susan

hi,

i've recently heard, somewhere, talk about eating a balanced diet and they
were saying it is better to balance your diet over a week or a month instead
of a day or a meal. meaning one day you can eat one sort of food, on another
day eat a different type just balance your diet that way instead of having a
little of each different type of food in each meal. i thought it was an
interesting idea. i find my son kind of eats this way one day he'll eat lots
of fruit another yogurt etc.

-susan
austin,tx
'unity through diversity'

libbygirl wrote:

>
>
> My comments were certainly not intended as a suggestion for everyone to
> follow but rather to demonstrate how I had to change my
> previously-unquestioned belief about the "necessity" for 3 meals a day!!
>
> Regards,
> Brooke
>

Nanci and Thomas Kuykendall

The kids kind of graze during
>the day and help themselves as they want.
>
>Even the baby (2yog) knows that she can help herself to the food on the
>bottom shelf of the fridge whenever she wants it.

>Brooke


AS with so may other areas the food and meal issue is another where our needs individually must be considered and I cannot do what you have found so comfortable with your kids. The main reason for this is a three year old who has many severe and some fatal food allergies, while the rest of us can eat most anything. I cannot let him help himself. In fact we have very strict rules about him not being allowed even to help himself at a buffet or when someone offers him something, even a friend or another parent.

Time and again I have had to intersect a handoff of a dangerous substance before he ate any and explain to the horrified and apologetic friend that this is something he cannot eat. When one does not have allergies, you do not think about food in the same way, read every label ad naseum, and take such precautions.

He sometimes "steals" food from his younger brother and runs off to try to scarf it down, or does similar things with food found where it was left out and forgotten (like a candy for instance.) We have had more than one allergy reaction from this kind of thing, because as a toddler he wants autonomy and control of his life and sometimes tries to take control of his diet to that end. The problem of course is he does not know, nor does he remember, which things he can and cannot eat and which items have allergens in them or not.

I MUST supervise his diet or risk losing him every day. For example, he knows he can eat cake, but only cake that I make with no dairy and eggs in it. So Cake as a whole is off limits. He always has to ask before he takes anything from anyone but us, and he always has to ask before getting anything for himself. His allergies are too numerous and too complicated for him to decipher at this age. I wish I could give him more freedom in the area of diet, but I can't.

Nanci K.

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libbygirl

Dear Nanci,
Gosh - that must be exhausting having to monitor your little one so
carefully! Makes me realise how lucky I am not to have allergies in family.
Would it still be possible (if you chose) to put "his" special snacks/food
on a special shelf where he could help himself but not reach anything that
is potentially dangerous?

My comments were certainly not intended as a suggestion for everyone to
follow but rather to demonstrate how I had to change my
previously-unquestioned belief about the "necessity" for 3 meals a day!!

Regards,
Brooke