My kids steal 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 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.

Oh, and I provide tons of snacks:
Dehydrated fruits and veggies
Fresh fruits and veggies
Healthy dips, like refrigerator beans, hummus, nut and seed butters
Nuts and seeds
Seaweed
Homemade (healthy) crackers and breads
Plenty of dairy (regular fat, unflavored)
Leftover roasted, baked or lightly sautéed meat

We freeze leftovers in single portions, so that kids and adults can pick random things for lunch and pair them with fruit and veggies.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What you’ve described sounds like the result of food restriction, which includes both real and mental restriction. Binge eating and bulimia are actually delayed responses to real or mental food restriction... there is a cycle that involves shame, guilt, self-loathing when someone knows they are “not supposed” to eat something. Then when they do, they self-loathe for the “bad” behavior. This then leads to a period of restriction again to correct for the mistake, which will inevitably result again in the binge.

I recommend you have your daughter speak to an eating disorder specialist, and possibly you too. It sounds to be like there is a relationship here between control, restriction, food and body that has already become toxic and may lead to disordered eating or an eating disorder if it has not already.

Food issues are very real and are rooted in control and emotional regulation issues in the individual or family system. Also, be sure not to make associations between body size and eating behavior or food choices if disordered eating is suspected to be present. This will exacerbate feelings of shame and guilt etc... which make it worse.

In the meantime I would recommend completely getting rid of locking food up and any measures you have in place to forcibly prevent or restrict your kids intake of specific foods. If your kid wants lasagna and their favorite part is the top then let the kid cut a big slice and eat only the top if they want. If the kid wants a big bowl or two of their dads favorite ice cream that’s awesome! Tell them to go for it! When access to food becomes free again then your kids might have the chance to start figuring out for themselves what it is that they want. Their bodies won’t betray them.

Disagree. People are allowed to have their own food. If the kids want some of that ice cream, buy them their own carton, but Dad is allowed to have some of his own damn ice cream.

I think the dad ice cream is super weird.

Not really. We buy packs of Hagen Daz drumsticks. If we buy 2 packs it’s enough for each person in our family of four to have 2. I would be seriously annoyed if my kid ate my share or their siblings. Some things come in fixed portions. If I pick up a dozen donuts at Krispie Kreme I expect my kid to understand it’s not appropriate to eat 9 of them. The solution is not to fill the freezer with Hagen Daz and get 100 donuts — it’s self control and consideration.

Do you lock up the donuts so your kid can't eat more than 2?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Typical day: breakfast burritos and fruit. Chicken nuggets, string cheese, apples and ketchup for lunch. Chili with ground beef and rice and a veggie for dinner. Snacks about 11 and 2 and 4. Snacks might include: pepperoni, fruit leather, yogurt, carrots, bell peppers, cheese and crackers, popcorn, plus a serving of whatever we baked that day. We go for hot chocolate at Starbucks once or twice a week. We do dessert of fruit and cool whip or a serving of ice cream.

The additional food is on top of all that.

Those aren't the healthiest meals, IMO. Also, you don't need two desserts a day (baked treat plus dessert) - that's probably 500 calories right there. Try exchanging those for more protein and make sure every snack has protein too (carrots and hummus, apple and peanut butter)

Here are my kids' meals today:

Breakfast - omelets with cheese, mushrooms, and turkey bacon (This is what we had, it's not for health reasons, sometimes we have regular bacon)
Lunch - ham and cheese sandwich with cherry tomatoes on the side. They were still hungry, so they each had a mandarin orange.
Dinner - chicken souvlaki with couscous and tzatziki sauce

This is the diet of a peri menapausal woman.

That is the comment of a mom who only feeds her children dino nuggets and mac and cheese.

No doubt this comment is by the pp who accuses others of having an eating disorder while he shops only perimeter of the grocery store and feeds hummus to her kids! Yet, she thinks she has no eating disorder!

Sounds like you are overweight, I am sorry for your struggles. It’s not a good reason to put down others who care about feeling healthful foods to their families though.

