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Debate on insisting child eat "real" food prior to filling up on chocolate/candy
OK.. I'm excited to see your responses. I only have 2 kids and the
oldest, almost 3 now, has started this thing of eating nothing but chocolate/candy if she has her way. We went through this about a year ago and DH insisted we let her have her fill on the candy so as not to make it a "treat". Well at the time it seemed to work and within a couple of days she went back to eating real food and didn't seem to care too much about the sweets. Now.. here we go again. Now this may only be happening because there's chocolate in the house from the holidays and when it's all gone the argument may be moot but here's the question. I think the child should be encouraged to eat real food (ie a bowl of cottage cheese or some meat) PRIOR to her having the box of chocolate put in front of her. Daddy thinks she should not be coerced into eating anything prior to filling up on candy and believes that in doing so I will cause irreversible food association(guilt, pleasure, rewards, etc) that he believes should in no way be associated with food and may lead to weight control issues in the futere. In your experience which method seemed to work better? |
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#3
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Hi - I think it's a silly argument. Throw the chocolate into the garbage (while your child is asleep or out of the house) and have done. It's not good for anyone and is clearly causing your child to ignore her own body signals (or else the excess sugar is corrupting her body signals). My two cents, --Beth Kevles http://web.mit.edu/kevles/www/nomilk.html -- a page for the milk-allergic Disclaimer: Nothing in this message should be construed as medical advice. Please consult with your own medical practicioner. NOTE: No email is read at my MIT address. Use the AOL one if you would like me to reply. |
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I think most almost-3's are smarter than you are giving them credit
for. If she knows she can eat nothing but candy, of course she will eat nothing but candy. If she knows that candy is a 'treat' and only to be eaten as a supplement to other, healthier foods, she is capable of understanding that. (And then choosing to either eat nothing, or eat healthy foods followed by a small portion of candy.) We have many kids at the preschool where I work who are about this age. They usually have desserts packed in their lunches, and they know that they can't eat the candy/cookie/whatever until they've eaten a reasonable amount of their lunch. Naomi |
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shinypenny wrote: 1) Once a week, I buy one sweet item for the whole family, usually a quart of ice cream. When it's gone, it's gone, and I don't buy more until the next shopping trip. Therefore, I don't limit intake on a daily basis. If everyone wants to pig out and eat their 1/4 share of that quart on the first day, then so be it. The kids have figured out that they can ration it over the week to have a little each day. I don't fret whether they eat it all on the first day, or a little all week long, because either way, it is the same percentage of their weekly calories. 2) For occasions such as Halloween or Easter, I let the girls go hog-wild and eat to their heart's content. Then the next day, the candy disappears - either I take it to work and leave it in the break room, or I have also been known to throw it in the trash. I've been doing this for so long, they've never complained or balked about it. Replying to my own post (hate it when that happens). I forgot #3... 3) The day after your bday, you can have bday cake for breakfast!! Then we dump the rest of the cake in the trash. Don't ask me why I started this tradition, because I don't remember. :-) jen |
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What I do is put no limits on when/where/how they eat any candy they've
been given, and then stand back. People think I'm nuts, but despite mountains of candy coming in here on Halloween, essentially its all gone within a week or two (I find most of it isn't eat - its unrapped, a bite or two taken and then its abandoned). I actually prefer this, since I'd rather deal with a weeks worth of ruined appetites than have the candy being rationed and hanging around for months and months...which is what many of my friends face. Same goes for Christmas. They did get some chocolates in their stockings, and there were chocolate ornaments on the tree, but once we said GO, they all vanished. I don't think there was any left by New Years, unless someone has a private stash hidden away. What I would be concerned about is having candy on hand routinely, since certainly with my kids, they WILL eat junk 9 times out of 10 before they will eat "real" food if they have a choice (i.e. not just candy and pastries, but chips, soda etc. etc.). For example, we have a pantry full of food, and I can't imagine them sneaking in there to gobble tins of tuna as opposed to the cholate chip cookies meant for their lunch bags. If weight and health were no issue (and they are not really something most kids think about too much), most of us would probably have a big hunk of cheescake or some chips and dip rather than our steamed broccoli and skinless chicken breast. We do come biologically wired to crave high sugar, high fat foods - and don't the manufacturers know it! Mary G. |
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