Your kid's diet
 

This is more for parents of younger kids because you can better control their diet, but just curious about people's general views towards their kids diet. With our daughter (almost 1) we've made a decision that we are not going to load her up on juice, fruit snacks and general garbage and we've made strides to try to improve our own diet so our daughter doesn't grow up on a McDonald's laden, sugar heavy, Mac and Cheese only diet.

We took her to the zoo for the first time and I was just looking at the crap people were feeding their kids at 9:00 in the morning - chips, cookies, juice boxes, ice cream.. Didn't seem like a whole lotta balance going on.

Do people just cave in easily to what their kids eat? We've already started getting comments from relatives saying we should feed her french fries, juice and fruit snacks and when we say we don't want her to eat that stuff we just get eye rolls.

Our baby is only six months but the wife and I have this discussion all the time. We also are not going to be feeding her "goodies" all the time. Growing up (and my mother still has a lot of junk food at her house) I ate a lot of fruit snacks, pudding, ect. and I just don't see the point now being a parent.

A little bit of an outlier here, but my son is tube fed a consistent diet of Peptamen Junior, so I marked the first one.

I went with "pay attention but ..." because it's technically true but I've also been lucky to have a kid that tends to eat relatively healthy of his own accord.

For example, he doesn't have what I would consider a typical sweet tooth & turns down dessert more often than not when it's offered (once memorably turning down double chocolate cake to finish off my wife's steamed broccoli). He eats easily 10x the variety & quantity of vegetables that I do, other than salsa & A-1 he isn't a condiment hound, has a reasonable split between soft drinks & juice, etc.

We really kept an eye on what they ate until they hit 18-24 months, at that point we make sure they eat something decent at each meal (substantial as opposed to worthless) and they snack on whatever is on hand when they get hungry in between.

Once they hit 2 they start getting picky and they start deciding they have a favorite thing, with my daughter its hot dogs and cheese. she's eat it for breakfast lunch and dinner if we let her. Our son is a little easier to please, as long as he has some sort of fruit he'l eat whatever else we give him most of the time.

My daughter, now 8, can have junk food and fast food now but it is limited as it is with us. The only soda she has is the occasional drink from ours. Our soda consumption is less then average. She has never had beef, and cow's milk only once or twice in her life. She isn't in love with veggies as she was when she was younger, but still eats a good amount.

Overall though, junk food is a treat, and treated like that. Something small maybe once a day at the most, like a couple cookies with lunch or something.

Both of ours eat more junk than they should, but part of that is in large part due to my wife's meal planning. She is not big on vegetables and so that is one thing my kids don't get a lot of (aside from corn, my wife makes sure they get plenty of that).

That said though, they don't eat a ton of junk either.

It always makes me sad when I see an overweight child.

IMO that should be considered everybit as much child abuse as anything else

no beef? no cow's milk? :eek::jawdrop:

I chose option 2 as it more closely fits my own view.

Though...option 3 is a bit closer to reality since my wife is the one at home with them and she allows them more slack in their diet than I do.

we let our girls have snacks, but their meals are pretty much always something healthy...if they do get mcdonalds, the other two meals of the day are always nutritious (lots of fruits and vegetables), and if they ask for a snack, we always push fruit.

Langley has more sweets than I'd like, but loves organic yogurt and only drinks water and milk. All in all her diet isn't terrible, but she'll try to sneak sweets if we're out and hates almost every vegetable.

Our son would eat garbage 24-7 if we let him. He's also very finicky. He'll eat chicken nuggets, yogurt (with fruit mixed in), pancakes, and spaghetti. And anything sweet. We do our best to get him to eat a good dinner, and he eats pretty well at daycare (actually easts some veggies there). We do not allow him to drink soda. My wife's parents think that's ridiculous, but then they try stuffing sweets down his throat at every turn (well, at least Grandpa does).

dola - option 1 sounds cruel. if you don't let your kid have any junk food, then they can't even enjoy a slice of pizza and cake at a friend's b-day party?

My wife and I keep our daughter on a pretty strict, non-crap diet. Organic cow's milk, meat without hormones and lots of veggies. Dessert is typically something like yogurt with fresh fruit.

