How are you helping your children?

[Boogity]

I have been following the thread about schools not allowing their own home-grown food to be used in the cafeterias. This has caused me to wonder about the terrible eating habits and obesity of American children and how parents are training their youngsters. As parents we are either enablers or preventers of obesity and the lazy lifestyles of our kids.

What are you folks doing to stop the epidemic?

 

[savingdogs]

Children learn best by example....they will eat the way they learn to eat from their parents.

I don't think 100 percent banning things from your kids works, it just makes them want to sneak the things you don't want them to have.

Trying to learn moderation is a challenge even most adults are workin' on, you know. And most children do not have an active lifestyle anymore, everything is automatic. They don't even need to walk down the block to talk to their friend...most kids are just texting one another constantly.

We took away our son's cell phone because it was one big constant distraction and stopped bringing home stuff we didn't want him to eat, that is how we handled it.

 

[flossy]

For me I try to make as much of our foods as I can myself. I think it's important to lead by example, good whole foods that we all eat, having fruits and vege avaliable at all times to snack on. I limit the amount of bought snack food that is eatten by just not bying it.

Also walking to the bus stop, kindergarten, to the shops, or supermarket. If they start shouting at each other or get into arguments I send them outside to run around in the backyard, play kicks or ride bikes.

 

[Rebecka]

I have no children myself. However, I have a slew of children in my life and it seems to the the trick is to start them young. Good eating habits start in the home. Responsible behaviors are learned from caring adults. This kid is a good start! http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_21719.cfm

 

[FarmerChick]

my daughter is 5 now, soon to be 6 in April

she has learned tons about the animals on the farm
she has worked the crop fields, she sure can plant onion sets fast along with all of us..lol

she eats great and I tell her "the good" foods vs. the junk stuff.

how to eat it all in moderation, and that moderation in everything you do in life is best without being too extreme in anything we do when it comes to daily lifestyle

and it all works well cause when we go out to dinner, she tells the waitress she wants to drink water with lemon lol cause she says that water is the best drink in the world haha

so yea, I am getting through to her

 

[Dace]

We don't really grow our own food, maybe a few things from a small garden and some fruit from a few trees, BUT.....my kids don't each much garbage.

It is all about education and let's be honest, most parents are eating poorly so what would anyone expect their kids to be eating? Junk.

My 17 yr old had a friend over the other day who complained that she was eating constantly. The girl said, I don't eat bad stuff, but I am always snacking. So I asked, what did you eat today? Chewy bars, gummy snacks, cheetos and more chewy bars was the final list topped off with some leftover pasta from a local restaurant after school. Well no wonder the girl is always hungry....and she thinks this is decent food!

My DD tried to explain to her that she needs to eat some real food....her list for the day was, sourdough toast with butter and cream cheese, yogurt, an apple, almonds and cheetos. All real food with the exception of the cheetos...which are fine in a diet that is made up of real food, but when that junk IS your diet, you are going to be in trouble.

 

[Mackay]

My kids are grown and gone now and I can say that feeding them right was not easy. As soon as they had their own money they junked it up.

But one thing I think that really helped for them to learn was having sit down dinners everynight around the dinning table. We did this until their lives got too busy in the later years of highschool.

Now when I go to visit them they know how to set a table, serve courses, plan a meal around protien and veggies, make it look attractive with colors and texture. Colors are really important because eating color means you are getting the vitamins minerals and anti-oxidants you need.

Also, having dad cook once in a while really helped model for the boys... By the time my eldest was in junior high he could and sometimes did cook breakfast... in highschool he was fully capable of cooking dinner and he on occassion would and it was good. Now living independently his cooks frequently and does not rely on the junk food restaurants as I feared he might.

 

[Wifezilla]

I tried to help my oldest as I learned more about the effects of carbohydrates. He is in his early 20's though and knows everything

My youngest is autistic so we can't keep things in the house that are junk or he will just binge.

As for moderation, it sounds nice. Too bad it doesn't work for many in practice. It isn't a will power issue either. Some people (like me) have such a strong physical reaction to carbs (blood sugar spikes, insulin response, reactive hypoglycemia, physical shaking, etc...) that it triggers horrible cravings and binges. Moderation isn't an option. It's like telling an alcoholic to only have 1 beer because all things in moderation ya know

The biggest thing I try to get across to people is that carbs = sugar. Period. Bread, potatoes, rice, pasta...it's all sugar. Some people have a higher tolerance to the damage sugar causes, but that doesn't make it healthy. Sure there are carbs in veggies, but they are minimal and those foods are loaded with nutrients. Grains have to be fortified because they are devoid of nutrients or the nutrients are destroyed during processing. If the basis of your diet is grains, you are trying live on candy.

 

[SKR8PN]

I helped my children by NOT bringing them into this world.

At least, none that I have had to pay for.....

 

[Wannabefree]

My kid is allergic to non real food. She has MSG allergy, so we have no choice anyway, but before we figured that out, and before I came along(step parent)her grandparents fed her Little Debbies, vienna sausages, spam, and a constant supply of various chips and "snacks" as MEALS. I changed ALL of that, starting with meals and cooking from scratch. We still eat the occassional "junk" like she can have plain chips, so she gets them, but they are strictly snack tide-you-over-till-supper handful type things, not meals, not even close. She can make her own homemade bread, and cook a lot of different foods. She has her own recipes that she likes, and often makes homemade cookies for dessert for herself, and the family. She hates the diet she is on sometimes, but she does not stray from it, because she knows it is good for her. She's 13 now, and has been on this diet for 3 years. She has been cooking since she was 10.