The Kook-Kook Never Falls Far from the Tree

re: The Kook-Kook Never Falls Far from the Tree

Grampa Ric — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 23:09:11 GMT

Babydaddy,

This thing is genetic. Your great-grandmother kept chocolate chip cookies in a beautiful glass jar that I radared in at an early age. I raided the candy in your grandparents' liquor cabinet at odd hours. Geneticists will soon locate the site of the gene involved. Meantime, a few kook-kooks won't kill Josie, just try to get some steak and spinach in along the way...

re: The Kook-Kook Never Falls Far from the Tree

Margaret — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 18:21:12 GMT

I'm with mags. A cookie won't kill a kid, but a kid who thinks she can manipulate adults into giving her what she wants will be unwelcome in the homes of others, not to mention making herself and her parents miserable. Give her a cookie after supper if you want, but don't let her have them any other time. Once she gets the pattern, you'll be happier, she'll be happier, and the food purists will be mostly off your back.

re: The Kook-Kook Never Falls Far from the Tree

Karyn — Sat, 02 Feb 2008 15:03:02 GMT

Why did you give her "kook-kooks" to begin with? What she's never had she can't want. Especially because you describe her as a poor eater, it doesn't sound like she was demanding your food...I don't get parents who give their babies cookies. Why not wait until they start school?

re: The Kook-Kook Never Falls Far from the Tree

mamarama — Sat, 02 Feb 2008 03:39:45 GMT

my 20 month old son calls 'em kook kooks (or, more accurately, "cook cooks"), too. he doesn't have them every day, but he sure does like them, knows how to ask, where they are. i'm not worried about him...it's his 5 year old sister whose eating (or lack thereof, of all the "right" foods) keeps me up at night. i find all the info above about over restriction very interesting--will try loosening the reins to see if it makes a difference. a friend this past halloween let her 4 yo just go crazy with the candy, under the premise of "well, maybe she'll eat till she's sick and it won't be such of a turnon anymore".

re: The Kook-Kook Never Falls Far from the Tree

heide — Sat, 02 Feb 2008 00:32:34 GMT

I liken toddlers to squirrels. Stay with me. Squirrels can break into ANY birdfeeder, no matter how squirrel-proof it is, because they have absolutely nothing to do all day every day except obsess and plan and scheme. Same thing with toddlers. They're totally obsessive. Maybe you should try teaching her to drive -- she'll probably love it and stop thinking about cookies all day.

re: The Kook-Kook Never Falls Far from the Tree

Lucy — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 22:53:02 GMT

Eh, I wouldn't get too worked up over it - my kids have always been allowed sugar here and there and now that they're 7 and 10 they don't really bother with it too much. They keep their Halloween candy out in the open and don't eat it. There have been years where I've seen that there's still a big pile of Halloween candy still uneaten at Easter time. (And believe me, I help!) BUT - I never buy chips (because I will eat them all), so my kids rarely get those - they will kill you for some. I have actually had one of my kids hand me half an Oreo and say, "I'm full. I can't finish this." Overly restricting something can end up worse.

re: The Kook-Kook Never Falls Far from the Tree

mags — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 22:02:14 GMT

abcd, do you mean dissent?

re: The Kook-Kook Never Falls Far from the Tree

abcd — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 18:03:18 GMT

I have to be the voice of descent. I am a family physician and pediatric overweight / obesity / diabetes is the biggest problem I see every day.

Don't buy the kook-kooks! If they're not in the home, you can't give in. Simple.

re: The Kook-Kook Never Falls Far from the Tree

Tracey — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 15:45:02 GMT

Well, this also presents another conundrum for you: if she gets fatty-fat, SHE WILL NOT BE A SUPERMODEL. Dashed hopes and dreams.

My son wants blueberries 24/7. Nice, but not cheap.

re: The Kook-Kook Never Falls Far from the Tree

labgirl — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 15:17:36 GMT

Is she still in the phase where you can quench her desire for a kook-kook with a graham cracker while you eat the chocolate covered oreos? All hell will break loose soon enough when she realizes there is a "kook-kook gradient" and starts demanding the good shit.