With a two-year old, you can get away with it because you are pretty much in complete control of the diet, and she doesn't know enough to complain. I recognize that as she gets older, we'll just have to accept that some things will get through.

We're not crazy -- she can have cake at a party. But keeping the day-to-day diet healthy and junk-free is very important to us.

We started our kids on lots of fruits and veggies early and for the most part, they both prefer them now. I mean, don't get me wrong, plunk down a piece of cake in front of either and they'll devour it, but they don't clamor for junk. Worst day-to-day food they eat is probably a yogurt or occasional peanut butter sammich.

This is tough, and hard to answer the poll. The real problem we have is getting a "balanced" diet in our kids, who will gladly just skip a meal if they don't want to eat what's there. We've got our daughter on a "sticker" plan, where if she eats everything we put on her plate, she gets a sticker, and 5 stickers means she gets to pick where we go out for dinner, and it still takes 6 nights for her to earn the privilege.

It's not that they eat a lot of "junk" per se, so much as she'd subsist on peanut butter or cheese sandwiches if we let her. She does like strawberries, is fine with grapes and applesauce periodically, and will eat apple slices if we melt some chocolate chips to dunk them in, but getting her to eat vegetables is quite the task.

My son will eat anything if he can pick it up with his hands and dunk it in ketchup. Which again makes vegetables problematic. And he's pretty much one-track on fruits: applesauce (at least he likes the no-sugar-added natural stuff). Applesauce and Macaroni & Cheese are pretty much the only exception to the "dunk in ketchup" rule. We can't even fool him with spaghetti sauce: he'll scream unless he gets ketchup to dunk the meatballs in. Then he goes to town.

And of course they are far more willing to eat whatever the preschool puts in front of them. Our daughter used to love the beef stew they served, so we checked the brand, bought the EXACT SAME THING, and she would not touch it at home.

Getting kids to eat is fun...

My sister lets her boy eat anything. He has bad acid reflux and they are waiting until he is older to have it fixed. He has cheese sticks for meals about 3 or 4 times a week and is super picky. If we don't go somewhere he likes and won't eat and then when we leave he says he is hungry. Then I'm told if I don't got get him some food the acid while cause cancer. They both have very poor diets and say their bodies like greasy foods like Long John Silvers. He also eats packages of salt sometimes. I'm worried about his future health.

I think we're actually doing better than you make it sound. They hardly touch veggies but they'll eat fruit until it's coming out their ears. They get one cup of 100% juice a day and never anything like kool-aid. They only occasionally get things like chips, cookies, or fruit snacks. And yeah lunch is usually hot dogs, but they get more of a variety for dinner.

Yeah I tend to oversimplify and see the worst in things =) I am ME after all.

My two year old is pretty good eating most things except for meat. She won't touch beef or chicken at all but loves shrimp and most iterations of pork...bacon, ham and sausage. Luckily she'll eat eggs and cottage cheese to get her fill of protein. She'll eat just about every vegetable and fruit you put in front of her but the trick is to figure out which ones on which night!! Heck, she was eating frozen beans out of the bag the other night...go figure!?!? But, she would eat french fries at every sitting if you let her...thankfully, we rarely have that crap around the house so it isn't really an issue.

I try and encourage my kids to eat healthily - my daughter is pretty good (she's the eldest) the boys are pickier and harder to force to eat well.

I hope that as time goes on they'll expand their eating range and improve their diet, thats what happened with my daughter - unfortunately the boys are presently at the age where their idea of a classy restaurant is Pizza Hut ;)

Sausage and pudding.

You get all four food groups there, too. Pigs, dairy, sugar and chocolate.

Seriously though...this comment:


... I wouldn't read too much into that. A zoo trip is a special treat for kids and parents are going to be less restrictive in these situations. Don't get caught up in comparing your kids or your parenting skills to those of others. Just do the best you can for your kids.

If you want advice, the best thing that works for us is that there are no special meals. Everyone eats the same thing at dinner time. If you don't like it, then you don't eat. As your daughter gets older that might be a way to keep her from getting too finicky.

My neighbor's nephew is 6 and will only eat applesauce and babyfood. That is not an exaggeration. His 3-year old sister is also still drinking from a bottle.

I am amazed that I am able to keep a civil tongue in my head whenever I see the mother of those two, and I cannot imagine how f***ed up those two will be when they're older.

