My kids steal food.

[Anonymous]

I was a child with disordered eating (5 yo bulimic who also "stole" food, though I obv didn't know that's what it was called or that's what I was doing) and I feel sad for your child. If they have a therapist already it makes me wonder if they use the binge eating as a coping mechanism as well as why do they have a therapist already?

[Anonymous]

Food issues stem from something. That much is clear to anyone. Mom telling me I was on a diet as a kid and me now being nuts about gaining weight.
Kids having GERD, and some kids soothe it with certain foods.
Kids being nervous, kids being unhappy, kids being bullied, kids having unstable family environment.
Parents providing crap food, parents provide only clean orthorexic food, who knows.
What OP is doing is not working, the upheaval she mentioned sounds like more than just coronavirus issues.
Please see a nutritionist op.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:#1: Stop buying any food that is not healthy. When you guys want treats, buy single servings or make it as a family. Ice cream, crackers, lunch meats don't make the cut. Stick with fresh fruits and vegetables, raw meats, whole grains, etc.

#2: Don't make extra food for meals so there aren't leftovers.

#3: Get into the habit of doing physical exercise as a family--not to lose weight but to emphasize what a healthy lifestyle looks like. Tell the children that being healthy is a three-legged stool of Sleep, Exercise, and healthy Eating.

Can you work near the kitchen so you can monitor a bit better? My kid was not in the kitchen alone so this never came up.

I’m seriously curious. Do you work? What do you eat for lunch every day?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:#1: Stop buying any food that is not healthy. When you guys want treats, buy single servings or make it as a family. Ice cream, crackers, lunch meats don't make the cut. Stick with fresh fruits and vegetables, raw meats, whole grains, etc.

#2: Don't make extra food for meals so there aren't leftovers.

#3: Get into the habit of doing physical exercise as a family--not to lose weight but to emphasize what a healthy lifestyle looks like. Tell the children that being healthy is a three-legged stool of Sleep, Exercise, and healthy Eating.

Can you work near the kitchen so you can monitor a bit better? My kid was not in the kitchen alone so this never came up.

I’m seriously curious. Do you work? What do you eat for lunch every day?

I am not the pp, but I basically eat the way they’re describing. I work, also. It’s really not that hard with some preparation. Make a whole chicken, eat the meat as leftovers for the next few lunches. Roast several different veggie sides at the same time, eat them for the next few days. Keep lettuce and various salad fixings on hand so you can throw together a salad and warm up some leftover chicken and throw it on top. Make a big batch of home made veggie sauce and gluten free pasta. Freeze some of the sauce. It is really not that hard.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:#1: Stop buying any food that is not healthy. When you guys want treats, buy single servings or make it as a family. Ice cream, crackers, lunch meats don't make the cut. Stick with fresh fruits and vegetables, raw meats, whole grains, etc.

#2: Don't make extra food for meals so there aren't leftovers.

#3: Get into the habit of doing physical exercise as a family--not to lose weight but to emphasize what a healthy lifestyle looks like. Tell the children that being healthy is a three-legged stool of Sleep, Exercise, and healthy Eating.

Can you work near the kitchen so you can monitor a bit better? My kid was not in the kitchen alone so this never came up.

I’m seriously curious. Do you work? What do you eat for lunch every day?

I am not the pp, but I basically eat the way they’re describing. I work, also. It’s really not that hard with some preparation. Make a whole chicken, eat the meat as leftovers for the next few lunches. Roast several different veggie sides at the same time, eat them for the next few days. Keep lettuce and various salad fixings on hand so you can throw together a salad and warm up some leftover chicken and throw it on top. Make a big batch of home made veggie sauce and gluten free pasta. Freeze some of the sauce. It is really not that hard.

But you don’t keep granola bars, pretzels, dried fruits, crackers, cereal, in the house at all? Even the healthiest of households keep some type of “snack” foods around at times. Kids can find anything to binge on and making dinner with zero leftovers is very difficult or not possible to do every night.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:#1: Stop buying any food that is not healthy. When you guys want treats, buy single servings or make it as a family. Ice cream, crackers, lunch meats don't make the cut. Stick with fresh fruits and vegetables, raw meats, whole grains, etc.

#2: Don't make extra food for meals so there aren't leftovers.

#3: Get into the habit of doing physical exercise as a family--not to lose weight but to emphasize what a healthy lifestyle looks like. Tell the children that being healthy is a three-legged stool of Sleep, Exercise, and healthy Eating.

Can you work near the kitchen so you can monitor a bit better? My kid was not in the kitchen alone so this never came up.

I’m seriously curious. Do you work? What do you eat for lunch every day?

