Food for Toddlers?

[Kisha]

Hello,

Okay my lovely daughter (see below image) is nearly 2 years old now. She basically lives on whole milk, cheese, oatmeal, whole yogurt, wheat saltines, some pasta (like mac n cheese my style which includes real cheeses, butter, and whole milk) small cuts of chicken cut up and little dots of ketchup to get her to eat it, broccoli cuts in olive oil, rice with butter, an occasional lien cuisine, apple bits, and mandorian oranges, etc... She spits out all beef. :eek: LOL These are just some of the "typical foods she eats daily".

Is this a valid diet for a toddler?

I was diagnosed diabetic prior to being pregnant with her. I went on a low carb diet while I was pregnant with her to keep my blood sugars normal. Although they ended up putting me on insulin anyway, but I dont believe that was a necessary step. It only forced me to eat more carbohydrates and fruits / veggies to stay even normal. I believe my diet played a huge part in how healthy she was and is now.

But I guess my question is, should I be limiting her carbohydrates at all? I try not to feed her more than 1 or 2 servings a day of any carbohydrate. And I try hard to incorp nutrient rich carbs over simple.

I mean if a diet such as protien power is safe for human consumption, wouldnt it be logical it would safe for a 2 year old? But I am over-weight and she is tall and very slender. She has a little baby chunkieness in her legs and arms/hands, but otherwise she's very healthy looking. Not too thin but just right.

I guess I always ask this question to my doctor when he tries to get me on a new medication. "Is this safe for children?," I say. Because if not I dont want in my body either! Especially if I plan on getting pregnant again.

Obviously I avoid all High Fructose Corn Syrup or Vegetable laden oil products, but is that enough to avoid?

I guess I dont even know what is considered the best ods for a child. As when I was a child, government cheese, (lol) canned foods and meats were about all I ever ate, aside from the tons of candy, cookies, cereals full of carbs, cake, sandwhichs, rice and canned soup, & lots of juices they gave me as well. Rarely we had a normal dinner at our house. I remember lots of specialy made lasana too. Accept for the holiday season when they also served up major mash potatoes, yams and honey/brown sugared hams/turkey.

I dont want her growing up on that crap!

I haven't cut carbs from her diet because I've been told repeatedly by family members who believe a child needs it, but do they really? Should I be cutting out the grains and just giving veggies and fruit?

[Kisha]

Also I believe fully that the reason I am diabetic today is because of the foods that my parents said was ok, wasn't!

Like I said, Pasta, Rice, Canned Soups, Margarine, Cereals, Oatmeals, sandwichs, juices, fruits, and meat was just small portion of what I ate!

Once my mother (when I was 13 and pounding on a few pounds) actually put me on a diet. I was in two different basketball teams (one for school and one for church) and needed the extra protein. She started me on Shaklee protein powder drinks. I lost weight and felt better most days! She always wondered why I was totally out of sorts all of the time. I was cranky and onry kid half the time. And its no wonder when I think about what I ate!

The shakes did help, but since then I've looked for Shaklee products and found they were too high in carbo's to be helpful to me now. But it WAS the only time I actually saw weight loss in my young years. I was never terribly overweight as a child, I just definatly saw it in my hips and if I didn't exersize regularly and everyday through school programs, I probably would have ballooned up big time.

I want Kate to grow up strong, healthy and not emotionally distraught. Suggestions or comments are helpful. I would ask my doctor accept he doesn't even support my low carb eating, so how can I trust he'd support hers!?

One doctor told me to go on the "Sugar Busters" diet. I went to their website and it was all high carbohydrate foods, and low fat. ARGH!:crybaby: But that was over five years ago.

[Frank Hagan]

Kids have different dietary needs than adults, so I would really hesitate to recommend any specific diet for them. Sometimes just finding something they will eat is a chore!

One thing that might help is to think of the food that kids ate 100 years ago, before the advent of so many manufactured foods. My father was born in 1916, and even then, sweets were reserved for a very occasional treat (one hard candy a week, and one meal a week had a dessert). Sugar was something they had to trade grain or milk for, so they didn't get it very often. They did get good quality protein from whole milk, eggs, cheese, meat and ate what we call "complex carbs" today (even their white flour wasn't as "pristine white" as ours is today). They had bread with every meal, but it was usually one slice, not the major part of a meal.

Drs. Eades mention in one of their books that a child's insulin response is still proper and intact, and that years of blood-sugar abuse leads to insulin resistance and adult-onset diabetes. They even mention that some teens can ingest huge quantities of carbs and not gain weight. I infer from that that kids don't need the emergency intervention that we do. They do need to be protected from the onslaught of manufactured foods with highly processed carbs, lab-created artificial oils with organic sounding names and the chemicals slathered on so many packaged foods.

This may be heresy here, but for a child, a "balanced" diet may be more appropriate, with an emphasis on replacing the bad fats with good fats (as you are doing) and finding foods that are both healthy and appealing to her. It sounds like that's what you are doing, and if your daughter is thriving and gaining weight, you're on track.

