy. He does have more startchy veg and sweet potato than us but it's still all paleo.
Charlie is dairy allergic anyway so that was already out of his diet.0 -
Not that I have kids (yet anyway
) but I do know what I was like as a kid with being told "you can't have that, it's bad for you".
Maybe you could try something like http://www.thepaleomom.com/2012/03/recipe-yeast-based-paleo-bread.html - says it's good as toast so could be a good one to try. 0 -
We talked about how food makes us feel and food that's healthier than other food,
That's actually how we approached it with the dyes. I just told him that when foods have dye in them, especially red, they make him angry, so we're going to eat other things. He's ok with it, and my daughter even reminded my husband when they were out shopping that Zach shouldn't buy the red juice, because it makes him cranky. (He still bought the blue and green, but baby steps. He's trying.) I'm not sure he'll see a connection with the wheat, but maybe it won't matter if HE sees it. I'm pretty sure he didn't notice the anger thing either, he just took my word for it. We'll try it.
I don't make special meals for my kids either, but my husband is not eating paleo, so we still keep bread and crackers and that stuff around.
Spooky_Rach, thanks for that link! I'll try that when we get back from our trip.0 -
Telling them things might work for some but I think the best thing to do is cook them paleo meals and make desserts/sweets that they'll LOVE!! You want them to love it so much they'll ask you to make it again and again. If you can make paleo versions of "dirty" food they'll be all over it. Also I'd do it in batches so if they want to eat when bored they'll have easy access to the paleo stuff. And if you're putting fruit n veg in their lunchboxes make it interesting or put it on skewers (cocoa dipping sauce optional)!0
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Basically, if it's not in the house they can't have it -- so if my kids ask for toast and I haven't made bread (I still make it on occasion for them), then it's just simply, "Sorry, we don't have any! But I do have x, would you like that?" Sometimes I comment on the fact that we're cutting back on whatever it is, but I don't say anything's verboten. We are not 100% paleo - but I tapered off of things quite quickly. They didn't seem to mind.0
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Great topic!
I'm struggling with this also. I have a 1 & 2 yr old. My husband and I have eliminated all grains, but we are using up the bread/crackers/etc in the pantry with the kids. We are making a gradual transition to "paleo-like" diet with them with the exception of diary. I know what the paleo book says, but I just feel strange taking milk away from my 1 year old. I'm greatly reducing it with both kids though.
I find breakfast and snacks to be the most challenging. Basically moving to paleo-like diet is a much more gradual process for the kids than it has been for us.0 -
Great topic!
I'm struggling with this also. I have a 1 & 2 yr old. My husband and I have eliminated all grains, but we are using up the bread/crackers/etc in the pantry with the kids. We are making a gradual transition to "paleo-like" diet with them with the exception of diary. I know what the paleo book says, but I just feel strange taking milk away from my 1 year old. I'm greatly reducing it with both kids though.
I find breakfast and snacks to be the most challenging. Basically moving to paleo-like diet is a much more gradual process for the kids than it has been for us.
There are some great milk alternatives and very often they are fortified with Calcium, my little boy is 5 and has had human milk and animal for less than 3 weeks of his life, he's allergic, so has almond milk, soy at times and very very occasionally buffalo. Honestly as long as they are getting a good range of greens their calcium levels won't suffer.0 -
Kidling is 6.5 now. She transitioned to gluten free 14 months ago, grain free almost immediately afterward. She's a Primal/Paleo evangelist now. As an infant, she breastfed exclusively for around 7 months. She chose Halibut cheeks as her first food and the friends (kidless) whose plate she stole two fistfuls from have not spoken to me since. Oh well, you can't win them all. lol
In ignorance, I fed her whole grain products the first 5 years, but other than grains/legumes her life was fairly processed food free. When stomach aches woke her screaming at 2:30am for several months, I used that as my excuse to finally become gluten and then grain free. Initially doctors diagnosed her with stomach flu but I eventually wizened up and solved the problem as a science experiment.
