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Bad mom/bad eater hoping to change to...

The TVClubHouse: Archives: 2004 January - Arpil: Bad mom/bad eater hoping to change to good mom/good eater users admin

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Archive through February 05, 2004Azriel25 02-05-04  10:09 pm
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Azriel
Member

08-01-2000

Thursday, February 05, 2004 - 10:21 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Oh I forgot, also with the fruit. Get some nonfat coolwhip for them to dip their fruit in. You can even put the coolwhip in some individual little tupperwear bowls and add a drop from the end of a toothpick of food coloring and make it different colors.

Skootz
Member

07-23-2003

Friday, February 06, 2004 - 5:30 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
I have 3 kids..and all three were very picky. But they were made to try/eat at least 2 spoonfulls of each item on their plate. I never made an "extra" meal for my children. They are to eat what they are served. My oldest is now almost 7 years old...eats all her food or until she is full at the table. My 5 year old still is a bit picky but will eat the food with a little coaxing. My 2 1/2 year old is starting to eat the food served to her as well. If we have something like cooked spinach, I make sure there are only 2 spoonfulls on their plate as this is not one of their favourite foods and they are allowed to put some ketchup on it. I also let them put ketchup on their meat if they are not eating it.

Mixing the food with applesauce is a trick I use too.

When most of us are done our meal, we sometimes have dessert...it sits on the table and it is amazing how fast and good your children are eating when others are eating dessert.

I also do make sure once every week or 2 we do have a meal that the kids really like so we have a "night off" of trying to get the kids to eat. i.e. I serve hotdogs, spagetti, Nacho's. We have french fries about 1x per month. And I am really getting away from prepared foods. We rarely eat at Mc. Donalds or other fast food places (may be 1x per year). If we do go out (which is rare) we go to a family rest.

I also have put chile in the blender to make it one consistancy for my youngest and this is how I got the other 2 to eat it as well..now they eat and don't complain about it.

It is an on going battle, but you have to keep trying

I would check out Dr. Phil's site:
http://www.drphil.com/
...a while ago he had a show on picky eaters and what to do with your kids if they are not eating. He had some really good tips

Kimmo
Member

05-02-2003

Friday, February 06, 2004 - 7:28 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Wow, Azriel, what a great "campaign" to introduce new foods!

Skootz, I agree about always choosing a real favorite that you know will be eaten, at least once a week. My 2 year old seems to prefer ground beef (eh) over any other meat, so I do a meal each week that is either taco pie, cheeseburger pie, pastitsio (ground pork, using water or broth instead of wine), etc.

For meal planning I just try to make sure there is a night for pork, ham, beef, chicken; that I alternate the side vegetable each night with an A or C-rich one; that he got enough to drink....

One trick is I did because DS prefers the carbs (which is common), like biscuits, is do a casserole or recipe where they are part of the pie/etc. When he asks for a biscuit, you say, "It's in your dinner already, you need to find it." Or, he is just comforted by the fact that something he likes is in the recipe.

One thing we are learning is that he now prefers dishes with a lot of flavor, which was hard to get used to (even though I like a lot of flavor) when the first few months of family meals were spent making sure nothing was too spicy/flavorful (because he'd automatically reject it). But last night I made a skillet lasagna(with Roasted Garlic stewed tomatoes and 2 cans of sauce instead) that was very flavorful and confirmed DH's theory about preferring flavor.

Christina
Member

10-24-2001

Friday, February 06, 2004 - 7:43 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
I will never ever forget the day my mom sat my plate down in front of me and I had blue mashed potatoes. Yep, a little bit a food coloring and I loved them after that. Now I add a little onion and milk and still love em!!

Spitfire
Member

07-18-2002

Friday, February 06, 2004 - 9:43 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
I was a very picky eater as a child and still am a little bit. Like Karuuna, I was forced to eat what was put in front of me. Not just to simply try it, but eat what was there and not get something else as a substitute. I too still gag when certain things are put on the table. I look at that dish and can totally remember the taste and texture and why I don't like it. Now at 29 I wish that I didn't remember why I didn't like things and would at least try them again but I just cannot do it. Anyway, I think that sometimes forcing something can only be harmful.

