So last week I had so much participation I decided to ask you another parenting question.
It's no secret that my kids eat junk food. I totally incriminate myself with pictures like this.
And this.
My kids are going to be the fat kids on the playground eating a twinkie drinking a coke.
I am really really good about feeding my kids breakfast, dinner (Southern for lunch), and supper (Southern for dinner) with snacks in between. If you saw their bellies you'd know they aren't starving. Problem is I feel like everything I feed them is junk. Like pop tarts, hot dogs, cookies, crackers, goldfish, grilled cheese, chicken nuggets, french fries, pizza. You get the picture. Yogurt and the occassional banana are the only healthy things I feel like they eat.
I really try to cook healthy stuff for supper. The biggest problem is that they know what junk tastes like and won't eat the healthy stuff. I just run out of ideas that are good and tasty enough to trick the girls into eating it.
I think another problem is that they nibble on crackers and goldfish, etc. all day. I don't give them one snack. By supper time they have eaten so much they don't want their food.
I really try to cook healthy stuff for supper. The biggest problem is that they know what junk tastes like and won't eat the healthy stuff. I just run out of ideas that are good and tasty enough to trick the girls into eating it.
I think another problem is that they nibble on crackers and goldfish, etc. all day. I don't give them one snack. By supper time they have eaten so much they don't want their food.
So my question is...do you let your kids eat sweets? Are they a treat or a daily snack? Do you let your kids snack all day or only 1 snack a day? How do you get your kids to eat their fruits and veggies? Do you have any quick and dirty ideas that I can make for healthy lunch or supper?
you know I can't help in this category... Jack only eats 5 things - yogurt, peanut butter, bananas, bars and crackers/chips.
ReplyDeleteI will say this, I replaced all of jack's 5 items with organic options except the peanut butter because JIF packages his peanut butter in individual cups and that saves a ton of time.
so he eats barbara's cereal bars
organic bananas
stoneyfield organic yogurt strip thingys
and publix greenwise organic goldfish, crackers, chips etc...
I don't stick to this 100% but I try really hard.
Oh, girl, I am no help here, except to let you know you're not the only one who feels like all they feed their kids is junk food. We live on hot dogs (reduced fat, but still...), Kraft Mac n Cheese, chicken nuggets, and the occasional spaghetti. Yes, I make sure they eat some sort of fruit or vegetable at dinner (usually raw baby carrots or cut up apple or strawberries), but that's about the extent of the "healthy" food at our house. And yes, I'm sure outsiders look and say "well, just don't feed them that crap! You're in charge!". But now that they've developed a taste for it, that's what they want. And it doesn't help that I HATE cooking and don't want to waste my time and effort if no one's going to eat it!! This is probably one of my biggest struggles/sources of guilt as a mom.
ReplyDeleteC's diet is probably half and half.
ReplyDeleteShe only gets a snack if she finished the previous meal. So if she doesn't eat all her breakfast she doesn't get to have another snack- she waits until lunch.
As far as dinners, I don't know what to tell you. I try to cook healthy-ish foods for dinner and generally she refuses them. Probably about 4 nights out of 7 she goes to bed without eating.
I encourage her to eat healthy foods, but I am not a freak about food. Everything in moderation and all that...
But I AM extremely lazy and I WILL NOT be making separate dinners for my children.
If someone gives you the answers to all these problems, please let me know, because I find it exhausting.
I started giving the girls Simply Gogurt organic yogurt. I would buy organic milk, but it is so stinking expensive.
ReplyDeleteMy biggest problem is that I feed them junk out of convenience. It is so much easier to give them a hot dog. I'm going to try to keep fruit around our house this summer. We'll see how that goes.
O is just so finicky. Some days she likes things and the next day she says, "this yucky mommy". O probably goes out to bed without eating 4 out of 7 nights too. B is getting to the picky stage...much earlier than O did. Fortunately they both like spaghetti all the time.
The doctor actually told me not to make the girls separate suppers. He said to make them eat what we are eating (unless it is unreasonable - like super spicy food) or what I make them and if they don't eat don't let them eat again until the next meal.
He said that kids are like animals. They eat when they are hungry. Not for pleasure like we do.
I just have to stick to the if you don't eat your breakfast/lunch, then you can't have a snack. They go to bed right after supper, so not giving snacks at night is easy.
This is one rule I have that somewhat lessens my guilt...if they don't at least TRY everything on their plates, the only "snack" they can have between that and the next meal is plain Cheerios with milk (and a little sugar...I'm not THAT mean). That way I know they at least got something healthy in their tummies. You can go with any "healthy" cereal...we used to use Quaker Oatmeal Squares, but my kids actually love those and would just request them as soon as they saw what was on their plates, so we had to move to a less palatable cereal!
ReplyDelete