If you don't eat many processed foods, what do you feed your kids?
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Anonymous
My daughter went through a phase of being pediatrician-is-very-concerned skinny, too, for about a year, and the main problem (as my pediatrician agreed!) is that most young children who are very thin will not necessarily go on to be very thin adults-- in fact, she has seen some come back for visits a few later with weight problems. Depending on how old your child is, therefore, it can be problematic to make their go-to or comfort foods familiar, unhealthy kid foods that they will be able to find in many forms outside in the world. If all you are doing is switching to organic ingredients, they actually really taste quite similar to the non-organic versions, so once your kiddo is out in the world, there is a chance those will be the foods she gravitates to. I'm sorry you're angry-- you sound really hostile, and I totally understand your concern for your child is maybe making you act nasty towards people you assume don't have the same worries-- so I will reassure you that for my daughter, things have gotten better and one way we helped her to gain weight while trying to help her eat a variety of interesting, non-junky foods (and I don't believe mac and cheese and nuggets are unilaterally junky as part of a diet that includes a large variety of foods) was to explore high-calorie, yummy foods from other cuisines...e.g. you can make tasty North Indian dishes restaurant-style with butter and cream (my daughter is crazy about palak paneer) and they tend to be veggie-rich. It is a hard job with a skinny, skinny kid making sure they (a) survive now and (b) won't have health problems in the future due to whatever we do to try to get them to eat now. Actually, that's the hardest job of parenting-- balancing what we do now with what it means for our kids later. Nobody is criticizing you personally; we are trying to answer OP's question, and her job will become more complicated if she has to worry about weight gain in addition to encouraging healthy habits. |
Anonymous
Where do you get boxed tomatoes? I've switched from canned diced tomatoes to glass jarred tomato sauce in order to avoid the BPA in cans. Interested in another option! And, aren't dried beans a pain? I'd love to switch, but it seems like way too much trouble. |
Anonymous
I think this is really good advice for the 7:34 poster. We also have a very skinny, underweight DS and struggle with how to balance healthy eating habits with getting enough calories. I don't think there's anything wrong with feeding your kid chicken nuggets and mac and cheese (we eat those at our house as well), but personally, I don't think DS is getting enough nutrients if that is all he is eating. I think the concern is that it is possible to be ingesting enough calories, but not ingesting enough nutrients. Even just adding broccoli into the mac and cheese makes me feel a bit better. Good luck to you, PP - it's tough! |
Anonymous
Regarding the beans, I read in "joy of cooking" that dried beans are vastly superior in taste and tried it. It is true and not hard. I soak black beans in water overnight. The next evening, I start my receipe for black bean soup as usual. The only difference, you should not add salt to the beans until late in the cooking process. The beans have a great consistency, soft without beeing mushy and an almost nutty flavor. Very good! |
Anonymous
I want to say I am SO SICK OF PEOPLE overreacting belligerently to posts in which people want to raise their kids differently than they have chosen t, when doing so makes clear the overreacter lacks confidence about her own choices. Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they ARE after you..... |
Anonymous
I could see how they'd be great for something like black bean soup, but what about something like burritos? Can you just make a small batch of dried beans? (obviously something I need to google because I know nothing about this) |
Anonymous
| I would think that you just boil the soaked beans until they are done (1 hr?) and then drain before using in burritos? |
Anonymous
RE boxed tomatoes -- Pomi is sold in the area, and that's what I use as a base for tomato sauce. They have them at the Harris Teeter in Adams-Morgan as well as at Whole Foods. They may carry them elsewhere, not sure. One thing I really like about the Pomi boxed tomatoes is that they don't have any added salt, so I can really flavor it to taste. Most canned tomatoes have a TON of added salt. RE beans -- canned beans also have a lot of added salt, so I try to make them myself. As PPs have said, you can just soak the beans the night before. For the PP who was wondering how to use them for burritos (when you don't need that many), I make a batch of black beans and freeze them. |
Anonymous
| Another person with "doctor is worried" skinny kid, trying to bulk him up on whole, non-processed foods. What we have done is gone a summer diet that kid knows will end when school starts. The diet: at meals, usual stuff applies - healthy meats, veggies, fruits, grains, and fats, same food the grown ups eat but, as a PP said, "deconstructed" without the sauces. We encourage eating but don't force anything. No short order cooking. But then, regardless of what he ate at meals, he gets snacks at midmorning, midafternoon, and before bed (and whenever else he wants them) of pure chocolate or whole-fat yogurt. Put almost a pound on him in a month, without sacrificing the healthy foods he will eat. Come school...the chocolate free for all will end. |
Anonymous
Agreed. They definitely seemed like a pain to me, and I never bothered. But both my kids love beans, and I hated buying so many cans. I soak them overnight, sometimes for a full day. Then when we're getting dinner ready, I drain/rinse, replace the water, and set them back on the stove to simmer for the rest of the night. They cook unattended for HOURS -- basically, until we go to sleep that night. I then put them in the fridge overnight, along with the water I cooked them in. Next time I have a chance, I divide them up. Some get rinsed and go in a fridge container for the kids to eat plain as snacks. (Weird, but they love them.) Some go back in a pot with the watery "sauce" I cooked them in, along with diced tomatos, some onion and chopped garlic cloves, and a bunch of spices. I let it boil/simmer while we eat dinner and do bedtime, then puree it with a hand blender -- awesome, savory soup that's PURE veggies. Again, for me this is all super easy because I do it while we're home at night. Very little prep. Oh, and the pureed soup freezes really well, too!! |
Anonymous
I boil/simmer mine a lot longer -- maybe 3 hours? |
Anonymous
I use dried lentils but beans are a total pain in the arse. Lentils are easy and quick to cook, beans are not. They have boxed tomatoes at Whole Foods in a tetra pack but I did not like them! |
Anonymous
| when your kids is so skinny that is is BELOW ZERO percentile then you might think it's OK to give her an organic minimally processed chicken nugget and home made mac and cheese! |
Anonymous
Ummm... there is no such thing as a below zero percentile. A percentile is the percent of the population that falls below the child. And I don't think (most) people were saying that the occasional chicken nugget isn't okay; the point to me at least seemed to be that it should be in the context of a larger, more varied, more healthful diet. |
Anonymous
| Maybe the PP of the zero percentile means the child falls off the growth chart. I think the growth charts end at the bottom 5th percentile. I have a very skinny kid, and it is very scary. Even more frustrating is that DH and I are fat, and so we know DC has the genes for it, so we cannot feed child crap now...or he will pay later. It is a very scary place to be in, and I have full sympathy for PP! |