I have a niece who is picky like me and found a little bit of a solution. When I have her over I tell her what we are having for supper. If she says that it's something she does not like I ask what she would like to add to the menu to make it better for her. She still must have a bit of everything but she will also get something she likes and she helped create the meal.

Another time while she was over we asked if she would like eggs and toast and she said she did not like eggs (her mom said the same thing). I told her it was really fun to make scrambled eggs, and would she like to try. She got to crack the eggs, add the milk, and mix everything up. The whole time we wiggled our butts and sang the "mix it up" song and had a great time. I allowed her to pull up a chair and watch while I cooked it. It was up to her when she felt it was cooked enough. You guessed it.....she ate her whole plate full along with me having to share mine with her.

Dahli
Member

11-27-2000

Friday, February 06, 2004 - 10:05 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
I played a game with my daughter when she was still in her highchair, we would connect the food with the body part it made REALLY strong...for example carrots and eyes.... meats(protein) for muscles, etc - this really seemed to appeal to her even at a young age we were making the connection between food and function/nutrition as opposed to just feeding the 2 square inches on her tongue. It was a bit of a game and then a challenge to remember and feed her whole body. Then as she got older and girly it was really soft skin or long hair and when she started school and had to pack her own lunch, including a 'brain' food ;-) I would check to make sure she had included all the important ingredients. She is now an adult and living on her own, but has always been really aware of the reason for food and prepares uses and enjoys it wisely!! I'm very proud of her

Schoolmarm
Member

02-18-2001

Friday, February 06, 2004 - 10:29 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
I have a niece that I swear will turn into a McDonald's french fry and a nephew that will turn into a Dorito. SIGH. My brother is good at getting them to eat, but when they are with their mother it is junk food heaven.

MY mother doesn't help, either. Grandma pretty much enables them. They do sit at the table, but they have their own meals. Mac and Cheese, bacon, tater tots or one of those kiddie tv dinners. This is the same woman who made the three of us kids taste all new foods and served us nutritionally sound meals. They snack all the time. They are 4 and 6, and should be eating a bit better, in my opinion.

I vacationed with my brothers and their kids this summer. My sis-in-law and I were horrified at the kids eating "habits". My brother had to coax a restaurant that had BLTs to just put a bunch of bacon in a basket for the niece. Then they don't eat their special foods, and instead dive into the snacks a bit later.

After a day of this, Aunt Marm turned into the "Lunch Police". We made a game out of avoiding tickets and getting "arrested" by eating a bite of this or that or actually FINISHING the bacon or french fries or milk. First one done got to be the deputy. Clean plates for ALL the kids all around. It's a game that only works with me because I don't see them too often.

My parents heard about it and thought it was aweful! The kids liked it, though and we actually had part of Thanksgiving dinner go down. After grandma saw the lunch police in action, she liked it. She thought that I was mean to the kids until she saw how playful it was. The lunch police would also "jail" the bag of doritos an hour before and after meals. That solved most of the problems.

I find it highly amusing that my mother justified the kids behavior because their dad and "I" were picky eaters as kids. The other brother ate everything in sight. I had to laugh. Their dad IS a picky eater. Wouldn't get within a mile of eating anything that an onion touched, and meat "hurt his teeth". Apparently I was a picky eater because I had a revulsion to catsup and mustard due to a halloween prank and I am ALLERGIC to seafood. My mother still doesn't "get" that the seafood allergy and having to eat fish on Fridays at school because of the Catholics were the reasons why I had hives so much as a kid.

My other niece tries lots of foods and is not a picky eater at all. She is four and eats what mom and dad eat. If she doesn't like their meal, she can make a PBJ sandwich. Of course she is the daughter of my brother who would eat ANYTHING.

I remember once as a child Mom made liver and onions, and the liver was dry, hard, smelly and NASTY. I had to sit at the table until I tried it (they did the same thing with sardines). After the liver was cold, my Dad tried to coax me to eat it by putting GRAPE JELLY on it. What was he thinking? I took one horrible bite, vomitted and was excused from the table.

Please make sure that your child doesn't have food allergies when introducing new foods. There is a HUGE difference between picky eating, disliking foods and food allergies!

Secretsmile
Member

08-19-2002

Friday, February 06, 2004 - 11:48 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
I'll share a few hints I have tried to get kids to eat. My kids were not picky eaters, but after doing home day care for more than 18 years, I feel like I've had every type of eater there is.