When we first transitioned, I didn't throw anything away. Instead I put her excellent reading skills to work. We made a game of it. For every 10 products on which she found the words 'wheat' or 'gluten', I gave her a quarter. By the time she was done reading the junior version of Omnivore's Dilemma and cleaning out our pantry of wheat and corn ingredients, she had enough to go on quite the shopping spree at our local Farmer's Market. We gave away all of our pasta to people that actually eat wheat and she threw away anything that no one else wanted.
She loved all foods as a baby but quit eating veggies, any veggies for several years (age 2-4). Turns out to be a textural thing with her. When her taste buds/palate shifted back toward veggies, we made another game of it. She was in the habit of drawing rainbows at that time so we made a rainbow chart to take shopping at the Farmer's Market or grocery store. She was assigned the task of finding one organic, local item (fruit or veggie) from each color in the rainbow each week. If she consumed one serving of each color per week, I rewarded her with a new coloring/sticker book or a piece of sports equipment. The rainbow soccer ball was her favorite.
Now she needs no motivation other than her own foodie sensibilities. She pines for asparagus when it is out of season. She can tell you the names of foreign veggies and how to cook them.
I have never forbid her to eat anything except the buttons on her favorite shirts. lol
Often, I find myself reminding her that she has the option to eat only what makes her tummy feel good, her muscles perform better and things that help her concentrate on doing what she loves. In the end it is her choice. When she has a symptom of poor food choices, we go back over anything she has eaten for the last 4-5 days and put those items in the 'suspicious' column. She knows how to listen to her own body and evaluate if a new food is or is not working for her.
As she has observed our neighbors feeding their kids the SAD and watched their behavior and school performance change dramatically with poor food supply, she has become focused on getting nutrition first, treats second. She has experimented on her own, independent of me and understands that garbage in equals garbage out. She enjoys being able to 'figure it out' without parental assistance.
When I asked her what she thought might be helpful to include here, she said that "it's important to learn to connect Tuesday's tummy ache or temper tantrum with Friday's pizza. Most kids forget what they eat."
:flowerforyou:0 -
Your kidling sound amazing! I only have grandchildren and no kids but when they come over, eating what Nana makes is no big deal--they eat veg and other things not available or interested in at home. Sometimes there's trickery involved like adding liver to meatballs, or making cauliflower rice or mashed potatoes, but mostly with no snacking they'll eat their arm by the time meal time rolls around. Kudos to you for making your child take an active role in their food choices.0
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We have a 4 and a 7 year old girl who we bringing around to a primal way of eating.
Bread is often an issue, especially because all of their friends of course eat that stuff.
However, our kids will basically eat anything, including octopus and small fish that are eaten whole.
So they are good and healthy eaters anyway.
We don't worry about it.
What counts is what their habit is, not what eat on a given day.
We give them the bread, but make sure to eat our way....they take note and usually then want what we have.
Basically we lead by example.
As for toast we make them "egg in a hole".
Basically, tear out a good chunk of bread from the center of a slice of bread, creating a hole.
Fry the bread in some decent ghee, then crack an egg into the hole.
Flip, wait and you're done.
You can increase the size of chunk you remove from the center over time :-)0 -
I would like to know too!! My daughter is 10 months old so she doesn't have any habits yet. I want to teach her how to make her decisions without me there. Maybe at grandma's house or school?0
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I personally think with 10 months that might be a bit much to expect.
I would go as natural as you can manage, breast milk being best if you're still nursing.
Make sure that whatever you feed her is free of unnecessary sugars and carbs and I would not necessarily buy into what the baby food industry suggests.
Think first of what would be natural and think of what the food industry is really telling you.
Get organic foods, cook it yourself, using few spices if any.
If you really want to go whole hog you can premasticate meat for your baby.
http://www.marksdailyapple.com/should-you-chew-your-childs-food/#axzz1wSLcVh3s
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Premastication0 -
I would like to know too!! My daughter is 10 months old so she doesn't have any habits yet. I want to teach her how to make her decisions without me there. Maybe at grandma's house or school?
