How has learning about nutrition changed how you plan to raise kids?

After learning all I have in the past few months, there are a lot of things I've vowed never to feed to my kids. Also things I plan to not allow my children to do.

Foods:
-I will NOT introduce them to any fast food unless I must, and if so, I will feed them a salad, apples, yogurt, etc.
-I will not buy chips, non-wheat crackers, candy, sugary drinks, etc.
-I will not cook high-cal, high-fat foods.
-I will try to bake all my own whole-wheat/oat bread instead of buying, and will not introduce them to white breads.
-Will not introduce them to donuts, packaged muffins, cupcakes, cake, brownies, etc.
-I will cook healthy versions of cookies (oatmeal raisin made the healthy way, anyone?), bran/oat muffins, etc.
-I will not feed them full-fat cheeses, dressings, dips, condiments, etc.
-I will make sure they receive all of the servings of the food groups that they need.
[I'm sure at some point someone else will introduce them to crap foods, but I will not be the one to do it.]

Activities:
-will NOT allow them to spend an entire day just lying around
-Take them for walks in the evenings.
-If they are interested, involve them in sports teams/dance/gymnastics at an early age.
-restrict t.v., videogame (even DDR and Wii), and computer time


I know if my parents had raised me the way that I want to raise my children health wise, I would never have become overweight or had any disordered eating behaviours. However, I am extremely thankful for their supportiveness of me now as I change my lifestyle to be healthy.
I guess it's a bit harder on children raised by restaurant parents, eh?

Whilst its great you want to set your children up for a healthy future I don't believe banning all "naughty" food like chips, candy etc. will help them in the long term. If you don't teach them that it's OK to have some as treats they'll eat this junk secretly and want it more because 'everyone wants what they can't have'.

Children should be allowed to have full-fat products and some high-calorie foods as well. They're growing and you don't want to set them up for eating disorders by being overly health-conscious.

If I ever have children I'll teach them to know that an apple is healthier than a chocolate muffin, but if they want to enjoy a chocolate muffin occasionally they will be able to have one. Childhood shouldn't be all about stuffing your mouth with junk and becoming overweight, but come on? Eating popcorn whilst watching a movie, some ice-cream whilst hanging out with friends, roasting marshmallows by the fire and stuff like that are part of childhood.

Excellent topic!!!

I have an 11 year-old. I've been slowly changing the old recipes for healthy ones. A little at a time so that he hardly notices.

I've also made a point to have meals and snacks at more regular intervals to keep his energy up and his mind strong.

 

skye, i think you're on the right track.  things were a lot simpler when i was a kid, and i know i can't re-create that, but my mom was always a health conscious cook.  she didn't talk a lot about nutrition, but we never had junk food in the house and she always put good meals in front of me.  when we had cookies, they were homemade, baked by me from the time i was about eight, and they were small. 

kids will discover junk food and video games on their own, but we don't have to provide them at home.  outdoor activities should be a family thing, and if they're a given from day one, kids will never question.  exercise shouldn't be a chore - it should be fun family time.

i don't have kids, and if i want some, i might have to go get them elsewhere, but i know i'm better prepared now that i was ten or fifteen years ago. 

LOL!  Well that's the ideal scenario.....  Friends of mine religiously banned all junk etc. from their home and their three children.  They all sat down to healthy, delicious meals... mum is an excellent cook.  But you should have seen these kids if you invited them round to play and had offered them a plate of biscuits of a bowl of potato crisps...!!!!  Whereas the other children would have one biscuit or a few crisps and carry on playing, these three would plunge their hands in like starving men and frantically gobble the lot.

In my experience, it's good to have standards but simply eliminating foods is less constructive than education and moderation.   We don't talk about nutrition or calories at home but we talk about foods that make you 'big and strong' or 'good at running'  and foods that are 'not so healthy'.  We make the healthier options... fruit bowl, yoghurts etc., ... easily available.  The 'not so healthy' foods... biscuits or crisps... are out of reach & have to be requested.   We bake and cook food together  a) because it's fun and b) so everyone knows what goes into dishes.  We try new things all the time.  When we do the shopping I ask my son to choose the fruit and veg so he learns to tell good food from rubbish.  We eat together at the table because it's a sociable thing to do, teaches manners and conversation skills, and shows children that food should be savoured and appreciated (not just 'fuel' to chuck down).  All that kind of thing helps children make better choices for themselves and, hopefully, not end up gobbling chocolates like there's no tomorrow! 