For the picky eaters I did a few things, I made sure that one of the meals included something they would be sure to eat, but that they assisted with fixing the meals. (The cook always has to taste while preparing, so they usually got at least a taste of something new).

Another thing that worked pretty well was making sure that there was fresh vegetables as finger food out on the table. I never made an issue of it, just left it there and sure enough the kids picked at all day long.

Some times eating habits start as control issues with kids, I let them have the control by refusing to make an issue of food preferences. If a child will actually starve him/herself, a professional needs to be consulted.

Sher
Member

08-07-2000

Friday, February 06, 2004 - 1:03 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Wow what a lot of advice. I agree with everyone who says a kids won't starve themselves. But I do feel that it is important to feed children a variety of foods not just what they like. I also am not a mom that cooks seperate meals for my kids. But if after my dd (the picky one) trys something a few times if she still doesn't like it I will either stop making it or try to accomodate what she doesn't like. For example she does not like spagetti sauce. ds Loves spagetti loaded with meatballs and tomato sauce. So I cook the meatballs seperately from the sauce and some grilled veggies then dd can have noodles meatballs and veggies and ds can have spagetti and meatballs the traditional way and usually after all will have the veggies. Also I always offer the snack I want them to have first they may negotiate it into something else but usually

Ednpatty
Member

01-21-2004

Friday, February 06, 2004 - 3:21 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Does your son like frozen pops? I have my kid eating frozen grapes they love them and think they are candy. I can also sneak in frozen peas right out of the bag. My 1 1/2 year old loves them they are too small to choke her and they feels good on her teeth.

I started with my son 4 1/2 year old I serve him his dinner on a saucer so I don't give him too much and I give him a little bit of everything we are having. Even treats. But he can't have seconds till he has finished everything. It works pretty good.

Awareinva
Member

08-13-2001

Friday, February 06, 2004 - 4:19 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Ah the memories.... getting a picky eater to eat IS a control issue, especially at four. I can remember those days of "try a bite", "sit there until you eat it", etc. What a power struggle! :-(
I have never been a fan of you have to eat anything- DH advocated this but backed down when DD threw up quiche!! I like applesauce but it can still make me gag as a reflex due to a forced eating episode as a child.

I wish I had this board when mine were small-- lots of good ideas that I could have used! And maybe things would have gotten better quicker. I just love TVCH!! :-)

Sillycalimomma
Member

11-13-2003

Friday, February 06, 2004 - 4:50 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Ha! Tried a new one last night. Had my nephew over and I put 3 count them 3 green beans on his plate. You would have thought I put dog doo on there I swear the way that kid was carrying on! BUT, I had a thought and said "what if I give you BBQ sauce to dip them in?" his little face lit up. He managed to eat them all once he dipped them into the heaping mound of sauce! Woohoo....

Jewels
Member

09-23-2000

Thursday, February 12, 2004 - 12:31 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Julie, I went to hear the nutritionist speak at my son's school the other night. Unfortunately, it was not as informative as I had hoped it would be. She talked alot about sugar contents in foods and gave us examples of, for example, how many sugar cubes are in a 20 oz. Coke. She went through some other items too, like Pop Tarts, Lunchables, Fruit Snacks, Cereal and some others I can't remember.

What irritated my is that she was talking to parents of 3 and 4 year olds! I don't know anyone that lets a 3 year old drink a 20 oz. pop. The only items that she had on the table that I would ever give my son were apple juice and yogurt. I just thought it was a little ridiculous. I am sorry I don't have any good info for you.

I did learn one thing that I thought was interesting...

A sugar cube is 4 grams of sugar.
Using my Frosted Mini-Wheat cereal as an example, on the label under Total Carbohydrate is says Sugars 12g per serving. That means that in one serving of this cereal there is an equivalent of 3 sugar cubes. It kind of puts it in perspective and I thought that was interesting.

Sorry I couldn't be more helpful!

Kimmo
Member

05-02-2003

Thursday, February 12, 2004 - 2:30 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Jewels, I unfortunately know someone who lets her 2-year old drink pop. (Not voluntarily known-- She's a relative!) I had to sit with the little girl at a large family function and when she ran out of her grape juice (all she drank all day), I poured her some water.