She's not going to be able to make these decisions on her own for quite some time. Even when she can, she's going to need to be able to rely on the adults in her life to be honest with her. For instance, my nephew had a severe dairy allergy, so by the time he was two and a half, he had learned to ask, "Is there milk in it?" And the grown-ups would say, "No, of course not!" So he would eat it, and then get sick because it was a chocolate cupcake with buttercream icing, and of course it had milk in it. Adults are stupid sometimes, and sometimes they lie because they just "don't see the big deal." YOU are going to need to be the one to work with the other adults in her life and make sure they're on board. And if they won't follow your guidelines, and if it's important to you, then you need to get other adults in her life who ARE on board.0 -
Thank you so much for all your advice, folks! I really appreciate it. 0
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I know there's the Paleo Kids blog and the "Eat Like a Dinosaur" book and all that, so I know it's not a difficult thing for a parent to move their kids toward a paleo diet. I'm just wondering, who here has done it? Any tips? My son (4 years) has chronic allergies and some behavioral problems, and we've already seen a vast improvement just cutting dairy, dyes and added sugar out of his diet, but I think we can do more. Both my kids love eggs, meat, fruit and at least some vegetables, and my son will actually eat plain salad greens because he thinks of them as leaves, which in his mind makes them non-food, and he has a thing with eating stuff that isn't food. Like dirt. And crayons. Anyway, I think our biggest hurdle will be toast. Both of them really like toast with their breakfast, and for the occasional snack. So I'm not really sure what to do there, because I don't want it to seem like I'm saying, "This is a forbidden food!" Because we all know that kids want what they're not allowed to have, especially my son.
Any thoughts?
I'm late to the party here, and possibly this has already been suggested, but can't you just "run out" of bread? Tell your son, "sorry, you can't have toast. We're out of bread." and leave it at that? It works for my kids... they can't eat what we don't have, logically, and sometimes it results in tears, but if I have a good substitute (like a banana) or something else they always find fun, it's not a big deal to be "out" of bread.
I'm beginning the process of transitioning my son for behavioral problems, so I'm glad I found this post, albeit, old as it is. 0 -
I've been eating paleo/primal for a week and a half now (and have eaten this way periodically throughout my child's life) and today was the first day that my child asked for toast. She wanted just peanut butter (yeah, peanuts aren't great!) on it.
She eats what I eat, loves meat and veggies, but has extra fruit. She still gets oatmeal or cereal for breakfast, a little milk, rice maybe once per week and some treats, but she always eats what I eat so is eating healthier overall. As time goes, and as long as I stay consistent with our diet, whe will adjust to less and less grains. I'll probably keep the oatmeal for her though, as long as she wants it.
One thing strange though, as a baby she loved eggs and now not so much. She'll eat omelet on occasion but doesn't like eggs otherwise.
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For instance, my nephew had a severe dairy allergy, so by the time he was two and a half, he had learned to ask, "Is there milk in it?" And the grown-ups would say, "No, of course not!" So he would eat it, and then get sick because it was a chocolate cupcake with buttercream icing, and of course it had milk in it. Adults are stupid sometimes, and sometimes they lie because they just "don't see the big deal." YOU are going to need to be the one to work with the other adults in her life and make sure they're on board. And if they won't follow your guidelines, and if it's important to you, then you need to get other adults in her life who ARE on board.
:noway: Wow... I have no words for those adults (particularly if they know him).0 -
Kidling is 6.5 now. She transitioned to gluten free 14 months ago, grain free almost immediately afterward. She's a Primal/Paleo evangelist now. As an infant, she breastfed exclusively for around 7 months. She chose Halibut cheeks as her first food and the friends (kidless) whose plate she stole two fistfuls from have not spoken to me since. Oh well, you can't win them all. lol
In ignorance, I fed her whole grain products the first 5 years, but other than grains/legumes her life was fairly processed food free. When stomach aches woke her screaming at 2:30am for several months, I used that as my excuse to finally become gluten and then grain free. Initially doctors diagnosed her with stomach flu but I eventually wizened up and solved the problem as a science experiment.
