Low carb for 4 y/o? Anyone doing this with a little one?

(Erica Ramirez) #1

I’ve been thinking for awhile about changing my 4 year olds eating habits. Today is day 1 (although she has no idea anything is different). I don’t want to make a big deal out of it, or even say anything at all - I think if she asks for candy or something I’ll just say, Nope, sugar isn’t good for you or something like that.

Main question: is “mostly” low carb/high fat healthy?
I don’t want her to miss out on a slice of birthday cake at parties or the popsicle after her soccer game (coach brings them) and I don’t plan on mentioning it at preschool, so she may have a cookie now & then there…
I’m guessing she’d have a “treat” like mentioned above, around 2x week. Is that ok or is the high fat part bad if you are still consuming sugar?

My older kids are very high level athletes and I have 2 actively trying to gain weight so whole milk/chocolate milk, rice, sweet tea, breads, granola bars, bananas, oatmeal etc are rampant in my house! My little girl likes them too much…she’s gaining quicker than she’s growing so I need to nip that in the bud quickly (even doc mentioned it last appt)
(We’ve got the exercise part covered: soccer 3x week, swim, gymnastics, running club, she has something just about every day, but her appetite matches her activity level)

I’d love to hear what others are low carb feeding their preschoolers!
She had 2 small strips bacon, 2 eggs and a slice cheese for breakfast today. For lunch, a little smoked brisket & a serving of broccoli/chicken/cheese casserole & a few cherry tomatoes. She isn’t a big water drinker (losing the juice will be hard!) but I gave her some lemonade MIO in her water and she liked it. Planing on doing less and less of that.

I have sugar free jello she can have in an emergency (lol) and berries for an afternoon snack. She’ll eat what I eat for dinner.

(Aimee Moisa) #2

I’ve heard from several family doctors who also do YouTube videos about keto that it is NOT OK to do low-carb with kids.

But not letting your kids have sweets all the time is just good parenting. :slight_smile:

I have an 8 year old and the only change we’ve made for her is to empty our pantry of carbs & sugars and restrict candy to once a week. We keep LOTS of fruit in the house she can eat ANY time she wants. She’s allowed one sugar item a week, so one candy is allowed on Friday but if she has a Saturday birthday party she has to wait until Saturday to get her sweet (cake or whatever). She can have any other refined carb if we eat out. So she can eat pizza, pasta, potato, rice, bread, whatever. She just can’t have dessert unless it’s Friday and she hasn’t already had something sweet. She’s been getting a bowl of watermelon every time we go to Whole Foods and eating it while we walk around the store.

I personally do not give my kid caffeine or artificial sweeteners at all. I’d rather her have something that came from a plant (real sugar & fructose) than something created in a lab (aspartame & sucralose). I’m REALLY strict about this, she doesn’t even get gum hardly anymore 'cause almost all of them are made with artificial sweeteners, even Trident.

Fruit is a great snack.

How about peanut butter and celery sticks?

(Erica Ramirez) #3

Thanks for the info! Oh yeah, my daughter will eat anything. I mean ANYTHING. So there’s no reason for me to giver her junk. She does eat too much sugar. Like, she’ll want oatmeal, but it’s covered with brown sugar and maple syrup. And she loves juice :frowning: I know sugar, fruit juice, chocolate milk/milk is why she’s gaining too quickly so those will need to be gone for sure. And I just need to be more strict on the sweets - sometimes it’s just easier to not fight it but that ends today!

(LeeAnn Brooks) #4

Low carb is not the same as Keto. I wish I had been more aware of low carb when my son was little. I don’t believe it’s dangerous to do low carb for kids as it was a lot closer to the diet everyone consumed before the wheat and sugar industries exploded.
High fructose corn syrup… now THAT’s dangerous for kids. And they hide that stuff in everything processed.

I wouldn’t limit most fruits and vegetables, but simply eliminating processed foods will get most kids into the low carb range.