She made faces, said "Ew!" and "Yucky" at the prospect of drinking water, and clamored until her mom got her a 7-Up. Really horrifying that she was so used to drinking (basically) syrup that nice, clean, refreshing water was deemed completely disgusting. Ugh. Of course, more depressing that the mom gave in and gave her toddler a pop because she did not feel inclined to work to change the habit, etc.

So, it happens. Unfortunately the people who do this to their children are probably the most unlikely to attend a seminar on nutrition.

Mamie316
Member

07-08-2003

Thursday, February 12, 2004 - 2:42 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
When my son was about 4 mos old (21 years ago), my sister's friends mom had her 7th child. Her friend brought the little one over to my mom's one night while I was there, I sat down to nurse Justin and she gave her little sis a bottle. Well, I was shocked because her bottle was full of chocolate milk! She was only 4 mos old! I thought okay, I've seen everything. I am not surprised anymore about what some people give their children.

Julieboo
Member

02-05-2002

Thursday, February 12, 2004 - 5:30 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Thanks Jewels, anyways. And thanks to everyone else. i am going to print this thread and see what he will "buy" from it!

Last night I got very excited because he ate a whole mini pizza-tomato sauce, cheese and all. Usually w/pizza, he will only eat crusts or "pizza carcasses" that my Atkins eating relatives leave behind!! (how do ya spell carcass anyways?)

Kimmo
Member

05-02-2003

Thursday, February 12, 2004 - 5:33 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Ack, chocolate milk! DH often will bring chocolate milk to the table, which irritates me because I'm afraid it will make my baby think something's wrong with white milk!

Yes, I am just paranoid, and DS loves plain old milk. But I don't want him to get any ideas about brown milk. :-)

Kaili
Member

08-31-2000

Wednesday, March 03, 2004 - 8:49 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
I just saw this in the paper and thought of this thread....

Picky eaters make for battles at the table

By Amanda Lauer
For The Post-Crescent

Sharon Theuerkauf of Appleton knows what it is like to be the mother of a picky eater.

Her son, Evan, 5, has a limited list of foods he will eat: macaroni and cheese, pasta, cereal and toasted cheese sandwiches. “He eats nothing that’s red,” Theuerkauf said. “He won’t eat any fruits or vegetables.”

Because Evan is a juvenile diabetic his diet is restricted in the first place. He also suffers from Celiac disease and must maintain a gluten-free diet. Even though there are many foods he can safely eat now that he has been diagnosed, he is extremely leery of trying anything new, Theuerkauf said.

“He was so sick from so many foods that he’s very cautious about what he eats,” she said. “He doesn’t just try everything.”

He has a reason for his aversion to red foods. “To him it looks like blood,” she said. “With him getting all the finger picks, he sees blood every day.”

Realizing her son is lacking in variety when it comes to food, Theuerkauf tries to get him to take a daily vitamin. He even refuses those.

Like other parents of picky eaters, Theuerkauf is looking for answers.

Pediatrician Dr. John Edwards, with ThedaCare in Appleton, knows a little about the subject. He and his wife, Jill, also a pediatrician and currently a full-time stay-at-home mom, are the parents of five children ages 9 months to 9 years. They have seen their children go through picky-eating stages. He has some advice for parents of children at any age.

“Think like a marketer and make things appealing to your kids just like a marketer would try to make (their product) appealing,” Edwards said. “They work to make it fun and interesting and different and exciting.”

Kathy Keene, the host of WHBY’s “Good Neighbor Show,” said younger children will be intrigued by foods with interesting names. Give fun names to ordinary food or have a theme for a meal based on the child’s favorite cartoon character.

Creativity will go a long way in getting children interested in their food, Keene said.

Make a sandwich into a spacecraft or a butterfly or use cookie cutters to shape food, she said. Setting the table like a fancy restaurant or with birthday or holiday place settings on a normal day will make mealtime more intriguing for youngsters.

Children strive to be independent, and parents need to use that to their advantage, Edwards said. “Let kids think it’s their idea to have something, especially in a preschooler or toddler. Instead of putting the food on their plate, put it on your plate. Let them ask for whatever it is on your plate.”

Parents also need to be cautious about labeling their children, he said.

Don’t refer to a certain child as a picky eater and refrain from saying, “You don’t like…” It’s better not to plant thoughts in their heads or they always will think they don’t like a particular food or that they are picky eaters, he said.

