Help for Horrid Eaters!!
 

I just started the Atkins plan myself this weekend, and though I am very pleased for myself, it has made me aware just how terrible my son eats! My daughter, age 12.5 (that .5 is important) eats very well, is athletic, and feels great. I am not worried about her--she eats all the good stuff.

My son, on the other hand, is almost 10 and hates all food (he tells me) except PB&J, pizza, hamburgers, french fries, grilled cheese, hot dogs, Taco Bueno, Cheetoes... See where this is going? I can get him to eat spinach IF it is on pizza (eeww) and he'll eat apples. I have been talking with him about all this--he has grown 5 inches in six months AND due to a foot problem had to drop out of sports---as a result, he is a mess. He is such an odd eater he confounds me. As a baby, he loved everything and was an ideal weight for his age/height. No longer.

He knows that we are going to make changes in our household, and very soon--his dad has to have heart surgery, and is on orders to lose sixty pounds (he has to go on a diet for Coumadin patients, which will be different than what I am eating). I could use advice on how to turn my son's eating habits around. Would slowly making the changes be better than trying to force him to change his habits immediately?

Any advice would be great--thanks! :wave:

not advice......support maybe?
 

I would not pretend to be qualified to advise you. I can tell you what I might do?
I have an 8 year old daughter who can be "choosy" the one thing she does like is steak...very rare(juicy), which, I might add, she cooks herself.
I would encourage a 10 year old boy to cook his own hamburgers/hot dogs/fries even pizza....some people make this a family affair..puting their own topping on a base.......you of course would have a lo-carb alternative base.

Hamburgers are easy, with the pattie that you have previously prepared with egg an lean minced meat....My brother has 4 boys (10years-18months) they all love Auntie Liz's hamburgers, 2 of them have a slice of cheese and the eldest likes one with the lot..egg, bacon cheese and pineapple( I use the canned p'apple slice through the ring, now you have 2 thinner rings and VWWWWWWWAALLLLLAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!! ) :thup: :thup: :thup:

OR, If your boy enjoy yukkie things (as some boys do)..he can even mix up the egg and meat...with his CLEAN hands, of course,....VERY YUCKIE.
I pretend to be grossed out by the mixing process and they find this funny..really funny. Your 10yr. old could be reacting to dad's condition..if he is close to his dad then maybe he could help ....pooooorrrrr mum who COULD be having difficulty working out "all this diet stuff" . It's amazing how they rally........if only for a little while, that gives you time to "cook up" another plot!!!!
Good luck ....please let me know how you get on.
Liz

Great idea!
 

Liz, I like your idea of teaching him to cook!! He makes his own scrambled eggs already but claims he is tired of those. I went grocery shopping tonight and kept an eye out for low carb kid-like stuff. When I got home and showed him the hot dogs (which aren't nearly as bad as I thought!) and cheese sticks and the new bread and the pickles, which he also likes, along with jello and cool whip--he liked all that. I also bought pork ribs, his absolute favorite. He put some bbq sauce on it but instead of glopping them up with the sauce like I usually do, tonight I cooked them with butter! He didn't even notice and had far less sauce on them than usual. They were delicious!! He and I are alone tonight (dad out of town, daughter at a friend's) so I talked to him some more about this. I think getting him involved in choosing better foods is going to be helpful instead of trying to just change things without him really being aware of what is going on. My daughter (12) wants to do this, too. Looks like i need ot look into some of the books geared toward kids.

Thanks for the idea! He is home for Christmas so this is the ideal time to get him into cooking. He did help with the ribs, more or less.

G'day
 

:wave: :wave: :wave:
Good for you, keep him on task and your life will be easier!!!!!!
Let me know how you get on!!!!!1
Liz

Liz, thanks. I know once he goes back to school and has to eat the school lunch I won' t have control over that, but at least I can in the a.m. and dinner and on weekends. He loves bagels and cream cheese for breakfast so we are working on alternatives for that. Little steps I think will help and be the key.

Coumadin.
 

I noticed that you posted a Coumadin support "plea". I hope you don't mind that I did a bit of looking around for you. I typed Coumadin into the MSN search and was offered lots of info and books. Maybe you could, if you haven't already find a support network..............or START one with that community. Your input and research would be invaluable to our LC forum as I'm sure that I have read other posts where heart surgery is one of the issues. Maybe even use the search facility on the forum to find other posts that relate?
Good luck!!!!!
Talk to you soon!!!!
Liz :wave: :thup: :thup: :wave:

Forgot to check!
 

Liz, thanks for the note!! Next week I'll get my Intro to Coumadin as Kel's surgery is a week from today. I'll definitely see if there is a good place to put what I learn. Thanks for the suggestion!!

:D

Kel's surgery
 

I wish you all well. I know that you will be busy, but please let us know how he is getting on.
here are just a few daisies to keep you smiling :)
:daizy::daizy::daizy::daizy::daizy::daizy:
:daizy::daizy::daizy::daizy::daizy::daizy::daizy:
:daizy::daizy::daizy::daizy:.
Be well, real soon Kel:daizy:!!!!!!!