[Kisha]

Kids have different dietary needs than adults, so I would really hesitate to recommend any specific diet for them. Sometimes just finding something they will eat is a chore!

Totally, some days its a major battle to get her to eat anything other milk. "MILKK" she says. Then proceeds to twist her head back and forth when you try to put the food near her mouth! LOL

As far as the rest of your post. That is what I was thinking. This week a meal was bbq roasted sweet potatoes for lunch. She gobbled it down and I felt satisfied she enjoyed something fairly healthy and not junk. I stopped buying pre-packaged foods for the most part anyway. Accept for dry rice and pasta. As my husband loves these items too occassionally. I won't give either of them much of it though.

:p

My husband on the other hand eats well normally but he is addicted to Mt. Dew in a bad way. And when Kate grows up more, I don't know what I am going to have to tell her... I guess, "Daddy's an idiot?" lol He knows its not good, but he can't find a suitable substitute and he's royally picky! I tell him that just because your skinny does not mean it doesn't hurt you!

I was at one point giving her nutra-grain bars, thinking, "Oh that is sure to be good for her." Then I read the ingredients. "Partially hydrogenated oils and high fructose corn syrup." I ditched them fast.

[Spruce Goose]

My son is 14 months. My wife and I haven't clearly defined how we're going to handle nutrition. She's a bit more militant-LC than I am ;)

Around the house we don't keep a lot of high carb junk. Since most of his time will be around the house that's a good start. He does get cheerios (they're easy and portable), he gets all sorts of different fruit/veggies, etc. He eats off our plates a lot. If we're out, I'm pretty open to whatever. If we're in a hurry and hit a fast food place he'll get half or the whole bun. We give him all the whole milk he wants while eating. Between meals it's just water to drink.

The main thing we're trying to avoid is useless sugar. We're not big on juice, not going down the soda road and we don't have candy.

We try to make sure he gets lots of protein. One of his snacks is usually string cheese (lately we've given him the cheese stick and also a stick of zucchini and he eats them both). Sometimes we'll make him some meatballs. We've done breakfast sausage before. He likes chicken. He loves peanut butter, and peanuts for that matter too. My protein powder doesn't have any artificial sweetener in it so when my wife makes some almond/gluten bread for him she'll sometimes add some of the powder to bump the protein.

Personally, I'm not too worried about the carbs. Empty calories are my biggest concern at this point.

[Kisha]

If we're out, I'm pretty open to whatever.

Ya I tell my husband the same thing, were out, go nutz get the fet alfredo. Since he isn't getting it home, likely! LOL


Empty calories are my biggest concern at this point.

Especially when they can be very big on not wanting to eat anything! hehe :crybaby: :p

[Frank Hagan]

My husband on the other hand eats well normally but he is addicted to Mt. Dew in a bad way. And when Kate grows up more, I don't know what I am going to have to tell her... I guess, "Daddy's an idiot?" lol

Have you been talking to my wife? ;)

[LMN]

I have a 3 1/2 year old and a 18 month old.

Simple solution - we keep very little food in the house that I'm not prepared to eat myself - thus it's not here to give them (and not here for me to eat either)!

They eat much higher quantities of fruit than myself and also high carb vege that I either don't eat myself or eat very small quantities of (potato etc). They also eat fruit yoghurt. My husband buys lunch at his staff canteen and we all eat low carb for dinner.

The secret to getting my two to eat meat such as beef steak is to cook it very rare. I think dryness of meat is the problem little children - too much chewing.

So today this is what my children have eaten -

Breakfast - fruit salad, yoghurt, cold ham, milk
Morning tea - cheese cubes and grapes
Lunch - a plate with cheese cubes, 1/4 of an apple sliced, cold silverside (leftovers), hummus, carrot matchsticks to dip in hummus, 8 raisins, 1/2 manderin.
Afternoon tea - will be fruit they can choose
Dinner - planning to make a "mashed cauliflower" topped pie - we call it Cottage Pie, with vege

One likes egg the other doesn't.

Both like jerky and nuts (and yes, the 18 month old can manage both).

I always remind myself that I can choose the healthy food that I offer my kids- but they chose what or how much they eat. If they don't eat lunch at lunch time I pop it in the fridge and if they're hungry later they get it then. This more often happens to the younger if she gets too tired to eat.

Another thing - we don't restrict what they eat at parties etc. And on special occasions like birthdays we all have cake and icecream. And if Grandad buys them an iceblock we smile. But at home, every day, we eat healthily, and special occasions are just that, special.

Kindergarten is a laugh with their 'healthy snack list'. I just send my 3 year old with fruit and give her a second snack when we get home.

Oh - and both love dark chocolate and this is our storecupboard treat . A treasured memory is my then 2 year old biting into a 'chocolate coin' at Christmas, spitting it out and looking at me horrified saying "Mummy, what IS this?"