I need help for my 6 yr old.. he is 120 pounds.. and he is CARB crazy. there isn't much that he will eat that is non carb.. I have tried but he ends up throwing it up.
He is a big eater and is hungry all the time. Well i know the hunger from eating carbs etc....
But how can i change things for him. i have tried and it is tuff...

What i wonder about is how much fruit and whole grains he should be having. And how much milk a day etc.... the protein part isnt really a problem.

There is pizza days at school, and hot dog days.. .his friends go to mcdonalds and eat ice cream cones and have freezies... how can i say no to him?

I need to help him but i am lost as to how

the best thing u can do is start at home. stop buying junk at the grocery store. control what u can. buy bran cereals instead of sugar ones. fruits instead of sweets. veggies instead of carbs. if he's hungry enough, he will eat something healthy- he wont let himself starve. make sure you give him plenty of choices. make it fun. celery sticks w/ pb or cream cheeze. melon balls, etc. don't give him lunch money- make his lunch for him. still let him go out and have fun and eat junk with his friends, but as a treat- not on a regular basis.

and get him involved in some sort of organized physical activity. baseball, soccer, swimming, etc

the best thing i could have EVER done for my son is continuously introducing new, healthy foods. he was resistant at first, but i read that it generally takes introducing a new food 10 times before a kid even tries it. i've found this to be very true. put it on his plate. even if he's refused it before. be persistant. its alot of work, but SoOoO worth it. my son now RATHER have a salad versus a pizza.

good luck! if u wanna read a good "diet" book for kids... "sugar busters! for kids!" is a good one

I agree with the above post.

I have a 6 year old niece that I am the guardian of and I know it's hard to get her to eat things that are healthy. She's very picky and doesn't like to eat a lot of the stuff I cook for myself that is low carb. I try and watch her eating partly because I was a heavy child.

That being said you also may want to consider that maybe something is eating at your child and not just that your child eats a lot. I gained huge amounts of weight as a child and looking back I was also very depressed and full of fear as a child. I lived in a very abusive home and witnessed a lot of violence as a child not to mention was a victem of it. I take my niece in for therapy and one of the first questions they ask is about her eating habits. Does she overeat or undereat? When I was growing up everyone made me go on diets or I was teased by family however nobody ever stopped to look at what was making me eat so much. Food for a child is a source of pleasure and one that we can give ourselves (depending on access to food). At 6 years old I'm sure your child doesn't walk to McDonalds by himself and pay with his own money. I'm not saying you are to blame so please don't become offended. However without making your child feel "bad" for eating just offer him some healthy food options and maybe get him involved in some sports. Seeing a doctor may not be such a bad idea either. I hope this helped.

This concerns me a little. Do you have any insight as to why this occurs? Healthy foods should not cause a child to vomit unless they are allergic to the food or there is something psychological going on.
Children often have their food preferences set by the time they are 3 or 4, but that doesn't mean that they can't be changed; just that they will likely be a lot more resistant to it. Yes, your son will likely resist but talking to him about how he needs healthy foods to build a healthy body might help. You could also try enlisting the help of your pediatrician in talking to him about making healthy food choices.
My suggestion would be to make changes gradually; start by eliminating junk foods at home and replacing them with healthier things like nuts, cheese, fruits and whole grains. You can work on school lunches and outings with friends later. Model good eating habits; if your son sees everyone giving up junk food, he will be more likely to follow suit with less resistance.
My two girls low carb, but at a much higher level than I do. They get the occasional treats but they are not an every day (or several times a day) thing and they understand that they are treats and not every day food. I started making their Kool-Aid with Splenda and they never even noticed the difference. I switched to natural peanut butter...again..they really didn't notice the difference. These are little things, but they do add up.

I agree with the above posts. It seems that he gets uptight at mealtime .You should just put the food on the table and ignore him. He will try to teach you a lesson by making himself sick, just ignore him.
Playing out in the yard is healthier than TV and video games. You are in charge of his entertainment, you have the power, a good dinner might be treated with his favorite game….just a thought
pene

Oh, I feel for you. I wish I had understood this way of eating when my daughter was younger. She starting gaining weight at 3 years old and now at 18 she is obese. She is learning better choices now, but it's very slow going.

This is one of those situations where you will have to practice tough love. It will be very hard, but you really need to do it. Tell yourself that he is allergic to carbs. You have to do everything you can now to get him off the addiction. Believe me, he will thank you for it later.

My daughter can't take the textures. She likes smooth foods...maybe that's what it is for your son, too. She gags on salad, for example. Using healthy foods and making them smooth just might work (maybe mashed sweet potatoes instead of regular mashed potatoes).

