I'm not feeling too well today so I told my son that I am going to take a nap. I was asleep for an hour and he ate 7 oatmeal cream pies. I was furious and asked him why he thought it was okay. He said, "I didn't think you'd get this mad." Meaning he knew I would get mad. I told him to go to his room, and now I have to figure out how I'm going to handle this. He does this quite often but usually it is with bread. He is not overweight but is ALWAYS hungry. I need ideas. He just came and told me he doesn't feel very well. No kidding!
edit:
I think the fact that we NEVER have these in the house definitely factored into his going overboard. He had a class party and everything has to be prepackaged. These were the leftovers.
He has had bloodwork done because he was recently diagnosed with ADD. Nothing abnormal.
I like the ideas of keeping snack boxes. His usually snacks are green apples, grapes, and popcorn. All of which we have right now too. He eats a lot of apples and bread.
Yesterday, he spent sometime in his room. He was pretty upset about being in trouble. We had a talk about why it is not okay. And a talk about sugar and obesity.
He is 10. I should be able to trust him to be by himself. I guess the key is prevention.
Get two containers and write "snack box" on them. Put one in the pantry, one in the fridge. Tell him he can get snacks only from those boxes. And how many snacks a day he is allowed. Do not replenish it for the week. Let's him see that if he eats everyone all at once, he won't have any snacks the rest of the week.
You just have to be clear for the future what the expectations are when you take a long nap.
And don't buy oatmeal creme pies for a few weeks. Teachable moment.
Adding... my 10 yr old is always hungry too. She has permission to pop a bag of popcorn w/o asking me first. Gives her some indepence too.
Hopefully not feeling well now will help him learn he can't eat that many sweets in one sitting w/o expecting any consequences- even if you don't give him any, his stomach will!
I like mom22tumblebugs' idea w/ the 2 snack containers. It will teach him to ration out his snacks. Another idea could be to have him help pay to replenish the household's snack supply every time he goes through it faster than he should.
If he is always hungry, I would get him checked out if you havent already for metabolic things. I would stop buying junk foods and put all veggies/fruits in house for awhile. Does he drink enough water in a day?
Well if he gets sick that should be his punishment. If no weight problems then I cant figure out why punish-if he is hungry let him eat.
I personally don't keep things like this in the house, my kids can grab a snack anytime they want (as long as its not too close to dinner) because I only keep healthy snacks in the house.
if he is always hungry, do you notice it at certain times (ie during a growing spurt) or is it ALL the time? If its all the time I'd get him checked by the family doctor to rule out any issues.
as far as the discipline part of it, it seems he learned his lesson, he feels like crap. I would probably have a discussion with him on why he feels this way and the effect "crap" food has on a persons system, and explain to him that that's why it's just a "treat" and a very occasional food, if you are going to continue to have stuff like that in the house.
Well......this is a case of "it was there and you weren't :/" I'd tell him why its so bad he ate so many. My son has pulled this too. He's hungry and he's going to eat what he likes.....sweets.
I'd stop getting those kinds of snacks. And if you do, put them somewhere out of sight/reach. And I'd also put more healthy snacks within his reach. I've done that with my son. The things that he can reach and get on his own are fruits, yogurt, veggies, and cracker snacks (goldfish and the like).
Ten year old boys are always hungry, the trick is getting them to make better snack choices than a box of oatmeal cream pies. He needs to learn that an apple and a glass of water would have been much more filling and a much healthier choice. When you are that hungry, then you need to choose something that will fill you up instead of eating a bunch of crap.
I really like the idea of rationing out the snacks for the week and when they are gone, he doesn't have anything to snack on until next week. This is a life long lesson that he needs to learn.
Protein in the lunch box?
- HollyBoBolly
on Feb. 2, 2013 at 5:40 PM