Limitations on food and drink?

[Anonymous]

I want to say some things in APs' defense in general: I recall times I have lived abroad I was often hungrier than at home. I didn't binge eat, but just had much more of an appetite. It may have been a coping mechanism without me realizing it, who knows. As far as the drinks go, I found sodas, juicesand the like to be more common around the house than in the States. She may not be realizing that her consumption is over the top in that category.

I think you need to have a conversation with AP. Walk the line between wanting to help and setting her straight carefully.

[Anonymous]

+1 as an exchange student in Germany I was STARVING all the time. Part of it was that I was getting up much earlier in he day than at home. And yes, juice or soda or tea was present at every meal or snack.

[Anonymous]

Why are you stocking your house with so much calorie-dense crap? The only high calorie junk in my kitchen is stuff AP bought herself. I can't even understand why someone would buy a couple lbs of nuts unless it was for a specific baking project in which case you should have said so.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why are you stocking your house with so much calorie-dense crap? The only high calorie junk in my kitchen is stuff AP bought herself. I can't even understand why someone would buy a couple lbs of nuts unless it was for a specific baking project in which case you should have said so.

We easily buy 10lbs of nuts at a time from Costco. This used to last us 1 month. It now can last one week with our AP gorging herself. You think nuts are junk? I consider nuts a great snack. We do almonds, pistachois, cashews, and walnuts. All raw.

10lbs of nuts is hardly alot of calories for a family of 4. That's a little over an ounce per person per day.~200 cal serving. Can't think of a healthier snack than 200 cal of walnuts or almonds. Problem is AP will eat a half pound in a day sometimes.

Another thing we buy in bulk is smoked salmon, avocados, maple syrup, apples, Kerry gold butter, and any seasonal fruit. Again, this stuff is not meant to be consumed in 3 days.

I thought at first our AP was just not understanding that buying in bulk meant eating over a long time. We are a thin family and eat high calorie foods, but small portions. She is probably tipping the scales at 200, 50 of which I shopped and paid for.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:+1 as an exchange student in Germany I was STARVING all the time. Part of it was that I was getting up much earlier in he day than at home. And yes, juice or soda or tea was present at every meal or snack.

Are you me? I was an exchange student in Germany and was sooooo hungry all the time there. Don' know what it was though.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our AP gained 50lbs her first 6 months. The amount she eats is staggering. Gallon of milk day. Stick of butter every 2 days. Costco sized bag of granola a week. It's a good $75/wk extra.

I've learned to put stickers on food I'm saving for dinners. I've learned that is I cook a pot of chili to double the recipe because she will eat a pot herself alone.

We don't drink soda and she guzzle it by the liter a day or more. She is responsible for buying it on her own.

I don't supply any liquor to any APs ever.

Back again.

Yesterday night I bought a bag of mixed nuts that weighed 1lb 14oz. Today I came home and the bag wad opened. It now weighs 1lb. She ate 14oz of nuts today. She will probably polish the remaining pound off tomorrow. $19.99, straight onto her hips and in her arteries.

Just curious about why you haven't spoken to your AP about sharing food? My most recent AP kept blowing through my fruit, actually just the berries and not the other bulk fruit like bananas or apples, within two days of buying them. I told her that I shop once a week and everything was meant to be shared equally among the family. This worked. Also, if I'm saving something, like leftover salmon for salmon cakes, i make sure to tell her or she will eat it for lunch the next day b

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why are you stocking your house with so much calorie-dense crap? The only high calorie junk in my kitchen is stuff AP bought herself. I can't even understand why someone would buy a couple lbs of nuts unless it was for a specific baking project in which case you should have said so.

We easily buy 10lbs of nuts at a time from Costco. This used to last us 1 month. It now can last one week with our AP gorging herself. You think nuts are junk? I consider nuts a great snack. We do almonds, pistachois, cashews, and walnuts. All raw.

10lbs of nuts is hardly alot of calories for a family of 4. That's a little over an ounce per person per day.~200 cal serving. Can't think of a healthier snack than 200 cal of walnuts or almonds. Problem is AP will eat a half pound in a day sometimes.

Another thing we buy in bulk is smoked salmon, avocados, maple syrup, apples, Kerry gold butter, and any seasonal fruit. Again, this stuff is not meant to be consumed in 3 days.

I thought at first our AP was just not understanding that buying in bulk meant eating over a long time. We are a thin family and eat high calorie foods, but small portions. She is probably tipping the scales at 200, 50 of which I shopped and paid for.

I purchased a 2 pound bag of cashews from BJs last Sunday. By TUESDAY half of them were gone. I actually had to pour some back into the bag and put them in my office. That bag was intended to last a month.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:+1 as an exchange student in Germany I was STARVING all the time. Part of it was that I was getting up much earlier in he day than at home. And yes, juice or soda or tea was present at every meal or snack.

Are you me? I was an exchange student in Germany and was sooooo hungry all the time there. Don' know what it was though.

I don't, either! At least, not beyond breakfast - once I started eating a good breakfast I expected to be less hungry, but I was actually hungrier.

As soon as I returned hope my appetite went back to normal. No clue.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why are you stocking your house with so much calorie-dense crap? The only high calorie junk in my kitchen is stuff AP bought herself. I can't even understand why someone would buy a couple lbs of nuts unless it was for a specific baking project in which case you should have said so.

