Low Carbing for Kids

[cwfgirl]

I'm considering a low carb diet for my 11 year old daughter. Any thoughts or suggestions? In talking to my physician yesterday, she suggested using maintainence levels of carbs for her. Any ideas for interesting lunchbox menus???

Thanking in advance for all the wisdom of the forum.

[ian559]

I too am thinking of trying a lower carb plan for my daughter. Not quite sure how to do it. She is 8 and wheres a 14plus size. She weighs 109....... Doc says no diets. Get more excercise. But she plays sofball and cheerleads ans plays BB in the winter......

[Tiff]

Look under the LC Parents forum and search lunch ideas. There are alot of good ideas there.

[NoSunNoFun]

Lo/carb snacks for kids.. that I can think of for lunch box ideas:

Tuna salad/ cheese chips ( micro cheese till its bubbly and lacey looking let cool then snap into chips )
Celery with cream cheese a little divinchies syrup mixed into to flavor, sugar free of course. My fav is rasberry.
Ham and cheese roll ups
Ham rolled up wiht creamcheese
hot dog spears
some diet v-8 splash juice instead of juice boxes. get a container and put that juice in it. only 3 carbs!
atkins crunchers for chips...
small amount of mixed nuts? for a extra treat you can buy the akins choc bars and micro them in a bowl get it good and hot and dip the nuts in them, let them sit on wax paper too cool and you have a great sweet treat, fun for kids. ( and lo carb! )
sugar free jello

How is that for a start?

NoSunNoFun

[atiaran]

My stepdaughter is on Atkins, but started in the Ongoing Weight Loss at about 40 g carbs per day. She is 13. For the first 2 weeks, we prepped lunches at home for her, then once she understood what was legal she went back to eating in the school cafeteria. SHe normally has a cheese burger no bun, or gets a sandwich and eats only the filling. Plus she grabs a fruit. She stocks low carb bars and some atkins crinchers in her locker too in case of munchies. We make sure she gets her veggies at her after school snack and at dinner. So far (3 months) she has gone from Size 16 to a tight size 12.
She walks 2 miles every day and does karate 2x a week.

[elletc4]

I would stick to low GI foods...meat & cheese roll-ups, nuts, sunflower seeds, cut up veggies. I am an elementary teacher and it is SCARY, SCARY, SCARY what kids bring for snack and/or lunch. HUGE juice boxes or even worse kool-aid, fruit roll ups, fun fruit, pudding, chips, pringles, and the portions are out of control! One of my students brought pepperoni, a king size candy bar, pudding, and a little debbie EVERY DAY for lunch...then he got ice cream for dessert. Those lunchables are also about the worst things kids can eat and they LOVE them! It is no wonder we have a huge problem on our hands. I know how hard it is to be overweight as an adult and it is 100 times harder on the kids. Kids can be very mean.

I wish you the best of luck! Hopefully your Dr. will be very helpful and your daughter will do well.

Elle

[Lisa N]

Those lunchables are also about the worst things kids can eat and they LOVE them!

Not to mention that they are God-awful expensive for the amount of food you actually get in them. My kids used to eat these once in a while and without fail, they would be looking for something else to eat or asking for a snack within an hour.

If you're going for maintainance levels of low carb (or slightly lower), there are a lot more options open than if you are doing induction levels.

Some snacks that my kids like are:

Celery with cream cheese or peanut butter
Slices of cheese with a few whole wheat crackers
baby carrots or other veggies with ranch dressing for dip
Pistachios, almonds, peanuts or other nuts (macadamias are too expensive for me to get the kids hooked on them!)
string cheese
yogurt (whole milk with no sugar added) with berries (you can make a great breakfast smoothie with this!)
low GI fruits such as tangerines, berries, melons, half an apple with peanut butter or cheese
devilled eggs
ham and cream cheese roll-ups
a cup or two of popcorn (popped)

That's all I can think of for now! :)

[catfishghj]

My kids eat basically the same things I eat, except I let them eat plenty of fresh fruit. Since I have started this, their energy level has gone up and their hyperactivity level has gone way down.