kids sneaking sweets.

[jeff daniels]

Originally Posted by glatt

There's your answer.

If you buy sweets again, buy just enough for one snack, and eat them the same day as the grocery shopping. Then you don't have to police.

Another thought: Just get ice cream. They can't hide that in their rooms.

Haha.. just buy ice cream - I just discovered a half eaten melted container of ice cream next to my home office desk (so sly - leaving the evidence right where I work). I agree with so and so... just don't buy sweets and stock the house with healthy food... in the long run... it'll pay off... your child won't become a part of the millions of obese fat asses rolling around the planet.
Also... we try to make sweets at home... and unfortunately pop culture has all ready sunk it's claws into this 7yr old and he's most often only attracted to the crap that comes off the grocery shelf in pretty child friendly packages and or fa$T food joints... if he eats home made sweets it's only because it resembles some branded crap that he saw somewhere.

I have been having an extreme problem with my five year old son getting into... everything! Damien doesn't just stop with candy and other sweets, mom just had her gall bladder removed, so we made sure to buy more specific diet food, (ie her own yogurts and other low-fat foods). Damien graduated from eating every single cookie and piece of candy that is hidden in the kitchen and/or mommy and daddy's room to eating ALL of mommy's yogurts and other food that were bought specifically for her so she can digest it properly.

I started by using 15-30 minutes in his room for getting into something, or making him go to bed 30 minutes early the day he snuck something and letting his twin sister stay up until their bed time. This did not work for me!

When he got into something, I'd sit him down and explain to him, "Daddy is fat and unhealthy, you can play outside and have fun for hours, but daddy can't because he's overweight. If you continue eating all of these sweet snacks, you're going to get a big belly like daddy and you won't be able to see your feet anymore!" This did not seem to help.

I then started with exercise. When he snuck something, we went outside for a 5-10 minute run. He loved this at first, I'd stop him every 2-3 minutes to give him a drink. He was deterred from getting into things for a few days then started eating everything again.

As our financial situation is not good, it's also not bad, it's absolutely horrendous at this point - we made a trip to the local food pantry. While there I tried my damndest to avoid ALL sweets and junk food. The lady helping me through the aisles convinced me that, "you have four kids! I'm sure it would be nice to bring a treat home for them to have after dinner!" After telling her no, they don't need it several times, I broke down and finally just took what she wanted me to take.

In a SINGLE day he consumed (Damien is 5 years old, average size and healthy weight):

Breakfast - 3 Eggs, 1 piece of toast

Lunch - 2 Hot Dogs, 1 Bun, 1 Yogurt

Helped himself to - 14 Buckeyes (Chocolate covered peanut butter), at LEAST 9 Chocolate covered marshmallow cookies and 6 other cookies.

The chocolate covered marshmallows are basically a ring of marshmallow about 2 inches in diameter with probably 2-3 whole large marshmallows in total absolutely smothered in chocolate.

I had, right after lunch noticed that a few of the buckeyes we had were missing. I questioned him, giving him two choices:
Tell the truth and be sent to bed for 10 minutes
OR
Lie and have to run AND be sent to his room for 20 minutes.

He started to lie to me, but stopped mid sentence and told the truth. When he went to bed, I collected ALL of the sweets we had in the house and threw them away. I not only threw them away, I buried them half way down in the trash can. After he got up, I went outside to smoke a cigarette and brought our dog outside to go to the bathroom.

Later on that day I went to open the pantry door to get some spices out to make dinner and I noticed that the previously buried trash was sitting on top of the trash can - empty. Later that night my oldest daughter found the bag of marshmallow rings empty under the sink in the bathroom.


What in the hell do I do? I rent, so I "not supposed to" drill holes in the fridge, but I'm about to do it and lock everything up. I CANNOT have a child eating his mother's food who NEEDS it because she has an even more sensitive digestive system than she did before. My youngest son has CP, and requires extra calories for his grueling physical and occupational therapy appointments, some of the high calorie things we buy for him (like extremely high calorie yogurts) he will eat ALL of them in 2 days. I feel like I cannot even sleep because if I do he'll get up and eat everything. I'm pissed that he hides his trash when he's done instead of throwing it away. But I'm about to have a mental breakdown because I feel like I'm being disrespected on an hourly basis by him.

