Hello,

I'm new here and curious how other LC'ers feed their wee ones. I've only recently been cutting carbs so I haven't really thought about it. My daughter is 3 years old, 37" and 32 lbs, well within the healthy range.

So here's the thing. We've never done baby food. Our daughter has always eaten what we prepared for ourselves for meals. In addition, I've never forced her to eat her food. She does get dessert and classic junk foods like chips occasionally but I rarely buy them so its usually when we are at other people's houses or Daddy has requested them.

She never got into cheerios or crackers like other kids. She has never liked sandwiches...she always pulls them apart and eats the innards. I have always given her full fat milk despite being told I could reduce her milk to 2%. Her favorite food items currently are meat (she likes pretty much all kinds, heh and she calls it that too), broccoli, salad (recently), mushrooms, rice and beans, hard boiled eggs, berries, greek yogurt, cream top yogurt, carrots, hummus, and apples.

Its a mix of some high carb and some low, but I do feel that overall she eats fairly well for a toddler. She actually prefers real chicken over chicken nuggets! Yay! : ) Since she eats whatever I prepare for myself...she has been eating relatively low carb for the last week. However, I'm on induction right now and I have no idea whether I should be more mindful of her carb intake.

So far I have been serving her veggies and fruit with most of her meals. Should that suffice? Should I add in brown rice? Yogurt?

I'm not especially worried as she is definitely not withering away and while I have lost weight in the last week, I am pretty sure she hasn't. But I am curious what other parents of toddlers feed their kids.

Thanks!

It sounds to me like your toddler is eating an incredibly healthy diet! WTG!

I think while you're on Induction it's fine for her to eat the same as you, but I'd probably still offer her some fruit, higher carb veggies, hummus, beans, whole grain bread, and/or yogurt as well. It's not like you really have to go out of your way to prepare those things for her, so it's not like boiling pasta or rice. If any of those foods are super tempting for you, however, you may want to just keep them out of the house altogether for your own sanity (I could never have hummus around while on Induction, I'd freak out! haha). I'm sure she'd be fine if you didn't offer her anything else too... I guess it depends on what she likes and all that.

I have an 18 month old and he doesn't really care for bread, rice, pasta, and foods like that. I do offer them (usually the whole grain varieties, unless daddy is eating something), but usually he doesn't eat much. He loves all fruit and some veggies and some kinds of meat. And he dips everything in ranch dressing. haha. I wish he ate better, but he's always been a light eater - even when he was just on breastmilk. But he's healthy and happy. I just wish I could get him to eat more whole meats (grilled chicken, pork, burgers, whatever) instead of only wanting chicken nuggets and fish sticks. Ugh. I at least try to make my own and bread it in whole wheat breadcrumbs, but still.

I wouldn't worry too much about it, she's definitely eating better than most kids her age!!

Sounds great to me! Love the fact she likes chicken better than those nasty nuggets!!

Thanks for the feedback. I bought her some cream top yogurt but in single serving size so Im not too terribly tempted by it and some more apples today. Ive decided to hold off on the rice as its one of my weaknesses. She is very good at telling me when she is hungry so I figure she will let me know.

We have been super lucky that she eats so well. She eats better than us. Two weeks ago the grandparents came to town and it was junk food central. They kept buying her chicken nuggets from McDonalds. I was worried she would decide she liked them better than real chicken but I noticed she would take a bite or two then leave the rest.

Tonight she ate chicken and cauliflower and asked for seconds so at least she likes my new way of eating.

I have a 10 year old and a 4 year old. The best advice I could offer is to make being active fun and keep them eating real whole food. That being said, we never did much fructose in the house (including whole fruit) but we do eat berries mostly. We also do not do any grains. At all.

I am LC, my 2.5 yr old and DH are not. However, I feed them low carb dinners because that is the only meal we all really have together. DH packs his own lunch, and I feed my son sandwiches for lunch most of the time. DH eats cereal for breakfast and DS eats eggs with me. He eats whole grain crackers, cereal, and fruit but he also likes some vegetables. This seems to be working well for us. It's a little restrictive because my son is milk protein intolerant, so our dinners are a tad bit repetitive. I think you can feed your toddler what you eat and supplement it with a couple of things she likes that are carby. For example, my son loves pasta, so I made chicken alfredo with no pasta for me. I think what you're doing sounds perfect.

My toddler doesn't like chicken nuggets either! And, he loves mashed cauliflower "potatoes" and broccoli.

I think if you give kids good, healthy food, they have a pretty good BS detector when it comes to junk. He gets it occasionally and I always wonder if his head will be turned by it, but he can take it or leave it for the most part.

My kids have always eaten the same food as the rest of us from 6 months on. As toddlers they all loved salmon (and still do). They also love dipping so veggie sticks and a cheese dip was always popular with them (does make an unholy mess so it's more of an out door food when they're small!). I don't think little kids need a lot of carbs any more than the rest of us. Offering veg and berries and dairy along side plenty of meat and fats I'm sure a healthy child will eat what they need.