So my little man is a carboholic; He doesn't want to eat anything but high carb foods: bread, rice, fries, sugar, candy, etc. I have been making him eat vegies and meat but this is a constant source of resistance and I suspect that he may be enjoying the dispute as a twisted game. What can I do to reduce the squabbling and get him to improve his food choices? :confused:

I have read (in Reader's Digest, I think) that its better to let the kids eat what they will than to make a mountain out of a mashed potato. The article I read said that kids will eat what their bodies need, eventually. I am suspicious of this approach, especially if the kids are taking vitamin supplements, because then their bodies may not crave the good stuff. On the other hand, if you do turn it into a power struggle, everybody loses in the long run. I hope someone out there has some good advice for Tammy. I'm afraid my two cents worth is worth less than two cents! :D

this is probably outdated, but when I was growing up children who didn't eat their dinner always got a dose of cod liver oil (a spoonful, not in a capsule) instead of desert. Mama seldom had to say "eat your greens" because nobody liked cod liver oil.:eek: Is cod liver oil still available? Is it safe? I turned out ok and had more than a little of the stuff growing up.

What do you have against carbohydrates? Are you trying to put your baby on the Atkins diet? Why do you call him a carboholic?

I don't think all carbs are bad, but so many of the refined foods that we feed our kids are. I wish I had learned to eat right from the very beginning. Some things we have found successful is to eat WITH our kids. We also serve dinner in courses, first a cooked veggie and then a salad and then a main course, serving size is appropriate to age (we started this when are kids were very young) They don't go on to the next course until they've eaten the 1sy or 2nd. This makes the meal last more than 10 minutes and assures they eat their veggies. Our kids can choose whether to eat and how much, but they don't get to eat or make something else later if they choose not to eat. This has worked well for us. Good luck - this is a hard one! But our kids health is definitely worth it!

That's great advice, I love the idea of serving in courses. It's almost like being at a real fancy restaurant. What do you do if they won't finish a course -- mainly the veggie course.

Yet again, I find myself coming into a thread after it has gone idle for a while but I feel compelled to comment here.

My son Matthew is a Type 1 Diabetic and as such carbohydrates are a big issue in our world. (Type 1, Meaning inherited/autoimmune/genetic/insulin shots/ the whole unplesant nine yards...)

Matthew has to count every gram of carbohydrate he plans to eat, before he can eat it because without the appropriate amount of insulin injected, his body is incapable of metabolizing those carbs into energy the way a Non-Diabetic person does. Even at THAT, not all carbs are the same! Even Matthew must eat carbs despite what he has to go through to consume them because we all need some carbohydrates, good carbohydrates especially, to feed and fuel our bodies.

Outside of any particular health issue, I think people get a bit too hung up on the issue of carbs. The important issue is a healthy, balanced diet in general. The carbohydrate is the most common source of energy found in our food. It is broken down during digestion into glucose for use in the body. Without that glucose our bodies cannot function. If you've ever seen what a true episode of Hypoglycemia does to the mind and body, you know exactly what I mean here!

With that said, our diets are plenty carb rich and then some. Unless you have a medical condition that disturbs the metabolism or you are intentionally restricting your carb intake or are simply dieting inappropriately or are malnourished for some other reason, you would be hard pressed not to take in enough carbs but the real issue from a nutritional standpoint is to get plenty of "good carbs" because it simply is a more nutritionally sound way to eat.

I, myself have always been a big fan of carbs and when we first discovered Matthew has Diabetes, I promised him I would adhere to any dietary restrictions he has to. I wanted to soften the blow any way possible, as you can imagine!

 The idea of giving up my beloved carbs was already registering as it was first coming out of my mouth. I've never been a big meat eater and up to the point that the dietician came in to explain what this new lifestyle would entail exactly, I was truly at a loss as to what we might still be able to eat. It has actually turned out very well for all of us! I still have my beloved carbs, I don't feel all that deprived and we're all a bit healthier for the changes. I was afraid that being young and forced to suddenly eat from a "certain menu" was going to be a struggle but we have never had much of an issue.

 We've found so many wonderful, fun ways to include healthy carbs and it keeps all of us from feeling like we're just "stuck" with a big plate of protein and none of the truly yummy stuff. I've been able to modify almost all of our old favorites into healthier versions. It's a lot of work at first but well worth the efforts. My wasitline is a little happier with me these days too!