No, I don't think low-carb is optimal for children. And yes, it seems a lot of people round here feed their kids (and babies and toddlers - despite the fact that breast milk is mostly carbohydrate) this way, and it does make me raise an eyebrow. I really want kids and plan to raise them 'paleo', but they will be eating plenty of carbs from whole foods.

I can't help but compare a child's metabolism to my own (I do look like I'm 12!) - I'm very thin, lean, active, and need to eat prodigious amounts of calories to fuel my normal metabolism, much less put some meat on my bones. I do not feel well in ketosis, at all. While ketosis is highly useful for fat loss and for managing some health conditions, I consider it to fundamentally be a strain on the body. A growing child can only benefit from easily accessible, adequate glucose IMO.

I'm also determined not to be the food police - my mom was and it was terrible. I'm not going to buy junk, but they can eat junk at other people's houses and participate fully in Halloween and birthday parties. Hopefully they will realize, as I did, that eating crappy food makes them feel crappy, and thus be motivated to keep eating the way we did at home as they gain independence.

I think the safest approach is to give them plenty of fruit and starchy tubers (obviously alongside meat and organs) and then get them to play outside as much as possible. Play outside with them, go on long walks etc. There's simply no way that a rapidly growing, active kid is going to get fat from eating healthy carbohydrates.

I'm sure I'm not the only one here who shudders when they think about the amount of crap they ate as a kid while remaining inexplicably lean. I spent the vast majority of my time outside (causing trouble of one sort or another, truth be told).

My biggest concern would be in putting glucose restrictions on a growing brain. I can't fathom how that would turn out well.

With two young boys (5 and 21 months) it is my experience that they are capable of making energy from their food like IMMEDIATELY after eating. They dance and jump around constantly. With such high energy output there is not way I could justify giving my kids a low carb diet.

Neither of my kids eat potato, and I try not to do the bread/noodles type stuff (but I do give them rice noodles). Instead my boys really like to eat lots of fruit with their meals.

I guess if my kids had brain issues like epilepsy then I would consider a therapeutic diet like a ketogenic one.

a low carb diet provides plenty of energy and calories as long as you are eating enough, especially important is eating sufficient calories from animal fat. ketosis - or fat burning metabolism - is preferable over glucose burning metabolism when it comes to preventing disease, why would that not be optimal for kids?

I think that the answer is "depends on the child" -- just like adults, kids have different metabolisms and different energy needs. I think that feeding kids in paleo style (starting with breast-feeding until the child self-weans, then moving to plenty of locally-produced, grass-fed or forage-fed meats, leafy and colorful vegetables, roots, nuts, seeds, berries, fruits, etc.) is really healthy for them -- however I think that it is important to keep plenty of foods available for kids to eat as their hunger demands -- and to accept that, when they're outside the house, they're probably going to try other things that their friends are eating, just because that's what kids do.

I also think that it's important not to have -food- become a battle zone. There are so many other issues that we need to stay on top of as parents... I know there were with the four that I raised... and I think that if we raise our kids with the right foods, and the reasoning behind them, our kids will never have to worry about whether they're "high carb", "low fat", "high protein", "low carb" or whatever label -- they'll be fine choosing whole foods, preparing them in healthy ways, and enjoying the opportunity to nourish their bodies -- and they'll have the resilience to handle the occasional foray into less-than- healthy foods without it sending their bodies completely off-track as it does for so many of us who have been eating in ways that are unsustainable for us for large portions of our lives.

I'd like to note that I think where they get their carbs from is something to talk about. Our dentist went over some of this stuff with us. Breads/crackers/pretzels, etc are really bad for your teeth. Because they tend to stick more, causing decay. When my 4 year old was diagnosed with 6!!! cavities.. we had to overhaul her diet. A diet, I might add, that already did NOT include regular candy, sweets, juice, etc and NO soda whatsoever. We were told to cut WAY back on those processed refined grains.

So while we do still have those things for them occasionally, they get the majority of their carbs from veggies and fruits. Definitely MORE than 100 grams a day though.

Since we cut way back on that stuff, she's had no more cavities AND my younger daughter has had NONE at all. Not a huge argument for or against the low-carb for kids thing.. but definitely something to think about.

No. Neither should Mom's to be.

I'm sure my negs will spike for saying this, but it needs to be said.

The whole starvation in childhood --> adult obesity and/or diabetes? Very real. Why? Well we can test this in animals and it all flows. Calorie, protein, carb restriction in developing years leads to depressed basal energy expenditure and an apparent lack of development of appropriate protective fat stores.

Carb restriction metabolically is the same as starvation. I'll be more than happy to provide cites for that proclamation as time permits.

Mommas eat starch ... I beg you!

Can we define 'low-carb' in this thread? I am really surprised to see everyone say "ooooooh kids eating the way we eat is bad!" Are you all assuming that these children are only eating meat? How many carbs are you assuming are safe? Did I correctly read an answer that said children should be eating rice and Corn? Am I in the right place?

If you claim that eating 'paleo' was the way that our ancestors ate, how will you account for what our ancestor's children ate? I plan for my children to eat what my husband and I eat- lots of meat, lots of vegetables (including more starchy veg like squash) and fruit in small increments. Will my kids be in ketosis? No, but then again, I'm usually not to begin with. If my own parents fed me this way, I'm sure I would have grown up without the allergies, joint pain, and fluctuating weight that I experienced through late childhood and early adolescence.

If they aren't metabolically screwed up yet, give them what they crave most from healthy fare. If they are fat, then you should get the carbs in the range that they actually use for energy and stop before it becomes excessive and used for fat storage. I think if you look at most SAD kids nowadays they must be getting like 2000 calories from carbs alone. If your kids are paleo and want some sweet potatoes or rice... its not really the same as having 70+% of the meal be carbs and then having it with a sugary drink and 99% carb snacks in between.

