Parents Eating before practice - help!

[eakrtk]

Hi all,

I'm hoping the BTDT parents can help me out here! My DS will be starting Grade 1 next week, and it'll be his first time in full day school (Kindergarten is only 1/2 days in these parts!). He'll be in school until 2:30, and then will be training from 4-7 on M and W nights (and Sunday afternoon, but I'm not concerned about that!) I don't know what the best approach to food is...

Should I feed him more of a "dinner" type meal at 3pm? He'll get a snack break at gym, and then something smaller when he gets home at 7:30 (yogurt, cereal etc?) Or a decent sized snack before he goes and a proper dinner when gets home?

By the time he gets home, eats and showers it'll be straight to bed since he needs to up at 6:40 for school. So I just worry about him eating a huge meal and going straight to bed. Maybe I shouldn't be?

This is stressing me out way more than it should! I'd love any advice of what works for your families/kids and bonus points for great pre-gym snacks

 

[LGnyc]

Frankly it's more about what works for HIM, and that might even change from day to day. My dd's practice is 5-9, so I feel strongly about her eating her "dinner" at 4. Usually a protein and a veg. If she's still hungry when she gets home, a small snack.

But on Fridays she's 4:30 - 8:30 and we want to eat together when she gets home, so she has a snupper - in between a snack and supper. Grilled cheese, a few leftovers out of the fridge, but always with some protein.

Snacks:
PB+J
Carrots and Hummus
Apples and PB
Organic jerky

I also always pick up with a chocolate milk, for more protein and muscle recovery.

Good luck. You'll get into a rhythm.

 

[Deleted member 18037]

Really you won't know what works best until he starts. We typically eat dinner around 7:30 so now that practice is 4-7. We eat when her and husband get home. When it was 5-8, she had a small meal before and ate a small meal in the car on the way home.

Now whether she eats before gym is based on when lunch is at school. I also find when she doesn't eat a ton in the evening, she eats more at breakfast so it all works out.

We have a thermos for hot/warm stuff. As to what, whatever they will eat with carbs and protein.

She likes potstickers, ravioli, tortellini, burgers, turkey, cheese, egg whites filled with hummus, tacos, pierogi, ham, chicken, Mac and cheese, meatballs, pizza, shrimp, bagels with cream cheese or peanut butter, stuffed mushrooms, California rolls, fried rice, beans and franks......

I don't get bogged down with what kind of food she eats at specific times. Breakfast, lunch and dinner are the time of day you eat not what. This morning she had leftover meatballs for breakfast.

 

[jillc]

Not much more to add other than I feel your stress because we are going through something similar with 5-8pm practice. My DD has always eaten smaller "meals" more frequently. There is simply no chance she would make it through practice without a full "meal" (for her) before practice. I was worried she would feel too full at the beginning of practice, but it has worked well her first two practices.

Even with the "meal" before practice, she is still super hungry after practice. We only have a 15-20 minute drive home and I didn't bring anything to eat on the way home -- but that was a big mistake! So I brought something the 2nd day and it went much, muc better.

 

[H.J.]

Source of stress for me too -this year, school's out at 3:50 then practice from 420-850. School starts Tuesday so we'll see how it goes. Don't know how I'll get anything of substance in her in those precious 30 mins she has. Yikes.

 

[2gymkids]

We just moved to a 4-8ish schedule and this is our first week of school so we're still figuring it out. So far she's been eating a pb/banana smoothie (milk and yogurt) with some other snack before practice (muffin usually, homemade so it's packed with decent stuff). She brings a small snack to practice but doesn't always eat it. Dinner is either in the car on the way home or a bowl of cereal/fruit/veggie once she gets home. When she was practicing in the afternoon during the summer she was starving at dinnertime but now that she gets home later she's not quite so hungry. We'll see if it continues to work out.

