{"id":73321,"date":"2012-06-15T14:02:53","date_gmt":"2012-06-15T19:02:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/?p=73321"},"modified":"2012-06-15T14:23:43","modified_gmt":"2012-06-15T19:23:43","slug":"when-it-comes-to-kids-menus-tell-your-kid-to-grow-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/06\/when-it-comes-to-kids-menus-tell-your-kid-to-grow-up\/","title":{"rendered":"When It Comes to Kid’s Menus, Tell Your Kid to Grow Up"},"content":{"rendered":"

I intend on my son growing up to be a man. Height-wise, he\u2019s nearly there and he\u2019s only eight. With every passing stage I mourn a little for the little baby I once had. I refuse to let him grow up too fast.\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

He still mispronounces a few things and I won\u2019t correct him because sometimes, the fact that he calls it a \u201cmow-lawner\u201d is the only connection I have to the tiny baby boy he once was. We won\u2019t let him watch many television shows, we don\u2019t allow the word “butt” in our house, and there\u2019s serious controls on our Internet. Mature life will come soon enough, he needs to be a child for as long as possible. However, there is one aspect of being a kid I have never permitted with my son. When it comes to his diet, I refuse to treat my son like a child.<\/p>\n

As I read the latest report about the nutrition content found in the so-called \u201chealthy\u201d kids meals<\/a><\/strong> I rolled my eyes. One restaurant’s hamburger was higher in fat than than three of another fast food joint’s chicken nuggets. And ‘fast-food place A’ serves a grilled cheese with way more sodium than \u201cfast-food place B\u2019s\u201d corn dog. So it seems, in our tireless effort to get our kids healthy, we\u2019re splitting hairs over whose junk food may have tweaked the recipe enough to be slightly lower in fat or cholesterol to earn the title as a \u201chealthier option<\/a><\/strong>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Out of curiosity I searched some of the top chain fast-food and family dine-in restaurant menus. Regardless of the style served on the adult menu, every restaurant basically has the same 3-5 items on the kid\u2019s menu: chicken nuggets, hot dogs or corn dogs, mac n\u2019 cheese, and hamburgers. Granted, some had a kid\u2019s variation of that restaurant\u2019s specialty, but most were the same and they all served fries as a side. None of this was surprising, just a confirmation in how far we have to go in order to help our kids stay healthy.<\/p>\n

The restaurants offer these options because that\u2019s what kids eat. Kids eat this stuff because it’s what we feed to them. But why? Why must this be what\u2019s considered kid food? I\u2019m not perfect, not even close. However, I\u2019ll let my son grab the crayons and the fun menu, but rarely do I let him order off if it.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve been a waiter’s headache since he was on solid food. We may order him the beef of the burger, but request that they bring the whole wheat bun that is only offered to the adults. We\u2019ll let his meal come in the fun little basket, but we ask that he get the steamed broccoli versus the mountain of fries they typically pile in. And yes, we\u2019re those parents who have requested fresh veggies to dip in the salsa so none of us, our son included, load up on fried chips prior to our meal. Or even simpler, I order him the same thing I\u2019m getting, and take half home. And as far as the drive-thru restaurants go, well, we just don\u2019t go. Because honestly, I would have tremendous guilt if I served that food to my son<\/a><\/strong>. But, I have been that parent who has gone and paid for the cool toy and nothing else. Just because he eats like an adult, does not mean he\u2019s not a child who doesn\u2019t want in on the fun.<\/p>\n

Thankfully, there are a few restaurants that I feel totally comfortable allowing my son to order whatever he wants and many are working to start offering more mature food to our kids. And to prove I\u2019m human, our kid gets to indulge, just like the rest of us, from time to time. He has six grandparents, he gets plenty of burger and fry time. But as a general rule, much to many restaurants\u2019 chagrin, I will not feed my kid like an American child<\/a><\/strong> and I beg other parents to do the same.<\/p>\n

Also Read: \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Numbers are in on Fast Food and our Kids’ Health<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Food Makers Get Failing Grades<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Every Parent Should Read “My Two-Year-Old Eats Octopus”<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I intend on my son growing up to be a man. Height-wise, he\u2019s nearly there and he\u2019s only eight. With every passing stage I mourn a little for the little baby I once had. I refuse to let him grow … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":37,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1367,3695],"tags":[474,8440,724],"class_list":["post-73321","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-childrens-health","category-diet-and-nutrition","tag-fast-food","tag-homepage","tag-restaurants"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73321","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/37"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=73321"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73321\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":73324,"href":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73321\/revisions\/73324"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73321"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73321"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73321"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}