And do be careful about the 'full fat' ban.  Fat isn't harmful.  Babies, especially, need full fat foods in order for their brains to develop and toddlers need full-fat dairy products up to about age 3 for the same reason.

Still.... good luck with your ideal scenario.  Just prepare to have it modified by reality :-)

I agree with the bit about banning junk-food having a reverse effect. My parents sort of did that to an extent, and when I got old enough to go to restaurants and things without them, I became overweight. Now that I've eatten them though, they don't taste as OMG DELICIOUS and I'm back to a healthy weight.

Besides talking about good nutrition, my main concern will be promoting a positive body image. To have a child that is happy with themself would be what I would want most of all.

my kids (if i ever have any) will be raised vegan :)

Alright, I agree with you on all the food served at home. It should be healthy, low cal, and wholesome.  I will also try to do that once I have kids, and also introduce them to different things such as salmon, wild rice, so that they don't become picky eaters.

However, I must disagree with a couple of the things you mentioned:
-Personally, I believe that kids need to learn that having a treat once in a while is okay.  Also, when I take them out, or to friend's houses, I don't want to be the person who will tell them what they can and can't eat.  They need to learn that a piece of cake is okay once in a while, etc.
-What's wrong with ddr ??

When the first thing I reach for when hungry is a bag of chips, how can I expect my kids to eat any differently? These days when I want to snack I reach for an apple or grapes and offer them to my kids as well.

The great thing is they don't miss the junk nearly the way I thought they would! Yeah, we still have crackers and granola bars, but they are offered and eaten fewer and farther between. We still have dessert every night after supper in the form of ice cream, 2 cookies, or some similar treat. They don't feel deprived of sweets and yet it makes up so very little of their daily intake. It works for us!

I don't want kids but being on a diet & learning about nutrition has made me see that some of the food choices my parents made when I was a kid were not so great. We ate fast food (pizza, KFC, Long John Silvers) 3-4 times a week because my parents didn't want to cook. Even though I loved eating those kinds of foods I wish my parents had been more careful with what they fed us & made more home cooked meals. Because after you spend 18 years eating crap it's hard to train yourself to eat better.

I already see my sister making the same mistakes with my 15 month old niece. I cringe every time she gives her kool-aid, soda, candy, chips, etc... A baby shouldn't be eating those kinds of foods. I've tried talking to my sister about it but she's so in denial about what she & her kids eat that she doesn't listen. So the least I can do is make sure my niece eats healthy when she's with me & try and get her started on the right path.

I have a 2yr old and a 4 yr old and my recent weight loss and new lifestyle change has played a huge part in my childrens diet.  When my husband and I were over weight, we fed our kids the same junk we ate.  Now, we replaced processes snacks with dried and fresh fruit, veggies with hummus and healthy whole grain pasta and breads.  They resisted at first, but now they are totally on board.  It brings a smile to my face when they ask for a special treat and it is raisins or an apple.  My 4 yr old is asking questions about nutrition and why certain foods are better than others.  I really hope that I have made a difference in their lives for when they grow older, so they can learn to make good choices on their own.

Totally. When I think of all the times I was giving food as a reward when I was a kid! I don't know how I'm going to raise kids (especially a daughter) without weight issues...

Don't imagine that that will guarantee you thin, active, healthy children... our parents strictly limited sweets and desserts, we never ate fast food, and television time was limited. It didn't make us thin, just envious of other kids who were allowed to eat junkfood and sit around watching cartoons. Food was never a reward, but that just made sugary treats, candy etc something special to eat as much of as we could when we could get our hands on it (I admit it, I was one of those kids who ate herself sick every christmas day for the first part of my life, because it was the only time I had unlimited access to 'special' food). Everyone needs to learn moderation, including children...

SkyeSkye -

First off, I am 25, recently married and just starting to think about having kids.  That being said, I have some real problems with your plan.  I know I'm not the most experienced person in the world, but do you realize that you can create eating disorders just as easily by DENYING your children unhealthy foods as by PROVIDING them? 

From everything that I've read and heard and seen in my life, whether as a high school student with a best friend who was bulimic, as a college student watching sorority girls starve themselves to fit an unreachable ideal, or watching another friend battle obesity, it seems to me that more important than WHAT you feed your children is how you teach them to think about and approach their bodies, food and societal pressures.  Certainly there are some things that you might change about how you were raised.  I know that I will do things differently than my mother did, but you can easily flip to the opposite extreme and end up hurting your children if you don't teach them how to approach all foods, high-fat or not.

