|
Author: benjess@cox-internet.com
Date: 11-05-03 23:01
I noticed Shari's post about her kids gainning weight, and it got me thinking. As I stated in my first post my wife and I are expecting our first child in the near future. Anyone know any good books or philosophys on raising healthy kids? There's the obvious, not having junk food around, and cooking healthy meals. What about regulating snacks? Do you tell you kids to finish their meal, or let them stop when they want to?
-------------------------------------------------
250-185-180ish(maybe)
Started 9-9-2003
|
|
Reply To This Message
|
|
Author: Lady
Date: 11-05-03 23:50
I don't let my kids snack. And I make them eat their dinner. My kids love healthy foods. They have no problem eating broccoli or green beens or salads....My kids are all of healthy weight. I'm starting to sound cocky, but really I don't think it's that hard. I see a lot of parents who let their kids snack all day on junk; candy, ice cream....Then when their kids don't want to eat their dinner, they're like," I don't know why he won't eat, he just doesn't seem to like this food" ...It drives me crazy. Actually, I think It's funny when my kids' friends will come over for dinner and not eat. My kids gobble up the food and say, "That was great Mom!" And they want seconds. Their friends are like," eew, vegetables, I'm not eating" lol Then my kids reply,"You don't know what you're missing, this is good!" ....Anyways, what I do and what I've always done is make well balanced meals. I think it's great that you are wanting to know this even before your child is born. So many people don't know until it's too late and their kids are already set in their ways.
I make them breakfast every morning- nothing major, usually cereal, but it is every morning.
My girls are in school now, so I can't control the times but I give my son a snack about 10:00. And trust me, he asks all morning for candy or pudding or whatever. But it's all about control on your part. I don't give in until about 10:00. Then its usually crackers or granola bar or even that pudding cup he wanted.
Then lunch time is 12:00 to 12:30 and that's usually pb&j with crackers and some fruit and glass of milk.
Afternoon snack is about 3:00 when girls are home. Now that one is not so planned out usually some chips or whatever they find that's excessable. I let them choose that one, but a lot of times they choose fruit.
Then dinner is about 6:00 And usually some form of meat, potatoe rice or pasta, and salad or other vegetable.
Occasionally, I let them have dessert like a small bowl of ice cream.
I'm beginning to sound like a drill sergent but really it's not that bad. My kids don't complain because they don't know any better. It's not that I'm strict, there are just rules in my house. It's not really rules, in fact, my kids probably are not even aware that I have set times for their meals. They just eat when I tell them its ready. They usually don't complain that they're hungry. Except right before dinner, as I'm cooking they start whinning that they're starving, and I just tell them to wait. It's all about control on the part of the parent......I have a friend whos kids are very overweight. She wonders why and even took them to the doctor thinking there was a medical condition. Obviously there wasn't. Meanwhile she never says no to them and gives them whatever they want including food whenever they want. I just don't understand why she doesn't get it. It's all about control, just as our diets are. Only problem with me is I've been doing this forever with my kids and just recently realized it for myself.
Anyway, I hope this helps and I hope I didn't sound too stict.LOL!!!!!
Lady
|
|
Reply To This Message
|
|
Author: Lady
Date: 11-06-03 00:01
Oh yeah, I don't make them "finish" their meals. I serve decent portions and they eat till they're done. Wheather that's a couple of bites or the whole plate, thats up to them. They just know "that's it" they're not getting anything else. You don't have to be mean, just stern and consistant with your rules. They will soon realize to appriciate what is served to them.
Lady
|
|
Reply To This Message
|
|
Author: Shari
Date: 11-06-03 06:20
Shari 250/152/125
I can only tell you what has failed with my children. This may/may not fail with your children as every child is different and every family is different.
1. DO NOT allow them to eat as many snacks as they want.
2. DO NOT allow them to drink as much soda as they want.
3. DO NOT use food as a reward - for anything.
4. BE PHYSICALLY ACTIVE WITH YOUR CHILDREN. Reading stories and playing board games are great, but don't forget about basketball, catch or swimming...even gardening will do.
5. Limit TV time - or reward physical activity with more TV time.
6. Apply rule #5 to computer/video game time also.
Hindsight is always 20/20 they say and now I know why. When my son was born I weighed 260 pounds, was not active and had horrible eating habits. That behavior continued until he was 11 and my daughter was 7, when I noticed they were obese and had high blood pressure. I was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis at that time and needed to change also.
However, by that time they were used to things the way they were. If I had started sooner and thought about it - like you are now - things would be different for them now.
|
|
Reply To This Message
|
|
Author: Jeanetta
Date: 11-06-03 07:31
I can tell you what has worked for us, but you will find your own ways of knowing what is right for you :)
1) We do not have an empty your plate rule, I had that as a child (as well as my husband) and to this day we feel a need to eat everything on our plate, even if we are well past full.
2) We do allow snacking if the kids are hungry, and they have their choice of what to eat. We always have plenty of fruits and veggies for them to snack on. They know when they are hungry as they listen to their body instead of their head. If they had breakfast an hour ago and want an apple they can have one. They also don't learn that food is a control issue, you eat when you are hungry and stop when you are full. The only time I don't allow snacking is if I am in the process of cooking lol. While my husband and I are both overweight our kids are not, they also do not have as many issues with food as we do. They know it is always there, if they are hungry they can eat, if they aren't they don't have to (although they do have to join us at the table). If they don't like what we are having for dinner they are free to pick 1 fruit, 1 veggie, and a pb&j sandwich to have instead.
