Letting children self regulate with food - Page 4

[puddleduck]

Last night DS1 said to me ' mummy i want you to choose my food for me otherwise i'm going to just eat sugary stuff'. So this morning he wanted cereal and i pointed out that he had a cold and fruit would be a better way to start the day (we have no milk either).

DH thinks we should carry on as DS1 is just getting used to the idea and it will take him a while to trust his own instincts (especially if i keep on harping on about how sugar is no good for his body). Part of me agrees but the other part wants to limit the less healthy stuff because i need to be in control

I guess i'm going to take each day at a time and see how it goes.

[EdnaMarie]

Originally Posted by DariusMom

I live in Holland and am pretty amazed by the amount of candy given out. There actually seems to be *less* awareness about sweets than in the US!
Childhood obesity is a growing problem here, too, though certainly not at the level it is in the US. That's probably because kids here pretty much *have to* bike and walk to school and around town plus it's considered normal for kids to play outside a lot, so I think it's just that kids are getting more exercise rather than that they are eating better.

I can only hope that as they get older, they just don't have as much time for sweets since they're outdoors more?

Because exercise really doesn't burn that many extra calories. If you eat just one extra Snickers, you have to bike for like, two hours to burn that off if you are a small person. Two hours straight.

I'm not knocking exercise but really, it's calories in minus calories out. And candy is just so calorific that it's hard to make up.

I mean let's take an average ten-year-old boy, 70 lbs, for an hour (this would mean of biking time, does not include stopping to chat):

Bicycling: 12-13.9 mph, leisure, moderate effort 254.5

That's one Snickers bar. Not to mention that he'd burn some of those calories just sitting there. That's not "extra" calories, that's total calories burned. Just sitting there will burn around 40 calories, so really one hour is less than a candy bar.

So you can pretty much say that for every 100 calories you eat "over" what you need (much easier to do when it's packaged), you can count on 30 minutes of fairly vigorous exercise.

Obviously kids are growing and need to eat! I would not suggest counting calories with a child by any means. BUT I just wanted to highlight that no amount of exercise is going to make up for really bad eating habits and a lot of snacking on junk. You're still going to put on weight, ounce by ounce.

[Linda on the move]

Originally Posted by puddleduck

Last night DS1 said to me ' mummy i want you to choose my food for me otherwise i'm going to just eat sugary stuff'. So this morning he wanted cereal and i pointed out that he had a cold and fruit would be a better way to start the day (we have no milk either).

I think this is what having regular meals and snacks is about -- the parent taking responsibility for presenting the child with variety and balance. Making a simple breakfast and setting it on the table sets the child up to make good choices.

Controlling food is totally different. That's when parents get hung up on whether or not the kid eats the breakfast, exactly how many bits of breakfast are eaten, refuses to let the child get something else, etc.

I think it is VERY possible to help our kids make good choices without being the least bit controlling.