LOL! How much do you weigh and how tall are you? I stand proudly at 116lbs 5'4" and 50 years old. Yet, I eat ribs, and chicken, and steak, and pasta and rice and three proper meals a day. None of them is a "salad." More like, as all are saying, you have an eating disorder.
I have never been overweight, nor did I ever count calories like a nut job, why should I? The best way to eat is the Med way and moderation but no restriction. I would not even respond to you, but you do have a child! I hope you take a look at you, a long look, and realize what many of us realized already about you. You are causing you child an eating disorder.

I don't think you realize that you're responding to multiple people who are criticizing you. I'm the one who posted what my children ate above (you shamed me for feeding my children couscous, OMG), but none of the other comments above are mine.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Typical day: breakfast burritos and fruit. Chicken nuggets, string cheese, apples and ketchup for lunch. Chili with ground beef and rice and a veggie for dinner. Snacks about 11 and 2 and 4. Snacks might include: pepperoni, fruit leather, yogurt, carrots, bell peppers, cheese and crackers, popcorn, plus a serving of whatever we baked that day. We go for hot chocolate at Starbucks once or twice a week. We do dessert of fruit and cool whip or a serving of ice cream.

The additional food is on top of all that.

Those aren't the healthiest meals, IMO. Also, you don't need two desserts a day (baked treat plus dessert) - that's probably 500 calories right there. Try exchanging those for more protein and make sure every snack has protein too (carrots and hummus, apple and peanut butter)

Here are my kids' meals today:

Breakfast - omelets with cheese, mushrooms, and turkey bacon (This is what we had, it's not for health reasons, sometimes we have regular bacon)
Lunch - ham and cheese sandwich with cherry tomatoes on the side. They were still hungry, so they each had a mandarin orange.
Dinner - chicken souvlaki with couscous and tzatziki sauce

This is the diet of a peri menapausal woman.

That is the comment of a mom who only feeds her children dino nuggets and mac and cheese.

No doubt this comment is by the pp who accuses others of having an eating disorder while he shops only perimeter of the grocery store and feeds hummus to her kids! Yet, she thinks she has no eating disorder!

Sounds like you are overweight, I am sorry for your struggles. It’s not a good reason to put down others who care about feeling healthful foods to their families though.

LOL! How much do you weigh and how tall are you? I stand proudly at 116lbs 5'4" and 50 years old. Yet, I eat ribs, and chicken, and steak, and pasta and rice and three proper meals a day. None of them is a "salad." More like, as all are saying, you have an eating disorder.
I have never been overweight, nor did I ever count calories like a nut job, why should I? The best way to eat is the Med way and moderation but no restriction. I would not even respond to you, but you do have a child! I hope you take a look at you, a long look, and realize what many of us realized already about you. You are causing you child an eating disorder.

I don't think you realize that you're responding to multiple people who are criticizing you. I'm the one who posted what my children ate above (you shamed me for feeding my children couscous, OMG), but none of the other comments above are mine.

Oh my goodness, and I just noticed that you said something about eating a Mediterranean diet AFTER you shamed me for feeding my children Mediterranean food!!!! DYING here...LOL!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Typical day: breakfast burritos and fruit. Chicken nuggets, string cheese, apples and ketchup for lunch. Chili with ground beef and rice and a veggie for dinner. Snacks about 11 and 2 and 4. Snacks might include: pepperoni, fruit leather, yogurt, carrots, bell peppers, cheese and crackers, popcorn, plus a serving of whatever we baked that day. We go for hot chocolate at Starbucks once or twice a week. We do dessert of fruit and cool whip or a serving of ice cream.

The additional food is on top of all that.

Those aren't the healthiest meals, IMO. Also, you don't need two desserts a day (baked treat plus dessert) - that's probably 500 calories right there. Try exchanging those for more protein and make sure every snack has protein too (carrots and hummus, apple and peanut butter)

Here are my kids' meals today:

Breakfast - omelets with cheese, mushrooms, and turkey bacon (This is what we had, it's not for health reasons, sometimes we have regular bacon)
Lunch - ham and cheese sandwich with cherry tomatoes on the side. They were still hungry, so they each had a mandarin orange.
Dinner - chicken souvlaki with couscous and tzatziki sauce

This is the diet of a peri menapausal woman.

That is the comment of a mom who only feeds her children dino nuggets and mac and cheese.

