My Poor Children! Help! Suggestions...

[mjchyzy]

I made my kids lunch today and noticed (guiltily) that they have all carb meals like PB&J sandwich on wheat, bag of chips, apple, and capri sun.... Any suggestions for kids lunches? I don't expect them to join the diet brigade, but they would surely benefit from a lower carb lunch !!!

Kid friendly, packable lunch suggestions please :-)

[lisaf]

Let's see - skip the PB and J and give 'em ham, cheese and lettuce, or chicken/tuna/egg salad on whole wheat. Pack some cheese and whole wheat crackers. Fruit salad or sliced fruit, veggie sticks with ranch dressing for dip, full fat yogurt mixed with a small amount of jam. Pizza bagels (whole wheat of course) or any variety of stuffed pita pockets. Can they bring soup? A nice veggie and chicken soup, etc.

Hope this helps - I know the difference between what we want them to eat, and what they will eat can be a problem. My two year old goes bananas for pasta - to the exclusion of anything else. I'd worry about it moreif he wasn't growing so fast, and didn't think he'd starve to death!

Lisa

[liddle]

I know how you feel. My 4 1/2 yr old boy lives on carbs. Will not eat anything else. Would rather starve than try something new. Loves pasta, rice, PB and J, and only processed meats. I thought as he grew older I could reason with him, hasn't happend yet.

On the other hand my 8 year old girl goes in spurts. I try one low carb meal a day, sometimes two. Usually breakfast and dinner. For lunch I let her fend for herself. Sometimes she sticks with it and tells me she took the bread off the burger,other times doesn't. She is a very athletic kid, plays soccer and softball, she didn't need to loose weight, but she did. 11 lbs! Little things like that add up.

Good luck with your kids!

[Ka3n]

Mary,
How about those individually wrapped cheeses? Laughing Cow makes little squares and there are several brands of mini Gouda wheels. Also, string cheese comes in individual (1 oz) sticks. Shred some cheddar and mix with mayo and spread on celery sticks. You can put tuna and chicken salad on celery sticks, too. Hard boiled eggs with something to dip them into, e.g., mayo with herbs. Roll up some natural lucheon meat with thin slices of cheese for finger-food roll ups. Pickles. Olives. Nuts. Pork Rinds.
HTH

[mjchyzy]

Will work on keeping the food stuffs cool - and pack more cheese and meat.

They LOVE most vegies - With allergies we need to be careful. One breaks out in hives with raw vegies but not cooked and can't even touch fish. The other is HOSPITAL-style allergic to nuts. Makes lunch planning so much fun!

Like the cheese rollup idea. Will probably try that tomorrow.

By the way, the LoCarb diet gave me the perfect excuse to buy a meat slicer:-)

Mary

[YogaBuff]

Mary, I'm so glad to see you post this kind of thread. This could be a big help with my 15 yr. old, who just started this woe. Anybody has any more ideas, just keep on posting'em!

yb

[mjchyzy]

All-righty then....

The kids ages 15, 11, and 9 have found favorite snacks and lunch foods. They WILL NOT give up the majority of carbs (and I guess that I don't want them to if they balance better with fewer carbs than protiens).

Favorites are:

Ham and cream cheese rollups (diff. flavored cheeses in the fridge now).

Homeade beef jerkey (sliced thin flank steak, dipped in a lemon pepper and soy sauce mix - dried in the oven on baking racks at 150-180 degrees till breaks when bent)

spinach dip w/ celery sticks

reuse bottles for water instead of capri sun (cheaper too)

Those little Laughin Cow cheeses - too expensive!!!

Now all I have to do is try a LC bread or cracker ...

[YogaBuff]

The jerky is very do-able. We even make jerky from duck and venison, as all my guys hunt(DH and sons). Have a smoker, but it's a pain to use, and tha oven is self- cleaning. ;) Are meat sticks alright, like peperoni syicks and slim jims? My guess is they might be full of nitrates.

This is gonna be a little trickier than just feeding ME, I'll eat anything :rolleyes: . He hates celery, but can buy small salads at his school and loves those. The GOOD news is he WANTS to do this and as a teenager, it does make him more cooperative about it. He's eating 2 oz. of cashews right now for a snack. This could get expesive, too, but doritos get expensive, right? LOL.

yb

[Lessara]

I have two children:
My daugher, age 14, eats mainly meat anyways. She never liked potatoes unless they are french fries and rice and such are just not liked at all. She eats a few veggies, spinach, broccoli, green beans, Cauliflower. Her problem is candy. She sneak money and buys candy or soda when she can. Sugar gives her headaches but she learning how to control them by not eating sugar but its so hard for her. She loves string cheese but she loves yogert (gogerts) as well. She is 40lbs overweight already. :rolleyes:

My son, age 11, rarely eats meat unless its a McDonald hamburger with cheese, a hot dog, or ham (which is a little expensive as well as ribs that he loves) He mostly eats carbs.
He loves them all. I caught him this morning making his fourth bowl of oatmeal and he already had two large bagels. He likes jerky and cheese sticks. He is 30lbs overweight. :rolleyes:

Both my kids are very addicted to carbs. Their emotions go way up if they go too long without carbs, plus their weights are too much. I don't want them going through what I have gone through. How do I get them to see the benifits of LCing besides example? :confused:

[YogaBuff]

Hoo, boy, Lessara, sounds like we're in the same boat. My 15 yr old son is more like me, overweight and ha s even worse eating habits. My 17 yr old. is muscular, slim. My hubby has weight problems, but not so bad, didn't tolerate LC well when he tried it, so tries the old lo-fat, lo-cal stuff.

I feel so much for my 15 yr. old. We can't really get all the carbs out of the house, cause thats what the other two eat. BUT, we HAVE gotten the junk ( potato chips, corn chips, sugary stuff, pizza, nachos) out because they're not on ANYBODY'S 'diet'.

I believe you said you're a single mom -- (correct me if I'm wrong here)-- this, to me may be the perfect oportunity for you to clean out your house of the stuff you consider junk. Sure, your kids, esp the teenager, can sneak stuff, but meals andpacked lunches could be up to you, mostly.

I'm not so dumb as to think that my son isn't going to go to the movies with his friends and have milk duds behind my back, but if I can clean up MOST of his eating, it's got to have a positive effect.

Have around the LC things that they like and they won't have a choice but to eat those wheen they're home. What they do when they're out -- just do the best you can to teach them, like you teach them everything else in life. It's all you can do.

Good luck to both (all) of us----

AND THANK YOU AGAIN WA'IL, FROM US MOMS!!

[TheGoddess]

Lessara,
You said your daughter loves yougart, they make a S/F brand called Blue Bunny thats S/F and also the carbs from what I understand are only like 4 per container because yougart is a live culture that destroys the carbs, And it is delish really!!
Might want to check into it :)

OneHappyGoddess

[Lessara]

My son made this for lunch today: Peanut butter on Celery!
He loves it! (He sprinkled cinnamon on it, imagine that?!)
He's 11. He like cheese chips (recipe on board under kitchen)
as well. He doesn' t like feeling left out when at school so he tries to make his lunches look more interesting than what the school offers :p

[Victoria]

Hi people!
I agree with Yogabuff, you can only control what is in your house. The kids are going to eat candy and goodies when they are at friend's houses or going down to the store, the movies etc. I have selfishly not been buying the junk, because it becomes a temptation for me. I will buy them ice cream once in a while and bake them cookies every so often. But not like I used to. I used to make sweet treats several times a week. So--I don't expect to change their diet as drastic as I have changed mine. But they do benefit with the food I do buy--more salads and more protein available. Before this way of life I would only buy meat maybe once a week. Can you believe that? Now I need to make sure I have some daily. So they benefit. I still eat the same kinds of meats, mostly chicken. But my kids "require" rice or potatoes with their meal. I don't worry about that. It's mostly the excessive sugars and empty calories I'm trying to cut down in their diets.

My kids are 22, 17, 13 and 9. The nine year old is the only one that has extra weight. So I'm trying to watch what he eats for breakfast and dinner. I admit I let him have the school cafeteria lunches at least 3 times a week. They send a menu home, so I select the ones he WILL eat. But when I do send his lunch, I always make sure it's whole grain breads, meat and cheese, lettuce sandwich and a piece of fruit. Much better than most kid's lunches. I've never had the money for all the processed sugary snacks most kids bring to school. :daze: Victoria

[PJ in Miam]

This thread is good for me. I'm really wondering what to do about my child. She is 5 years old, she is in gymnastics and she is a very strong child... but she is getting a little bit fat. She gets tired easily with activity and defaults to inaction if not entertained, and her little thighs are starting to get chubby... she has a size 5/6 top half and size 8 butt. She doesn't come off as fat when you meet her, I mean it isn't that developed yet, but of course I know her, and I know she has gained a lot and not just in the baby-fat-growing way. This is entirely my fault, as after her father and I separated, I've been a workaholic, we have almost lived on fast or packaged food for the time/convenience reason. I am extremely overweight (though I was not so until adulthood), and I'm very concerned that I not let her body develop so many fat cells... I'm worried about her.

I'm about to begin a low-carb eating plan, and I'm intending to revise her diet as dramatically as mine. She actually loves meat and dairy and fruits and veggies! -- but of course like most people, also loves carbs. I figure she can have lots of fruit and some grains (like maybe whole wheat for sandwiches) as her carbs, plus what the school feeds her for snacks which I cannot do anything about. Otherwise, I think just eating "real" foods, combined with her ongoing child-life, will slim her down over time. She is sensitive to the issue of fat, as I am so fat and she's now at the age where the children are becoming aware of such things. I've told her I want her to help mommy eat more healthily (which she wants to do), so I'm not presenting any of it of as related to her weight, only to mine.