With us it's a little tricky, our 4 year old is *extremely* picky. He won't eat mac n cheese unless it's the organic kind... I've tried Velveeta and some other brands and he won't touch it. We don't keep candy, chocolate, or any sugary foods at home, but they're allowed to have it at special functions or when they go trick or treating. We buy whole wheat bread/pasta, and keep lots of fruits, they love 'em. But when it comes to veggies, if it's not baby carrots, they won't eat it. So Ant suggested we check out these books: Deceptively Delicious and The Sneaky Chef. The concept here is to puree veggies and hide them in their meals. I'm gonna try the chicken nuggets recipe this week and see how it goes.

So yeah, our son will not eat fries, unless they're from a certain restaurant around here... he will not eat McDonalds or any other fast food. Our daughter is a little picky as well, but she'll eat the mini-pizzas I make for them made with whole wheat muffins. Chili? They won't eat it because of the beans.

So yeah, it can be a challenge at times and if they can get away with it, they'll eat waffles, mac and cheese and bagels with cream cheese for breakfast, lunch and dinner. We're more in control of our daughter's diet though, we basically say, "here, eat this or don't eat at all" so yeah, even if it's chili, she'll eat it but she always asks for a tortilla. Our son, forget it... it's like a puzzle we're still trying to piece together.

EDIT: Actually, now that I think about it, our daughter will eat certain foods if she's allowed to put hot sauce.

Kids are funny when it comes to eating. My two step daughters would only eat chicken when I bbq'd, then all of sudden they are eating the steak I made for my wife and myself... Then the vegetables. Crazy kids.

I think we're doing pretty well. No soda except for a rare occasion, nothing sugary for snacks. Normal snacks would be something like cheese sticks, fruit, granola bars or goldfish. For lunch they do a lot of sandwiches (pb and honey, maybe a grilled cheese), soup, or mac and cheese. Dinner is what we eat for dinner with milk to drink (sometimes sweetened with choc or strawberry syrup). I wouldn't mind cutting down their juice box consumption a tad during the day, and also would like to see them eating more cereal for breakfast instead of pop tarts. Overall, I know there are some kids who are eating better, but I now there are a LOT of kids who are eating worse.

We do a pretty good job. Neither girl has ever had a soda (ages 8 and 6) and say no if offered. And this is watching their parents addiction to soda. They love juice, milk and water, We usually only give them juicy juice, but they get capri suns, too.
We arent the best at balancing but the giris get their nutritional needs met.

We never made a special meal for our kids and I always try to get them to try foods. We always let them have the spit out option. They are great eaters and will eat most foods.

Now my Sister-in-law would make her kids peanut butter and Jelly on a drop. Her kids wouldnt eat anything and I think part of it was a control thing. The kids took control by making Mom make them a special meal. Then again, to believe this theory, you need to know the ex-husband.

in our house, we call it the no-thank-you bite

Our house is a bit of a social experiment when it comes to food.

We have a blended family. My wife and I have been married for 6 years. I have an 10 year old son and an 8 year old daughter from my first marriage.

My wife has a 9 year old son from her first marriage.

we have a 2 year old son together.

we both have 50/50 custody of the first marriage kids.

My first marriage kids have terrible diets and eat McDonalds three times a week when they are with their mom. My 10 year old son is getting better but my daughter literally eats three things: chicken nuggets, kraft mac and cheese or pizza - that's it. We have constant battles at our house, have tried a thousand strategies but basically she just waits us out, doesn't eat at our house and then goes to her mom and gets whatever she wants. Funny thing is her mom isn't an idiot, she has a masters in child psychology and is a principal at a junior high. She just doesn't have any discipline with her own kids.

My wife's kids on the other hand (that is her 9 year old from first marriage and the one we have together) eat everything healthy. She fed them like they were adults from the moment they started on solid foods and neither one of them refuse anything. They both eat a ton of fruits, vegetables, fish and whole wheat bread. They both eat way better than I do.

Only problem on that end is she trained them a little too well, they both love Sushi. It is their favorite food and it is common, in fact almost once a week the three of them will drop a hundred bucks on dinner.

