I have fallen into bad habbits in the last year since DS2 was born, buying convenience foods and lots of packageD snacks in particular and letting DH convince me it's all ok. Now DS2 is bigger and I have a little more time to sort things and cook, I am trying to clean up their diets, all of our diets really. I think it is also contributing to DS1's behaviour and sometimes he loses it.
The kids have gotten used to having things like muesli bars, tiny teddies, unhealthy cerials, wonderwhite bread, and other processed, packaged stuff. I have been getting lazy with dinners and having too much pre packages sauces and things too.
So can you give me some tips on what to feed my kids, and DH and I!
What are some healthy packaged snacks? Is there such a thing??
What are the reccommended levels of things like salt and sugar in foods for kids under 5?
What are the particular nasties I should look for in foods?
Add anything else you would like to tell me!!
TIA
What sort of food do you eat? Meat and veg, one pot meals ect?
Try looking in the Health Food isle in the supermarket for kids snacks - the gluten free/'healthy' versions are often much better for addatives than the standard versions, Get the plain honey teddies rather than the hudreds and thousands version.
Rather than premade sauce, top meat with garlic butter.
Drop white bread for wholemeal and try and get one with out preservative (a friend swapped bread and her DS fought it the first couple of days but she just stuck with 'this was all the shop had' and after a few days he stopped complaining and she never bought white again.
Thanks Ambersky! I was trying tothink of the name of that website! We used to only eat wholemeal and multigrain bread, but DH prefers the other stuff, which I hate. So it's a bit of a stalemate! I would much rather the kids eat the wholemeal, but again they prefer the other. I also used to make my dinners mostly from scratch, but since having baby #3 it just got all too much! Now he's bigger and not feeding 2hrly, his day sleeps are also pretty good, so I do get time to prepare without him on my leg, lol! I just have to get back into good habbits.
Do your kids like fruit and raw vegies? Obviously healthy, and quick and easy to prepare. My kids love dipping carrot, cucumber and celery sticks in to hommus, salsa or guacamole. I try to feed them a lot of raw or steamed vegies. My kids eat lots of raw salad vegies whenever we have tacos. They also like corn or rice cakes topped with peanut butter and sliced banana. We also snack on cashews and dates.
It sounds like you know what you need to do re: cooking from scratch and cutting the white bread. Everyone will adapt. Good luck!
ETA re: salt and sugar levels. When buying packaged products aim for less than 10g of sugar per 100g. With salt, aim for 120mg of salt or less per 100g- you will find that most packaged products are way over this salt level. Also, avoid trans fats and aim for very low levels of saturated fats (or preferably none at all).
I try to add something "alive" to everything my kids eat. So even if they're having a ready-made thing I put it on a plate with some fruit or veggies. The key is put a variety of things on the plate/snack box and then it's interesting. There are lots of excellent salad veggie things that kids love - from celery and carrot sticks, through mini-tomatoes and sprouts, snow and sugar snap peas to those miniature baby cucumbers (my kids *love* them). There are lots of different crackers on the market - many of them have a wholegrain element - some have mroe additives than others but in small amounts they add interest to the snack/meal. Also cheese comes in a lots of different configurations, you can add nut butters or cream cheese or hommous to the plate for the kids to "dip" in. Chuck some dried fruit in - blueberries, cranberries, dark raisins and currants all have excellent antioxidants in them, but even dried apple, peaches etc are good. My kids also love having yoghurt with a sprinkle of muesli or whatever fruity-flakey cereal we have at the time. Fruit is good and if you're a bit creative about cutting it into different shapes or serving it with different things they will love that too. Just keep rotating how you serve them up and the food will stay interesting .
I struggle some days too so here is what our diet looks like!
Brekky and Snacks - Porridge, raisin toast, toast, (cheerios, nutri grain crunchy nut cornflakes - all sometimes) zucchini slice, cheese, a few bikkies, lots of fruit, muffins (cheese and bacon and I grate veggies into them) mini banana muffins, smoothies with loads of fruit, yoghurt etc. boiled eggs, dips and cheese with bikkies or carrots (only DD will eat them though) muesli bars (want to try making some) pike lets , sultanas.
