Has anyone put their children on the South Beach Diet? My children are 2, 4, and 5 and I wouldn't be doing it to have them lose weight...I would put them on because I am trying to eat healthier, and I think it would be good for them to eat healthier. If so, how did they react?

Rachel

I have changed the way our household eats since I started SB Diet. I cook a meal that is on plan for me then add some bread/pasta/rice or potato. I have switched our meat component to healthier choices. We were having chicken pieces with the skin on, lamb and pork chops, and steak. Now we mostly eat boneless chicken breast without the skin and lean steak with the fat cut off before I cook it. I only buy low fat dairy products and we eat way more vegies than I have served in the past.

I send my daughter to school with wholemeal bread sandwhiches, fruit and sometimes vegies (carrot or celery sticks, sugar snap peas, tomatoes, cucumber slices) and usually something like a homemade muesli slice, biscuits (cookies) made with wholemeal flour or low fat, low sugar wheat muesli bar. She takes a water bottle and sugary drinks are kept for when visitors come. This is still high in carbs but they are good carbs and she plays a lot of sport and is very active so I feel this is appropriate for her. She is almost 9 years old.

It is really easy to fall into the trap with little ones of giving them nuggets, pizza, fish fingers, instant noodles and sugary breakfast cereals because they are picky and will at least eat it. I got my daughter used to eating fruit and vegies and drinking water from a young age and don't face quite so much resistance now that she knows there are other tastier things around. I strongly feel that if you feed them junkfood now you are setting them up with bad habits for life. It is just that before I started SB Diet I never considered white bread, pasta, rice, chops or chicken pieces junk! Now I differentiate between good and bad choices of effectively the same food group.

DH and I are also trying to make our family's diet more healthful. My daughter is 16 months old and the problem that I'm having is that she can't or won't eat healthy meat products. The only non-dairy protein that I can get her to eat are chicken nuggets and hot dogs...UGH! She loves most veggies, dairy, and fruit. We stick to whole wheat breads and cereals. I think part of the problem is that she hasn't gotten her molars yet and finds most cuts of lean meat difficult to chew. Since she's started on whole foods, she won't eat baby food anymore. Any thoughts???

Deezin, always check with their pediatrician before changing your children's diets, but Dr. A has said that SBD is safe for children, provided you never put them on Phase 1. If your children are not overweight, then they could be on Phase 3. Check with your ped. regarding your 2 year old...they say that children should be on whole milk and have more fat in their diet during their first two years and he/she could still be under that edict. Otherwise, SBD is a really healthy way to eat, and I think you would be doing a favor to your children by teaching them this healthy WOE to help them when they get older. I know I plan on feeding my children this way when I have them. :

Most meats are pretty tough to chew at this age until they get their two-year old molars. When my daughter was that age she ate mostly chicken, fish, sausages and mince. When I was cooking at a daycare center I used to prepare quite different meals for the under twos. My staple dishes were tuna pie (tuna, mixed vegies and mashed potato or pasta), cottage pie (mince and mixed vegies with mashed potato on top then topped with grated cheese), baked beans or sausages mixed in with mashed vegies or chicken flavoured rice rissoto with stir fried chicken and peas or corn. I worked really hard to get the center away from processed meat. They used to only give them nuggets, sausage rolls, pizza and fish fingers before I started.

Given that I have TWO 18 month olds where my little man will not let a single veggie pass his lips (and believe me, I try...including putting the veggies out alone and first before anything else, hiding them in something he loves like homemade mac n' cheese), I am REALLY interested in your mixes.

In your tuna pie, what did you use to keep it all together? Cream of mushroom soup or something? Same thing with the cottage pie, it sounds a lot like traditional big kid shepard's pie but that even has some kind of "gravy" holding it together. A friend gave me a recipe for tuna casserole but it uses soup and that just seems so high in sodium.

I have to do something. I found organic spinach nuggets and he did eat one today. It might be processed but better than a regular chicken nuggets for a kid who gets no veggies, right?

HELP...any recipes welcomed and with 2 to cook for, I don't mind making a full recipe of something just for them.

Sometimes I use a packet 'pasta and sauce' (its dry and you are meant to add milk, water and butter and boil) then add tuna and frozen vegies or if I make tuna with potato topping I mix flour or cornflour with milk to make a creamy looking sauce (that is healthy and cheap) and add this to the tuna and vege mix. When I make cottage pie I mix powdered beef stock and cornflour or flour with water to make a sauce that thickens as it cooks.

I have to be really careful about using processed foods because of allergies. There are so many traces of high-allergy foods in things so I try to use raw ingredients where I can but time is usually the biggest issue.

Thanks for the feedback. I am going to try a tuna casserole for them this weekend.

Thanks Chick! I'm gonna try the Tuna this weekend, too!