I am not the pp, but I basically eat the way they’re describing. I work, also. It’s really not that hard with some preparation. Make a whole chicken, eat the meat as leftovers for the next few lunches. Roast several different veggie sides at the same time, eat them for the next few days. Keep lettuce and various salad fixings on hand so you can throw together a salad and warm up some leftover chicken and throw it on top. Make a big batch of home made veggie sauce and gluten free pasta. Freeze some of the sauce. It is really not that hard.

But you don’t keep granola bars, pretzels, dried fruits, crackers, cereal, in the house at all? Even the healthiest of households keep some type of “snack” foods around at times. Kids can find anything to binge on and making dinner with zero leftovers is very difficult or not possible to do every night.

Even if you keep absolutely NOTHING In the house, in normal times, certain kids will figure out how to binge, or all bets are off once they are old enough to get food on their own. Sometimes it even backfires. My friend grew up in a home with ZERO snacks and food and an extremely strict mother who was always in the kitchen.

As soon as she could get out on her own, she'd go out and binge and purge on junk, or she'd go to her friends' houses and basically stuff her face with Oreos at other people's houses and take their food. We're taking standing in our pantry eating a whole box of cookies or cheezits.

[Anonymous]

I have neighbors whose kids were like this. It was because their parents made their kids eat the same restricted diets as them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:#1: Stop buying any food that is not healthy. When you guys want treats, buy single servings or make it as a family. Ice cream, crackers, lunch meats don't make the cut. Stick with fresh fruits and vegetables, raw meats, whole grains, etc.

#2: Don't make extra food for meals so there aren't leftovers.

#3: Get into the habit of doing physical exercise as a family--not to lose weight but to emphasize what a healthy lifestyle looks like. Tell the children that being healthy is a three-legged stool of Sleep, Exercise, and healthy Eating.

Can you work near the kitchen so you can monitor a bit better? My kid was not in the kitchen alone so this never came up.

I’m seriously curious. Do you work? What do you eat for lunch every day?

I am not the pp, but I basically eat the way they’re describing. I work, also. It’s really not that hard with some preparation. Make a whole chicken, eat the meat as leftovers for the next few lunches. Roast several different veggie sides at the same time, eat them for the next few days. Keep lettuce and various salad fixings on hand so you can throw together a salad and warm up some leftover chicken and throw it on top. Make a big batch of homemade veggie sauce and gluten-free pasta. Freeze some of the sauce. It is really not that hard.

I am going to go and bet my savings that this is not how regular middle-class Americans, nor any country people cook and eat! People hold on hand meat, rice, potatoes, noodles. Some veggies, unless you are a vegetarian or a vegan. One chicken doesn't last few next lunches! Not in a regular family of four, where kids are not 1 and 6 months old! Keep lettuce to fill the appetite of 9-year-olds? Gluten-free pasta? Why? Freeze the sauce? Normal families with normal eating family members, finish regular gluten pasta with meat sauce in one meal,, meal and a half. Any leftovers are the next day's lunch, and then you need a new dinner.
Several roasted veggies, let's say with the roasted chicken, hence all in one, do not last a few days! They are normally gone in one day. And that is with making pretty good portions. Please refrain from giving advice to people about eating and food when you clearly have a severe eating disorder!
Have lettuce on hand, so you can make a salad, my something! Only in WASP dcum insanity! Do you know what any normal person in any normal country that has normal growing kids would ask you if you served them a salad? Is this an appetizer!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have neighbors whose kids were like this. It was because their parents made their kids eat the same restricted diets as them.

Lol there was a poor girl I knew whose parents were always dieting that would get like a slim fast in her lunchbox or a frozen lean cuisine (school didn't have microwaves). She was always hungry.

[Anonymous]

My mother had an eating disorder and she cooked meals like she was taking revenge on us. Food was mostly inedible -- things like an omelet that had been cooked so long that it was brown, everything cooked on extremely high heat, meat cooked until it was dry and hard as leather. We were also forced to finish food that was inedible. Food and eating felt like punitive activities in our family. It was all about control but it was also control being wielded by someone who believed that food was the enemy.

We hid food and took all the junk food from the cupboards because we were always starving. We were also looking for comfort, I think, because meals were so unpleasant at our house. Today, I have a lot of issues around food and eating and what I feel I deserve to eat and about caring enough to make myself healthy food.

I wonder if the OP is also serving inedible food.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:#1: Stop buying any food that is not healthy. When you guys want treats, buy single servings or make it as a family. Ice cream, crackers, lunch meats don't make the cut. Stick with fresh fruits and vegetables, raw meats, whole grains, etc.

#2: Don't make extra food for meals so there aren't leftovers.