 

[skschlag]

School just started here as well, and ds (9th grade) is in school from 7:30-2:30, bus gets him home at 3:30 and we leave at 4 for a 5-9 practice, home at 10. I have a lot of foods ready togo. Sometimes he snacks (pb crackers, cheese crackers, fruit, veggies, hummus and crackers, etc), sometimes he eats meals (mac and cheese, fried rice, tortellini, chili mac, etc). He eats in the car, and we jsut make sure we have a lot of choices for him. That has helped him a lot.

 

[Deleted member 18037]

School just started here as well, and ds (9th grade) is in school from 7:30-2:30, bus gets him home at 3:30 and we leave at 4 for a 5-9 practice, home at 10. I have a lot of foods ready togo. Sometimes he snacks (pb crackers, cheese crackers, fruit, veggies, hummus and crackers, etc), sometimes he eats meals (mac and cheese, fried rice, tortellini, chili mac, etc). He eats in the car, and we jsut make sure we have a lot of choices for him. That has helped him a lot.

They just figure it out.

The reality is, its not what they eat at one meal or one day. Its how they eat over a week or 2, and unless a kid has issues (I know a few kids who do) it all works itself out.

 

[Madden3]

I agree it will depend on what works for him. This is what we did when my boys were younger and we had a similar schedule - but actually with the commute and timing I had to go straight to the gym from school, sounds like you can go home?

Anyway so I brought my boys a protein and carb rich snack when I picked them up at school. Usually peanut butter or sunflower seed butter, with or without honey, on a rice cake, a piece of fruit, and a glass of milk. Yes I brought them milk in a jar with a lid in an insulated lunch pack, because somehow the milk made all the difference to them.

Then they brought an energy bar with them to gym, and sometimes ate it.

Then they ate dinner when they got home. I also worried about them eating right before bed but it was fine. I have one light eater and one heavier eater and the late dinner has turned out to work fine for both of them.

For a while we tried dinner before gym, but usually they 1) just wanted more dinner when they got home anyway and 2) complained of feeling sluggish at practice if they ate too much before. So we have stuck to the routine of a good snack before gym and dinner after, even now when they have practice every day and much later hours.

 

[eakrtk]

Thanks all for the feedback! I'm sure you're all right, and we'll find our routine, but it feels a bit overwhelming right now. Thankfully, my kid is the least pickiest eater ever. Seriously - he asked I can pack him kale salad and salmon for his first day of school!

He does have a peanut allergy, but I've stocked up on almonds and almond butter. I think we'll try a bigger healthy protein filled snack before he goes and plan to eat a proper meal when we gets home. We'll see how that goes and adjust as needed.

Thanks again, you've eased my "new to this craziness" nerves

 

[skschlag]

Thanks all for the feedback! I'm sure you're all right, and we'll find our routine, but it feels a bit overwhelming right now. Thankfully, my kid is the least pickiest eater ever. Seriously - he asked I can pack him kale salad and salmon for his first day of school!

He does have a peanut allergy, but I've stocked up on almonds and almond butter. I think we'll try a bigger healthy protein filled snack before he goes and plan to eat a proper meal when we gets home. We'll see how that goes and adjust as needed.

Thanks again, you've eased my "new to this craziness" nerves

Boys will typically let you know what they want/need for sure. Welcome to CB and to the fun world of MAG!!!

 

[mommyof1]

When mine was that age and had a similar schedule, I usually gave her chicken before practice and handed her a thermos of milk right as she came out of the gym. We had a regular dinner after practice. A full meal before practice was too much, but some protein was necessary to get her through.

This year she has 4-hour practices immediately after school and we are carpooling straight from school to the gym. I am worried about the snack situation. She is a slow, picky eater who consumes basically nothing unless she is supervised and constantly reminded to keep eating instead of chatting, daydreaming, etc. She will often "forget" to eat more than two bites of food in an entire day, no matter how appealing her lunch and snacks are. Her first evening practice was this week and she came home a cranky, exhausted mess. I have no idea how I am going to get her to eat a substantial snack in the car on the way to practice, especially on the days when another mom is driving.

