My son's a little carbo-eater and i dont want him to be...

[Aster]

Ds is 16 mos old and weighs somewhere in the neighbourhood of 35 lbs, give or take. He's a really big boy, tall too, and i think that he would benefit from eating fewer carbs. I dont want him to lose weight or anything, i just think it would be healthier for him to eat less carbs.

He totally digs carbs and it's really difficult to get him to eat non-carby foods. He's also breastfed, so i know he's not suffering nutritionally. I just keep offering lower carbed foods in hopes that constant exposure will encourage him to widen his horizons. I'm not into *forcing* him to eat certain foods and he is being raised in a very child-respecting environment.

I guess i've just read so much about low-carbing, and i know how much better i feel when i eat low-carb that i want that for my son too. I've also read that how a person eats in their first 3 years of life really influences how they eat for their entire lifetime.

We've decided to stop buying crackers for ds. So i guess that's one step towards lower-carb eating for him. If the crackers arent there, then we cant feed them to him. He's a 'grazer' and doesnt really eat much at meals. The carby foods are the ones that are easy to keep on hand for him for snacking on, i guess. He's really into dried fruits, bread, crackers, and whatever other carby things dh keeps around. DH isnt totally into the low-carb thing--he's one of those tall ectomorph's who can eat anything.

I've read sugar-busters for kids and wasnt really very impressed with the content. It talked about things that arent really an issue in our house--we dont do the kraft dinner processed food thing , heck i think the only processed food in the cupboard are some cans of tomato paste and ds's crackers. We mostly do whole foods anyways, so the dont drink soda/dont eat candy spiel didnt really apply, ykwim?

Has anyone else btdt? Any ideas? Words of encouragement? Anyone want to commiserate with me?

[freydis]

If your DH does not support you, you will be unable to do this for your son because your efforts will be sabotaged by a "non-believer." BUT, lowering his carbs at all MIGHT help.

I'm fortunate in that my DH supports me and my efforts with my daughter. In fact, he considers me too lenient. But, here's what we do with our little grazer. We have Slim Jims, five kinds of nuts, cheesey popcorn (not the lowest, but not terrible), pork rinds, and any other low-carb snacks we can find on the kitchen table where she can easily reach them. Same with cheese in the fridge. She knows she's permitted to have any of these, whenever she wants.

We cook Atkins-only meals at our house. If she wants to share the meal, it's there. We usually insist that she taste it, at least. If not, she is permitted to use our home-made low-carb bread to make a natural peanut butter sandwich.

Since she's in school, she takes a low-carb lunch three days/week. I permit her to choose up to two days of school lunches each week, so she can eat pizza with the crowd or whatever makes her the happiest that week. Also, if we eat out, I'm not as strict with her food choices, though she is absolutely forbidden to have sugared pop anymore - it replaces her dessert if she forgets.

We have celery almost always available. I try to keep a few strawberries on hand for her, or for home-made low-carb desserts. Even carrots would not be too bad for someone making the adjustment to low-carb. She's permitted to put peanut butter on her celery, which she loves. With her, I don't count the carbs so much as try to limit her choices to lower carb foods. It does work. She's lost 20 lbs since we began the diet in March of last year.

Oh, she loves sliced tomatoes, too, which we always have on hand, and little green trees (broccoli) with ranch dressing.

[Aster]

Thanks for your reply freydis. I got some really good grazing/snack ideas from your post.

The house is officially purged of crackers now. :D Ds is actually eating a lot of other things, like olives, avocado's and he's into dipping veggies. We stocked up on a few diff kinds of nuts and seeds that we didnt have before and he're really digging that. I figure the occasional piece of toast from dh isnt going to really hurt in the long run.

:D

[Karen]

The Heller's have a book for carbohydrate addicted kids that you may want to check out. I thought it was pretty good.

A goal could be trying new recipes - you would be amazed a twhay you can do with cauliflower - and become the best low-carb cook in town. With that, anyone would be thrilled to eat your low-carb meals and snacks, even your husband.

It is healthier for ANYONE to eat less refined carbohydrates. It's not all about weight, 'ya know?

Karen

[liz175]

We have always bought whole wheat bread for the kids. I also used to make macaroni and cheese using whole wheat macaroni noodles.

I remember taking one of my kids to feed the ducks when he was little. We ran out of bread and nice woman gave us some of hers. He looked at it and said, "That's not bread. It's the wrong color." I wouldn't try to cut out all carbs, but you can certainly provide healthier choices among the available carbs.

[Aster]

ITA Karen and Liz!

Our main meals are low carb, but dh binges on the carbs on his own time LOL. He's actually said that he liked the way he feels after eating a low carb meal bc he's not as sluggish and isnt hungry a couple of hours later. He likes snacking on nuts too, but is capable of eating half a loaf of bread at one time. It's the WW bread or the sunflower/flax with lots of seeds in it.

I'll have to check out the heller's carb addicted kids book, too.

It does seem like ds is branching out a bit more into the other food groups now. For the longest time, ALL he would eat were the carby things. Toddlers!! :p :p :p

[bethyboo]

i have two kids ages 11 and 5. They both are considered over weight. My oldest is the one whom is the most over weight considering her age.
What i have noticed with my 5 year old is that carbs are making him over weight. That is mostly what he consumes. So what else could it be!.... Any way it is so hard finding things he will eat that are non carb. Now i have had the doc say well if he is hungry enough he will eat the non carb stuff. Obviously this doc does not have kids of his own!....
For breakfast he loves cereal, eggs are not something he loves. I can see the "love handles" developing but at his age he has to eat something but if it isn't carbs WHAT?????

With my 11 year old she is basically going on the weight watchers thing. She has tried the CAD"s diet and it is to restrictive for her through the day. She not only is deprived the things she loves but feels like an odity at school. I hope with weight watchers Balanced meals she will lose some weight. I am going to try to keep her points using them on other things and keeping her carbs down not eliminated.

Thanks. Peace
Bethyboo