I would never tell anyone what to do with their kids, but I will share what works right not in our house. My 1 year old eats pretty much what I do, plus some milk and the occasional tortilla chip. He loves meat and veggies! My 6 year old eats pretty much what I do, but I don't put any rules on what he eats outside the home. The plan is to this summer clean up his diet and start packing lunches next school year. I think that by then the novelty of school lunch will have worn off. You didn't say anything about a significant other, but mine is decidedly in the standard american diet camp, despite being gluten sensitive. He eats what he wants.

Timely topic. Mary Eades just posted about the subject: Here

I don't have kids yet (cooking my first right now!), but I plan to feed them low-carb at home. I don't believe ANYONE, even healthy normal-weight people, really needs grains or many starchy veggies or sweets. Juice will not be a normal staple in our home, and rice cereal will not be my baby's first food. Cheerios will not be a typical snack, and mac and cheese will not become a frequent lunch...you get the idea.

That said, I don't want my kids to FEEL extremely restricted or abnormal in any way, so what they eat outside of the home won't be as strictly monitored. I don't want them to not be able to go have pizza with their friends or go out for ice cream after a sporting event or whatever.

I think it will be a relatively tough balance, but I think it's worth a shot. Especially since I have type 2 diabetes, my parents have type 2 diabetes, my husband's grandmother has type 2 diabetes...

Hi, MJ!

These are great questions. And like raven132, I can't tell you what to do; I can only share what works right now for us. There is no One True LC Parenting Way.

I don't insist that kiddo and hubby eat low carb--I just insist that anything I cook, I be able to eat! And since I do most of the cooking, it works out.

Two exceptions to that:

• Once or twice a month, I'll have an entry on the meal plan that says "Mac n Cheese/Jen ad lib." They love that silly boxed mac n cheese, and it's cheap and easy to make. So I give them a treat (and myself a break) and make it for them, while I cobble together some healthy leftovers for me. (Lately, though, more and more of that mac n cheese has gone uneaten....)
• The toddler gets a cup of sugar-laden chocolate milk several nights a week, and sometimes I make it for her. I'm getting more and more horrified at what we're teaching her with this; I plan on trying my hand at making a sugar-free version after this batch gets used up!

We let the child have French fries, and share root beer floats with Daddy, and all sorts of objectionable things. But we also set limits on how often we do that. We never insist that she clean her plate, she and I are doing extended breastfeeding, and she has a long list of veggies that she likes. (One of her favorite snacks is black olives.)

So far her meats are bacon, sausage, chicken, and fish, with only an occasional willingness to eat beef. But we'll get there.

Too early to tell what we'll do about school lunches, since the regulations on those keep changing. We kind of focus on keeping her eating now, and we'll worry about later when it gets here.

But when you have a 2-yr-old who sits in her high chair and proclaims, "I lo-o-ve celery!" (over and over and over again), I figure you're probably doing something right!

I've had cravings for chocolate milk during my pregnancy, and a lower-sugar alternative I've found is So Delicious brand chocolate coconut milk - it comes in individual little cartons like juice boxes. It still has some sugar, but definitely less than regular chocolate milk, coming in at 9g total carbs (1g fiber) per individual box. Just a suggestion

Thanks, Jill, sounds delicious! I'm the type to try the DIY route first, but I'll definitely take a look at these!

As far as treats are concerned, I wonder if using sweets as treats or a reward is perhaps the best idea. That kind of thing can make one obsess on them... like my cat obsesses on treats. He'll do anything for them. Including nagging me all the time! There might be some value to never training your child to have a sweet tooth. Then when they are exposed to sweets later on they won't really like them so much.

I agree with this. My little man has only just begun his foray into the world of solid foods, but eats most everything with gusto. For the most part he gets only meats and fats that he can feed to himself, but the couple times he's had peaches or apricots he really liked them too. Fruit is going to be reserved for special occasions if at all, I'd rather his palate NOT develop a fond taste for sweet things.

Little man and papa both eat what I eat, unless we go out which isn't very often.

I agree with this. My parents never rewarded us with food. Whatever mistakes they made with us growing up, our diet was certainly not one of them. We always got rewarded with money. Extra allowance was the thing. But growing up I always had a huge sweet tooth. We never had white sugar, refined grains, in fact rice was really the only starch we ate on a regular basis. We did eat honey on a regular basis and when we lived in the Philippines it was panocha, a brown hard sugar from sugar cane that had to be melted down into a syrup. I have no idea how refined it is but I don't think it was much if at all. Being from HI, we would also get the occasional piece of sugar cane to chew on as a treat. We never ate sugary commercial candy but I wouldn't say that we were always deprived of anything sweet tasting. It was a rare occurrence but we did have it on occasion.

But anytime I could get my hands on candy (always behind my parents back of course) I would. I don't know if it's genetic or just that fact that not having it meant I wanted it all the time or maybe it was just me being a normal kid. When I do have kids I know how to feed them right. What I'm not sure of is how to keep candy and sugar away from them without causing them to obsess over it like I did.

I wonder if you can talk to the school about it and suggest it is a bad idea? Maybe it's about time parents speak up about schools giving their kids foods they shouldn't have.

I spoke with my sons pre-school teacher about her giving the kids candy as a reward. My son is a normal 4 yr old and doesn't sit still for long hates "quiet time" and doesn't want to stand in line perfectly. LOL! She started giving him candy to achieve her behavior goal, and I must say, it has helped. But, after school on his "well behaved" days, he comes home with candy and tells me how good he was at school. I can't take it away from him, that would be mean so I let him have it.

I spoke with his teacher about it and she said all kids need a reward system and candy works well. I tried to explain the problems of rewarding kids with candy but it didn't help any. I may have well explained it to my 4 yr old, she was bound and determaned that it wouldn't hurt him to have a little candy. She wasn't seeing my point, I gave up. I don't want my son feeling left out because the other kids get candy at the end of the day so I shut my mouth. I can't control what goes on outside of the home, but I give the moderation approach at home.

My kids are 5, 7 and 9 and largely eat what I do. They have more fruit and the occasional scoop of mashed potato or rice alongside what we're having for dinner. They are allowed to spend their pocket money on sweets if they want (we give them free rein but do gently provide advice as to which treats are healthier) and my mother seems to have decided her purpose in life is to try and stuff sugar down their throats. But for the most part their diet is healthy and based around fats, meats and veggies. Oh and millions of eggs!!!
Thankfully little one's school provides fruit or veg as a snack and all the children's schools use a card system for rewards. They also get raffle tickets as rewards which are drawn at the end of the week with the winner getting to choose from things like a small toy, or 10 minutes extra play outside for the whole class.