First, it freaks me the F out that our 05-ers are now in the "kindergarten years" category.
Wanted to check in on your 05-ers and sippes and snacks.
Sippies- still using them? Only out and about? Around the house? When should I be cutting the cord on these? NO idea, but I am guessing pretty soon.
Snacks- help. We have always had good eaters, so we never worried about snacks. They always were great at eating only when they were hungry. Now, they could live off of crackers. They are constantly asking for more juice, more milk. You'd think I poisoned the water when I offered that instead. We were thinking that they (particularly Koda) are old enough for very scheduled snack times. When I was a kid, we also used to have a "bunny bowl" in the fridge that always had carrots and celery in it that we could have anytime.
What do you do?
At this point, we really aren't worried about their weight because they are so active, but I also don't want to get caught up in bad habits. Their snacking is also now affecting dinner and lunch.
we cut out morning snack. no more of that unless it's fruit or something as a special treat (eg, today i got home from a solo run to the grocery store around 10:30am. they were stoked to see i bought veggie booty, so i gave them each a small bag of it).
we do a small afternoon snack after school b/c they both get some sort of afternoon snack before they get home. they get some grapes, a few crackers or more often about 1/3 cup chex mix.
as far as cups are concerned, they both drink out of coolster tumblers throughout the day and they take them to school. when we're home, they know that they need to be on the table or the ottoman - not to be carried around or thrown on the floor. at meals, they get open cups.
for drinks, i buy 1/2 gallons of 100% apple juice and dilute it in a big pitcher about 20% juice and 80% water. that's pretty much what they drink all day except for their cup of milk in the morning and an occasional cup of milk with dinner (2-3 times per week maybe).
hth!
(link for cups: http://www.playtexproductsinc.com/infant/CupsByStage.asp)
snacks - clara is in school every day full time, and it is a requirement for them to bring both a morning and afternoon snack. we are limited to what we are allowed to pack - no cookies, chips, crackers (not even goldfish and stuff like that) - nothing at all processed or sugary. and they have a thermos that they can bring water or milk. (no juice either)
so clara will pack a ham sandwich (1 slice bread cut in half, ham) or a nutella sandwich (surprisingly, thats allowed), or fresh fruit (apple or banana she loves most), or a childs fruit compote (she loves strawberry applesauce or peach applesauce) or a fruit yoghurt or a kiri (you guys call it laughing cow) - stuff like that
on the weekend we also stick to the schedule, so she gets a similar snack at 10am and around 3pm.
No sippy cups here. At home I use a regular cup at meals. When we go out I use the stainless steel foogo straw cup.
Snacks are usually fruit for the most part. If she is hungry and it will be a bit before she eats, she will have a yogurt. She sometimes does crackers and cheese. We usually do not keep snack type foods at home. She loves dried cranberries, so she will have those too as a snack.
-- Edited by CoffeeQueen on Saturday 26th of September 2009 09:04:08 PM
We use sippies here too-we have a mix of the playtex tumblers and the other sport insulated ones. I like they all the same. They do use open cups at meals, but we often forget and they just bring their sippies to the table. I like to pre-fill their cups at night with milk and they can just get them out first thing in the AM without bugging me for a drink. We have always done watered down juice (I mix it light, like April does-Bill and my parents do more like half and half and then they drink all day long), but after seeing my neighbor's 4 year old daughter go through 6 cavities because of constant juice consumption, we are moving to water btwn meals and full strength juice at meals in an open cup. I just keep forgetting.
As for snacks-we have never done a morning snack. I only seem to feed them whenI would be interested in a snack, and I never want one then, lol, and they don't ask. They do have snack in the morning at school though.
Afternoon snacks are sporatic. We do have one most of the time, but it is becoming less frequent. What they get totally depends on them and the day. They love cheese, so they get string cheese a lot. Or if we have things like grapes, they love that too. Other times I give them a handful of goldfish or pretzels, or raisins. And they adore those yogurt covered raisins, but I try to limit them because they are made with partially hydrogenated oil PLUS corn syrup. Yikes. I offer them carrots because I eat that with hummus a lot, but it is hit or miss. Once in a very very blue moon, I will let them have fruit snacks. When they are on my last nerve, I usually let them have junk like goldfish, lmao.
we don't really do snacks any more. it was causing mason to not eat any of his meals. if he tells me he is hungry, and it will be a while before the next meal, i offer him a piece of fruit. he gets junk on special occasions, like yesterday i found donuts at the grocery store (which he loves) so i bought them for him and he had some for a treat. but, as far as day-to-day goes, we don't do snacks at home.
however, at school he is required to bring a snack. like muffy's, it is very specific. it is supposed to be fresh cut up fruit, or something healthy and similar. he takes a sippy cup to school to drink for snack, but we don't use them at home any more unless we are going on a road trip.
-- Edited by crystal on Sunday 27th of September 2009 06:01:04 AM
Jake wants to snack all the time and as a result Kate is starting to want to snack all the time. They can eat dinner (or pick at dinner) and 10 minutes later be asking for a snack. 5 minutes before bed their asking for bowls of cereal. It really is ridiculous. They want to eat and graze all day long and as such they do not eat well at meals. I honestly feel like I run a restaurant and have been progressively getting irritated about it.
Jake will ask for a snack on the way to daycare where he is going to eat breakfast!