My kids actually eat quite well. We are in a slightly different situation...both of my boys (6 and almost 8) are exceptionally skinny and we are trying to put weight on them. We've suplemented their diet with Carnation Instant Breakfast in their milk at breakfast and snack time. Aggrevating the weight issue is the fact that my 8 year old is now a year round swimmer and he'll swim almost 2 miles at practice so he needs the callories to sustain his current weight. (by the way...the 6 year old is a pretty good swimmer too, as is my daughter, but we aren't supplementing her diet).

How on earth is that possible?

We have a Whole Foods nearby, and their standard meat is without hormones or antibiotics. I think you can get organic beef from most grocery stores now, and the USDA organic standards say no growth hormones and no antibiotics.

Ugh. I don't want to threadjack here, nor do I want to tell you how to feed your children but allow me to educate you on a few things I know as somebody who produces food put into the food supply. Then I'll be on my merry way.

Every single animal that goes into the food supply is tested for trace amounts of antibiotics. EVERY single one. Farmers that send cattle that test positive for antibiotics are essentially blacklisted from selling their cattle by the government. If you buy meat with trace antibiotics in it, you probably bought it from the trunk of somebody's car.

Hormones are another issue. First, all meat has hormones in it. There's no way around it. The particular hormones that are added to promote growth in cattle are used because the cattle get their balls lopped off at a young age and can't produce the natural growth hormones. So if you don't want any added hormones to your meat, then you don't want to eat a non-castrated bull because it's the same exact thing. Either way, your stomach acids break down bovine proteins so they don't have any effect anyway. Same goes for hormone free milk.

It's a marketing ploy to get people to pay more for the same thing. Now don't take this as me saying don't eat organic or hormone free stuff. I just wouldn't pay more for it thinking I'm getting a better product. I'd take a good organic steak over a piece of rubber you can pick up at Wal-Mart.

My overall point is that organic does not necessarily mean better. The marketing behind the organic movement would like you to think so. But there's no sound science behind any of this. I'll take a well produced local product regardless of antibiotic or hormone usage.

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

My wife's dad just doesn't fucking get it. We don't give our 2 1/2 year old daughter candy. Her treats consist of fruit and the occassional graham cracker, nilla wafer or pudding.

We have made it a point of emphasis with the grandparents that candy is just not needed. My Mom and my wife's mom understand and at most they will give her a box of animal crackers for a gift. But her dad? Noooooo... Her Easter Basket consisted of peeps, pez, chocolate, starburst, gummy bears, jelly beans and assorted crap. For someone that is pushing 350+ lbs, and is diabetic you would think he would understand, but he just don't care.

Of course we can take the stuff away now, but next year she will wonder why we are taking away her gift from Grandpa. :banghead: :banghead: :banghead:

A large portion of my side of the family is on the obese side. I was until I lost 60 pounds last year. My daughter is 7 and it appears she has the physical characteristics of my family. At 7 years old, she is 52 inches tall and weighs 80 pounds. 80 pounds seems like a lot for 7 but she is very tall for her age. She has been off the chart percentage wise since she was born.

She has been so much bigger than normal her whole life, we have paid very close attention to her diet. She mostly eats fruit as a snack. We keep a good eye on her diet, but don't restrict anything when she goes to a friends house, etc.

Fast food wise, the only thing we get any more is Subway. We stopped everything else last fall when I started losing weight.

My family is like you Mustang. My mom sent her a bunch of shitty candy for Easter and I tossed it. She didn't care at all. She understands that she needs to eat healthy.

To be honest, he's probably trying to make up for the absence of a little of life's goodnesses in her life. That's quite likely how he sees it I'd suspect, and that's much closer to what she's going to find in the real world.

You can disagree, and you're certainly well within your rights to do whatever to prevent it if you choose, but you might as well get used to it because sooner or later she's going to run into a cupcake with jellybeans on top at a kid's birthday at school or Valentine's Day party candy (unless you're planning to homeschool or whatever).

I hope you aren't saying there is none of life's goodness in my daughter's life. I don't know if that is your stance or if you are trying to say that is what my wife's father is thinking. I would assume the latter.