It would be great if you could go cold turkey on him, but I suspect that would be too hard on both of you. I would set yourself a goal of 2-3 months to reduce his carbs to an acceptable range. If you take one week and record all of his current food at fitday, you can see how many carbs he is eating now. Once you have that level, then just drop it down by 10 or 20% and see how it goes. If that's not enough to maintain his weight, then drop it a little more. That's exactly how I started losing weight - I didn't do an Atkins induction or anything. My first goal was 150 carbs per day, then I dropped it to 125, then 100, then 70 and so on.

At this age, you just need to maintain his weight. He will grow into the weight if you can maintain it, rather than have him keep gaining. I wouldn't try to control his food, just offer good reasonable carb healthy choices.

Good luck!

One of the best books I have read on the issue of feeding children is "How to Get Your Child to Eat (But Not Too much)" by Ellyn Satter. I highly recommend it for anyone whose child is having eating problems. I found the advice in the book to be extremely useful when raising my two kids.

I don't know much about weight loss and kids, but I just wanted to tell you that your son is extremely lucky to have a parent so concerned about him. I was a very overweight child... but not of any direct fault of my own. My mother fed me junk constantly and on purpose to get me to gain weight. I guess she thought I'd learn something from it. :/ It turned me into a complete pig. By the time I was 12 I weighed 163lbs. It wasn't until then that my parents divorced and my dad met another woman... one who actually cared about me and my weight... that I began to care about what I ate. The fact that they both showed concern for my weight meant a lot to me.

So yes, your son is very blessed.

Quote by missaec <<<By the time I was 12 I weighed 163lbs<<<<end of quote

Dont feel so bad, i weighed 230 at that age!........I didn't eat "junk" food but a variety of foods, restaurants etc with high carb high fat foods. So yes we know what its like to be an overweight child. But we are incontrol now.

diemde.. ya the textures are a big thing... and that is something i am dealing with, with him... and ya i am going to try slowly eliminating the carbs... good idea thanks


penelope.. ummmm i have tried putting it in front of him.... but when i make him eat it he throws up. Again a texture thing... but i like the idea of game or something after for eating something i want him to try. See to Lisa below as well re stomach thing

Lisa,... i know throwing up concerns me too. I have.... talked to his doctor and he did have an upper GI test to check things out. The test showed ok but the doctor does suspect something to do with the flap going down to his stomach. He is hoping he will grow out of it as he grows. There is a surgery that can be done but he is hoping it will settle in time. Hence why i don't "push" him when i know the gag thing is going to happen

AND MS TWACKY... NO my son does not walk to mcdonalds. I know where you are going with that thought. I am on Atkins myself so is my daughter so Mcdonalds is out. But tell me how you say to a child... "your not going to eat at that birthday party at mcdonalds like the other kids"?........... or tell me how you say on hot dog day and pizza day at school you are going to have chicken salad and celery?...... It centers a kid out even more when they can't be like the other kids. It is unfortunate that some motabolizums (sp) can handle it and some cant. Summer is coming and the neighbour hood children are playing outside and moms give freezies etc... again No you cant have that?...... it is not me constantly giving him those things. It is school and friends that don't see the problem as they have average weight kids who even if they do eat that stuff don't gain.
He is very active this kid. Which amazes me with this kid...... he playes hockey and swims etc. I wish our total society seen weight as an issue that being schools when the want to have these "fund raisers" that being pizza day and hot dog day and selling cup cakes etc. At that time they don't mind the kids having these things. But just listen to them when they teach "health"
Eat right etc etc.... but we'll have these days through the week. And yes i can send other alternatives but again.. why do they have to have them and temp kids.

Ok i am done.. bottom line from reading.. and a few of you gave me this idea and THANK YOU... that being slowly work the carbs out...instead of all or nothing. You ppl truely understand

I think what you are talking about is gastric reflux and I understand that one well. My youngest daughter had it pretty bad until she started walking well (projectile spit ups and all) but even then it persisted until she was about 3. The doctor said not to worry too much about it since she was obviously keeping enough down to gain weight on (your son, too). I do hope he mentioned to you to avoid anything with red dye in it since it is a muscle relaxant and will make reflux much worse.
Having said that, reflux is a very different issue from gagging on a food that you don't like (either because of taste or texture). One has a physical cause and the other has a psychological cause. The type of food you eat doesn't have a great impact on reflux so I wonder if this is ever a problem with foods that he likes? Another thought, and you would be the best person to judge whether this may be a factor or not; is it possible that you son uses vomiting to "punish" you for making him eat something that he would rather not? Kids are a lot more wiley than we often give them credit for and it doesn't take them long to figure out what will get them out of doing something they don't want to do. It may be that your son has figured out that if he makes himself gag and vomit, it gets him the foods he wants and gets him out of eating the foods that he doesn't want; it's a form of manipulation. Of course, that may not be the case but it's something to consider.
Regarding cutting the carbs. If you want to do it gradually, try making only one or two changes a week and try to give your son some choice in what that change will be. Maintain each change when you make the next one. If you can get him to participate, the chances of making those changes permanent will be much greater than if you simply dictate them and definitely explain in a way that your son can understand why it's important for him to make these changes.