Dr. Lutz has a photo of an overweight adolescent boy who was not reaching puberty milestones. In a second photo after 2 years low carb, he lost the weight, reached puberty, and developed muscle tone. (See his book: Life Without Bread)

Kids are picky eaters. Their weight must be monitored. They are exposed to school lunches (a joke) and class movie days, parties, etc. Avoid high fructose corn syrup. Carb addiction is real and begins in childhood. Parents have to decide what is an acceptable balance.

I think that kids should eat low wheat. Ideally, carbs to use are banana, potato, corn, rice, chestnut paste (personal opinion)

I doubt high glycemic foods are bad for kids since they will burn it ASAP. So toxic CHOs should be avoided only.

Also, sugar may be good idea cus it attenuates pain so its OK to use it with tooth growth or injections [we know that it affects opiate pathways]

I see it this way. If you train your kids to eat high carb, then that's the way they will eat as adults too. If you train them to eat low carb, then they are less likely to go high carb and get the diabetes. You naturally resist any change from what you were taught as a child because it is engrained into your mind.

From inuits (very low carb) to kitavans (very high carb), kids and adults thrive on real food. Don't worry about it.

Something from a recent Melissa blog comes to mind. She said the !Kung (or somebody) detest sweets, but their kids, being kids, love sweets. So whenever there's something sweet on the menu, they give it to the kids.

Sounds like a plan. Keep your household sugar-free, but whenever unplanned candy comes your way, let the kids pig out. Just be ready with the handyman tools to repair all the damage those little hyper whirlwinds do.

I think it's important to set the distinction between carbs and wheat/grains. A "functional" paleo diet (see gnolls.org) does not set limitation of the consumption of starchy vegetables (sunchokes, potatoes, sweet potatoes). But no matter your belief on carbs, no one should be eating poisonous grains, wheats, seeds, and the products that contain them.

So a sweet potato, potatoes fried in duck fat, the occasional piece of whole fruit (not fruit juice, or dehydrated/dried fruit), no problem.

But if "not eating low carb" means you're still feeding your child processed foods, cereals, and bread, you should re-evaluate your stance on the paleo diet as that is decidedly un-paleo.

I'll agree that a child's metabolism is different than that of an adult's, but why not look at in terms of how much food you're eating of the same macronutrient profile? If you look at it from a paleolithic standpoint, it's not as if the children ate completely different diets than the rest of the tribe. Once past the age of breastfeeding, children would eat the same thing the rest of their tribe was consuming.

I think it's important to give your kids enough credit and allow them to thrive on the same foods you choose to eat. Otherwise, in addition to possibly negative health effects, you may be setting them up with bad eating habits.

My kid by default doesn't eat low carb because he's still nursing but his solid food choices are decidedly low carb. If it ain't meat, offal, fat, highfat dairy, or veggies swimming in fat he just doesn't go for it. I offer some sweet potato a few times a week and he never eats more than a taste. He does, like some fruit like bananas, though which I never hold out on him.

I think instead of obsessing over macros we should just trust young children to tell us what they need. Sure if their palates have been destroyed with NAD's and artificial flavors then you might need to be more careful, but my child just naturally gravitates towards the more savory foods. Maybe it's because that's what I eat and he tastes it in the breast milk.

I have three kids and my approach has always been giving them a balanced diet of meat,veggies,fruit,dairy and carbs with plenty of outside activity. I can only speak for my kids but I feel all of these things in reasonable portions work well for them, They are growing at a rapid pace and need all those things for energy and strength. Carbs are essential for kids, for adults not as much.But whatever you do with your child's diet is your own business, I can only speak from my experience and what works for my kids.

Im not sure low carb is the answer for kids. I think kids can handle the carbs to burn in a healthy form. Stuff like sweet potatoes, and other various veggies. Obviously you won't be feeding them wheat. I find when my kiddo, who is three, eats sugar in any form she gets a really bad attitude and cries at the drop of a hat over the littlest thing. She survives mostly on bacon hehe. She does get milk and milk products like yogurt, kefir, the occasional ice cream treat, and cheese. We have a hard time getting her to try new things at this stage in her life but we are working on it. In the mean time what she gets now seems to be working for her. She has endless energy without eating a ton of sugar and starchy carbs and doesn't get hungry all the time. She has a perfect body ratio for her. She is super strong and smart..I like to think the way she eats has something to do with that. But this is only experience on our end.

I think it's important to set the distinction between carbs and wheat/grains. A "functional" paleo diet (see gnolls.org) does not set limitation of the consumption of starchy vegetables (sunchokes, potatoes, sweet potatoes). But no matter your belief on carbs, no one should be eating poisonous grains, wheats, seeds, and the products that contain them.

So a sweet potato, potatoes fried in duck fat, the occasional piece of whole fruit (not fruit juice, or dehydrated/dried fruit), no problem.

But if "not eating low carb" means you're still feeding your child processed foods, cereals, and bread, you should re-evaluate your stance on the paleo diet as that is decidedly un-paleo.

I'll agree that a child's metabolism is different than that of an adult's, but why not look at in terms of how much food you're eating of the same macronutrient profile? If you look at it from a paleolithic standpoint, it's not as if the children ate completely different diets than the rest of the tribe. Once past the age of breastfeeding, children would eat the same thing the rest of their tribe was consuming.

I think it's important to give your kids enough credit and allow them to thrive on the same foods you choose to eat. Otherwise, in addition to possibly negative health effects, you may be setting them up with bad eating habits.