I'm not that naive to think that she will never have this stuff. I'd rather start her off trying to instill it in her that certain items are treats and not to be used in excess. 3-4 lbs of candy is excess. If he would have gotten her a small chocolate bunny or a box of peeps I wouldn't have that level of frustration with him.

and that's pretty much how we see it too. Both my sons have been extremely lucky that my parents and my mother in law live close by and they do visit them very often. At home, treats are for desserts only, or on special occasions, like a weekend evening where we watch a movie. We've explained to them that how it goes at grandma's and grandpa's is not how it goes at home. We had talks with the grandparents at times but we know we cannot regulate everything they do. We pick our battles, I'd say. They used to give Andrew Gatorade as beverage for dinner. We put a stop to that. We know they'll get a few treats when they're over there, but if they receive big treats, like for Easter, the kids know they'll bring them back home and will be eating them little by litlle over many dessert periods.

Neither of my kids had much candies before they turned two though, except some occasional chocolate or some like that. After 2, well, it's the usual stuff, but we put the emphasis on all between lunch treats being fruits.

FM

fwiw, I read it that your wife's father is compensating, not that you were not being good to your daughter. :)

I also didn't get that he gave her 3-4 lbs of candy. That is excessive. I know we would have a talk with my parents if that were the case. No idea how you can make him understand that a little candy is okay, but a lot is not.

FM

This must be your first kid :)

Our 9 year old had a Twix for the first time in her life last week during lunch. Her classmates were shocked when they found out.

So yeah, the kiddos hardly get sweets around here... only on special occasions. Nothing's changed since post #26

I figured that is what Jon and you meant and I don't disagree that on some level, he probably thinks we are abusing her by not giving her candy. I didn't want to make it seem like she gets nothing sweet or snacks. (One of her favorite things is to eat the whip cream off my wife's lattes). We just prefer the sweets to be something other than candy.

And yes, it was a massive amount of candy. My work will be happy since 90% of it will wind up in the break room tomorrow.

Though I don't have kids, I would like to follow-on to Mustang's question with, "How do you ensure that they get good food while at school?" I've been watching Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution on ABC and it's been somewhat eye-opening.

I think I always knew that the nutrition requirements levied on school cafeterias was weird, but certain aspects are downright surprsing. Also, I know that when I was in school and buying lunch, I strongly preferred the chicken patty and fries to dry chicken and overcooked green beans from a can. But to see the way things get skewed, plus that the cost of the "food" is so much cheaper than fresh, it was an eye-opener.

When I wasn't buying school lunches, I usually would get a peanut butter and jelly sandwich (which I've heard is now forbidden in many schools due to the higher prevalence of severe peanut allergies), two types of fruit of some sort (raisins and an apple, or apple + banana, or applesauce and orange, etc), and a granola bar. Sometimes yogurt, but I hated having to carry things that required an ice pack because I really can't stand soggy bread (which is also why I rarely ate cold cut sandwiches for lunch at school).

/tk

I'm resigned to the fact that there is probably nothing we can do once they go to school. Even if you pack a good lunch, nothing stopping them from throwing it out and then going for pizza. All we are hoping to do is teach her that certain items are snacks and hopefully that the items are feeding her will lead to her having certain food preferences when she is older.

My wife watches Jamie Oliver and just cringes though. Our society as a whole has a horrible diet.

As long as the kids are getting plenty of exercise, unlike a lot of us adults, then having sweets now and then or some chicken nuggets isn't going to have any adverse affects on the kids unless they have an allergy or something like that.

One approach:

Keep them off the computer and video games and make sure they are playing a sport every season. Emphasize personal responsibility and healthy choices, but don't make all of their choices for them. Don't fix special meals for them - always make them eat what the rest of the family is eating. Eat together as much as possible.

+1000000

Sadly, that's a big part of the problem. Recess time is being shortened to do "acutal" work. Physical education requirements are going south for the same reason. Then kids come home and sit in front of a TV/game console until bedtime in a lot of households. And they tend to eat sweets and chicken nuggets more often than "now and then," compounding the problem.

Alas. It's something that requires the parents to step in and do something, at least as much as is in their control. Not enough do that. :(

/tk

My five year old son burns more calories playing Wii for an hour than most adults burn in a winter.

Keep them off ... sedentary activities. Especially with the Wii, that and video games are not necesarily synonymous.

Agree with this also.