This is depressing for me, and it's driving me to the point that I cannot deal with it any longer. Parents, HELP!

[Sundae]

Welcome, Iron.
I'm not a parent, so I'd really best let those who are comment on this.

Because my advice would be not to buy anything you need to hide, given that you are overweight and your wife has just had surgery. Did your son have 3 raw eggs for breakfast? No.

As I said, I'm unqualified. My cat being on a diet is hard enough for me.
Good luck and I hope you get good advice from the parents here.

I am also wary that this might not be an honest appeal.
Apols to you if it is.

[monster]

Don't make exercise a punishment.

[glatt]

And it will help if there are no snacks/candy at all in the house. Either that or you have to find perfect hiding places.

[classicman]

Food is a symptom of what is probably a larger issue.

[Aliantha]

I would suggest that maybe as a family living a healthier lifestyle might help. iron, you mentioned that you're overweight and unhealthy. Perhaps you could take your young thief and spend some time working off the calories together, and then maybe have a small treat together after you're done, but something getting close to healthy like a fruit smoothy or something?

I suspect that it is probably a comfort thing for your son. Sounds like with your wifes and other childs health issues, he might not get quite the right sort of attention.

Anyway, good luck with it. I have a 14 and 15 yr old and they don't discriminate between sweets and healthy food. They just suck everything up that happens to be in their path. Sometimes I'm afraid our two year old might be mistaken for a tasty snack!

[monster]

In this post http://cellar.org/showpost.php?p=755943&postcount=28, ironsolid is called Dana. I think ironsolid is the mom?

Do not buy/bring home the unhealthy snacks, that is obvious.

Can you buy fruit and veg that he can eat in unlimited quantities? I didn't see any in the day's menu that you posted. Did he not have dinner that day?

Fruit is expensive. but so are cigarettes*. Shop at Aldi if you can. their fruit is cheap. Bananas are pretty good value and sweet. And pre-prepared baby carrots are pretty inexpensive. raisins are almost like candy. Problem is they can stick in the teeth and cause dental problems like candy.

my kids are swimmers so they eat a lot of carbs and my view may be skewed, but that seems a high protein to carb ratio. And I'd really like to see lots more fruit and veg in there, that's very fillling. What does he have to drink?

Talk to a doctor or a health professional about it if you can. Does the school have a psychologist you can talk to? I also suspect it is compensation for something or comfort eating. Or maybe his body is missing some vitamin/mineral and "telling him' to eat in search of that thing. Can you give him milk/cereal for breakfast? Choose the non-sugar coated cereal. Walmart sells really cheap own brand rice Crisppies, Kroger is best for own-brand Cheerios and Cornflakes if you have them. Aldi is also excellnt value for these products. Where do you live?

And don't criticize his dad. Hearing bad things about their parents does nothing but harm childrem. The need you to be their heroes.

Why not tell him you need him to help dad get heathier by taking dad out for a run and leading by example eating healthy snacks and balanced meals. if you have him tell dad off for eating unhealthy things, it will make it harder for him to do them himself.

You're 24 and your children are 9, 5, 5 and 3 and one had CP. He's a middle child and you clearly have a lot to cope with. He may just need more cuddle time, more supervision, more explanation.

What is he interested in? Can you reward "no theiving" days in some way?


*yeah, i know, not my place to judge..... I never did know my place....

[ZenGum]

Seek professional help.

I suspect Dad may have a metabolic issue or something, which is causing him to overeat without getting that "I'm full" feeling. Damien might have inherited it.

Could be one of dozens of possible causes.

(not a parent, no relevant qualifications, just another internet know-it-all).

[monster]

good thought, Zen