I am so tired of telling my four year old "no" to different foods that we have in our house. We don't have that many unhealthy foods in our home: We have a couple bags of Chex mix that I bought about 2 months ago Granola bars, and a box of fruit snacks at our house. I honestly do not want my son to eat any of these things at all. I do allow him to pick one "treat" to have once per day for a snack. However, he asks me constantly to have these items. I am so tired of telling him "no" all day long! I really am not sure what I should do about this because my son already seems obsessed with junk food! A friend saw him at a cookout about a month ago, grab a bag of potato chips and sneak off to try to eat them. I am afraid that if I totally take these things out of our house that it would make him even more obsessed with junk food and cause him to have eating problems of some kind later in life. I know though that I can't just give him these items with any conscience! I know these things are not good for him and I have to say "no" out of love for him. Should I throw away these items? I do not want to throw away the granola bars as these are a treat for my husband as well. I am afraid if my son knew that I threw away the fruit snacks that if would cause more problems. I am thinking that we will discuss that this is the last box of fruit snacks and that we won't be buying anymore. Does anyone have any advice for me? How have you handled this situation in your home?
Personally, the foods you described are not the end of the world. I will not be withholding snacks with our son when he is old enough to eat, unless it is an allergy health issue. My reasoning for this is if I always told him no, never let him have these foods occassionally he will grow up always remembering that I never let him have the stuff and then when he is old enough to buy/eat on his own...that will the stuff he gravitates to because it was always taboo when he was growing up. Now, I am not saying he can have this stuff every day...but one small snack bag (or even half a snack bag) or fruit snacks per week won't harm him. Now in your son's case, it sounds like he is taking matters in his own hands with the chips incident because he is never allowed that stuff. As long as he eats balanced meals, lots of fruits and veggies, let him enjoy his childhood eating some of these fun kid foods. Otherwise he will always remember it as a bad thing...instead of what you are trying to instill as a good eating habit.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the advice!
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