I salve my conscience by baking stuff at home when I can. Yeah it still has sugar and fat (real butter, y'all!) but at least I KNOW what goes in there and it's not xanathan gum and space age polymers.

And again, all things in moderation, right?

(Says the girl with 10 pounds of chocolate in her pantry!)

Lisa

re: The Kook-Kook Never Falls Far from the Tree

Adelheid — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 14:55:56 GMT

I have this problem with chocolate. Not just any chocolate-- I'm hooked on the 70-80% dark, and so is my daughter. I didn't think much of it, I mean, that stuff is low in sugar and full of anti-oxidants, right? Unfortunately, she's allergic. The tiniest piece of chocolate and she breaks out with excema, right on her cute little face. I've had to move my stash and stop eating it around her. She still walks over to where I used to keep it and points expectantly about a dozen times a day and throws a little tantrum when she doesn't get any.

Anyway, my advice to you would be to start keeping around oatmeal cookies with about half the sugar the recipe calls for. If the cookies suck, who wants 'em?

re: The Kook-Kook Never Falls Far from the Tree

mags — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 03:25:09 GMT

For my daughter, it is mini-marshmallows. She knows the cabinet where we keep them, and if we even walk by she starts screaming for marshmallows. And, you know, when she asks for them I give them to her, for the most part. She has a good, balanced diet, better than mine by a long shot, and I don't think a handful of marshmallows is going to hurt.

As a matter of fact, from what I've read, making sweets verboten can actually do more harm than good. I even saw a show about this. Kids got to pick between two foods they said they liked equally, I think it was dried mangoes and raisins. They were allowed to have as many mangoes as they wanted, but were limited to amount of raisins they could have. By the end of the experiment the kids had developed a distinct preference for raisins.

I wouldn't worry about her having a few cookies. If you were really worried about it, you could always break the cookies into smaller pieces and just give her a piece at a time. But, personally, I would worry about the caving. If she asks for a cookie, either give it to her or don't. From what I've read and been told, limit-setting starts now, and if you say no you should mean no. Then again, that's much easier said than done.

re: The Kook-Kook Never Falls Far from the Tree

knockedup — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 02:34:21 GMT

If you figure out how to manage the kook kooks, I'd love to know, because, what with my unquenchable kook kook thirst, my boy is likely going to have a problem.

re: The Kook-Kook Never Falls Far from the Tree

Maggie — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 02:28:54 GMT

I was diagnosed with it at 27. I somehow still manage to find a way to work sweets into my diet on a daily basis. Since diabetes runs on my side of the family as well as my husbands we really wanted to work at establishing healthy eating habits for our son, but that went out the window when he began as a hard to figure out eater. I got to a point where I was just happy if he'd eat. But now that he's got more teeth and become less of a picky eater why have been trying to reign that back in. But if I eat cookies or brownies or chocolate (choc to him) he wants it to. So I start to feel like I should never have those things when he's up. I mean should a 21 month old really be requesting choc? I keep hoping as he gets older I'll be able to teach him about healthier eating habits. So what if the experts say it all starts with what you do know. There just experts. What do they know!

re: The Kook-Kook Never Falls Far from the Tree

lex — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 02:27:44 GMT

my son is 15 months old and, though we have given him bits of cookie here and there, we have not yet taught him the word for it. therefore, he cannot ask for a cookie, since he doesn't know what they're called. i like to think this is a brilliant plan.

re: The Kook-Kook Never Falls Far from the Tree

addknitter — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 02:13:01 GMT

A "de facto carb storage facility", every family should have one!

re: The Kook-Kook Never Falls Far from the Tree

Badmommy — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 01:56:28 GMT

Um. Yeah. Mine wake up asking for chocolate. No, not just chocolate. Chocolate Mini-Eggs. They're only two and that's the most perfectly enunciated phrase they've got. And it's all my fault. Damn those Cadbury suits and their mini-eggs.