how to limit the NOSH???!!!

amother

Wed, Mar 12 2008, 7:47 pm

my daughter who is three will be giving out some shalach manos of her own to pple in out neighborhood.
how do I limit the nosh she gets?

I cant just say one from each bag b/c in addition to that there will also be nosh in shul at the partyy they are doing.

if I say 3 candy's all day she might reach that qouta at early morning.

how can I limit it without an all ensuing tantrum all day?
when also all the other kids she sees will be munching on something too!

mimivan

Wed, Mar 12 2008, 8:08 pm

If you make the limits clear from the beginning...there shouldn't be a need for her to have a tantrum...I find my son only has a tantrum when he feels I am undecided and thinks he might win. Decide for yourself ahead of time the limits, tell her the limits, and don't give in to whining..

It works... Wink

(however, if you are not accustomed to establishing set limits on things like this...it might be a power struggle at first. Don't give in to whining or crying and you should succeed iy'h)

miriam

Wed, Mar 12 2008, 8:28 pm

All year round, our family doesn't eat food coloring so it makes it really easy to limit junk on Purim. Just let her know that she can have some junk but when you say no more, that's it. It shouldn't be that different than setting limits in other areas of parenthood.

Squash

Wed, Mar 12 2008, 11:17 pm

I just heard of this great idea:

buy off junk nosh from your kids. on shushan purim, go to the toy store/prizes store and they can buy a prize with the money.

I introduced this idea to my kids and my son is so excited about it. he's already dreaming of what he'll buy.

cassandra

Wed, Mar 12 2008, 11:26 pm

Three is pretty young, and I think it's still young enough to do what I do with my kids:

Let them take what they want and then when they aren't looking hide the rest.

My kids like candy when it's present but don't ask for it when it's out of sight. So I try not to make a big deal about it when they have it, but I get rid of it at the first chance. (I don't throw it out for a while in case they DO ask. Then we would have serious trust issues.)

And one day of a little too much candy isn't the worst thing in the world.

gryp

Thu, Mar 13 2008, 10:17 am

I plan on keeping the real garbage out of sight, that'll be easy, I'll just dump it where it belongs when we get it, before he sees it.

Plan 2 is to buy healthier alternatives and trade with them anything they do see. Fruit-juice lollipops, raisin boxes, 100% juice boxes, pretzels, homemade hamantashen, and maybe I'll make up a trail mix of dried fruit and nuts that they can snack on

Plan 3 is to let them have something if they have their hearts set on it.

Plan 4 is to tell them that we are going to save the rest of the treats for Shabbos. Hmmm, maybe I'll set up baskets, one for what they can eat on Purim and one for what to save for another day, and they can have fun deciding for themselves what treats will go in which baskets.

amother

Thu, Mar 13 2008, 10:38 am

What is one day of nosh gonna do to them? many kids look forward to purim all year cuz it means they can eat all the nosh they want. why would you want to deprive them on this special day?? one day of junk food is not going to harm them in the long run, and between me and you, there's only a certain amount their stomaches can handle! they'll end up stopping on their own. but I say- let them have fun!!

smile

Thu, Mar 13 2008, 10:43 am

We let them have nosh just not the hard sweets. First of all because of the teeth and secondly because ones my dd swallowed it and couldn't breathe properly. She had to sick it out. Puke

What we do is that we tell them that if they give us those sweets then they can choose something else and will give it to them. Works very well.

gryp

Thu, Mar 13 2008, 10:49 am

My kids aren't deprived of treats, believe me. But the word "treat" has a different meaning in my house than in other homes. "Treat" does not have to be synonymous with junk.

shalhevet

Thu, Mar 13 2008, 11:08 am

First, I once heard a good tip. On Purim morning, before the mm gets started, give your kids a filling and reasonably healthy breakfast, but still special. I give mine chocolate milk and rolls.

After that I give up. Seriously, if you limit it to one day a year, nothing is going to happen. About two hours before the seuda I tell them that's it, so they will have room for the seuda (wishful thinking Rolling Eyes

) Once they are chinuch age (5-6) they have to eat a kzayit of bread at least, and now I have two bas mitzvah girls. But once Purim is over they have to save leftovers for Shabbos etc.

Personally I think that all these ideas of 'trading' for toys or for healthy snacks are just going to make all this junk even more attractive, once it's the 'forbidden fruit'.

Mimisinger

Thu, Mar 13 2008, 11:12 am

I'll never forget this past succos. I was at bil and sil's for succos and tatty bought LOADS of junk for the kiddies. Well, they were very excited, had a few licks, a few bites and he BEGGED for cherry tomatoes!

chayitty

Thu, Mar 13 2008, 12:52 pm

I find that with all the themes we dont get half the amount of nosh we got when I was a kid.....I also start them off with breakfest and then let them have wat they want....they dont see everything....and I find that theyre not even intrested after a lil nosh....

qeenB

Thu, Mar 13 2008, 4:08 pm

I generaly limit my kids nosh during the year . however on purim I let them eat whatever they want because thats the whole fun of the day. and yes there were years that my kids vomited up everything because it is not good for them but thats part of the fun.