I had no idea that recess and PE was getting cut back like that. Yes, definitely cut back on the tv watching and video games playing for sure. I agree that not enough parents do enough or encourage their kids to go outside and just play.

I never had a problem with my step daughters eating whatever they wanted and playing video games or watching tv, but, they also played sports and liked to go outside and ride bikes and not just be in all the time. You are right though, parents need to take an active role and be the one that is in charge of their kids eating and activities.

Unless he is smoking crack and doing dance dance revolution I seriously doubt it.

In Missouri, our legislative body passed a law stating that elementary school kids are REQUIRED to have 150 minutes a week of physical activity. This includes P.E. and recess. The stipulation is that a qualified instructor must be present for the 150 minutes. No more recess aides.

Sorry for the delayed response, had to take an unexpected conference call so I was afk.


None? No, not at all.

And the presumption others made on my behalf was largely correct, my observation was meant primarily to his mindset, and had I not been interrupted here by the phone I was planning to head back to clarify because I had realized I phrased it with too much room for interpretation. Sorry 'bout that.

Now that said (and hopefully cleared up), I did read your post today as "none" rather than "a little" or "an occasional treat". And I do feel like that's (i.e. none, nada, zip, zero) largely unrealistic as well as detrimental to a child's social & mental well-being.

I've known, hmm, three kids in my son's classes like that over the years & in addition to being the objects of regular pity from their peers (at least from ages 4-12, beyond that I haven't done yet) they're also collectively some of the most unpleasant & unhappy children I've ever seen. It's as though they know something is missing but they don't quite know what, I wouldn't call them unhappy because of the specific absence of Reese's Peanut Butter Cups/abundance of organic wheat germ but moreso unhappy because there's some vague persistent sense of loss that I doubt they could even put their finger on. And that steady unhappiness has in turn made them unpleasant little critters.


See, I didn't read it that way the first time, probably my bad there, sorry for any confusion.

The big thing we don't allow our children to have is soft drinks. Our oldest has had Sprite on occasion when his stomach has felt bad, but otherwise nothing. Our daughter has never had one at all.

Otherwise, we allow "junk" Our oldest inherited my wife's sweet tooth. But they just know they have to have something 'healthy" first. Thankfully, our kids love fruit and often eat that as a snack. They are big into celery too for some off reason.

As for video games, my son loves them. My wife blames me as I'm a junkie and I wouldn't deny it. He played a lot in the winter, but now that it's getting warmer he's begging to go out more and more. He'll always play some games...he's got my geek gene.

Overall, I think we are pretty balanced. WIsh I could say the same for some kids in my class.

I'm mostly in this boat. Neither of my kids LIKE soft drinks, and both do like water, which we know is very fortunate for us. We limit junk food, it's mostly a treat. Desert ends up being more of a bribe to eat their whole dinner; they know they don't get anything if they don't eat the healthy stuff at dinner. Sometimes that's a motivator, sometimes it isn't. We have two kids that will gladly go to bed hungry rather than eat something they really don't want to eat. Both went through periods at 3-4 where they were VERY limited in what they wanted to eat. Our daughter has expanded quite a bit, although she still limits herself to just a couple of fruits and vegetables she'll eat, so that is a challenge getting her variety. Our son is just starting to come out of this period; he's suddenly decided he likes pretending to be a bunny and so likes miniature carrots raw for example.

All-in-all, not as healthy as we'd like, much healthier than we feared, and doing pretty well for the limited time we have to cook as a two-income household.

My kid eats nothing but gloriously free and healthy breastmilk. I wonder how long I can keep him on that diet?

We really haven't found a fruit or vegetable that ours doesn't like. Now meat on the other hand is pretty much limited to chicken dark meat, turkey bacon and anything really tender.

The birthing class we just took said you can breast feed a kid until its 2. That is just creepy to me.

Heh, years ago I had a fellow server tell me about a table he was waiting on. A five or six year old kid kept telling mom that he "wanted binky", and she kept telling him no. I guess his constant badgering got to her, because he later went to the table and mom had a blanket over her torso, and the kid was under it. Super creepy...

Oh, and just last night the wife was telling me that she wants to try for a year. She originally was only going to do 6 months, but she actually enjoys feeding him and the longer she does it the better it is for the both of them...