I really like your idea about cooking as much from scratch at home as possible.  I'm hoping to be able to do that for my children as well.  But why not make some chocolate chip cookies WITH your kids and let them see what a "normal" sized cookie is?  Let them eat one or two and they'll be totally happy.  You can freeze the rest and save them for treats once or twice a week.  And by treats, I don't mean "you'll get a cookie if you behave", I mean a random thursday afternoon for no particular reason or as a special family dessert you can bring them out.  That way your kids will realize that one or two cookies is a serving, you don't need to eat dessert every day, and most important (I think) food is not associated with emotional issues or good behavior.

Your kids are going to get these foods at some point whether you like it or not.  Teach them moderation and good eating habits and they'll be less likely to binge eat, emotional eat, or have other eating disorders as a result.  If they learn good habits from you, they won't have to learn bad habits from their friends.

MMMM Im 24 years old and I've learn lot about health and how is consuming our kids in our contry.

My kids

will not eat fast food every day, maybe 2 times a months, if do it, healthy choices from mc donalds, or any other fast food restaurant.

will not buy chips, candys, sugary drinks, chocolates, ice cream, pastries.

will eat healthy breakfast, snacks, lunch and diner, fruit, nuts, w w breads, crackers, light cheese, yogurt and milk, low fat meats.

will eat smart snacks in the house or school. Bring healthy meals to trips.

Encourage to play sports, enjoy outside games, not TV and video games.

Im still trying to get my boyfriend in track with me, about eating healthy choices, but he love chips and steaks.

Of course you right, is not the I'll refuse to let them eat ice cream and fast food sometimes out of the house, but you can make good choices too, you can buy less fat, not sugar added goodies and they will love it too. Multigrain chips and healthy crackers.

Im a nanny for over 8 years I love kids and Im sure that making good choices in food will not hurt them at all.

It definiteley has. I'm actually glad you brought this up. Even though I'm only fifteen and right now I'm thinking that I really don't want kids ever [ I don't ever want to have to settle down unless its with someone]. But if I do have kids [ if I'm even able to] I don't want them to go through the same thing I did and struggle with eating disorders. I used to think that just because i ate unhealthy when i was a kid [ i still ate healthy too though!] thats thats why i was fat now [but i wasnt at 4'11" and 105lbs] I didnt take into consideration that when i was a kid i was outside about 29579572 billion hours a day running around the woods and our backyards with my best friends.
But yeah, I will definiteley introduce my kids to healthy foods and good nutrition, but i wont ban things from them or put them under the sort of pressure I felt I was under. I'll be sure to make them sure that they are perfect the way that God made them.

I definitely do not want my future children to develop the same problems I have.  But I think the best way to do that is not to deny them certain things (God forbid they take a page from their mama's book and hide food in their rooms), but give them a choice. Everyone talks about giving kids choices from child psychology specialists, to teachers, to other parents, so I figure nutrition should be the same.

For example: If my child says "I want a snack, please." I will say, "Alright. You may have these apple slices, or this pear". Occasionally,  I will let them choose between the fruits and veggies or a small chocolate. Not only will they be given the freedom to choose and develop their taste buds, they learn a bit about portion control. If they are truly hungry, they'd want a whole apple more than one chocolate; and they learn that chocolate(or whatever) is okay, but it is a "sometimes" food, because I won't always let it be one of their choices.

I also want to expose my kids to ethnic foods and healthy alternatives like tofu. My parents were very "meat and potatoes" people and to this day can't believe where I get my adventerous taste buds. Its been really hard for them to eat healthy, which they have to do now for medical reasons. So, I'm officially breaking the cycle and hopefully my kids will have a normal relationship with food!

I'm sorry to tell you this but this isn't ideal. Sheltering children from food only will make things worse for them in the long run. What happens when they are at school and use their tooth fairy money for ice cream instead of eat that apple you packed? Or when they get older and get an allowance and start hoarding candy bars they have bought after school in their room. A coworker of mine couldn't understand why her daughter was gaining so much weight. Turns out she was getting candy and cokes and etc. from friends at school! Teach them to eat correctly WITH the junk food and they will be better off. And I'm sorry my 4 year old LOVES to eat broccoli dipped in Ranch dressing. It's hard enough to get kids to eat much less eliminate all those things on that list.