On Nov 16, 2004, at 9:44 pm, Jim Swayze wrote:
> I hear you.  My nine month old daughter is 100% paleo.  Breastmilk,
> meat, veggies, fruit and water make up her diet.  (My wife is paleo
> too).  I am NOT looking forward to the day when my in laws force
> crackers, 'nilla wafers, and chocolate milk down her poor,
> unsuspecting gullet.  And it saddens me to say that two of my three
> sons eat stuff that isn't even healthy by the miguided standards of
> the modern nutritionists.  It's really, really hard though with the
> school lunches.  Letting people you don't know offer bad food choices
> to your six and nine year old kids is sad.  At least the three year
> old eats relatively well at his Montessori school.  They have rules
> against junk food.

I've wondered about this a bit.  I don't have kids yet (god help me if
I get landed with one any time soon I'm only 22!) but I'm a bit
concerned about how I will feel them.

I will make sure they are breastfed until they are happy to wean
(however long this takes), and not force them onto foods their stomachs
can't handle.  And while they're in my sight, I'll make sure they eat
good food.  Because I *know* to myself that eating paleo is essential
to good health, I won't ever feed them junk myself- but they will be
out of my site for a good proportion of the time once they reach a
certain age.  How do you explain to school teachers, who believe that
low-fat, high carb, wholegrain-based food is healthy, that your kid
should be eating animal fat, veg and (shock horror!) no milk?  (The
last one will probably be the hardest.)

One thing I'm conscious of is alienating them.  I don't want to say to
them that they can't eat such-and-such a food if it will mean them not
eating with their friends, etc.  Obviously if their friends come round
mine it will be eat paleo or starve :)  But the other way round, I
guess I will have to accept them eating junk.  The problem is that what
most people consider healthy food, is to me just a slightly improved
version of what everyone recognises as junk.  I don't want to have to
explain to every single person I eat why paleo is a sensible way to
eat!

Ashley