Children and healthy eating habits?!
My actual question is "What is a great nutrition program for a 1 year old, that does not involve sugar or carbs to any great amount"? I will involve meat. I know this is a veg forum, but I am finding that the folks here are FAR more informed (in most cases) than the humans on the parenting boards. Parenting forum members for the most part are clueless when it comes to diet. The standard response is "ask your pediatrician".
I am finding that pediatricians are adhering more to the AAP recommendations and not common sense. I would really respect genuine input to help me establish some very good eating habits (beyond those already in place) for my children. Thanks in advance.
Answers: My son just recently turned 1. I have him on a VERY strict diet that I have worked out over the year with several pediatricians. My family has a serious problem with ADD(HD) etc. and I have found that MOST of the issues they deal with come from the diet and the crap sugar and carbs being consumed.
My actual question is "What is a great nutrition program for a 1 year old, that does not involve sugar or carbs to any great amount"? I will involve meat. I know this is a veg forum, but I am finding that the folks here are FAR more informed (in most cases) than the humans on the parenting boards. Parenting forum members for the most part are clueless when it comes to diet. The standard response is "ask your pediatrician".
I am finding that pediatricians are adhering more to the AAP recommendations and not common sense. I would really respect genuine input to help me establish some very good eating habits (beyond those already in place) for my children. Thanks in advance.
This question seems familiar... hm... didn't you ask this before?
One of my daughters is one. She's still breast feeding in the evenings and weekends. We give her steamed veggies. Rice, millet, barley -- we eat that too, we just give her some without any salt etc. She eats it plain or with something without salt or sugar etc. Oatmeal with peas added -- maybe some nutritional yeast and flax oil too. Everything organic. No while flour etc. Rice congee. Rice noodles on occasion. Nori sea weed and wakame seaweed, organic puffed wheat, rice cakes, fruit of all kinds, beans of all kinds... Basically all whole foods, almost all organic, but no added colours, salt, sugar, preservatives, etc. For a sweet treat dried fruits are great (always get organic -- non-organic are sulphured), and malt. Malt is sweet, but still a complex carb and will not have a sugar high/low effect. I use it myself for my oatmeal, good stuff. Also comes in a powder form for other forms of cooking, like cookies or whatever. There are all sorts of great foods out there. Check out the stores of other cultures... tonnes of really interesting healthy tasty stuff.
Our older daughter who's three follows pretty much the same kind of diet, but with the addition of soy sauce, miso, home made cookies (use a little organic cane sugar -- remember, their tastebuds are 100x ours, so bland to us can be strong for them). Besides the cookies I make, she basically has no sugar.... it just makes her go nuts few hours later... white flour in the form of crackers etc. has the same result. Really crazy sugar low. One candy will do the trick, big time, or a whole bunch of crackers. Switched to whole grain rye crackers... no prob.
Regarding carbs... just stick to unprocessed carbs... whole grains... whole wheat, whole rye, buckwheat, etc. Healthy food can be fun and tasty... my kids just love to eat... and I never refuse because when we go to the store and I say... pick whatever you want... and one wants dates and the other wants bananas... so be it. Other kids would run straight to the candy bars, chips, pop, etc.
http://www.naturalhealthcalifornia.com/F...
First thing I would like to ask is what kind of carbs? Because refined or enriched flours are not good for you but whole grain pastas, breads, brown rice, etc. is exceptional for the body and would probably not contribute to ADD symptoms itself. If you are worried about any carbs though, you should try to put your son on a gluten free diet. I would also suggest a casein-free diet but many people may find that hard to manage.
Also, instead of giving your son fruit juices, you should just give him water and then maybe have unsweetened applesauce or the solid fruit later. This is a much better type of sugar than that which they put into most juices.
I'm not a vegan or vegetarian, but I've learned from experience with my step children who much a good diet can change a child 100% for the better. Before they moved in they lived on pop and chips for the most part.
Here's what I do. We have fresh fruit around almost always for snacks and lunches. Yogurt or oatmeal or cream o wheat for breakfast. I limit the bread to sandwiches for lunch only. I do not buy candy, chips, or junk food. I allow them to have plain chocolate once in a while, and I buy organic honey for a treat also. I buy organic whole milk and limit processed cheese. We usually have a main diet of only venison. We also raise hogs and so now our natural grown pork is an option.
Every year we all pitch in on the work and grow a garden in which we don't use chemicals, we all pitch in and do the work by hand. We have fresh tomatoes and salads when they are in season. Otherwise we buy organic produce when we need to. All of these things have drastically changed the kids mood swings and attitudes. They are in much better shape and much happier.
I also use all natural homeopathic remedies for headaches and almost anything else that arises, the kids love that and are much happier with that type of treatment for everything that is not serious.
My sister bought organic meat and threw it into the food processor...along with all veggies, she made all her own baby food.
