Portion control for kids

If you have kids like mine they are always hanging on you saying,"I want a snack, I'm hungry or Give me something to eat before I die."  Well they also want to play in the street and pick up scorpions but if course we don't let them do that.  So why do we give into overfeeding our children so easily!  Well, lets be honest. It is easy to just hand them a sleeve of Ritz crackers and say"Here ya go, be happy."  "Whining be gone."  It works.  Problem is we are encouraging them to eat excessively which can eventually lead to cardiac disease, diabetes and insecurity.  We have got to learn portion control.  My kids are always HUNGRY when they get home from school so I try to pop a snack into them within minutes of walking through the door. They will continue to eat whatever you give them until finally an adult stops them.  These are a couple of things I try to do to make sure snack time doesn't count as 1,000 calories (which is the amount your child should be having for an entire day).

• Snack time is like Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner.  We don't watch TV and eat. We sit at the table, eat discuss events of the day or go outside and have a small snack picnic
• I always try to give them a piece of fruit with some form of protein and whole grain so that they fill up faster and stay fuller longer
• It is a snack so try to keep it below 200 cals
• Healthy is not 100 cal snack packs.  That's fine if that is all you have but remember there is absolutely no nutrition in a packet of crackers or cookies so your child will be hungry again in 10 minutes
• I only offer water at snack times.  Alot of times the kids will come home dehydrated and grumpy.  Water is awesome!  It makes them feel so much better!

I remember as a teenager coming home from basketball and eating 2 peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and a quart of chocolate milk.  I couldn't figure out why I still had a belly even after running 5 in 1's for hours a day.  Well now, after birthing 4 kids and getting over the 30 mark I am 3 sizes smaller than I was in high school.  The key: Nutrition and Portion control
I have researched many sites and they are pretty consistently the same.  Here is one site that shows you how much your child should be eating a day.  ( My kids do eat a little more veggies and fruit than they suggest but I think my kids are above average in their activity levels too).  I would love to hear from you and see what your kids portion sizes are like and if that is working for  them or not!http://pediatrics.about.com/od/nutrition/a/0508_food_prtns.htm