I have talked with many mothers about food choices for their families. Often, they struggle to bring healthy foods into their kitchen because the kids don't like it, the husband won't eat it, etc. One mom said she hated feeling like the food police. Another mom said that her kids were entitled to be kids and eat "kid food" (in her kitchen that meant sugar cereals, Doritos, Cheese Its, Nilla Wafers, cookies, you get the picture) -- although she followed that thought by expressing her worries about several of her kids' weight problems.
I am just going to say what I think (surprise, surprise):
We are the parents.
They are the kids.
They are the kids.
We have a responsibility to educate and encourage healthy habits in these kids. By bringing and eating healthy, yummy foods in our homes we are doing that by example. We are the ones at the stores, with the money, making food choices for our kids from the beginning. If we don't introduce them to healthy eating options, who else will? The flashy food commercials on network television selling food that is high calorie, low nutrient food... Why not make our homes as safe and healthy as possible?
Do we ever get treats in our house? Heck yeah! My kids run faster than my dog when his dish is filled with Kibbles n' Bits in order to be the first in line for dessert at Sunday dinner. But that's what they are, an occasional treat -- not an expected part of every day life or meal.
As mothers, for the most part, we have the most control over this. So, although we not perfect, we sure can make a big effort to bring, cook, eat and talk about healthy foods in our homes. We are raising these kids to be adults and these type of lifestyles must and can be taught.
Hopefully, your husband will learn something along the way, too. But, that's a post for another day :)
Fit Mommas, what do you think about this? How do bring healthy foods into your homes? What works for you?
11 comments:
Hells ya! LOVED this post on so many levels because it is basically my parenting philosophy whittled down the the microcosm of food. I've never gotten that either: "Oh, my son won't eat the dinner I make so I make him chicken nuggets and fries every night" or some other variation of that. My pediatrician once explained, when my first was in his toddler years and his appetite came and went, that no child will voluntarily starve himself. Kids can be tough nuts to crack, and sure they'll make your life miserable as they pick at their food, but at the end of the day, you control what they eat - or at least what they can choose to eat.
And this philosophy covers Nintendo, clothing, behavior and bedtime. Can I get an amen?
I understand the call of nostalgia for moms who want kid treats around the house. My mother worked full-time my whole life and I envied the kids who came home to fresh bread and honey or warm cookies after school. I bake a lot - maybe more than I should - because I know I'm overcompensating for my vision of the idyllic, food-filled childhood. Still, the compromise I make with sweets is that I don't buy any from the store, everything is homemade or nothing at all. Certainly we can't at cookies every day because we can't make cookies every day. Problem solved.
Once again, love that you're a mom with her head so firmly on her shoulders.
This is a great post! I find that starting early with kids is the best. My girls love all sorts of fruits and veggies. They are allowed to snack on fruits and veggies as much as they want. We always have fresh produce in the fridge. We as a family just finished off 2 5lb bags of cuties in 4 days. A new treat they love is apples with a little caramel dip. My girls were thrilled with that treat.
We eat whole grain breads, skim milk, always have a large fruit basket or raisins and nuts when kids are hungry. Spinach salad or other raw veggies with most dinners. I don't buy high sugar cereals. We do rice chex, rice krispies, cheerios, shredded wheat and oatmeal. I also make it a point to tell them why we eat the way we do. And I compliment them when they chose something healthy. Once a week we have "pop day" where they can have soda. I make our snacks, so I know what they have in them, and rarely buy prepackaged treats.
can you tell I'm obsessed with your blog? I came back for ideas for my grocery list. I wrote a post a few weeks ago about weight on my blog (and got chicken and erased it) where I siad that even thoguth wieght has been a life-long battle for me one of the best benefits is that I am a healthy cook and my kids love healthy food. We eat a lot of brown: brown bread, brown rice, ww pancakes, brpwn spaghetti. My kids eat tons of fruits and vegetables and little meat. BUT-- I do make them treats-- cookies, brownies, muffins-- they can afford the calories and I like baking up love.
I try to make most of our foods from scratch. I grind our wheat and make whole wheat bread for the week. I make whole wheat waffles,pancakes, banana bread, etc. and my kids never complain...it's what they know. I do bake chocolate chip cookies, cinnamon rolls, brownies, etc. but I figure if they're from scratch they must be a little better for you, right?!?
My 6-year-old is a very picky eater and mealtimes are not always peaceful. But I do take some comfort in knowing that his preferred school snack is a raw cucumber with the peel and his Christmas breakfast request (to go along with the cinnamon rolls) was salmon, brown rice, and vegetables.
LOVE this post!!
is is our duty as parents to teach our kids to love eating the healthy stuff too.
Awesome post, gave me lots of motivation! In our house Ethan will eat his veggies when I eat them first and when he sees us eat them as a family on a regular basis it's not even an issue of whether he'll eat them or not, he just thinks it's normal I guess.
For me, the problem is portion control. I live with all boys, and they eat a ton! - Samuel is in football, he trains every day at school; and Daniel bikes to and from work. And it's hard for me to say no sometimes, even though it's healthy food it can still throw off my calorie count. I noticed that you say no to certain foods at dinner time, like the bread or other extras, were you always so good at it? What's your motivation?
Agreed - we feed them healthy food, and they eat it! I am not one to worry about if they will love it or not... if they are hungry, they will eat it! WE do an occasional desert and they are so excited but really, they are usually more excited about a sliced apple and almond/peanut butter!
BTW - the word verification was branlab, how funny is that?
Ugh. I struggle with the food situation and my toddler. She really can't eat any processed foods because she has something called FPIES to soy. Basically she continually vomits. It can be life threatening. And soy. is. in. everything! I've had trouble just finding bread without it. Anyway, so she doesn't really eat any crap food, but at the same time she won't really eat veggies or say chicken. We've found other alternatives. She eats a lot fruit, avocados, canned salmon, milk, cheese, and plain yogurt. But she'd rather eat nothing than eat most veggies, which isn't really an option given that she's barely average weight. Anyway, I hope as she gets older she's more open to trying new healthy foods.
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