Do you let your family help their self to on any and all foods in your house?


When our kids were home they knew what foods they could have for snacks. I bought a lot of foods that were used for their snacking.
It was not a free run in our kitchen though.

My son 11 is ALWAYS snacking. I try to buy a lot of healthy snacks but do have fruit snacks and granola bar type things in the pantry. If I see him running to the pantry I always monitor what he is getting. If I feel he has already had enough junk I push him to the fridge for yogurt or string cheese or fruit. My 7 year old daughter is the complete opposite. She ONLY asks for healthy snacks. Her bedtime snack the other night was cooked broccoli. She has been eating asparagus all day today. I prepped the tops for dinner and then boiled the stalks to puree and she has been eating the boiled stalks all day. Every once in a while she will ask if we have any ice cream but it is rare....

My kids have to ask for snacks. The only thing they can get without asking is water or milk. I make sure we have lots of healthy stuff around. They don't get "junk" for snacks and I rarely have any kind of junk food around. no point really. My kids would rather eat off a veggie tray than a dessert ray thank goodness! I know that won't last long but at least they'll have good eating habits for a few more years...

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My kids have to ask for snacks. I sometimes see them want to eat because they are bored, so I have to monitor that.
I am trying to lose weight so I am trying to help my kids get better eating habits in the process.

DS is 17 so he pretty much has free reign of the food

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My kids are 4 & 7 and have to ask for snacks. Most of the time, they must have a healthy snack (fruit, veggies, yogurt, cheese, nuts, etc.) BEFORE they can have cookies or candy.

My 7 year old will help himself sometimes, but I don't keep a lot of junk food in the house, so pretty much whatever is in the pantry is fine (I keep the candy way up high so they would need a chair to get them and I would hear them doing that). He will usually only take one thing, not keep eating and eating.

The bigger problem we have is that they are 'starving' a little bit before dinner, but if I let them have a snack then, they aren't hungry at dinner time, but as soon as I clear the table they are hungry again.

Sarah.........mom to Jaosn & Devin

DD can help herself to pretzels, grapes, apples, juice, bananas, carrot sticks, milk without asking. She does need to ask for snacks like soup, spaghetios, cookies or something that I could be planning to use for a meal. I don't like her eating too close to dinner, but usually that's not an issue as she starving when she gets home from school at 3:00 and usually has a snack then and will be ready to eat dinner at 6:00.

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My dds are 11 & 14 now, but all their life I have kept the crisper drawer in the fridge (at eye level when they were little) full of whatever fruits are currently in season plus always a variety of apples. They have free reign of that (excpet right before meals). I also keep the pantry stocked. They mostly have free reign of that, too. But there are a few things that are off limits - single servings for school lunches or whatever. They are not allowed to grab a box or bag of anything. They have to put some in a bowl so there is some control. They eat their share of junk, but overall are healthy eaters. They are both slim.

Lisa

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Many things posted above sound very similar to what we do. I encourage both to make 'healthy choices'. I ask both of the boys to not snack within an hour of meals unless they absolutely can't make it then they can have something small. My kids are both slim as well.

I do worry about their internal health at times... especially oldest son will not ever choose fruit or veggies unless he's forced to eat them at meals. Weird thing is that he loved them as a young child but when he hit the teen years, he virtually quit eating them. But I make up for it (I hope!) by preparing full healthy meals.

I still won't buy deli items -- cha-ching. LOL.

My son has free reign on his refrigerator snack drawer, which usually contains, pre-washed fruit, string cheese, yogurt, cut and washed cucumbers and carrots, ham roll-ups, and his favorite....sugar-free....fat-free Jell-o pudding. I also keep a cereal dispenser on the counter, and he is allowed to eat cereal as a snack, with milk or with-out, currently I have Cheerios mixed with Apple Cinnamon Cheerios in it. I try to keep the sugar content low, I also mix, Kix with cocoa puffs, Rice Krispies with fruity pebbles, corn flakes with frosted flakes, and Chex with Lucky Charms. As for drinks he can have water, tea or milk without asking, but juice, Gatorade, or soda he needs to ask first.

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My kids can get what they want. I do tell them to think about before their choices before they grab stuff. My DD is a more healthy eater then my DS.

Mine help themselves. I have been encouraging that for a while now because they were always asking me to get everything for them. So, they are getting better now at being more self sufficiant in that way. DD(10) is a very healthy eater. Eats lots of fruits and veggies. DS(11) is another story. He won't eat at all if I don't make him. He is so thin that I sometimes worry about him so I encourage him to go get something to eat all the time! Usually though, he won't, unless I get it for him, due to lazyness... (That's why I have been encouraging them to get things for themselves more often).

Nop. My kids ask. I always have them make healthy choices. For instance... banana, orange or cheese for snack?

Holly

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my son has to ask

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My girls always ask. I don't remember ever telling them to ask or this being an issue in our home but they do ask. I too encourage healthy snacks but sometimes let them have a treat. (like candy, chips or ice cream) My oldest LOVES soda, Coke in particular. So she only gets 1 cup of that on the weekends and even then she will ask before she gets it. My youngest would eat junk all day long if I let her. But she also loves fruit so I keep grapes, blueberries, strawberries all washed and in the refrigerator where she can find them. She also loves baby carrots, cucumber slices and cherry tomatoes with ranch dressing. I keep those available to her also. I also buy the individual servings of mandarin oranges, applesauce, peaches and pineapple. She takes those for lunch but can also have them for a snack. I do buy the sugar free jello and puddings for her also. My oldest won't touch any jello or pudding! They both love ice cream and I usually keep some type in the freezer. They love the Healthy Choice bars, some type of mocha flavor, can't remember the exact name. I've also been buying the baked chips(doritos, cheetos, etc. and they like those).

It looks like most parents do have some controls set. That is good!

I had a friend whose children ate anything and everything! She would go to fix dinner and find that the kids had eaten the foods that she was going to prepare. That taught me to train my children and tell them what they could eat for snacks.

They had 3 good meals a day and I bought plenty of healthy snack items for them.

Maybe she'd tried and nothing worked to keep them out of stuff?

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I don't think they had many rules from the start.

I always believed that you better start out like you want to go with children.
When you don't then it is hard to change them.

Our kids knew that we meant what we said.

If she did try then I share her annoyance. cause nothing I've tried has made any diffrence to mine. They are tall thin fellas but they eat everything not nailed down like my granulated brown sugar I had bought for a recipe or sticks of butter even my birthday lunch last Sunday.

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mine know to stay out of meals that I have made ahead, but they can help themselves to any snack food or leftovers. In fact, many items I buy just for snacking like turkey and raw veggies and salad. I also buy things they can prepare themselves when they get home from school.

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