I don't have any kids...but I did marry one *grin*
The only things I know are these:
When you give your child grapes, peel them and cut them in half.
And this is what I read
Do feed him this:
O-shaped cereals
Well-cooked carrots
Whole-wheat toast (remove crust)
Scrambled egg yolk
French toast (without egg white)
Cooked peas (no pod)
Very ripe pear chunks
Well-cooked apple chunks
Cooked pasta pieces (consider using whole-grain pasta)
Tofu chunks
Avocado dip or chunks
Soft-cooked peas and beans
Don't feed him this:
hot dogs
nuts and seeds
chunks of meat or cheese
whole grapes
hard, gooey or sticky candy
popcorn
chunks of peanut butter
raw vegetables
raisins
chewing gum
Children under age 7 should not be given nuts, because they are still at risk for choking.
I'm not really any help...
But good luck!
I have ADD, and am a member of a couple of different ADD forums. The general consensus among us REAL people who have ADD is that diet doesn’t make a lick of difference to symptoms. ADD is a neurological disorder, not a GI disorder or a malabsorption disorder. Many of us have tried the gluten free, casein free, dye free diets without any difference at all to symptoms.
Just my two cents.
I don't have kids either. But my family took in foster kids. We had this boy who fostered with us for almost 2 years, he was ADHA...it was terrible. My parents changed his diet and he became a different boy, the doctor took him off his meds.
I think that what you are doing and planning ahead is really great. If more parents put in time for their kids I think our society would have a deeper soul.
If you're concerned about sugar and sweeteners, you shouldn't worry about natural sugar - that is, the type present in fruit. There are also natural sugars in breast milk (human and other varieties).
I have never heard of a connection between ADD/HD and carbohydrate intake, but whole grains are still the best bet, whole grain food is most nutritious.
Many things targeted at kids are actually deceptive and loaded with sweeteners. Avoid juices - by 1 years old, your baby shouldn't be drinking any off-the-shelf juice; you can make smoothies or home-pressed juice but the ones on the shelf in the store are processed and pasteurized - read the label, the sugar content is ASTOUNDING and usually they have no nutritional content, they are FORTIFIED. That means you can get away with giving your kid 4 teaspoons of sugar and a vitamin pill and it's the same thing.
Things like Nutrigrain bars are AWFUL. If you look at the ingredients, there are 7 or more sweeteners in it - corn syrup, high fructose corn syrup, honey, sugar, fructose, dextrose, etc. They're a sugar trap.
Learn all the "code words" for added sugar. They come under many names, as I already listed: corn syrup, high fructose corn syrup, honey, fructose, dextrose, sugar, brown sugar, molasses (unfortunately, it's pretty much sugar), agave nectar, etc. Then just spot them on ingredients labels, look at the sugar grams that are listed, etc.
I really do believe you should consult with a pediatrician, and if your pediatrician is uninformed you should go to a nutritionist, or even call up a behavior specialist that deals with toddlers and babies to see what they would recommend so that your little one's diet doesn't aggravate his ADD/HD. If you have a pediatrics hospital in the area, you should call and see if you could talk with someone by phone, and if they are not willing to dispense off-the-record, over-the-phone advice, it might be worth investing in an appointment.
I would HEAVILY recommend two books to you:
"What to Eat" by Dr. Marion Nestle
(a nationally respected nutritionist AND an omnivore - meaning this is NOT veg propaganda)
AND
"Food Politics" by Dr. Marion Nestle
Both talk about food and products marketed as healthy, and especially products aimed at children, about the "Sugar" connection and behavior, about the sugar industry, about how to decode food labels, how to know what's GOOD to buy and what's junk on the store shelves. I promise you right now that you will be very satisfied with the info in these books, especially the chapters dealing with Kids, Sugar, etc. Her books are fantastic.
As for what MY daughter eats? She breast feeds mostly at night but once in the morning and once late in the evening (I'm weaning right now). She drinks water throughout the day from a sippy cup (I started her on water early so she wouldn't get hooked on sugary drinks - you have to break the habit if you did because it's awful for baby's teeth!).
I buy nothing but organic for her. Breakfast is a banana and oatmeal. Snack would be organic apple-and-cinnamon whole grain O's (from the health food store - no added sweetener, has powdered apples and stuff to sweeten it, less than 3 dollars for a big box, and totally organic too). She eats lots of freeze-dried fruit too, and these little crackers with peanut butter. Lunch might be a whole grain waffle and a yogurt. Dinner might be lots of veggies (potato, broccoli, peas, carrots), mushed with some cheese. Another meal might be pureed brown rice, avocado and fruit (for a nice, protein-carb-and-fat balanced meal).
As I cut down on breast feedings I'll be introducing more and more veggies. They're usually low in calories and high in fiber, I don't want to fill her up on low-cal, bulky stuff. She eats tons of fruit and whole grains for now.