We easily buy 10lbs of nuts at a time from Costco. This used to last us 1 month. It now can last one week with our AP gorging herself. You think nuts are junk? I consider nuts a great snack. We do almonds, pistachois, cashews, and walnuts. All raw.

10lbs of nuts is hardly alot of calories for a family of 4. That's a little over an ounce per person per day.~200 cal serving. Can't think of a healthier snack than 200 cal of walnuts or almonds. Problem is AP will eat a half pound in a day sometimes.

Another thing we buy in bulk is smoked salmon, avocados, maple syrup, apples, Kerry gold butter, and any seasonal fruit. Again, this stuff is not meant to be consumed in 3 days.

I thought at first our AP was just not understanding that buying in bulk meant eating over a long time. We are a thin family and eat high calorie foods, but small portions. She is probably tipping the scales at 200, 50 of which I shopped and paid for.

You seem really fixated on her weight. Are you poor? Can you not afford to feed her? If she can't manage her calories, why do you keep stocking the house with bulk quantities of very calorie-dense food?

[Anonymous]

Are you worry about her, the cost of the food, or the frequency of your grocery shopping?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our AP gained 50lbs her first 6 months. The amount she eats is staggering. Gallon of milk day. Stick of butter every 2 days. Costco sized bag of granola a week. It's a good $75/wk extra.

I've learned to put stickers on food I'm saving for dinners. I've learned that is I cook a pot of chili to double the recipe because she will eat a pot herself alone.

We don't drink soda and she guzzle it by the liter a day or more. She is responsible for buying it on her own.

I don't supply any liquor to any APs ever.

Back again.

Yesterday night I bought a bag of mixed nuts that weighed 1lb 14oz. Today I came home and the bag wad opened. It now weighs 1lb. She ate 14oz of nuts today. She will probably polish the remaining pound off tomorrow. $19.99, straight onto her hips and in her arteries.

Just curious about why you haven't spoken to your AP about sharing food? My most recent AP kept blowing through my fruit, actually just the berries and not the other bulk fruit like bananas or apples, within two days of buying them. I told her that I shop once a week and everything was meant to be shared equally among the family. This worked. Also, if I'm saving something, like leftover salmon for salmon cakes, i make sure to tell her or she will eat it for lunch the next day b

I have. She has an eating disorder. She claims that she doesn't eat. She only eats in secret. I had to go into her room to fix a pipe and there was food stashed everywhere.

She's mental, we are counting the days down.

[Anonymous]

Put notes on special foods that need to be saved "save brownies for guests." Sounds like she is depressed. I know a few Au pairs that gained weight after coming since homesick and depressed.

[Anonymous]

This forum makes me feel 100 times better about locking our pantry. We told her it was because the toddler was going in and getting the stuff for the kids school lunches(individually packaged things) but the reality was she was eating us out of the pantry and we didn't even know it. Granted she was bigger than my husband(who is 6'), she was always saying "I so hungry"- and ate a pound of pasta with feta or blue cheese and cream on it in a sitting for lunch, I just started buying her a "stash" of her things(pasta, alfredo sauce, cheese) per week and more things of ours (like veggies) that she wouldn't touch. But even after discussion of "don't eat 4 avocados for lunch because I planned to make Guac with them for the boys dinner didn't get through, so I would just lock up what I needed to. I know she figured it out, but at that point I didn't care. I told her if she wanted to eat more than we eat as a 6 person family in one sitting, then she had to pay for the extra meals herself. Our current au pair won't drink water because it smells like Chlorine (even though we have a whole house filter), but she drinks less juice than the last au pair- at one point I told her "do you realize how many calories are in Orange Juice?" and to drink 64 ounces a day is ridiculous. And she wouldn't drink any soda that was diet, so I just started buying only diet soda.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This forum makes me feel 100 times better about locking our pantry. We told her it was because the toddler was going in and getting the stuff for the kids school lunches(individually packaged things) but the reality was she was eating us out of the pantry and we didn't even know it. Granted she was bigger than my husband(who is 6'), she was always saying "I so hungry"- and ate a pound of pasta with feta or blue cheese and cream on it in a sitting for lunch, I just started buying her a "stash" of her things(pasta, alfredo sauce, cheese) per week and more things of ours (like veggies) that she wouldn't touch. But even after discussion of "don't eat 4 avocados for lunch because I planned to make Guac with them for the boys dinner didn't get through, so I would just lock up what I needed to. I know she figured it out, but at that point I didn't care. I told her if she wanted to eat more than we eat as a 6 person family in one sitting, then she had to pay for the extra meals herself. Our current au pair won't drink water because it smells like Chlorine (even though we have a whole house filter), but she drinks less juice than the last au pair- at one point I told her "do you realize how many calories are in Orange Juice?" and to drink 64 ounces a day is ridiculous. And she wouldn't drink any soda that was diet, so I just started buying only diet soda.

Wow, has anyone ever rematched with you over the locked pantry? Is the relationship otherwise so fantastic, that you thought locking your kitchen sounded better than initiating rematch yourself? Does your LCC know about the seriousness of the situation?