Ice cream on holiday

[Alalalalalongalalalalalonglonglilong]

If you were on a sun holiday how often would you allow your kids have an ice cream or treat? Just curious, am having a disagreement with DH here.

Probably everyday

I allow a fair amount of sweet stuff (not unlimited but certainly more than one ice cream a day) on a holiday (i.e. our week abroad in a resort) but not during the school holidays. Tbh my DC is in clubs for a large chunk of the holiday while we work and packed off with a healthy lunch and 2 snacks, so that removes a large part of the challenge for us. Since he's much more active at clubs than during school, he generally comes out of them a fair amount thinner (and he's skinny already).

If we're at home for any length of time, my strategy is to get my DC out of the house as much as possible as most of the snacking is boredom-related. It's during these periods I do see some weight gain.

To clarify by holiday I mean our annual family holiday, in this case 2 weeks in a European beach resort, as opposed to school holidays. When we are off school but at home it's business as usual with the odd extra indulgence if we do a weekend day trip, definitely not two ice creams a day.

😂

I don't know, I mean too much sweet stuff makes me more nervous about their teeth than anything else, but I find that during the holidays, if anything, my children are often more active. Sometimes they're doing camps. Other days they're with friends and out and about. Or we're doing things as family - over the next two weeks we have already planned a day in London, a trip to the beach and a day out with extended family seeing a not-so-local site as well as a day at a local pool. DD has at least a couple of play dates a week where they're usually running around constantly and DS has been out and about on his bike all over the place, playing football, skateboarding etc and has been meeting friends at the gym regularly. It also helps that it's hot so we've been eating lots of lighter meals with salads etc.

So frankly, with all the extra activity, I'm not too stressed about a few extra treats throughout the summer.

At Christmas, we had family visiting. We had loads of meals out, cake etc. But I lost 1.5kg - because we were in London almost every day showing them all the sights and I don't think I had a single day where I did less than 20000 steps. The kids were right there with us!

I think your approach is absolutely right op: it’s a holiday and two weeks won’t change much, especially when he has a growth spurt ahead. Also while people witter on about obesity crisis, we also have a MH crisis which to me is a far more crippling thing to lumber a dc with. You would be absolutely wrong to “ punish” him for his appearance on holiday. Give him a big ( if ever so slightly squishy!) hug from me and work on a new approach when you get home. Also I think the DH thing can be a tricky one as they tend to be around in the evenings when dc are relaxing and holidays with relaxation and treats. I guess it’s their time to tune in and have input and they don’t realise it isn’t like that all the time. They get a skewed picture. Mine used to get 15 minutes of iPad after homework and bath ( if helped me to hustle them through those tasks) and lo and behold DH would walk in right then and say “ always on an iPad!” It just wasn’t accurate but he’d missed the other 11 hours 45 minutes of the day!

If your DH is into running, can he start taking your DS to Parkrun or something similar at the weekend when you get home?

Your DH can't just criticise you and bother your DS, he has to actively (and supportively) be part of the solution on a long-term, consistent basis.

Mine were slim, dd1 underweight and under a nutritionist off and on so circumstances were that calories = good. If a child is overweight it changes the situation so food on holiday needs to be balanced, one treat per day plus one (excluding fruit) dessert seems a balance, so fine to have an ice cream snack in the pm plus ice cream for dessert but no more. I actually think it's watching the breakfast and lunch types of foods and quantities that is more important than a couple of ice creams if you are AI

I think on holiday the answer is that your fit dh gets him more active rather than diet restriction then when you get home it's time to get it sorted. I tell myself 30 minutes of lengths = an ice cream

You absolutely should take the weight issue seriously so I'm not saying don't make an effort after the holiday.

But, I'll just say here that if he's going into Year 7, DS plays basketball. The coaches really struggle with team selection ahead of year 7 and year 8 because as they keep telling us, at this point, height starts to make a huge difference and there are massive growth spurts that can hugely impact things. I remember being quite shocked to see some of the boys in DS' team at the start of year 7 - there had been a number of massive growth spurts over the summer holiday. He's about to go into Year 9 and I went down to watch his team's final practice th other day. I hadn't seen the boys for a while as the official season finished months ago and I don't usually watch practice - I knew DS had grown, but I was shocked to realise how much when I realised he'd caught up (overtaken actually) to the boy who was previously the tallest. I was also amused to see two boys who had both always been a quite bit shorter than DS are now almost the same height as him so they've both had even bigger growth spurts than DS has!