I went for option 3. Grandma looks after the healthy stuff :)

In ours, they told us that the average child breast feeds for a year. We figure that stat is for the entire world, not just the US, for it to possibly be correct. Anyway, we made the decision to switch to formula yesterday, at 12 days old.

wow, we were told to breastfeed exclusively for the first 3 weeks.

We are going to have to do a combo when my wife goes back to work so we will be introducing the bottle as well.

P.E. is a real pet peeve of mine. For many kids, it is just a period of social awkwardness. Rather than forcing kids to play games that they hate and have no skills for, give them some choices and cut down on the 15 min to take attendance and 15 min to wrap up at the end. One choice should always be to let the kids walk. Let them walk around the gym for 45 min. If people truly want kids to exercise, that is far better than standing around for your one turn at kickball or softball (and waiting for the other kids to laugh at you). I understand that part of school is to expose kids to different activities but some kids have absolutely no desire to compete in sports. Every kid can walk/jog/run and should always have that option. Like many other things in today's schools, most rules are set to comply with some government mandated "program." The forest is usually missed for the trees.

I have kids in both categories. I am a sports nut but my daughter made it very apparent from an extremely young age that she hated "ball" of any kind. My son can't get enough. My daughter is social enough that P.E. wasn't necessarily awkward but she hated it and really got nothing from it. Now she is 20 and her main form of exercise is running. My son gets plenty of exercise on his own.

The bottom line is that kids need to be active more than to be exposed to a certain number of activities mandated by some program. I'm sure most of us on this board can see that our kids get a decent level of activity...that's not the case for many households. Walking for 45 min might not cause any dramatic changes in a person but it is better for many kids than what goes on in most gym classes.

It's not just possible, it's what's recommended by the World Health Organization and the American Academy of Pediatrics. I don't want to sidetrack this into a breastfeeding discussion, as we pretty much know exactly how that will go. But despite the fact that most of us didn't grow up in an environment where that was normal, it's not only biologically normal, but medically recommended.

Yeah, I'm all for encouraging kids to be active, when I think about how active I was as a kid versus what is the norm now, it's crazy. But PE was not a place, in the upper grades, where anyone was really very active. It was mostly standing around. You'd get the kids more exercise just taking them on a walking tour of town or something than having them stand on a volleyball court and pretend to play.

You've never met my son.

He's pretty much jumping up and down running back and forth the whole time no matter what he's playing. He sprints about 100 feet for each roll in bowling, 200 for each throw of the frisbee to the dog, etc. After 10 minutes of playing Wii, he's sweating like a pig.

The point being, he is unquestionably getting exercise while playing Wii. As opposed to say, playing leapster/DS/watching TV, during which he is completely sedentary.

The distinction is important while living in upstate New York, where winter is 10 months a year.

Yeah, I'm glad that Wii was the first type of video game my son played as he seems to think all video games require him to be running around the room like crazy while he's playing it.

Wii is just a gateway to getting high and sitting on your ass and playing fps all day.

We were pretty annoyed by this -- they told us we could breastfeed exclusively also, but our first night in the hospital, they basically made us give him formula. We kept trying to get the nurse to explain things, and she kept simply saying "the baby needs to eat" -- and we're like, we know the baby needs to eat, dumbass. Anyway, after a few days, he lost more weight than he should, so we've had to supplement with formula anyway to be sure he's getting enough, so even when he was breastfeeding, he probably had just as much formula as breast milk anyway.

We had to supplement with formula for the first four or five days until my wife's milk really came in. Since then, we've only given him formula a couple of times when he was in a growth spurt and my wife couldn't pump enough to keep him fed at daycare. But we did have trouble early on, Pass, and my wife got very frustrated with him for not latching and with her boobs for not producing a while lot. It took a couple of weeks, but they finally got it down and it's been smooth sailing ever since...

We'd kill for him to have the ability to sit still for 30 seconds. Not worried.

It's very normal to lose a lot of weight in the first two weeks, especially when breastfeeding I think. Hopefully the hospital staff knows this, but I wouldn't bet on it. I see a lot of parents being misinformed about things like that, and that's one reason people get discouraged from breastfeeding.

We were told it is normal for them to lose about 10% I believe.

Same with us. He lost 14%, though, so they were a little worried.