[email protected]

Quote:

One thing I did and still do is make sure there is other food ready all
the time. Little kids don't like to wait for food, and even at ten,
when he knows how to make so many things, my son still sometimes prefers
fast.

I make a sandwich or two in the morning and cut it and wrap it separately
and have it in the fridge, ready to grab. I wash fruit and leave it on
the counter. I wash grapes and carrots and put them into little zip loc
bags. I always have bananas and nuts and seeds.

Kids will balance their food consumption naturally as long as they have
choices. If the only choice for quick and handy food is chips, etc. then
that's what they'll eat. If other choices are just as quick and handy
they get equal consideration.

It works! You'll survive. = )

Deb L >>

Stephanie Elms

Thanks for all the encouragement about the food thing. I do truly believe that no limits
will work. It just has been really painful watching them gorge. There were a couple of days
when they only ate candy, soda and chips. BUT I have seen some glimmers of hope. Yesterday
I asked Jason if he was only eating candy because I had not let him for so long. He said
yes. I also asked him if he was afraid that I would change my mind, he said yes. I reassured
him that I was not going to change my mind. Today he asked for 4 grilled cheese sandwiches
for lunch (he ate 3) and ate much less junk then he has for the past 2 weeks. He seems more
open to listening to me also. A couple of weeks ago, I made the mistake of cringing when
he asked for mountain dew when we were out with my grandmother and aunt and cousins. I
explained to him that it had more caffeine then most sodas and I was worried that he
would start getting hyper. Of course this made him want it more. He ended up drinking
2 cans and bouncing off the walls, getting all over his brother etc. Not exactly
the behavior I wanted around my grandmother! The next day, I talked to him about it.
He said that he liked feeling that way ;o) thought that it was kind of neat. I told
him that it was hard on me when we were out with people because it took more energy
to parent him. I asked him if he would mind only drinking it when we were not out with
people (stressing that it was his decision). He said yes. So he has been drinking it
at home and seeing how it affects him. If he wants to drink it next time we are out
I will let him, but hopefully this compromise will work. I think that he is just interested
in how things he eats make him feel. So in the short run, it is more work because I have
to be more "on" as a parent when he is bouncing off the walls, but in the long run
I think that he will be more aware of how he feels when he eats different things.

I am trying to leave more healthy stuff easily available, but it can be hard as Jason
is a *very* picky eater (so was/am I). I have never made him eat anything he did not
want to (my parents were very controlling about making me eat things I did not like).
We have lots of conversations about how mommy did not like many things when she was
little, but tastes change as you get older. He is pretty open to trying new things, but
I do not force him. The funny thing, I started out, when he was little, planning on letting
him eat what he wanted. I remember when he was 2, being vindicated in front of my mother
when I let him have some birthday cake *before* lunch and he still ate all of his
lunch. However as he got older, I panicked about the junk food thing and started
restricting it. sigh.

Thanks again...I may come back for support before he finds his balance. Why is my opinion of myself as a mother so tied up in what my children eat?

Stephanie E.