(Aimee Moisa) #5

Yeah, I guess I’m conflating low-carb with keto, but I still don’t think low-carb is appropriate for kids 'cause what’s childhood without all the fresh fruit you can eat during the summer. :slight_smile:

(Erica Ramirez) #6

Exactly what I’m thinking. I am not trying to get her in ketosis by any means! Nor do I want her having the Keto-flu or any discomfort.
I just want to eliminate empty calories & help her maintain the weight she’s at now, so when she has her next growth spurt she leans out.
Thinking Whole Foods: unlimited veggies & lots of fruit (probably skipping bananas/potatoes for awhile since she devours those now), filling up on meat, only water to drink…that can’t be bad? But I don’t want any food issues popping up either, so special occasions, parties, soccer game treats, that kind of stuff needs to be ok.

(LeeAnn Brooks) #7

Like I said, I wouldn’t limit most fruits and vegetables. But I do wish I had severely limited breads, pasta and the like with my son. And potatoes. The boy could eat his weight in mashed potatoes.
We lived in Subway while he was growing up thinking it was healthy. Oh, and we did skim milk and low fat dairy the majority of his childhood. As soon as his pediatrician said he no longer needed whole milk.
And as anyone with teens know, changing course in paranting now is like trying to steer the Titanic away from the ice burg. I try to make small changes, but it’s an uphill battle the whole way.

(Aimee Moisa) #8

OMG yeah, my poor daughter already has enough food issues just listening to me talk about ME having to restrict my diet. I keep having to repeat “This is how MOMMY is supposed to eat because nobody taught me better, you eat THIS OTHER way because Mommy and Daddy are trying to teach you the healthy way to eat.”

It’s so hard to be a good parent. Since most of their hang ups come from us I think we should be responsible for paying for the therapy bills when they’re 40 and having a mid-life crisis because of all the repressed childhood angst they experienced from us.

kidding / not kidding

(LeeAnn Brooks) #9

I just blame my parents. Like paying it forward but in reverse.:sweat_smile:

Someday my son will realize he’s a mess as a parent and he can blame me.
And I’ll keep blaming my parents.

Isn’t that how it’s supposed to work?

#10

I have one daughter (3) who will happily eat keto meals with me and another (8) who I swear is turning into a vegetarian (though she hardly eats veggies). I found just by eating better low carb foods in front of them they have been eating better - especially my youngest - she’s not picky. I don’t restrict anything. In fact you can find us in the grocery store weekly asking 8yo what she wants . . anything in the store. Her response?
. . . “Nothing”.

I guess all kids are different. I don’t think low carb hurts, but I do think putting things off limits makes those things more desirable.

(LeeAnn Brooks) #11

I can’t help but think of Kathleen Turner in The War of the Roses when she insisted that limiting candy and chocolate would mean her kids would grow up obsessed with junk food so she made it easily accessible for them.
And then the kids ended up really fat.:sweat_smile:

I don’t mean that as a point to prove you wrong. It’s just the thing that popped into my head when I read your comment.

I think the point about following by example is best.

(Erica Ramirez) #12

I think any extreme is unhealthy- forbidding it and having no rules. I hope to fall in the middle :slight_smile:

So far, this is going great. I know it’s only day 2 but she has happily eaten exactly what I’ve given her - only once asked for a bagel she saw her sister eating. Luckily, it was the last one, so I just told her that & she was like, ok, I’ll finish this (grilled Chicken with cheese, spinach, butter). She had a (homemade) cheeseburger no bun and pinto beans for dinner and an apple for a snack. She’s had only water - that’s been the hardest - now that she knows we dont have any juice/milk she IS asking for MIO in her water constantly…I’ll be glad when she likes just pure water.
This is going to be hardest for my husband I think LOL he loves his nighttime junk binge and we decided we cannot have it around the little ones anymore. He jokes that he going to get a mini fridge/freezer & hide it by his nightstand, then stock it up with his candy/ice cream/cookies :smiley: I’m thinking he just may do it

(Justin Traer) #13

No offense to you, but I’m going to just dismiss that out of hand. There is so many Dr.'s that are just idiots on the topic of nutrition.

Considering that the medical ketogenic diet is given to young kids to control epilepsy, and the medical ketogenic diet is disgusting in nearly everyway, I’m not concerned about nutritional ketosis for my kids.