Edwards said he tells his children that their taste buds change as they grow up. He encourages them to try foods every few months, even if the kids profess to disliking them.

When his grade-school children got finicky about eating their vegetables, he reminded them how much they loved particular vegetables as babies. He let them have jars of baby food to try them again. They enjoyed the baby food versions so much that now they even occasionally take jars of baby foods in their lunch bags to school, something that is a novelty with their peers, he said.

Edwards also suggested that parents take kids grocery shopping and let them pick out nutritious foods. Encourage them to try a new fruit or vegetable each time they shop.

“Maybe you take them through the produce section and say, ‘I wonder if there is anything new here that you’d want to try this week?’” he said.

Plant a garden or join a co-op garden, Edwards said.

“Kids can participate in that, then they feel some ownership and they’re excited to go out to the garden and pick something they’ve helped to plant or grow,” he said.

Sometimes parents have to be sneaky.

Pureed fruits and vegetables, whether from baby food jars or fresh, can be mixed into meatloaf, hamburgers, casseroles, pasta sauces and quick breads without the children’s knowledge, Edwards said.

Remind kids that healthy eating can enhance sports performance, give them more energy and make them feel better in general, he said. It also helps to keep healthy snacks on hand and accessible to the kids.

No matter what the ages of the children, keep mealtime pleasant, Keene said. It should be a wonderful time when the family assembles, not the time to bring up stressful topics or to nag or complain. It’s a time to ask about one another’s day, to make plans or to share jokes or funny stories.

“You really can’t win a food fight with kids,” Edwards said. “You can’t win by forcing them to do something. Meet them where they are in terms of their sense about what’s good for (them).”


Happymom
Member

01-20-2003

Thursday, March 04, 2004 - 11:39 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Julieboo, I haven't seen this before. I just read the entire thread. I hope you'll see this.

Since your child likes yogurt drinks, can you make smoothies? I do this for my 10 yr. old who is a vegetarian, always has been. I used to make them with tofu, but cottage cheese has more protein. I use frozen fruit, partially thawed. I use crushed ice, a bit of milk or juice (no sugar added to the juice or to the frozen fruit), and cottage cheese. I used to use protein powder, but the specialist Dr. that saw her (for a hair problem at age 4 or 5) said she didn't put much stock in protein powder. Often I put a fresh banana in there also. To make it creamier and a little more flavorful, I put some frozen yogurt, no sugar added type in the smoothies. She has them almost every night. The thicker, the better. I've been doing this for her for many years.

She doesn't eat nuts or eggs or beans, so, her only protein comes from dairy. (She won't eat soy protein like Morning Star Farms chicken nuggets.)(My 13 year old has been a vegetarian for several mos. She loves all the Morning Star Farms products except the bacon. They have a lot of protein and fiber, most are low carb and I think all are low in fat). When I make her french toast, I really soak the bread. She does eat peanut butter, but not a lot. She only likes yogurt that is smooth. I buy her a low sugar type. She also eats high fiber cereal, or if she chooses a low fiber cereal, she sprinkles wheat germ on it. My older daughter (the 13 yr. old) will sprinkle wheat germ on her yogurt. (Although, she won't eat any with gelatin in it, so she doesn't have it a lot because I cannot find low sugar gelatin free yogurt.)

Pasta and whole wheat bread products have protein. Could you make your own waffles and get some whole grain flour in there? Or healthy muffins/cake made with whole grain flour, wheat germ and maybe splenda instead of sugar? I've found a few choc. chips in there really make them appealing to my kids. I bought grain sweetened choc. chips. (The only ingredients are whole grain malted barley and corn, unsweetened chocolate, cocoa butter, soy lecithin, and pure natural vanilla.) You also could make oven fries and they wouldn't have so much grease. A few sprinkles (those little sugar colorful things that you sometimes see on cookies and cupcakes) on top of a bowl of yogurt really make it more appealing to my kids. (and a few won't add hardly any sugar to their diets) Also, when I slice up apples or pears etc., I arrange the slices very nicely on the plate. They can dunk them in yogurt if they want. Banana slices with PB and sprinkles work well, too.

