Tuesday, August 5, 2014

Every 2 hours

Enough food? 
This is always a huge question when it comes to children from hard places. 
Are they hording, are they just eating to eat?
I give them 3 meals a day 
And snacks in between,
That should be plenty!

But really,
no mater what the reason,
Dr. Purvis believes and practices,
that our children be fed every 2 hours.

I thought that I had this in the bag -
I have snacks with me all the time,
I pick up the kids from school with a snack
in the car because I know that even driving
a short way to home -
that is enough for their blood sugar to drop,
emotions to fly
and meltdowns happen.

But,
I admit,
I don't always offer a snack every 2 hours.

Soooo, when I went to Sam's Club to get Double Bubble,
I also bought a ton of snack food,
everything from animal crackers,
to granola,
and trail mix.

Getting my kids in the habit of eating every 2 hours has been difficult -
they are used to being told "no",
and being on a certain schedule.

This week 5 out of 6 of our younger kids are at a day camp
for half of the day.
I drop them off at 9am and pick them up at noon.
They get a snack half-way through the morning- so we are good
and normally I wouldn't have brought snack -
as we were heading straight home for lunch...
they could wait!
But after last weeks training,
 I decided that this is something I need to work on.

Picking them up
I let Griggs pick who we would pick up first -
he chose Elijah.

Good  choice!

Elijah was in a great mood and happy to see us!
As we walked around the church to pick up the
other kids -
I saw that he was quickly spinning out of control
and needed to be regulated.
Rather than,
being stern with him - like I normally do,
I handed him a packet of cheese crackers.

and guess what...
that was exactly what he needed.
Even though he didn't know he did.

Was he starving?
Probably not.

Was his blood sugar low?
maybe

Did I just leave him for 3 hours?
yep!

Was his security taken away?
you betcha!

I'm not sure what this snack did for him at this specific time -
but I can tell you that he was then able to calm himself,
use his words,
and talk to me while looking in my eyes.

I will take that any day!  

And since we are talking about Elijah...
here's a funny for you!!!
Sometimes mom just has to pick her battles!
Elijah loves to clean toilets and such -
especially with bubbles!!


Yesterday he got caught writing his name!
haha!!!


I love this boy!


3 comments:

Chris said...

Yup, food! I give spoonfuls of peanut butter...trick is to catch it before they are out of hand.

Everything Beautiful Shay said...

Hey! I heard all this great advice @ Crossings Training back a few months ago and we certainly used the lollipops in China but how do you balance the amount of sugar they are getting? I worry about their teeth too. Any advice from that standpoint? Do you think just offering a healthy snack is the same thing??? XOXO

Jodi said...

Shay, I know what you mean! The sugar in this gum is crazy - but we did the whole - give them a piece of double bubble only for a weekend - now I know which children need it for sensory input and which ones were just having fun with the game. Putting figits out I was also able to see what kids needed needed what figits. :) For eating every 2 hours - we definitely do healthy foods. I have one child who is the professional negotiator - no matter what is offered they want something different - :) But I am leaning what this child is craving so we are making those changes too. Love you Shay!!

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