No doubt this comment is by the pp who accuses others of having an eating disorder while he shops only perimeter of the grocery store and feeds hummus to her kids! Yet, she thinks she has no eating disorder!

Sounds like you are overweight, I am sorry for your struggles. It’s not a good reason to put down others who care about feeling healthful foods to their families though.

LOL! How much do you weigh and how tall are you? I stand proudly at 116lbs 5'4" and 50 years old. Yet, I eat ribs, and chicken, and steak, and pasta and rice and three proper meals a day. None of them is a "salad." More like, as all are saying, you have an eating disorder.
I have never been overweight, nor did I ever count calories like a nut job, why should I? The best way to eat is the Med way and moderation but no restriction. I would not even respond to you, but you do have a child! I hope you take a look at you, a long look, and realize what many of us realized already about you. You are causing you child an eating disorder.

I don't think you realize that you're responding to multiple people who are criticizing you. I'm the one who posted what my children ate above (you shamed me for feeding my children couscous, OMG), but none of the other comments above are mine.

Oh my goodness, and I just noticed that you said something about eating a Mediterranean diet AFTER you shamed me for feeding my children Mediterranean food!!!! DYING here...LOL!

Yep, the 116 pound rib eater poster is hilarious. Running around accusing people who eat a healthy diet of having an eating disorder and shaming people for couscous and hummus while saying they too eat a Mediterranean diet. Lol. I am pretty sure a diet heavy in meat and processed carbs does not count as Mediterranean diet.

I think a lot of different posters have shown it is possible to feed a family a diet of mostly home cooked food fairly easily, with some planning and effort. I also find that gadgets like the instapot and an air fryer take up space but also save a lot of time.

[Anonymous]

Food is not a moral issue. Eat what suits you. Gain or don't gain weight. Enjoy your life.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Typical day: breakfast burritos and fruit. Chicken nuggets, string cheese, apples and ketchup for lunch. Chili with ground beef and rice and a veggie for dinner. Snacks about 11 and 2 and 4. Snacks might include: pepperoni, fruit leather, yogurt, carrots, bell peppers, cheese and crackers, popcorn, plus a serving of whatever we baked that day. We go for hot chocolate at Starbucks once or twice a week. We do dessert of fruit and cool whip or a serving of ice cream.

The additional food is on top of all that.

You are simply not feeding your kids proper meals and enough food. I read your menu like some kind of soup and fast food advert.
I recommend you try something like this:
Breakfast: eggs, bacon, pancakes, yogurt.
Lunch: Ribs with potatoes, soup, and salad.
Dinner: rice and meat and veggies, as in a ton of it. For example, teriyaki chicken with rice and veggies. Juice, milk, etc.. to each meal.

Stop with soup and stew-like meals. In my country, these are starters. My grandma would look at your chicken nuggets and ketchup and ask you where is the meal. You don't have a proper carb side dish for lunch. For dinner, you have a stew. Not a single kid grandma fed was overweight. ANd she gave us a snack of bread with home rendered lard and paprika on top!

Okay, I think OP needs to talk to a professional and needs to feed her kids more, but your suggestions are also lunacy. Who the hell serves pancakes AND bacon AND eggs AND yogurt for a regular weekday breakfast? Not only is that a ton of food, it's a ton of time!

Ribs for lunch? Absurd.

FWIW, in my country, lunch is always soup. There's a whole saying about it.

Caucasian American, European roots are 150-250 years ago.

I manage to cook eggs (with sautéed minced veggies mixed in!), turkey bacon and high protein pancakes (from scratch, made with eggs, milk, bananas, and a combination of almond and regular flour) and and cut and wash fruit. It takes 30 minutes from start to finish. I’m homeschooling three kids, two of whom need high protein breakfasts, or they’re grumpy, hungry and can’t focus 30-45 minutes into school, and that’s with a planned snack time at the 2 hour mark. The third child can eat a half bowl of Cheerios or rice crispies (with milk), leave some, and be fine until lunch; that child eats a few bites of everything I make because it’s tastier.

There’s no reason to think that you can’t take 30 minutes to cook a decent breakfast. The kids get dressed, set the table, and then have a few minutes to play before breakfast. Then they have 30 minutes to eat, rinse their dishes, and brush their teeth. The same schedule works with DL, and you only need to move it forward by however long the drive to school is if you need to accommodate that. Just get up 30 minutes before the kids start getting around, then you have time for yourself first. It’s not hard.