3) While we don't restrict junk food we quite often don't have any so it isn't an issue. When we do if they want chips and they already ate something healthy they can have a serving (not the whole bag lol). But they do know it is junk food and they need to eat good food first. We don't define it as good and bad though, we define it as vitamins vs. no vitamins.
4) Encourage physical activity. We usually take an evening walk, play a game of twister, shadow tag, etc every night. Until recently I never thought of this as exercise just a fun way to spend the evening after dinner before bed. Our kids are also involved in martial arts and dance which they find fun.
5) This kind of goes with 2 but we Always have fresh fruit and veggies on hand. They love apples, bananas, oranges, melon, celery w/ pb, carrots and dip, salad, broccoli and dip, cauliflower and dip, etc. Our daughter was actually surprised to find out that some kids don't like fruits and veggies. She recently had a friend over and they wanted snack. Her friend wanted a Halloween candy bar, our daughter wanted melon. She was actually surprised her friend passed up melon for a candy bar!
6) Pop -well, we don't have any and they don't miss it. They always have a choice of milk, water, or juice (100%). On a rare occassion kool-aid but they don't care for it much.
7) Don't use food as a reward. Although I have to admit, I have on occassion threatened to put the melon (or apples, or oranges, or whatever) back if they didn't behave in the store :( But it has been few and far between and I always realized it when I said it.
I had a lot of food rules when I was growing up and I think, for me, that by not being able to make my own choices I learned food was a control issue. I was overweight by late elementary school and stayed that way. For our kids food is what you eat when you are hungry and nothing more. And we go through HUGE amounts of produce every week. It accounts for almost 75% of our grocery bill.
Jeanetta
210/159.6/140
|
|
Reply To This Message
|
|
Author: benjess@cox-internet.com
Date: 11-06-03 07:33
Shari,
Well don't get down on yourself Shari, I'm sure you and your kids are good people despite having weight issues. One of the only reasons I'm so paranoid about my child's eating habits is that, although I was physically active as a kid, I also had some weight issues.
-------------------------------------------------
250-185-180ish(maybe)
Started 9-9-2003
|
|
Reply To This Message
|
|
Author: Eric
Date: 11-06-03 07:33
Make a healthy lifestyle convenient for your kids. I did this with everything!
There are always healthy snacks available, like apples and bananas and raisins. Cakes, ice cream, pies were only available on special occassions.
Fast food icons like Jack and Ronald are held in the same esteem as the tobacco industry in our home.
Always be available to drive your kid to, and support them in, healthy activities like sports, swiming, karate or dance.
Join your kids in healthy activities like hiking, and bike riding.
Limit TV, video game, and puter time.
Healthy kids need more than a good diet.
If you can, get your kid in a martial art. They will walk with greater confidence and they won't be perceived as an easy victim. They will learn discipline and control, as well as self defense. All of my girls took martial arts.
Always be available to drive them to visit the good kids, and always be available to host the good kids. Never be available to drive them to the shady charachter's house.
Don't allow your kid to go somewher that you haven't "inspected." You don't have to go and check for dust, just step in the front door and make sure they aren't manufacturing crank in the living room or that there isn't a loaded 9mm sitting on the coffee table (it's happened).
Call and make sure the visit or party will be parent supervised. Start this early and soon your kid won't even ask to go where trouble lurks. Added bonus, your kid will find other kids with parents of like minds.
When they get older, have the parties at you house. The "good kids" want a good safe place to hang. I know I've hosted an average of ten parties a year trough their teen years, with as many as 75 kids at a party. My brother-in-law always tells me that the money I've spent on these parties will be saved in bail money later. So far he's right.
Kids have really appreciated this and while we have had the occasional spill on the carpet or broken glass, we have never had a drug, alcohol, or sex issue at any of these parties, never one fight and never had anything stolen.
Enjoy it. It goes by fast. I really listened to everyone tell me this in the beginnning, and I really tried to max my time with the kids, and it still went by fast. My "baby" will graduate high school in June.
Sorry to be long winded. Parenting may be the only thing in my life I've done well (and I can look back and see tons of mistakes).
Eric
I intend to live forever.....So far so good!
272/ /188 1.5 lbs. this week. I dare not say till the cast comes off
|
|
Reply To This Message
|
|
Author: Otta-no-better
Date: 11-06-03 15:29
1. Love them up!
2. Children will see what you do 100 times louder than what you say.
3. Being outside with a child (or two or six :) is better than TV, computer, video games, other adults, silver, gold or money.
4. Rules are a good thing.
Susan lost 40 lbs in 17 months
At goal, under 124 lbs since Sept. 10/04
Eat your protein, muscle is key
|
|
Reply To This Message
|
|
Author: NancyB
Date: 11-06-03 18:18
I'm with Eric on McDonald's. Those places are poison. Fast food restaurants have taken the worst things you can eat, healthwise,and made them seem all cuddly and wholesome. To add to the falsehood, they never show overweight people in their ads.
Whatever you do, don't go to McDonald's, Burger King, or any of the fast food places with your family. There are so many nice restaurants that serve real food. My six-year-old daughter understands that even though other kids go to McDonald's we don't, and she's sort of proud of that. You can tell children, when they're old enough to understand, that you make certain decisions out of love for them, and they appreciate it.
NancyB
160-135-135
|
|
Reply To This Message
|
|
Click here
for a great cookbook
with quick & healthy
recipes
Weight Lifting
For Absolute Beginners:
Illustrated Guide
CLICK HERE
|