Two of my girls eat very few veg. The vegetarian will only eat carrots. I try to just do the best I can and hope that they will begin to try new foods someday! My 13 yr. old really has a well rounded diet with veg., fruits, etc. Having 3 girls and being force fed food I didn't like and having to sit there until it was all gone really taught me how not to do it with my kids. I also don't have finishing your plate or trying food tied into manners. (Although "yuck" is inappropriate and not allowed.) I just try my best to limit trans fatty acids, white flour, and sugar as much as possible and to by foods that are high in protein and fiber. I don't have a lot of time to bake, but I do it when I can. (Also, I buy bagels made with no trans fatty acids and slice them and toast them. This is instead of store bought crackers made with transfatty acids.) I also keep all bread products in the fridge so they last longer. I buy Orowheat low carb bread. The kids have just gotten used to things like whole grains and no sugar. I never buy soda except for parties. Only one glass of juice/juice box per day. I mostly want to give them a healthy attitude toward food without making it an issue. I don't keep cookies or chips in the house. I do make sugar free pudding often.

Good luck!

Happymom
Member

01-20-2003

Thursday, March 04, 2004 - 11:43 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
One more thing...could you make him plain oatmeal and flavor it yourself with sugar free maple syrup or low sugar fruit preserves/jellies or with fruit flavored yogurt?

Enbwife
Member

08-14-2000

Thursday, March 04, 2004 - 12:39 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Great topic. I have an 18mth old and am beginning to experience the stress of making sure he eats enough/the right foods etc. I just read a book called "How to Fatproof your Child - How to raise children so they won't be diet addicted adults" or something like that. I come from a long line of overweight family members and I don't want to raise my kids the way I was raised so I've started reading different books. This one is old but made a lot of sense. A lot of emphasis was placed on not making a big deal if they're not hungry... if you react emotionally they may not eat just to get a rise out of you. Just be very casual and don't ever force them to eat or keep them at the table or withhold things they love like books or TV ... etc. It also talks about the right food nutritionally based on age and promoting exercise and a healthy way to live overall. All common sense. I rented it from my local library but will have to read it again at a later date. :-)

Tabbyking
Member

03-11-2002

Thursday, March 04, 2004 - 3:08 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
when my brother was little, everyone thought his bottle was chocolate milk, but it was meat base formula...a thick brown glop you mixed with water. he was allergic to all other formulas and my mom was too sick to nurse him (emergency hysterectomy after his birth).
hopefully, what mamie saw was not really chocolate? please?!

___________

but we do have acquaintances with the children from hell. all of them druggies and total mess-ups. their son is a sophomore in college now. he started college when he was about 23. he is now 35. anyway, one of their daughters had met up with some junkie after being straight for several months. our friends were already raising a child this girl had when she was 15. one night, our friends get a call from a sheriff in the santa barbara area telling them their daughter had been arrested for dealing heroine. did they want to bail her out? and they said, "no". daughter was probably 35 at the time. then the sheriff said, "what do you want us to do with her baby?" and they said, "what baby?" turns out daughter and junkie had a baby, born addicted. my friends were told that when social services went into their daughter's trailer, the baby had been given only orange juice since he had been born 3 weeks earlier!!
update on this child: his junkie dad's normal sister and her husband adopted him and he became an instant member of their family. he has a brother and two sisters. he is now 7 or 8 years old, bright, cute and loving.

Happymom
Member

01-20-2003

Friday, March 05, 2004 - 2:30 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Tabby, I'm so glad that you posted that he is bright and loving. My heart just breaks for babies and kids that are abused. It makes me worry about irreparable damage.

Meemo
Member

08-22-2002

Monday, March 15, 2004 - 9:59 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
we have a rule at our house. "you have to try it because it may be your favorite food". it's even been used on me. try eating macaroni mixed with mustard and ketchup.

Hootyhoot
Member

12-18-2001

Monday, March 15, 2004 - 3:54 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
When my kids were little, we offered them whatever we were eating, but if they turned up their nose at it, we said, "Oh, I forgot ... you're too young to have pickled beets" or whatever the food was ... and we took it away from them.

Their father and I would eat the pickled beets and obviously we liked them. Sooner or later, the child would decide that they thought they were old enough to have pickled beets now. At their insistence, we would give them some ... and usually they liked it. If they didn't we just took it away again and said, Well, you can try again when you are older.