Who spends 30 minutes making breakfast?!?!?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here is a simple fact op. You caused your children's weight problems. You and DH buy their food. Yes, you are acting as they are "stealing" food. You are the blame for your dd being overweight.
You are buying her food. You are punishing children for eating food. You are asking for advice on how to control your kid's eating some more as if you didn't cause enough disordered eating.
Quire frankly, I am appalled that you are not asking the one and only question you should be asking. What do YOU need to do to help your kid and to correct your mistake?

You can become overweight eating too much of anything. It isn't just from eating "junk"

This is categorically false. Please stop saying things that you clearly don't understand.

It’s true.

Prove it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here is a simple fact op. You caused your children's weight problems. You and DH buy their food. Yes, you are acting as they are "stealing" food. You are the blame for your dd being overweight.
You are buying her food. You are punishing children for eating food. You are asking for advice on how to control your kid's eating some more as if you didn't cause enough disordered eating.
Quire frankly, I am appalled that you are not asking the one and only question you should be asking. What do YOU need to do to help your kid and to correct your mistake?

You can become overweight eating too much of anything. It isn't just from eating "junk"

This is categorically false. Please stop saying things that you clearly don't understand.

It’s true.

Prove it.

Eat 3 avocados, 1cup of almonds, and several dates for your daily snacks, everyday, in addition to whatever else you eat and see what happens

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here is a simple fact op. You caused your children's weight problems. You and DH buy their food. Yes, you are acting as they are "stealing" food. You are the blame for your dd being overweight.
You are buying her food. You are punishing children for eating food. You are asking for advice on how to control your kid's eating some more as if you didn't cause enough disordered eating.
Quire frankly, I am appalled that you are not asking the one and only question you should be asking. What do YOU need to do to help your kid and to correct your mistake?

You can become overweight eating too much of anything. It isn't just from eating "junk"

This is categorically false. Please stop saying things that you clearly don't understand.

It’s true.

Prove it.

Eat 3 avocados, 1cup of almonds, and several dates for your daily snacks, everyday, in addition to whatever else you eat and see what happens

Yes adding excess calories from healthy foods will lead to weight gain. There are research studies where they give people excess healthy food calories to induce weight gain. example: https://diabetes.diabetesjournals.org/content/65/5/1245
Just have to get the excess calorie intake high enough. It may be hard to do with just salads but add in nuts and other calorie dense healthy foods and you can get there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Oh, and I provide tons of snacks:
Dehydrated fruits and veggies
Fresh fruits and veggies
Healthy dips, like refrigerator beans, hummus, nut and seed butters
Nuts and seeds
Seaweed
Homemade (healthy) crackers and breads
Plenty of dairy (regular fat, unflavored)
Leftover roasted, baked or lightly sautéed meat

We freeze leftovers in single portions, so that kids and adults can pick random things for lunch and pair them with fruit and veggies.

This. Coming from a home that had chains around the deep freezers, I had a rough time with food after college. (A big mistake is locking food from children, it’s often traumatic, no matter how small you think it is. Children notice.)

I do everything above as a young adult, you may need to start off easy. 1 serving of an extremely indulgent food for everyone when you go shopping then order more in between. But do not keep excess in them in the home.

Theirs a lot of resources in the foster/adoption realm on food issues. I don’t really see them anywhere else.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Typical day: breakfast burritos and fruit. Chicken nuggets, string cheese, apples and ketchup for lunch. Chili with ground beef and rice and a veggie for dinner. Snacks about 11 and 2 and 4. Snacks might include: pepperoni, fruit leather, yogurt, carrots, bell peppers, cheese and crackers, popcorn, plus a serving of whatever we baked that day. We go for hot chocolate at Starbucks once or twice a week. We do dessert of fruit and cool whip or a serving of ice cream.

The additional food is on top of all that.

