AIBU to stop my 10 yo daughter eating, even though she's not fat (yet)?

[KennethParcell]

From the moment she got in from school she has been eating. Crackers, strawberries, biscuits (she ate more than her share but her brother and I weren't quick enough) also a yoghurt, and a chocolate spread sandwich with two slices of bread! I took the chocolate spread off her and couldn't believe how much of it was gone, i only bought it an hour ago.

I told her spagbol in an hour, so no more eating. the whinging and the whining - you would have thought I had locked her in the chokey for a week with gruel and water. so, i managed to prevent her eating anymore bread/cheese while I cooked, although a few times I had to say 'i said NO!' and shut the cupboard door as she was opening it.......... made the spagbol and dished up and she had seconds, which is FINE, totally fine. Then she was hungry, so i said have some snap peas. her brother and i had the snap peas and I said have a pear then. no, still 'hungry' but not hungry enough for snap peas or a pear but she has devoured two brioches. i'm so cross, all the food i carted back from the supermarket earlier, which was for the whole weekend, she on her own has already depleted a weekend's supply of carbs!!! she will be up before me tomorrow eating whatever she can lay her hands on as well.

aibu to put it to her that she should think about whether or not she is really hungry or not. and that if she is genuinely hungry she wouldn't turn her nose up at snap peas and a pear.... i'm forever telling her that she can't have six slices of bread a day, even brown bread, because of the salt content. i'm worn out with her.

she's ten by the way and although she is not plump she has a sticky out tummy, it's not wobbly, it's kind of like a drum sticking out, four months pregnant!

What about beans?

tbh I think you're missing the point!!! if i can't steer my daughter towards snap peas and celery sticks then I don't think I'm going be able to introduce a paleo diet!

in this house, porridge is healthy (and i mean unsweetened of course).

my spagbol was home made with wholewheat spaghetti, onion, celery and mushrooms, only 150 grams of lean mince, garlic, can of tomatoes... i use a lower pasta to 'bol' ratio. and on that particular night there were no veg so i provided snap peas as a snack............. to me that is a relatively healthy meal that is a compromise. I used to be vegetarian before I had kids. My kids love meat. I'm doin' me best ykwim :-|

defineme, yes! beans. they go down well here, although I wouldn't be too fond of them myself. Are they 'allowed'!?!

we're going out now for a long walk... don't want to out where I live but a long walk, roast in a pub and then a long walk home. we'll be back at five. yall can tell me off for eating red meat! ;-p

The roast veg couscous to said btw is because I'm lazy! I am out he house 7.30-6.30 on a regular work day. One eve I can spend 5 mins chopping up a load of random veg ad a bit of olive oil and forget in the oven for an hour. Couscous itself is add hot water to bowl, mix with eg 2 mins later. I then don't have to make lunch for anyone to eat at home/ away for the next couple of days. Is quicker than making sandwiches for 4/5 people 2/3 days.

But anyone can eat/ do/ have whatever lifestyle/ food they like so not up to me

Forever don't get me wrong I am full of admiration!Just feel useless myself

dont feel useless, your doing great im sure :). i am seriously lazy though! so yes we might make fresh curry sauce etc, but either myself or dh will make enough to freeze prob 6 more portions! so actually means we can have curry (for exmaple, once a week for the next 6 with just defrosting and making rice)

also v 50/50 household with myself and dh. couldn't do it without his help. like i said younger sister also lives here and so she might make everyones breakfast, lunch is cold/reheated from eve before in packed lunch/ on the go/ at childcare, and dinner could have been made 3 weeks ago..

laziness works well if organised :)

Okay nutritionally I think some of you are wrong. Our bodies like all living things/cells need sugar to function. All carbohydrates are turned into sugars, the crucial thing is how quickly. Starches take longer than pure sugars. If you don't get enough sugars your bodies crash anyway.

Don't feel inadequate, some diets espoused here aren't healthy, especially for growing children. If you have a problem from your diet then you need to look at it, if you don't then its probably fine for you/your children.

Okay nutritionally I think some of you are wrong. Our bodies like all living things/cells need sugar to function. All carbohydrates are turned into sugars, the crucial thing is how quickly. Starches take longer than pure sugars. If you don't get enough sugars your bodies crash anyway.

Don't feel inadequate, some diets espoused here aren't healthy, especially for growing children. If you have a problem from your diet then you need to look at it, if you don't then its probably fine for you/your children.

Aw don't feel bad lunch, I'm sure you're doing fine. There's no need to be super prepared and organised (I just have to be or my head will explode - am a very highly strung person!)

Orenishii, I just can't agree with you with the oats thing. If there's one breakfast guaranteed to fill me up in the morning and very definitely NOT give me a sugar spike it's a bowl of porridge, or muesli. If I eat Weetabix, or worse - Cornflakes, then by 11am I always start getting that hungry, slightly jittery & shakey, sugar-dip feeling.

I think people bang on too much about sugars in food, which are there as naturally occuring sugars, which human kind have been eating since they were on earth. Fruit, and things like root veg, are naturally sweet. Full of vitamins and energy-giving. Our bodies would not have evolved to produce insulin if sugars had not been naturally present in our diets for thousands of years.