#3: Get into the habit of doing physical exercise as a family--not to lose weight but to emphasize what a healthy lifestyle looks like. Tell the children that being healthy is a three-legged stool of Sleep, Exercise, and healthy Eating.

Can you work near the kitchen so you can monitor a bit better? My kid was not in the kitchen alone so this never came up.

I’m seriously curious. Do you work? What do you eat for lunch every day?

I am not the pp, but I basically eat the way they’re describing. I work, also. It’s really not that hard with some preparation. Make a whole chicken, eat the meat as leftovers for the next few lunches. Roast several different veggie sides at the same time, eat them for the next few days. Keep lettuce and various salad fixings on hand so you can throw together a salad and warm up some leftover chicken and throw it on top. Make a big batch of homemade veggie sauce and gluten-free pasta. Freeze some of the sauce. It is really not that hard.

I am going to go and bet my savings that this is not how regular middle-class Americans, nor any country people cook and eat! People hold on hand meat, rice, potatoes, noodles. Some veggies, unless you are a vegetarian or a vegan. One chicken doesn't last few next lunches! Not in a regular family of four, where kids are not 1 and 6 months old! Keep lettuce to fill the appetite of 9-year-olds? Gluten-free pasta? Why? Freeze the sauce? Normal families with normal eating family members, finish regular gluten pasta with meat sauce in one meal,, meal and a half. Any leftovers are the next day's lunch, and then you need a new dinner.
Several roasted veggies, let's say with the roasted chicken, hence all in one, do not last a few days! They are normally gone in one day. And that is with making pretty good portions. Please refrain from giving advice to people about eating and food when you clearly have a severe eating disorder!
Have lettuce on hand, so you can make a salad, my something! Only in WASP dcum insanity! Do you know what any normal person in any normal country that has normal growing kids would ask you if you served them a salad? Is this an appetizer!

lol so much to unpack here. First of all, there are three of us, not the “regular” 4. Second of all, someone in our house has gluten intolerance but I also tend to think something like chick pea pasta has more nutritional value than regular wheat pasta. I’m also talking about making big batches of things- so for sauce, for example, think more along the lines of a giant pot on the stove filled with a base of canned tomatoes and then tons and tons of sautéed veggies. Like enough sauce that half of it is left over after covering a whole box of penne pasta.

Also, please expand your understanding of salad. I’m not talking about a sad bowl of ice berg lettuce, think more along the lines of arugula with roasted sweet potato, goat cheese, avocado, topped with chicken.

We do keep some snacks, mainly crackers and fruit and we do dessert several times a week. There is a wide spectrum between kids snacking all day on junk food and depriving children of food.

Trust me, my family is well fed and happy. How were you raised that a whole family eating a healthy diet sounds so strange for you?

[Anonymous]

OP: don’t you see?? Your kids wouldn’t be binge eating junk if you fed them more couscous, arugula and goat cheese salad, and quinoa. If they are still super hungry after all that nutritious food, give them a clementine.

In all seriousness, I don’t think you are a bad mom. This is 100% ADHD related and really has nothing to do with the actual food you are giving/not giving. Treat the ADHD (not therapy, but actual medication) and I bet you will see a huge change in these behaviors.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP: don’t you see?? Your kids wouldn’t be binge eating junk if you fed them more couscous, arugula and goat cheese salad, and quinoa. If they are still super hungry after all that nutritious food, give them a clementine.

In all seriousness, I don’t think you are a bad mom. This is 100% ADHD related and really has nothing to do with the actual food you are giving/not giving. Treat the ADHD (not therapy, but actual medication) and I bet you will see a huge change in these behaviors.

I mean, my kid loves goat cheese soooo....

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP: don’t you see?? Your kids wouldn’t be binge eating junk if you fed them more couscous, arugula and goat cheese salad, and quinoa. If they are still super hungry after all that nutritious food, give them a clementine.

In all seriousness, I don’t think you are a bad mom. This is 100% ADHD related and really has nothing to do with the actual food you are giving/not giving. Treat the ADHD (not therapy, but actual medication) and I bet you will see a huge change in these behaviors.

I mean, my kid loves goat cheese soooo....

That's fine. But there is no calcium in it and not as much protein as mozzeralla cheese. So isnt any better of a
choice than Op's cheese stick

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have neighbors whose kids were like this. It was because their parents made their kids eat the same restricted diets as them.

I do everything I can to prevent my kids from being this way. When they were super small I noticed they would always ask for snacks at friends house. Two really good friends said to me just go to Sam's club and buy a variety of snacks. Once it's available the kids don't beg for it nor do they binge it. I buy a variety, there is nothing wrong with a rice krispie treat, dried fruit,granola bars, chips, belivsts bars etc especially if you are an active kid.