When we first transitioned, I didn't throw anything away. Instead I put her excellent reading skills to work. We made a game of it. For every 10 products on which she found the words 'wheat' or 'gluten', I gave her a quarter. By the time she was done reading the junior version of Omnivore's Dilemma and cleaning out our pantry of wheat and corn ingredients, she had enough to go on quite the shopping spree at our local Farmer's Market. We gave away all of our pasta to people that actually eat wheat and she threw away anything that no one else wanted.
She loved all foods as a baby but quit eating veggies, any veggies for several years (age 2-4). Turns out to be a textural thing with her. When her taste buds/palate shifted back toward veggies, we made another game of it. She was in the habit of drawing rainbows at that time so we made a rainbow chart to take shopping at the Farmer's Market or grocery store. She was assigned the task of finding one organic, local item (fruit or veggie) from each color in the rainbow each week. If she consumed one serving of each color per week, I rewarded her with a new coloring/sticker book or a piece of sports equipment. The rainbow soccer ball was her favorite.
Now she needs no motivation other than her own foodie sensibilities. She pines for asparagus when it is out of season. She can tell you the names of foreign veggies and how to cook them.
I have never forbid her to eat anything except the buttons on her favorite shirts. lol
Often, I find myself reminding her that she has the option to eat only what makes her tummy feel good, her muscles perform better and things that help her concentrate on doing what she loves. In the end it is her choice. When she has a symptom of poor food choices, we go back over anything she has eaten for the last 4-5 days and put those items in the 'suspicious' column. She knows how to listen to her own body and evaluate if a new food is or is not working for her.
As she has observed our neighbors feeding their kids the SAD and watched their behavior and school performance change dramatically with poor food supply, she has become focused on getting nutrition first, treats second. She has experimented on her own, independent of me and understands that garbage in equals garbage out. She enjoys being able to 'figure it out' without parental assistance.
When I asked her what she thought might be helpful to include here, she said that "it's important to learn to connect Tuesday's tummy ache or temper tantrum with Friday's pizza. Most kids forget what they eat."
:flowerforyou:
:flowerforyou: :drinker:
I just wanted to tell you how awesome you and your kid are. I can only hope to get mine like that (he's smart, and already loves fruits and veggies, so *crosses fingers*).0 -
My 7yo is a carb fiend. I'd love him to try paleo, but he is totally not into it. We give him protein enriched pasta, and we can get him to eat chicken and some veggies, but for the most part, he's hotdogs (with rolls) and peanut butter sandwiches. And he's a stubborn little cuss! (Can't imagine where he gets *that* from...)0
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I'm really wanting to slowly have my kids eat Primal with me. My husband isn't on board yet either though so he thinks I'm crazy when I tell him I'm gonna stop buying them bread/milk.... BUT, I'm thinking next big grocery run will be completely grain/legume free. I need to look into these books and websites for kids!0
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I've been able to get my kids to about 75% paleo, with one of them being more into it than the others. Two of my boys (I have 3) had been diagnosed with a variety of manic behaviors (ADHD, bipolar, OCD, to name a few). At one point, the younger one was on a cocktail of over 12 pills a day to help keep his behavior and mood swings in check...and he was only 10yo. While researching if there was a better way to manage his sever mood swings, I ran across a study (from the UK I think) that concluded that ~60% of children that were diagnosed with a manic disorder did not have the disorder at all. In fact they were having reactions to certain foods that they ate. So, that's when I found out about Paleo which just so happened was just before school let out.
Immediately after school was out for the summer, every bit of junk food, food with added sugars, bread products, milk, and cereals were pitched. They whined and complained like any kid would do, but in reality they didn't miss it. I made sure to keep a supply of veggies and fruits for snacks.
Fast forward...2 yrs later...My one son is down now to only 1 pill a day from the 12. He is almost like a new child. He was also the one to quickly recognize how food changed the way he felt. If he had an occassional piece of bread, it was not uncommon for him to complain of a stomach ache.
I have relaxed my strictness with them (mainly because it is impossible to keep them 100% compliant -- especially the 15yo). Still no bread, cereal, or regular milk, but I now let them have yogurt, cheese, sugar free ice cream, and occassionally rice.
Pushing kids towards Paleo is definitely not easy. But, I can say in our case the pain was worth the effort.0