As for bread - up to you hun, you could get a small white loaf for DH only and hide it and give the kids the good stuff?? We don't ever buy white and if we end up with some like after a bbq etc. the kids don't really care to eat it. The only bread DS doesn't like is a 7grain and seed loaf from Safeway that is really dense. We usually just buy a multi grain wholemeal from Bakers Delight. You could try something like Chia bread that is white with seeds and there are a few others that a more white with seed - something like the Tip Top multi is like that I think.
Planning meals ahead makes a difference to me too - not full on meal planning but in the morning I think about what we might have for dinner so that I am not in a rush, I can get stuff from the shops if I need it and we are less likely to rush and end up eating cr@p or getting takeaway if I am prepared. I also start dinner at around 3:30 and do whatever I need to do to start getting it ready. If it is something like chicken noodle soup I cook it all arvo on low and it makes it deeeelish. Regular dinners here are rice or pasta with meat and steamed veggies chicken noodle soup, swedish meatballs, spag with heaps of veggies,
I would just replace a few things at a time, just don't buy Tiny Teddies at all. We get them occasionally but once they are gone, that's it. Try and buy some stuff from the health section - rice wheels are a hit here for a treat. Otherwise rice cakes etc. Mine also like saladas and cruskits. I know they are a bit high in salt but if they eat a bunch of other healthy stuff through the day Im not so worried about one salada.
Hope that helps babe, it is hard but you can do it for all of you and having a few go to's up your sleeve that the kids love helps. I made swedish meatballs 3 times last week because I knew the kids love it!! oxoxox
A really easy and healthy dinner is spagetti with meatballs - you can pre-make the meatballs or buy them ready-made (small ones - I got some on sale for $2 at woolies!) and fry to seal only in a little spray oil, then add in a tin of tomatoes, a tin of chicken stock along with a tablespoon of tomato paste (I also add red wine). Grate in whatever veg you like - carrots, zucchini, celery etc.
brekky is always either oats with sultanas (made with water and a teaspoon of honey) or weetbix with a piece of fruit or vegemite on toast with a piece of fruit ...
for snacks, we have lots of fresh fruit, plain yoghurt, celery with a little peanut butter, wholemeal bread with avacado and/or peanut butter (DS and DH may prefer white, but that's too bad ... wholemeal is so much better!), little portions of pre-made couscous salad, cornthins with hommus ... vegie sticks with hommus or tsaziki or cheese ... you get the picture.
only drinks on offer here for the kidlets are water and milk ... aren't we mean?
dinners are out downfall - sometimes we're awesome and have lean meat with lots of lovely steamed veggies, other nights we have latina pasta and sauce ... we're trying to get better, and use the slowcooker more!
dessert is plain yoghurt with seasonal fresh fruit.
more on dinners ... we used to be in a really great routine (when we had teenagers living with us) where on a Saturday, I'd make 2-3 really big batches of good quality home cooked foods ... a massive veggie and beef/chicken/lamb lasagne, chilli con carne, thai chicken curry, beef rogan josh/korma/etc, tuna bake with veggies, stirfries, casseroles, stew, stroganoff, etc ...
whatever worked, with wonderful fresh ingredients, limiting any unnecessary fat and salt and oil ... but not eliminating it altogether!
and focussing on things that could be tubbed up and frozen, and reheated for lunches or quick dinners.
and then I'd make massive pre-prepared salads and store them in airtight tubs, so that all that was needed was for the main food to be reheated, some lettuce to be shreaded and some of the pre-cut salad to be chucked in a bowl or on the plate. taa-daa!
I'd sometimes also do some pre-boiled eggs etc, so there was an easy protein options available too - but some weeks the kids would inhale 12 eggs, and other weeks they would go completely untouched ...
but our plan is to get back into this habit - because it means that we have wonderful healthy lunches to take every day to work, and we know what's in it
Please help- A healthier diet for my kids!
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