As much as he wants but DS is skinny and needs to put weight on. I’ve alrealdy had a Magnum and I don’t care. I don’t obsess about sugar

Op the other thing to think about is whether or not it’s ice cream or gelato when you’re out getting it - gelato usually has about half the calories of ice cream, so it’s worth considering. Or something like the Swedish glacé that’s very similar to ice cream but very low calorie.

or think about making your own ice cream - if you’ve got a powerful mixer/blender, freeze chunks of fruit and blitz them with a little yogurt or cream (I’d go for a good full fat yog that’s healthy rather than a low fat one that is ultra processed) - people first became aware of it as making banana ice cream in a Vitamix or similar - but it works with most fruit combinations you like - I know a friend does a pineapple one with a coconut yogurt as a sort of pina colada ice cream!or throw in some mint or basil or other fresh green herbs for a different flavour and to up the greens hit. And challenge your ds to come up with a healthy version he would like - in fact make it a family challenge and see what flavours you all come up with (ditto for making ice lollies!) - then you can all be both virtuous and happy to indulge😝

Ds was like this at 11 by 12 he was his full adult height and muscles were coming out too! He's now 21 and relatively fit (for a student) . Do not make a big thing about food stick to your healthy eating and exercise at home. My DM did make a big thing about food at this age , not only did it stunt my growth but it's left me with a strange relationship with food I tried very hard not to pass on to my kids. We had alot of completely unneeded comment's from her when both kids hit puberty and gained. I stood my ground did healthy eating and exercise not restricted diets both now healthy weight and size. Stand your ground with dh.

Probably once during the day I'd get them a cone or something, and then potentially if we went out for dinner they'd be allowed some ice cream for dessert.

But we wouldn't go out every day (we always go self catering due to a couple of anaphylactic allergies in the family), so it would be once or twice a day depending on where we ate.

This kid is already overweight though.

It's not a 6-8 week long holiday ... It's 6 - 8 weeks of holidays across the year. Like 6 separate weeks away to Bognor, then Skegness, then 2 weeks in Spain or whatever

Some babies are BORN with rolls of fat, it's fine to be rolly fat as a babe in arms that is being fed the right amount of milk.

Mine have always been declared healthy weight by their paediatrician and their rib cages are not particularly in evidence.

It actually makes me feel physically ill seeing children like that.

Creeping baseline. We have lost track of what a normal human body should look like. We live in a world of such abundance/availability that we've also lost track of what normal consumption looks like, to the point where people on this thread are aghast at the idea of any sort of restriction.

This is totally different. All Babies (not children) are born with a special type of fat which helps keep them warm. It's normal for a baby to be chubby. This is totally different to childhood fat.

I don’t think that’s true at all. This is about restriction on holiday. There been a lot of talk about things needing to be limited on a normal schedule.

And it isn’t just now. In my grandparents’ day seeing children’s ribs was seen as something thing to be ashamed of - couldn’t put a square meal on the table. Children can be malnourished eating upf foods etc.

Prepubescent children need to lay down fat for their growth spurt. Its commom sense.
Their used to bevsomething called muesli belt malnutrician where parents over obsessed with healthy eating were starving their children.
All we need is s bit of common sense. UPF is the latest fad for orthorexics to grap onto .

We would have an ice cream as an option for pudding if eating out or possibly if promenading after an evening g meal so less than once a day but probably most days. We would be pretty free and easy with soft drinks and potentially have crisps if picnicking or as an appetiser .

https://childrenswi.org/newshub/stories/weight-changes-in-kids-knowing-when-to-act-what-to-say#:~:text=Noticeable%20weight%20gain%20may%20occur,in%20fat%20on%20their%20stomachs.Noticeable weight gain may occur prior to a growth spurt as excess fat helps promote growth. As a child goes through puberty, their stores of body fat may change. For example, girls tend to gain more fatty tissue in the hips, thighs and buttocks, while boys may have an increase in fat on their stomachs

I haven't read the whole thread but am surprised at some of the answers.

I'm obviously just mean because when my children were young, I'd only have bought ice creams as a treat about twice a week whilst away on holiday!