Perhaps these Doctors where conflating the two diets. The medical ketogenic diet in research papers about it’s use in epilepsy uses corn oil as the main fat source. GROSS.

Do you know what they call the med student that graduated from med school with the lowest grade?

Doctor!

(Aimee Moisa) #14

Justin, I’m talking about Dr. Ken Barry and… someone I can’t remember the name of. Dr. Barry does his videos specifically about the ketogenic diet and has done extensive research on nutrition to apply it to his practice.

I’m not arguing with you, I’m just letting you know who I’m talking about. If you want to think Dr. Barry doesn’t know what he’s talking about then you don’t have to watch his videos.

(Justin Traer) #15

I began the transition today for my kids. The two girls are 6 and 4. Both are otherwise healthy but with perhaps a bit of extra fat. I’m more concerned with their future health than the present. Also, I think it’s unethical and lazy for me to do keto for my own benefit but allow my offspring to be poisoned and setup for failure long term because “it’s easier”.

While speaking with my wife, I think the plan is to reduce the amount of processed foods and blatantly added sugar from their diets. We’ll progress to removing all grains and sugars as we go. I’m not going to stress about them getting cakes and sweets at parties, and if they are getting carbs from veggies and fruits, I’m not too concerned.

Also, I want to remove all the unhealthy vegetable oils from their diets as well.

The 6 yr old is starting to move towards vegetarian, but I’m going to nip that in the bud. I’m not sure if it’s an influencer at school, or she’s honestly disliking the texture of meat at the moment.

The 4 yr old is more adventurous; she’s eaten partridge, moose, deer, liver and seems to really love meat. I think she’s also the most in need of the ketogenic diet – I think she’s more like myself and she’s going to flourish on this diet.

Today started off with an scrambled egg cooked in bacon grease for each girl. The plan is to transition into better eating habits. I had a chat with them both this morning and they got it. The 4 yr old: “Sugar is bad for you! It’s just empty”

They have been following my journey on keto and they know what I should be eating or not. They’ll tell me if I’m eating something that has sugar in it!

They were clearly worried that they’d have the exact same foods as me (I hover between ZC and a simple keto of meats, fats, butter and some veggies cooked in fat), and I explained to them that there is many really good alternatives that do not contain grains or sugar. I explained to them that I didn’t make those fancy recipes but we could do some experiments in the kitchen to make those great recipes…they where so excited as soon as they heard ‘experiments’ that they tried pulling me into the kitchen right then and there!

My kids really love Crystal Light, so we have the water angle covered.

And I found these ‘Almond Butter Cups’ at Costco, and they both love them. At 4g of carbs per cup, that alone is a huge reduction in sugar.

So, now I have the tasks of figuring out how to keep them on board, finding really good recipes, doing a grocery run for some ingredients that I’ve never used, and doing a bit of due dilegence to make sure that there really isn’t some hidden danger of keto for kids.

Worth it? I think so.

(Justin Traer) #16

Damn, I love the civility on this forum.

I’ll check out his videos and see what points he’s making on the subject.

Thanks!

(Erica Ramirez) #17

Is crystal lite better than MIO? I know my daughter would love that too. Today, I am planing on getting some different types of sparkling water/no sweetener added flavored water (LaCroix?), etc. so we can try to find some good ones. I will also get those Almond Butter Cups you mentioned and the Whisps everyone is talking about. I’d love to hear some other things you find that your daughters like, so we can try them out too!
Eggs and broccoli are literally my daughters favorite foods so I’m going to be collecting different recipes for those things (hopefully not mixed lol)

(Diane) #18

I just recalled that (I believe) Maria Emmerich is raising her kids on ketogenic foods. She has both recipe books and a website with many kid friendly recipes. I haven’t searched her website for information on raising kids this way (I have no kids myself), but there may be info there.

Edit: by the way, fair warning, I’ve found some of her recipes complicated.

(Diane) #19

Mmm… eggs and broccoli. Makes me thinks of Keto breakfast muffins:

:wink::wink::wink:

(Justin Traer) #20

I have no clue. At some point, it’s just worth the trade offs either way to keep them hydrated.

Those where recommended by a friend too! They are on the list.

Will do! This is one of the reasons why I’m speaking up, inspiration!