Kids
Yes, I've seen the videos and postings about kids on BLE. I want my kids to be able to make healthy food choices.
On feeding kids BLE. I am a retired teacher of 17 years. I'm used to a lunch line. So are kids. Even kindergarteners understand they take one milk, one veggie, one fruit, one meat, etc. They know how to do this. The key is turning your home into this same automated system.
I have labeled all the items in my pantry. I have sheets up on the cabinet. My fridge has a spot for proteins. My son (11) knows he gets one breakfast grain, which he goes to the cubby and grabs oatmeal or gets a piece of Ezekiel bread, one fruit, he can have fresh or if he gets fruit cup, they are 3 oz each, so he takes 2, and one protein. I have hard-boiled eggs for him to grab, or if he asks, I scramble him up two. He also knows where the cheese sticks are.
The same goes for lunch. I have soups or leftovers he can heat up. Dinners we all eat together, HOWEVER, if what I am cooking is not something he likes he can pull from his pantry (which is a small cubby) and get his own food.
When I say this has made my life easier, it's an understatement. Kids understand lunch lines. They can understand BLE too, if you explain it to them and set up in a way they can understand. Any kid finding a fruit in the veggie spot at school would be helpful and put it where it belongs. They get it.
You can get little white erase boards at the dollar store. I just used a notepad with check boxes. I listed what my son could eat each meal and he checked it off when he ate it. Now, he just looks at the list on the cabinet. He is so proud of himself.
YOU CAN DO THIS!! I know you can!
So I asked my 11 year old, who is on the Maintenance portion of the plan, meaning he can have a grain at each meal, what he would say to someone starting this.
He LITERALLY went through all the stages of grief in 2 days for all the stuff he couldn't have. So I sat him down and showed him how it worked. I created a check list for him to check off, making sure he had all the food he needed each meal. He had to eat all that stuff. (I didn't force him, but if he said he was hungry, I'd ask, "Have you had your fruit or your veggies?") Which meant he wasn't hungry for snacks. When he said he was hungry in the beginning, I said, "Oh good, dinner is in 2 hours! I hope you like what I'm making."
So my son said, "Tell him this is what we are doing today. Show him the things he can and can't eat and don't make a big deal out of it. It's just food."
I have food he can eat on hand at all times:
boiled eggs, string cheese, fruits, & veggies.
He has his own food pantry filled with soups he picked out. He went for the veggie and meat options as he didn't want noodles because of the flour. He feels special to know he gets 2 oz. of ice cream every day, which is his fat.
I also got RID of all the garbage food. So there is no snacking foods in my house.
We are doing this for a year attitude kind of cements this is the way it is, accept it or it will be a long year.
GOOD LUCK!!!
If anyone wants the list so they can print it and cut it out for themselves, here you go.
For the FOOD CHART:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/18zxujel_IeXPQ9CHaP_FxUgYTzQTilzY/view?usp=sharing