Teaching portions— cereal

[Anonymous]

Sorry, I would never let my kid eat 4 bowls of cereal. That's way too much. After 2- I would simply say "That's enough. Take a break for a few minutes and you'll probably realize you are full. If you're still hungry, have something else." Done. None of my kids have eating disorders or a bad relationship with food. They are kids who are learning about life and need some boundaries.

[Anonymous]

I wouldn't let my child eat more than one bowl of cereal. She sometimes asks for like waffles and cereal for breakfast and I always tell her that that is too much "bread" and that she has to eat a variety of food types. So then I give her choice - she can pick either waffles or cereal and then she can choose from eggs, yogurt, veggie bacon etc to round it out. She's always been fine with this. I would see 4 bowls of cereal as akin to eating oatmeal, waffles, cereal and toast. And I wouldn't be cool with that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m a fat person and “listening to my belly” would never work. I can only control my weight when my conscious mind overrules my physiology, which is really hard.

Me too. I sincerely think that some people just have a way bigger or way smaller "done" switch, but are still within the realm of normal. I am not talking about people who are on the 600 lbs shows or those who have been so restrictive their whole lives that they think they naturally aren't hungry for more than 700 calories a day- I mean that the people with normal/healthy habits have this big range and sometimes that backfires on people like me with shit metabolisms

[Anonymous]

She’s hungry. Serve some protein and more fruit, like yogurt, eggs, PB. Tell her only 2 bowls of cereal. You won’t break her.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I mean, eggs aren't going to help with constipation. And are you really going to let her eat as many eggs as she wants? People are so convinced that carbs are evil, but they are okay with their kids eating the kind of high-protein diet that might be a bit excessive for a professional weightlifter. I don't get it.

It's fair to say that four bowls is too many. I'd set a cap at two. Make sure the cereals you buy have a decent amount of fiber. And then she can eat as much fruit as she wants, or have some eggs or nuts or whatever.

I'm a parent who believes in letting my kids control portions.

I guess in theory if my kids ate nothing but protein, or nothing but carbs, I'd have a concern, but they just don't. They might eat nothing but protein, or nothing but carbs at a meal, but then the next meal or the next day they'll choose something else. Eating the quantity of protein that a weightlifter would eat just doesn't happen.

Now, my kids are, like OP's, at the age when kids start puberty, and listening to their bodies leads to choosing a lot of carbs. But there's still balance.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I wouldn't let my child eat more than one bowl of cereal. She sometimes asks for like waffles and cereal for breakfast and I always tell her that that is too much "bread" and that she has to eat a variety of food types. So then I give her choice - she can pick either waffles or cereal and then she can choose from eggs, yogurt, veggie bacon etc to round it out. She's always been fine with this. I would see 4 bowls of cereal as akin to eating oatmeal, waffles, cereal and toast. And I wouldn't be cool with that.

It's mommy dearest. You sound very controlling.

[Anonymous]

no 2nds on carbs (or fats) w/o 1sts on protein and fruit/veg

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wouldn't let my child eat more than one bowl of cereal. She sometimes asks for like waffles and cereal for breakfast and I always tell her that that is too much "bread" and that she has to eat a variety of food types. So then I give her choice - she can pick either waffles or cereal and then she can choose from eggs, yogurt, veggie bacon etc to round it out. She's always been fine with this. I would see 4 bowls of cereal as akin to eating oatmeal, waffles, cereal and toast. And I wouldn't be cool with that.

It's mommy dearest. You sound very controlling.

I wish my parents were "controlling" with me, then I wouldn't have hit puberty chubby and had weight issues my whole adult life.

[Anonymous]

I have 3 boys. The limit is 2 bowls of cereal, and then you either stop eating or find something else with protein. I just frame it as - a body does not need 4 bowls of cereal. IF you are hungry enough to eat that much cereal, what you really need is protein, so eat that now instead.

Otherwise, they eat too much cereal and we go through a million boxes a week.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I wouldn't let my child eat more than one bowl of cereal. She sometimes asks for like waffles and cereal for breakfast and I always tell her that that is too much "bread" and that she has to eat a variety of food types. So then I give her choice - she can pick either waffles or cereal and then she can choose from eggs, yogurt, veggie bacon etc to round it out. She's always been fine with this. I would see 4 bowls of cereal as akin to eating oatmeal, waffles, cereal and toast. And I wouldn't be cool with that.

If they are soooooo hungry for that 3rd bowl of cereal they will be happy to eat 2 scrambled eggs and fruit. If they only want to eat cereal they are simply being a picky eater.

[Anonymous]

Such timely content! My kid had 4 bowls of cereal today. One for breakfast before her coparent dropped her off, and then three spread through the rest of the morning. To me it's not a big deal, I feel like she might load up on one food during a day but over a week her eating is very balanced. If I felt like she was overly reliant on one food, I would just buy less and when it's gone for the week it's gone.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m a fat person and “listening to my belly” would never work. I can only control my weight when my conscious mind overrules my physiology, which is really hard.

Me too. I sincerely think that some people just have a way bigger or way smaller "done" switch, but are still within the realm of normal. I am not talking about people who are on the 600 lbs shows or those who have been so restrictive their whole lives that they think they naturally aren't hungry for more than 700 calories a day- I mean that the people with normal/healthy habits have this big range and sometimes that backfires on people like me with shit metabolisms

Over the years you can easily get obese on as little as 100 excess calories a day. It is simple multiplication. So yes, that 2nd bowl of cereal matters. Alot.

[Anonymous]

Agree w1602. I just buy one reqular sized box of cereal for the week. Once it's gone, no more cereal until the next week. If you eat 4 bowls and the box is gone in two days, you'll just have to eat other foods.

[Anonymous]

Give her high fiber cereal. Even kix has a lot of fiber. Four bowls of that and she should not be constipated.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wouldn't let my child eat more than one bowl of cereal. She sometimes asks for like waffles and cereal for breakfast and I always tell her that that is too much "bread" and that she has to eat a variety of food types. So then I give her choice - she can pick either waffles or cereal and then she can choose from eggs, yogurt, veggie bacon etc to round it out. She's always been fine with this. I would see 4 bowls of cereal as akin to eating oatmeal, waffles, cereal and toast. And I wouldn't be cool with that.

It's mommy dearest. You sound very controlling.

You are insane. Helping a chid learn about balanced eating is not controlling, it is called parenting.