Hi,

I am looking for guidance from people who have had kids on a LC diet. I am feeling a bit ostracized. I live in a progressive town and the kids are in a progressive school, but I am still being treated like the world's worst mom for not allowing my children the joys of childhood (sugar and carb buzzes). Any thoughts on dealing with that?

I have an overweight 7-year-old boy and a previously underweight 5-year-old boy. We have been doing low carb for about 6 weeks. I have been pretty severe about it - only one serving of fruit a day and no bread or pasta. They have had a bit of low carb popped rice and kemut, and some breading from time to time. They also eat a lot of cheese, some whole milk, meat, fish, nuts and nut butters. They eat the occasional vegetable, but no more than absolutely necessary in the older one's case. I try to avoid sweeteners, but they do eat ketchup, mayonnaise and A-1 sauce. Does any one have any thoughts or references on feeding the kids lots of nuts?

I have seen some great results with the younger boy. He is no longer scrawny. The older boy is definitely making progress, but he still seems bloated. Any ideas for hydration?

Thank you for being out there.

I wish I could say I was a parent of low carb kids, but mine are just the opposite. I actually give you a ton of credit for being able to do this. I'm lucky if I manage to add protein to 2 out of 3 meals!!

I'm working on adding eggs in the mornings and always giving them a protein at lunch as well. They seem to be surrounded by cookies and sugar throughout the day though at school, pre K and daycares.

Hang in there!!

Just stick to your guns, ma! You know what's best. My Mom was very anti-sugar when I was a kid... I'm 52 so that tells you how long ago that was. But I think today the pressures are even worse. If you can get anyone to shut their yaps long enough to listen get them to listen to this video presentation about sugar: Sugar: the Bitter Truth. It's quite popular.

My kids eat pretty low carb. My biggest obstacle is my mum who seems determined to shove sugar down their throats at every opertunity. My younger two kids were getting slightly chubby but have slimmed down a little since we started. My eldest (8) was a bag of bones. He is still skinny but looking much healthier and has grown inches in height as well as putting on a little muscle and fat.
My youngest has always been a serious carb addict. Since we quit bread and pasta he has started eating more and more veg. Definatly a nice change from a kid who at one point would eat no veg or fruit at all!
My kids eat a load of dairy products. Greek yogurt with berries is a big favorite. They also eat eggs at least once a day. They still eat a lot of the things they had before just without the carb parts!
My favorite way to deal with critics is to say they can't have sugary things for 'medical reasons'. No reason to get specific, just change the subject and people will often leave it alone.

Thanks! I love that link!

Thanks for the support! I can't tell you how much it helps to know that I'm not alone in the fight. I will probably borrow your retort. It's a great one.

I have never read about how eating too many carbs can make you scrawny, but I think it can be true. I certainly was good at using carbs that way when I was younger. Have you read anything?

My mom has given me a lot of trouble, too. She is an intelligent woman, but deep in her heart she feels like sugar is the best way to say "I love you," despite her own lifetime battle with being overweight. What a crazy world we live in!

No idea why he was skinnier on carbs. He seems to burn through an amazing number of calories so maybe it's just that he's eating more calorie dense foods now? He's an odd duck about many things.

My 11 year old is totally low carb...he is type 1 diabetic, and we follow Dr. Richard Bernstein's 6-12-12 plan (6 grams of carbs at breakfast, 12 at lunch, 12 at supper. All remaining foods to be made up of protein and fat. Lots of fat!). Since we adopted this plan he lost the spare tire he had around his tummy, and looks and feels fantastic.

It was hard for him to go low carb...he went through the typical carb cravings and energy crash for a couple of weeks, but adjusted beautifully. My philosophy is: if you're hungry, eat! If you're not hungry, don't eat! Some evenings my son eats supper #1, then an hour later supper #2 (another full meal, but without the carbs that were at supper #1) and then later supper #3. Other days he won't eat much at all.

I make sure to make a lot of decadent desserts for him too, all very low carb (and very high fat, to fill him up and give him the calories he needs). I get these recipes from Dr. Bernstein's books. The chocolate mousse is fantastic.