You know, juzame, as much as we sometimes don't like it, it's our job as a parent to sometimes have to be the bad guy and tell our children, "I'm not going to allow that this time because it's not a good choice for you and it's my job to help you make good choices until you are old enough and mature enough to make them for yourself." This doesn't mean that you have to say no all the time, but neither does it mean that you are a bad parent if you sometimes do say no regardless of the tantrum that the child throws and it especially means that you are not required to always say yes to whatever it is that your child wants.
I let my kids get pizza on pizza day, but that doesn't mean I have to allow them to get 3 pieces when 1 with sending along a healthy side will do.
Same things with birthday parties at McDonald's or Chucky Cheeze. I'm sure you son isn't invited to a birthday party every week, so if he is making healthy choices the rest of the time, it makes saying yes to the party (and allowing him to have whatever he wants) a lot easier.



It may be different with boys, but when I switched my girls over to eating lower carb, a lot of the kids commented on how lucky they were to get such yummy lunches and often tried to trade the junk that they had for the healthy stuff my girls had...like fruit, yogurt, sugar-free jello, sugar-free pudding, nuts, pepperoni slices, carrots with a cup of ranch dressing to dip in, etc...
I still make them sandwiches, but use "light" bread (7 grams of carb per slice instead of 14). Yes, it made them stand out and the other kids noticed, but instead of teasing them, they were wanting what my kids had.
It isn't necessary (or even advisable really) to put very young children on very low levels of carb, so he won't necessarily be relegated to chicken salad and celery for lunches. There are a lot of lower carb options out there that he may find he likes.

Lisa anywhere to find out what the amount of carbs for an overweight child should be. My concern is i may go too low.?

THanks

One place to start for information (and tips on getting your son to work with you on this) is "Sugar Busters For Kids".

I'm having some troubles too with my son, but I have found out that if I clean my cabinets totally out of things my son shouldn't be eating, that he gets forced to try new foods. Yeah, I had some BIG outbursts in the start, but after about a week he gave in and finally started eating apples.

The trick is to keep his food selections very limited at the house fridge so he will be forced to try new things. Maybe even make a menu. Instead of being all your groceries at once, shop maybe twice a week. Keep only a few allowed snack items in the house.

My son would pig out on cheese if I got it, eating the whole pack at onces. All 24 slices of sandwhich cheese, so I started putting a combination lock on the fridge door. Seems cruel? Well, it's not, compaired to a heart attack at a young age.

Is there someone he could talk to, councelor maybe, about his weight problem?

I have to say, I haven't had too much trouble out of my kids because I was more concerned with their health than my own when they were small. There has always been an abundnace of fruits and veggies in my house for them.

Not to be mean (I promise I am not putting you down) but you are the mamma and regardless of how you don't want to "single" your child out if that is what he needs, you should be doing it. What if they were doing something physically dangerous? It is the exact same thing.. one just takes longer to show the harmful effects. I can promise when the ice cream man comes around everyday and the entire neighborhood is getting something, mine don't. I just tell them I am not being mean, but I love them and want them to healthy and eating junk isn't going to keep them that way. If questioned more, I tell them I apparently love them more than the otehr kids parents do. I don't care if that is wrong. I let them know they eat "special" because THEY are special. They do gettreats, don't get me wrong, but they know they are treats. There isn't a birthday party everyday so every once in a while shouldn't be a problem. Fixing mistakes now will be LOTS easier on them than waiting until they are severly overweight and our ages. I WISHED my mother had of known what we know now. If she had of and STILL fed me crap, I would resent the ~#$% out of her now, because I am paying for it.

Lisa AC..... i know what you mean about the 24 cheese slices... and NO.. lock on fridge is not a bad idea cuz i did it !

Lisa N.... thanks .. will look into it.

Dixiemamma..... I do not feed my kids crap... ..... for one thing... and.. my problem is when they are not getting these damn treats from me they are getting them at school or from friends...... or with my eldest daughter she has her own money and buys things when she is with her friends to "hide" when i limit her "crap".... It is a BATTLE........ you win the "mother of the year award"! As for me with my kids i am battling and as some who are where i am can tell you.. It is tuff.
Don't blame everything on your Mother... i am sure you made your own choices when she wasn't around.