Those aren't the healthiest meals, IMO. Also, you don't need two desserts a day (baked treat plus dessert) - that's probably 500 calories right there. Try exchanging those for more protein and make sure every snack has protein too (carrots and hummus, apple and peanut butter)

Here are my kids' meals today:

Breakfast - omelets with cheese, mushrooms, and turkey bacon (This is what we had, it's not for health reasons, sometimes we have regular bacon)
Lunch - ham and cheese sandwich with cherry tomatoes on the side. They were still hungry, so they each had a mandarin orange.
Dinner - chicken souvlaki with couscous and tzatziki sauce

This is the diet of a peri menapausal woman.

That is the comment of a mom who only feeds her children dino nuggets and mac and cheese.

No doubt this comment is by the pp who accuses others of having an eating disorder while he shops only perimeter of the grocery store and feeds hummus to her kids! Yet, she thinks she has no eating disorder!

Sounds like you are overweight, I am sorry for your struggles. It’s not a good reason to put down others who care about feeling healthful foods to their families though.

LOL! How much do you weigh and how tall are you? I stand proudly at 116lbs 5'4" and 50 years old. Yet, I eat ribs, and chicken, and steak, and pasta and rice and three proper meals a day. None of them is a "salad." More like, as all are saying, you have an eating disorder.
I have never been overweight, nor did I ever count calories like a nut job, why should I? The best way to eat is the Med way and moderation but no restriction. I would not even respond to you, but you do have a child! I hope you take a look at you, a long look, and realize what many of us realized already about you. You are causing you child an eating disorder.

I don't think you realize that you're responding to multiple people who are criticizing you. I'm the one who posted what my children ate above (you shamed me for feeding my children couscous, OMG), but none of the other comments above are mine.

Oh my goodness, and I just noticed that you said something about eating a Mediterranean diet AFTER you shamed me for feeding my children Mediterranean food!!!! DYING here...LOL!

Yep, the 116 pound rib eater poster is hilarious. Running around accusing people who eat a healthy diet of having an eating disorder and shaming people for couscous and hummus while saying they too eat a Mediterranean diet. Lol. I am pretty sure a diet heavy in meat and processed carbs does not count as Mediterranean diet.

I think a lot of different posters have shown it is possible to feed a family a diet of mostly home cooked food fairly easily, with some planning and effort. I also find that gadgets like the instapot and an air fryer take up space but also save a lot of time.

Right? the sentences "I eat ribs for lunch" and "I follow a mediterranean diet" don't really go together, OMG.

[Anonymous]

I still can't believe OP and her husband lock food up to keep it away from children. I hide the good chocolate from my kids, sure, but I'm not locking it in the safe or anything. And she wonders why her children are eating disordered.

[Anonymous]

I haven’t read the whole thread but it is pretty common for kids at home to snack and eat all day. My kids are skinny but there is a lot of bad eating going on. I pick my battles. Kids willl often not be hungry during lunch because they were snacking the entire morning while in school. I would not call this stealing.

You should eliminate all junk food. We had an entire garage full of drinks and snacks from a cancelled birthday party. Then we had a ton of candy from Easter. My kids are junk all spring. I no longer buy sugary drinks and I buy the same boring snacks. They still snack but I offer them fruit and they like fruit. I prep lunch early before their lunch time so they have real food to eat when they get hungry. If I started lunch at 12, they may have found something to eat already. If I make lunch at 11, they may eat the lunch early and have a longer break for lunch to play.

[Anonymous]

Ok, what exactly is “three squares”.? And the fact that you call it “stealing” or “infractions” tells me you do not have a healthy relationship with food and it’s a become a realm of control for you.

And what exactly do you mean by “seriously overweight”?

We have 3 meals, and a morning snack and afternoon snack. I pretty much let our kids eat whatever but the only rule is that they do have to at least try whatever I give them. And also only fruit for snacks if it is less than an hour before a meal time. They also help me bake and cook. And we almost always have some kind of dessert- for a while I was giving it to them as their afternoon snack because I felt like the after dinner dessert kept them up later at night. Every one has different natural body weights and maybe my husband and I are on the slim side, and I do struggle with keeping weight on our kids. One of them just has a lack of interest in eating, and the 6yo is going through a very picky stage but man does he love his savory snacks.

Nothing is off limits but I don’t keep certain things in the house like soda or sugary drinks other than OJ and chocolate milk.

What do your meals and snacks look like?