"Winter mornings now, I have a mash up of sweet potato (flourless) pancakes or butternut squash blended with coconut milk served hot with a pinch of cinnamon." Wpw. That is quite a departure from the "norm". Where on earth do you eat breakfast when you are away from home? Staying with friends or on holiday?

I'm a convinced paleo eater (even though, as an archaeology student, I think the basic premise is total bobbins - it sure works, I just don't really care why).

But I think those concerns are misplaced here. I wouldn't worry about white bread, pasta, potatoes etc for growing bodies. Trying to avoid the obvious huge sugar spikes is probably the biggest thing you can do for children's diets IMO (and hard enough by itself).

SCOTCHandWRY just because you have an allergy, and from your symptoms possible Coeliacs, doesn't mean everyone does.

Most people don't have: gut pain, arthritic hands and joints, frequent headaches etc. etc. Sorry life is unfair, but that is not normal.

No Mummytime, it's not normal... but not that unusual either - I had no problem until well into my 30's as is often the case. Wheat is implicated in a huge range of autoimmune conditions but it may take years/decades for the damage to be done.

Interestingly, although Coeliac disease is said to be rare, a large scale study of biopsied gut samples showed that around 30% of gut samples show an immune response to wheat gluten, and 100% of samples showed an immune response to lectin, another protein found in grains which is known to damage the gut (cooking makes it less toxic).

For most of humans history/evolution, we did not eat grain... or have any of the diseases of civilisation associated with it's consumption!

I'm getting off my soap box now...

But for some reason, it makes people angry when you talk about cutting out processed carbs like oats, porridge - which by the way is one of the worst for being sugary - pasta, bread, brown rice - which is actually worse than white rice because the body has to work harder to process the shell around brown rice.

Orenishill, I think it's the addictive nature of it... put someone in an MRI, feed them wheat flour and all the opiate receptors in their brains light up like a Christmas tree... literally, it's addictive!

Seriously, out of all the normal breakfast choices are we really saying porridge is super bad? I'm calling bull on that. A pot of porridge made with water and sprinkled with cinemon fills me up until lunch, with no noticeable sugar crash. Funnily enough my work canteen doesn't sell mashed up sweet potato for breakfast.

It makes people annoyed (I wouldn't say angry) because it's always annoying when horseshit and woo-woo are promoted as though it were truth. There's nothing wrong with the OP's daughter's diet - some of the people on here are acting like she's mainlining donner kebabs or something.

Hi OP, I haven't read whole thread, but wanted to say what I do, as DD1 is jut the same. They have a 'snack box' each, and after I go shopping they choose 8 snacks each to las them the week eg, 2 x biscuits, 3 x crackers, 1 pack mini cheddars, 1 brioche etc. They can then eat them when they like (discouraged just before meals) and when they have run out they have run out. This makes them self-regulate. I can't believe how many fewer biscuits we get through since starting this (I though DH was eating them all). They can have fruit any time in addition, and of course sometimes we will have cake or ice cream or something for snacks when we are out. I will occasionally say yes to an extra bowl of cereal or piece of toast after brownies/gym.

It makes people annoyed (I wouldn't say angry) because it's always annoying when horseshit and woo-woo are promoted as though it were truth. There's nothing wrong with the OP's daughter's diet - some of the people on here are acting like she's mainlining donner kebabs or something.

Nothing I've said is Horseshit or Woo-woo (whatever that is), everything I've stated is true and can be backed up by scientific, peer-reviewed research into the effects of carbohydrate consumption and wheat consumption on insulin metabolism and the immune system... this is evidence-based information, but goes against the perceived "truth" (not based on evidence), the post-war invention of the low fat, high carb, cereal heavy diet which people seem to think is "healthy"(because people are repeatedly told it's healthy!)... people never eat that way until VERY recently you know!

Funny how the rise in obesity, heart disease, diabetes, gout, many cancers has risen in line with peoples carbohydrate and cereal intake... People are now eating more grains and refined carbs (and less fat and protein), than ever, they should be healthier than ever before, but they are not healthier, they are sicker and fatter... because carbohydrate consumption messes with your insulin response and makes you hungry, and because lack of essential fats and protein also makes you hungry.

I'm done posting - if I've made a few people think, maybe read up a little then that's great, but as I said before, we Paleo people are swimming against the tide of perceived wisdom so expect a hard time when we stick our heads up and tell everyone that WE are right

can't resist one more link -

www.dietdoctor.com/

< goes back to swimming against the tide and muttering to self>

And I still say your concerns are misplaced, Scotch. I eat the same way as you, you don't have to shovel links at me. I just don't think it's nearly as relevant when you're talking about growing children - apart from the obvious restrictions against hoovering up pure sugar products, which everybody here agrees with.

You're not doing this whole paleo thing any favours by being preachy. There's a time to spray the links around, and there's a time to check one's ego.

Really madbuslady? My ego is TINY. Two links in separate posts is hardly shovelling them. Preachy? Maybe - I do think people should inform themselves... official guidance on diet which is being preached at them is not doing anyone any favours, health wise imo.

My kids eat largely Paleo - but with a little more (non grain) carbs as yes, they are growing.

My diet does me perfectly fine scotch, I have no health concerns from my (non paleo) diet!

Mooskit is by far the most sensible poster on rhs thee. She isn't fat, it isn't everyday, if ain't broke...

*this thread

Op maybe your daughter has worms.. sticky out stomach and craving for sweet things are signs !