Jake uses sippy cup throughout the day with watered down oj, milk or ice water. He uses an open cup at meals.
Kate uses a sippy all the time and has milk or water.
this thread has encouraged me to cut out the snacking. Jake won't eat fruit or veggies - beside the occasional apple or raw carrots. If it's not one of those he will not eat it. Kate is a pretty good eater as far as variety.
my kids only drink water or milk. milk is in a sippie still bc if R drinks out of an open cup, C wants to too, and i cant deal with the milk mess. water is out of open cups or foogos. i'm not too strict about the move to open cups bc C has tantrums about it and gets frustrated, and i cant deal. as long as i know R *can* drink out of a cup, i'm not worrying about any of it.
when we go out, we have a hello kitty sigg or the foogo.
snacks, i'm pretty mellow about it. they can have a snack as long as they've eaten a healthy meal. they cant have a snack within an hour of dinner. i get my snacks at trader joes and i keep the portions under control, but i dont have regular snacktimes.
Can I say how obvious it is to just not buy the dang crackers...and yet I kept buying the crackers? That is so off our grocery list now.
I will look into the new sippies. We are moving Tristen to a toddler bed over fall break (less students here so if it goes badly we aren't exhausted while trying to juggle class and work). At the same time I wanted to change sippies. No flames please...because I am humiliated about it...Tristen still has a sippy and bed with a mixture of milk and water. I freak out so much about his teeth, but we've been trying to break him of it since 1 year!!! We've committed to new bed= no milk. Changing sippies altogether for both of them may help in that.
Travis is terrible about giving juice. I think I may stop buying that too, and instead but the Motts for Totts juice boxes. One per day. That is all. Less frugal for sure, but it may help the battle if juice never goes into their new sippies.
Thanks everyone, this thread has been SOOOOO helpful!!
Can I say how obvious it is to just not buy the dang crackers...and yet I kept buying the crackers? That is so off our grocery list now.
I will look into the new sippies. We are moving Tristen to a toddler bed over fall break (less students here so if it goes badly we aren't exhausted while trying to juggle class and work). At the same time I wanted to change sippies. No flames please...because I am humiliated about it...Tristen still has a sippy and bed with a mixture of milk and water. I freak out so much about his teeth, but we've been trying to break him of it since 1 year!!! We've committed to new bed= no milk. Changing sippies altogether for both of them may help in that.
Travis is terrible about giving juice. I think I may stop buying that too, and instead but the Motts for Totts juice boxes. One per day. That is all. Less frugal for sure, but it may help the battle if juice never goes into their new sippies.
Thanks everyone, this thread has been SOOOOO helpful!!
Jake takes a sippy of ice water to bed every night. He does actually drink from it if he wakes up thirsty at night.
Can I say how obvious it is to just not buy the dang crackers...and yet I kept buying the crackers? That is so off our grocery list now.
I will look into the new sippies. We are moving Tristen to a toddler bed over fall break (less students here so if it goes badly we aren't exhausted while trying to juggle class and work). At the same time I wanted to change sippies. No flames please...because I am humiliated about it...Tristen still has a sippy and bed with a mixture of milk and water. I freak out so much about his teeth, but we've been trying to break him of it since 1 year!!! We've committed to new bed= no milk. Changing sippies altogether for both of them may help in that.
Travis is terrible about giving juice. I think I may stop buying that too, and instead but the Motts for Totts juice boxes. One per day. That is all. Less frugal for sure, but it may help the battle if juice never goes into their new sippies.
Thanks everyone, this thread has been SOOOOO helpful!!
that is going to be a lot to change all at once. with mason, i slowly (very slowly) diluted his milk with more and more water every night until it was all water. that worked really well for us. the trick is to do it very slowly. it might be easier if you to do these as 2 separate things, depends how much pain you can endure in one week
Hannah rarely drinks out of a sippy anymore... That may have only started because we kept losing or tossing the lids, lol. She drinks milk with breakfast and sometimes dinner, and usually water during the rest of the day. I'm not opposed to her having juice, but water is usually her preference, so I don't push it.
She has a drawer in the fridge that is hers - inside is Capri Suns, go-gurts, apple slices, string cheese, etc. That's her "anytime" drawer. She's never gotten into it in excess, and usually only gets into to it after breakfast when she's home, or at about 3 p.m. so it hasn't been a problem, but that's the only drawer she's allowed to get into without asking. I find that the indepence has helped her to make better food choices. I don't have to push her, but I try to keep relatively healthy snacks in there, so when she has to choose between healthy and healthy, she doesn't fight it as much.
No sippies here. We haven't used them in quite a while. We don't even have a single one in the house. Lucas drinks milk and water at home and we only buy juice (OJ) when we have colds.
Lucas buys lunch at school and we are required to send him an afternoon snack. I usually send a juice box and goldfish. I used to send water until he kept losing the cups of water I would send.
Ever since he started school he says he doesn't want dinner he wants to eat a snack instead. I don't play that game and tell him it is either dinner that we make or NOTHING. He also doesn't really eat that much at dinner anymore when he does eat. I think that is because he is eating so much at school.
we always use sippies. Id just rather not have the mess. Snacks, well Im horrible Im a snacker all day and I like chips and chocolate and crackers and cookies so K has taken after me. Raym is really good though hes not a snacker hardly at all.