There is lots of wonderful food out there in low carb land. It drives me NUTS how otherwise educated and intelligent adults feel the need to show their love to children with sugar. How about giving them a hug? Or taking them out to play? "I love you" doesn't have to come with a lifetime of carb addiction and obesity!

Thank you for sharing! I have lived in fear of a diabetes diagnosis for my oldest. I just ordered Bernstein's book.

You will love Dr. Bernstein's book niwotmom! Just wondering though...do you live in the United States? The blood sugar readings Dr. Bernstein uses are in g/mL, which is the system the USA uses...the rest of the world uses mmol/L. If you're not in the States you'll have to do a mathematical conversion (Dr. Bernstein gives you the conversion in his book) so that the numbers make sense.

Thanks for all the advice. Yes, I am in the States, but I'm not much of a chemist, so this could be challenging. How long was it before you noticed a difference in your son's spare tire? Do you guys eat dairy products? How long did it take before he ate a lot of vegetables? I realize that he was probably pretty motivated. What do you do about birthday parties?

My son's spare tire disappered within the first month of low carbing. Understand we don't restrict his calories at all, just the carbs, so this was real evidence for us that low carbing WORKS.

My husband and I eat no dairy products at all...my husband because he is allergic, and me because I'm paleo. My son eats a few dairy products, but only the high fat/low carb ones. He loves cheese strings, butter, and whipping cream.

My son took to vegetables like a fish takes to water, but admittedly because there wasn't much left for him to eat once we took out the carbs! He was pleasantly surprised to find that he likes most of them, and had a good attitude about trying things.

For birthday parties we still low carb...but I make awesome low carb desserts (if I say so myself!). We understand that we made this choice for our health, and why should we blow it on crap food to celebrate a birthday? There are better ways to celebrate than with food!

If my son is going to someone else's house for sleepover, or for a party, I send a small cooler full of food with him. It's easy for us to get away with this without offending people or weirding them out because he does have a genuine medical condition. I usually speak to the parents ahead of time and reassure them that my son is delighted to be their guest, and will enjoy himself just as much as the other kids do, and that they have no reason to feel guilty or bad for him because he's not eating their food. The kids take it all in stride..."Oh yeah, Tony's diabetic, so he eats his special food." Kids are just fine, it's the adults who need to be patted down!

Niwotmom, I want to encourage you (if you haven't already) to speak frankly to your children about the food choices you are making for them, and get them fully on board. It's so much easier when the children understand why they are making certain food sacrifices, and that these foods are, quite frankly, really really really bad for them anyway! They will need this understanding in order to turn down the treats that will constantly be presented to them at school (I can't believe how often schools roll out the crap) and at friends' houses. You will be SO TEMPTED to give in JUST THIS ONCE because we all love to TREAT our kids...but what were treats for you and me are now everyday foods for our kids, and that's mostly why kids are so darn heavy these days! Remember, that this "treat" food is crap! Just crap!

Stay strong, and advocate for your kids! You are doing a WONDERFUL thing for them!

Well, I kinda have an unfair advantage because I started with DS when he was a toddler. He eats what I eat and as I do all the shopping and cooking no one around here really has much of a choice. For drinks I obviously do water and I also do plain keifer because he hates milk. Full fat keifer is really hard to find so I make my own. The cultures are in the dairy section at shops like Whole Food and Earth Fare and really easy to make and has a long shelf life. It is like drinkable yogurt.

Denying your child the joys of eating junk food during childhood pales in comparison to years of abuse by their peers for being overweight. Point out the fact that you are being a parent and teaching your child how to eat to live rather then live to eat. They'll have a happier childhood running around and playing and doing all that normal fun stuff! Good for you for making sure your kids are healthy.

Does anyone use stevia in your deserts for children, I have 3 step grandchildren and I want to make them desserts with this but I don't know if it's safe for kids.

I've been using coconut sugar on the rare occasion that I make desserts. I think stevia is okay, but I have such a bad reaction to nutrasweet that I'm a bit worried about all artificial sweeteners. Gary Taubes talks about a study which indicated that anything sweet might raise insulin, even if it has no calories. That kind of explains all the overweight people who live on diet cokes.