Carb levels for Kids

[Shufflebutt]

This may be a stupid question but I don't know the answer so I'm going to ask anyways!

I have a 16 year old son and two 7 year olds. Since my DH and I started this WOE the whole family has been having the same meal at dinner time. Sometimes lunch as well. How many carbs should my children be having each day? The youngest two are very active and seem to me to be of small to average build. My eldest is a little over weight but seems to be dropping a bit since we started this. I have never pushed him to weigh himself or anything like that (a bit of a hang up I have from my own childhood). I just want to be sure my children are getting all of the nutrition that they need for growing.

[book]

Atkins foods are healthy. If your kids eat what you eat, great! I would not even worry about counting their carbs. Don't restrict milk, let them have sandwiches, buy healthier breads than the white bread of course. Buy them fruit, I personally would recommend limiting fruit juices, very high in sugar, and it is better if they get the fiber and phytonutrients from eating the whole fruit. Nuts and cheeses are great snacks for kids. I bake a version of the flax bread with mashed bananas for the kids, and they love it.

You will be doing them such a favor because Atkins households probably eat twice the vegetables of the normal American household!

book

[Shufflebutt]

Thanks Book.
They have wheat bread for sandwiches and usually have cereal for breakfast. I will however have to start limiting the juice! We never have kool aid or anything like that thinking fruit juice would be better for them.
I let them have McDonalds once a week as a treat so they don't really have a huge amount of junk food plus when school is in they don't even have it that often!
I will try making the bread with mashed banana in it though. I have been making your "Sweet but legal flax bread" with wheat bran instead of the flaxseed because nobody in my house likes flax! What do you do to add the banana? Do you replace an egg with it?

[book]

exactly, when I make the bread I use only two eggs and two mashed very ripe bananas!

book

[Shufflebutt]

Thanks Book. I'll try it out on the family! I'll have to give it a miss though since I'm not on that rung yet, but it does sound good for the future! Meanwhile I will just make it for the rest of the family!

[AngelnPrincess]

My Daughter is only 2 and I worry about this too with her... I do let her still eat a starch every now and again and she can down some yogart! I do however try to stick healthy in her I only buy the sugar free low carb bread, and I buy the blue bunny splenda ice cream for her and the low carb this and the low carb that.... not only for the fact its healthy but because low carb tends to be so much lower in sugar! I don't know exactly how much she should have but really I don't focus too much on it... I figure if I start her off on this type of stuff hopefully she will never grow a taste for the junk I had to give up! I guess the little things count too right?!


Natalee

[book]

Little things definitely do count. Keeping her sugar low will be invaluable to keeping her healthy. That is where you want to be strict, with the sugar. And like we mentioned before, carbs are better when eating in combinations with fats and proteins, even with children, because you don't get the insulin spike. So if she eats a potato, add cheese...

Oh I love 2 year olds! My favorite age...

book

[AngelnPrincess]

OMG she is such a goof! lol! Everyone gets a kick out of her because her vocab is very advanced for her age and she says the funniest things! She is really only 21 mths and the light of my life hehe!
Its funny because I was raised in a home where we NEVER had ice cream, cookies or soda EVER! Our junk food was more along the lines of chips and nuts... Its great though because I never picked up the habbit of soda or chocolate on my own... its like I never had it growing up so I just never got that taste in my life...
After having my girls I did go threw a short soda fase but just as it came... it went with no problem..
SOOO I do try and incorperate how I was raised along with a few other things, and while she does get ice cream its always the sugar free stuff... I figure its alright to treat them... just treat them right. I want her to know from a young age that there is a healthy alternitive for everything out there!
Im hoping that if I get those tastes in her life when she tries the real stuff shell think ITS grose not the sugar free carb free stuff... KWIM?

Thanks so much!

Natalee