Topic : 06/04 Too Big, Too Young

It seems like feeding children a healthy diet these days is becoming a lost art.  I have a 22-month old, and on tv I see commercials for toddler tv dinners (or near enough), and have you seen the commercial where the line is bringing dinner back to the kitchen table?  Mom and dad are downstairs with a bucket of fried chicken, and they call up, "Kids, dinner!"  Next you see the kids running outside and jumping into the car to go eat, and mom and dad shrug, smile at each other, and say, "They'll figure it out!"

This show hits home with me, but in a different way.  My side of the family is naturally more slender, and the eating habits I grew up with, I'm working to keep up.  Which, since I do most of the cooking, isn't really that hard.  I love to cook, so we eat a lot of veggies, baked foods, etc.  I've been really lucky with my daughter so far, whose favorite foods are broccoli, carrots, apples, tomatoes, etc..

My husband's side of the family is kind of the polar opposite: heavily overweight, eat a lot of snacks throughout the day, and don't really cook much.  I'm struggling with my MIL, who I've caught sneaking to my daughter potato chips, ice cream, chocolate, cookies, etc.  This is pretty frustrating to me when my daughter was going through a finicky eating stage, and it was tough to get her to eat a full meal to begin with, without filling her up on junk food.  Especially since I had already pointed out to her not to feed her junk food.  AArgh!

I am really worried about the weight problem affecting our society today.  I grew up with a lot of abuse and have had problems with my weight for many years.  I've been able to quit smoking and have never had any other addiction but food. 

I am 40 years old, am an insulin dependent diabetic, High blood pressure, high cholesterol, high tryglycerides as well as Rheumatoid Arthritis and I feel that 99% of this is caused by my unhealthy eating habits I battle this every day and hope one day I will win.  I do feel that I am running out of time though.

My point is though that I have not carried this on to my children.  We do not allow junk food in the house.  They eat fresh fruit and veggies and mainly white meat.  They are also involved in many different athletic programs from Tap Dancing to Basketball and Hockey.  My problem is that I eat way too much and am a closet eater when it cames to potato chips and other junk. 

The children seen on this show need intervention now.  If their parents can't do it somebody needs to step up to the plate in these families and help these children.

Raven

I got this information from peds calorie caluculator

Age: 2-3 years old

Gender: Female

Activity Level: Sedentary

Estimated Calorie Requirements: 1,000 calories per day

Age: 19-30 years old

Gender: Female

Activity Level: Sedentary

Estimated Calorie Requirements: 2,000 calories per day

I hope this helped

I do agree with you, but what the PP was talking about is Xylitol, which is what I have been told to use cause I have tooth decay, from my oral meds. And this sugar wouldn't continue to do harm and is actually healthy for the teeth. And its healthy for the body. Its a naturl sugar our body already makes from other foods we eat.

Oh but I totally agree with you, it is a cop out when people say, I don't know really what I should feed my kids, well lets see you have your choice of cheese, meat, any veggie and fruit your eye can see, you have whole wheat bread, whole wheat pasta, you can make your own pasta sauce and have it full of veggies you like. There are so many options you just have to be willing to make them. I know cooking can be hard when your busy, but once you start getting into those hard recipes you see become easy and you don't even have to look at them again. I use to be a big time eating out person, but once I became pregnant, I hated leaving my home. Plus I knew i wasn't going to let my kid eat fast food everyday. So went through magazines, books, and websites looking for food that just simply looked good, printed them out, and tried a new meal once a week (cooking the rest of the time easy/fast meals) I can now cook a bunch of different things and find I get them on the table then pre-made frozen dinners, and faster then getting ready and going out to a place. Its better thats all thats important right.

  I smiled when i read you're post. You sounded just like me when i was 19. However it caught up with me and it will with you also. As we age metabolism slows down and on goes the pounds and the cholesterol number rise. Keeping my weight in check  and cholesterol normal now is a constant battle....enjoy you're treats now because there comes a time when if you want to remain  a healthy weight  or healthy.... period..... you have to watch what you eat. mmm to have pizza would be nice ..... but oh well Ive had my day of eating pizza.......enjoy yours too. Thanks for the memories.