She does seem to like it when I occasionally make her a lunch with roast beef, carrot sticks, broccoli crowns and some iceberg lettuce pieces, and one of those little single-serving ranch dressing containers you can find in the grocery store. She dips everything in the ranch. Not as good for her as seasoned mayo I suppose, but overall a much better lunch than things like "Lunchables", oy!

PJ in Miami

[MRS.OZ]

You sound like a great mom! The changes you are making (for both of you) can only be positive. Why incorporate walking as exercise for the two of you? I've discovered that my kids LOVE the undivided attention they get when they come for a walk with me. My 4 yr old (always been a bit chubby) doesn't even realize we are exercising and it gets them away from gameboy or teletoon for a bit, lol.

Keep it up and let us know how you're doing!

[itsjoyful]

hi pj~
first of all, let me say that your web site is so great. i am fascinated by the whole rv (for lack of better word) thing. i'm really impressed!
second, the issue of your daughter and her eating. from what you stated in your post, i really don't see too much cause for worry. i have 3 girls, ages 8, 5 1/2, and 4 1/2. my oldest has also posed the "should i monitor her diet" dilemma. when i was going through my separation/divorce a few years ago, she started putting on some poundage. at first i was worried, but then let it go because at the time it was the least of my worries. since then, she has thinned out, and is normal, healthy and quite challenging at times. i think her weight gain was a combination of things. i think she was going through a growth spurt and that she was eating to comfort herself. i think i was feeding that because at the time i was too weak (emotional) to fight with her about what she was putting in her mouth, and it also made me the "nice one" to let her have whatever she wanted.
hang in there and try to just set an example. my middle one today told me she's going to stop eating sweets because she wants to grow up to be strong and healthy.
go figure
regards,
brenda

[A thin me!]

Hi!

Last night about 9:30 p.m., my daughter who is 11 3/4 (notice the 3/4s....lol) announced she wants to go on my WOE. I think alot has to do with the fact that her new jeans are tight!!!

Now that Ihave myself under control I think I can help her. Like you all have said, breakfast and dinner is the same for you and your family. That is no problem, except, she hates eggs!!

Lunch was tricky.....especially today because I usually have regular food for her and after years of sandwiches and PB&J and junk items - it was a radical change.

I thought about it and gave her some prepared chicken pieces, grapes, cheese , frozen water, - and she sort of panicked a bit.
So, I let her add something of her own choice - I cannot remember what.

She can buy BurgerKing hamburgers and Pizza at school, but I am not sure if she would toss the bun and only eat the toppings - because the kids would think she was weird.

Definately going to try the celery w/PB and the meat roll ups - but I will have to supplement her with Milk and fruit. I still think she needs some of this food for growth. Unfortunately, I have a lot of snack stuff, crackers and cookies that I will have to toss.

Wish me luck and if you have any other ideas, let me know. I am also going to Barnes and Nobles to see if they have any books on this - I am going to exchange some terrible books my husband bought me for the holidays.

A Thin Me

[MRS.OZ]

This is an article about children's nutrition advocating whole foods and what appears to be a lower carb diet for them. http://www.parenting.com/parenting/article/article_general/0,8266,6735,00.html

[Ardra]

Ooh, good thread! When I brown bag it, I take little sticks of celery covered in cream cheese and wrapped in a slice of ham. It's pretty good, and easy to handle.

Yogurt and peanut butter are higher carb foods that are often overlooked. So are nuts (if your child can eat them and their school allows them) and seeds.

As for breads or crackers, can you get them to try Wasa breads?

I respect what you're doing soooo much. If someone had coralled my carb addiction when I was a child, maybe I wouldn't have grown up to be a clinically depressed, 327 pound adult with blood pressure of 200/120. Low carbing has helped so much (I'm now 273 pounds and losing, no longer depressed, with normal BP) but it would have been so much easier not to have to go through it in the first place!

[Cali]

The Goddess says that active culture yoghurt "destroys carbs". How scientific/accurate is this???

[Ardra]

Well, yes, that's true, actually. As the culture in the yogurt grows, it uses some of the carbohydrates from the dairy as fuel. The end product ends up having fewer carbs than the ingredients. I can't remember how many, though. :(

[Trifle]

Hi all, I have a 12 year old son, who is overweight.
In the beginning I would make him stuff he's used to eating, mac & chesse, spaghetti, etc. Now he actually likes my low carb meals and has asked that I make them all the time.
Turns out he was pretty worried about his weight too.
Now that he's been eating low carb dinners, its starting to rub off at school, and he's been ordering salads a couple of days a week instead all junk food every day. YEAH !