This really worked like a charm ... but you have to start it when they are pretty young. Years later, when my daughter was at the height of her teenage I-hate-everything-about-my-mother phase, she sneered at me, "And we know what you did to us! You made us like everything!"



Twiggyish
Member

08-14-2000

Monday, March 15, 2004 - 7:25 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
My daughter's babysitter watched a little boy who always had fruit juice in his bottle. He kept that bottle all the time..carried it everywhere in his mouth. His mother insisted he be allowed to keep it. He ended up having teeth rot out in the front.

My daughter is a very picky eater, and we supplement her meals with vitamins and a veggie drink every day (which she loves). We stock fresh fruit as a snack and that's something she can grab in a hurry. She does try new foods and so her list of "like" foods is growing. It gets better as they get older =)

Deesandy
Member

08-12-2003

Saturday, April 17, 2004 - 10:40 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Does anyone know the pros and cons of children and soy products?

Thank you!

Dahli
Member

11-27-2000

Tuesday, April 20, 2004 - 1:01 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
I definitely avoid it for anyone! Here's one look at the issue.
http://www.mercola.com/article/soy/avoid_soy.htm

Dahli
Member

11-27-2000

Tuesday, April 20, 2004 - 9:51 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
The section on children from that article (2nd page)

Birth Control Pills For Babies

But it was the isoflavones in infant formula that gave the Jameses the most cause for concern. In 1998, investigators reported that the daily exposure of infants to isoflavones in soy infant formula is 6 to11 times higher on a body-weight basis than the dose that has hormonal effects in adults consuming soy foods. Circulating concentrations of isoflavones in infants fed soy-based formula were 13,000 to 22,000 times higher than plasma estradiol concentrations in infants on cow's milk formula.57

Approximately 25 per cent of bottle-fed children in the US receive soy-based formula - a much higher percentage than in other parts of the Western world. Fitzpatrick estimated that an infant exclusively fed soy formula receives the estrogenic equivalent (based on body weight) of at least five birth control pills per day.58 By contrast, almost no phytoestrogens have been detected in dairy-based infant formula or in human milk, even when the mother consumes soy products.

Scientists have known for years that soy-based formula can cause thyroid problems in babies. But what are the effects of soy products on the hormonal development of the infant, both male and female?

Male infants undergo a "testosterone surge" during the first few months of life, when testosterone levels may be as high as those of an adult male. During this period, the infant is programmed to express male characteristics after puberty, not only in the development of his sexual organs and other masculine physical traits, but also in setting patterns in the brain characteristic of male behavior.

In monkeys, deficiency of male hormones impairs the development of spatial perception (which, in humans, is normally more acute in men than in women), of learning ability and of visual discrimination tasks (such as would be required for reading).59 It goes without saying that future patterns of sexual orientation may also be influenced by the early hormonal environment.

Male children exposed during gestation to diethylstilbestrol (DES), a synthetic estrogen that has effects on animals similar to those of phytoestrogens from soy, had testes smaller than normal on manturation.60

Learning disabilities, especially in male children, have reached epidemic proportions. Soy infant feeding - which began in earnest in the early 1970s - cannot be ignored as a probable cause for these tragic developments.

As for girls, an alarming number are entering puberty much earlier than normal, according to a recent study reported in the journal Pediatrics.61 Investigators found that one per cent of all girls now show signs of puberty, such as breast development or pubic hair, before the age of three; by age eight, 14.7 per cent of white girls and almost 50 per cent of African-American girls have one or both of these characteristics.

New data indicate that environmental estrogens such as PCBs and DDE (a breakdown product of DDT) may cause early sexual development in girls.62 In the 1986 Puerto Rico Premature Thelarche study, the most significant dietary association with premature sexual development was not chicken - as reported in the press - but soy infant formula.63

The consequences of this truncated childhood are tragic. Young girls with mature bodies must cope with feelings and urges that most children are not well-equipped to handle. And early maturation in girls is frequently a harbinger for problems with the reproductive system later in life, including failure to menstruate, infertility and breast cancer.

Parents who have contacted the Jameses recount other problems associated with children of both sexes who were fed soy-based formula, including extreme emotional behavior, asthma, immune system problems, pituitary insufficiency, thyroid disorders and irritable bowel syndrome - the same endocrine and digestive havoc that afflicted the Jameses' parrots.