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I Scream, You Scream, My Toddler Screams for Ice Cream!

703 views 16 replies 15 participants last post by  TortelliniMama 
#1 ·
I really wish my Mom had never introduced my ds to ice cream.
: Now all he does is drag me to the frig and say "Off Cream!" which is ice cream in Danny language. What can I do? He can't eat "off cream" morning noon and nght! I tell him "eat dinner first" but he pushes it away. I end up giving him dinner AFTER he has some ice cream. My dh of course thinks I am wrong to givr in tot him, but I don't give him ice cream more than once a day. Before he could ask for it he got it about 2x a week. A pint would last a month, unless my dh ate it.


WWYD?

TIA!
 
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#4 ·
I could have written your post!
Hailey threw an hour long tantrum last week b/c I (the worst mother on the planet) wouldn't let her have ic for breakfast.
She's totally obsessed! And what makes it worse is DH keeps bringing it home.
Sandy (believes that freezer locks were made with my family in mind)
 
#5 ·
Buy healthy organic, chemical and preservative free ice cream (we use Rice Dream brand) and let him eat it until satiated and he will get tired of ice cream and eat other things. I would provide other alternatives that are equally appealing like 100% fruit, chemical and color free popsicles (Edy's brand or Nature's Choice); frozen grapes; frozen stawberries; frozen peaches; frozen blueberries; smoothies; etc. If you make food a battle, it will remain a struggle.

Our son eats whatever sounds appetizing without limit. He will just as quickly eat half of a popsicle or no ice cream for days as ask for it. Ice cream is not a battle I am willing to make my life or our son's life unhappy over. It is more important to me that my son eat when he is hungry than to eat sweets because he has limited opportunity to do so and want to sneak or binge or think something must be wrong with him for wanting something that gives him pleasure but really isn't detrimental to his health. We talk about how food affects our body and discuss how he feels when he eats 'too much' and he already self-regulates wisely at four years old.

Pat
 
#8 ·
The place to win this battle is in the grocery store, not in the home. If the "off cream" doesn't come home, when he asks for it, you can just say it's all gone and you only get it for a treat--once a month or so. You can't give in because it isn't there.
 
#9 ·
I agree - don't bring it into the house except when you are prepared for him to eat it. show him the empty space on the freezer shelf and say - sorry we don't have any today ....
my dd does this with raisins and apricots - I just say no and she gives up after a while because she knows I mean it !
 
#10 ·
DS can have ice cream whenever he chooses. He'll go through phases where he doesn't ask for it at all and phases where he has a taste of it several times a day. He will occasionally have it before a meal, but it doesn't get in the way of other things -- I've seen him eat a big bowl of ice cream followed by a big bowl of peas many times. Have you read the label on your ice cream? We usually buy Breyers and when I read the label I found that it had almost exactly the same ingredients and nutrition information as YoBaby Yogurt (which we happily feed DS). We don't feel that avoiding sugar is particularly important given our metabolisms and overall diets, but I know others feel differently -- I'm sure you could find a lower sugar ice cream or frozen yogurt if that's your concern.
 
#11 ·
Thanks for all the input. I buy Ben & Jerry's for dh and I and Stonyfield Organic Vanilla for ds. If there was no ice cream in the house my dh would be whining, so I buy it to keep him happy too.
I hope this is a phase, and I try to give him dinner first.
 
#12 ·
Quote:
organic yogurt popsicle type things. They are in a tube and you can freeze them
Bingo! Those work well for us...DS calls them "pops" and looooves them!
 
#13 ·
DD loves the stonyfield yogurt pops which we freeze.They are really good even for breakfast. As far as getting tired of ic I'm not yet!I do give her a little after dinner-not every night but almost. A tablespoon or so is usually more than enough. One time we were on a trip going to a restaurant that I've been dying to go to for years and dd DID NOT want to go and was not hungry. We let her have ice cream for dinner.I felt guilty but we were all happy. The restaurant was amazing!!lol
 
#14 ·
I blend frozen bananas and berries with a little soy or rice milk and some flax oil for my son. I blend it to an icecream consistancy and then put it on a cone and he thinks it's icecream! You could even add a little maple syrup or sucanat if it's not sweet enough for your child. Just an idea...
 
#17 ·
I would probably serve a tiny dish of ice cream right along with the meal. Ds will eat some of whatever it is he was asking for, then move on to dinner food, and back and forth. I'm amazed at the way that he'll leave cake/ice cream/whatever still on his plate while he moves on to carrots or whatever. He just doesn't really regard desserts as a "must eat as much as I can get, as soon as I can get it, because it's special" kind of thing. They're just another food, and he listens to his body to tell him when he's had enough. I wish I could still do that!
 
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