 

[Deleted member 18037]

Her first evening practice was this week and she came home a cranky, exhausted mess. I have no idea how I am going to get her to eat a substantial snack in the car on the way to practice, especially on the days when another mom is driving.

Don't forget to tie the natural consequence "cranky, exhausted mess" to lack of fuel aka food.

My daughter is usually pretty good about being rested and fueled. When she has moments of no I'll be good (even when I know she won't) I roll with it. And then a gentle empathetic reminder. Gee honey, I'm sorry you are so cranky, and have the hangries, maybe you should of had that snack earlier. She usually self corrects pretty quickly.

Maybe your social butterfly would do better with a protein filled, no chewing smoothie. With a couple of protein bites.

 

[tucktwisttumble]

Back when I was in gym we would drive straight from school (3:30 dismissal) to a 4:00 -8:00pm training.
I would have a snack in the car and then have another snack on our break at practice, and then another snack/ larger meal when I got home at 8pm.
This was 3 times a week. and coaches knew we needed a break halfway through practice for food/snacks.

 

[MAmom]

He will let you know if he is not eating enough, or if he wants more or less of something, especially if he already knows what he likes and doesn't like. Kale is good! My son, almost 11 years, eats a meal at 4 pm before his 5-8 practice and then eats all the way home (20 minutes of eating a banana, Goldfish, raisins for example) before having either another dinner or a bedtime snack of ice cream. It can be hard to fuel him up with enough calories - - he and I strive for them to be mostly healthy ones. But he needs to eat enough since he is burning those calories during his workout.

He's learned that he doesn't like sloshy foods before gym, such as soups or really heavy meals. Doesn't really want them right after either, but that is fine for me.

 

[triplethreat+1]

Last year, my dds were in grades 2 & 4, and they had practice 5-9. They got off the bus at 4:30, quickly got changed and ate a smallish (for them) supper (usually finished it on the way there). They just ate whatever I made for supper, lasagna, fried rice, taco salad, etc. I typically made a crock-pot meal or something easily reheated/ kept hot on gym days. I would say they ate 1/2 - 2/3 of their normal supper. They're not particularly 'sensitive' and it didn't seem to matter what they ate.
For at the gym, they always had fruit juice, piece of fruit or veg, a protein (nuts, cheese, pepperettes, deli meat, etc), plus a small treat (chips, popcorn, fruit gummies, cookie). Then when I picked them up they had milk (don't like chocolate milk) and something like a rice cake with peanut butter.

 

[Madden3]

She will often "forget" to eat more than two bites of food in an entire day, no matter how appealing her lunch and snacks are. Her first evening practice was this week and she came home a cranky, exhausted mess. I have no idea how I am going to get her to eat a substantial snack in the car on the way to practice, especially on the days when another mom is driving.

One of my sons will do this, not eat enough and then be miserable, and in his misery, make everyone else miserable...the problem of not eating before practice is compounded because he will rarely eat the sports bar he brings for during practice. For a while I let him experience the natural consequences of not eating before practice, but finally I put my foot down and told him that he will not go to practice if he does not eat a reasonable snack.

I have found it is very hard to balance getting such kids to eat enough while avoiding over-focusing on food intake, which I believe is unhealthy and counterproductive. Every kid and situation is different and I do not think there are one size fits all solutions.

So the following are just some troubleshooting suggestions.

Maybe you can try first talking to your daughter about the importance of good overall nutrition in an age appropriate way, and asking her to commit to eating whatever the snack of the day is (and she helps choose it) or at least some reasonable portion of it. Then ask the parent who is driving her to remind her to eat her snack, as many times as you think it appropriate? You could also ask your daughter why she is not eating on the way. It may be for a different reason than you think, or it might be for a reason there is an easy solution. If it is about too much socializing, maybe the carpooling parent can impose a 10 minute quiet time on the drive where the kids eat their snacks and listen to music and do not chat. The carpooling parent is acting as the surrogate parent for that drive, because a minor child is under their care, and your kid needs to eat, so I do not think the above is too much to ask of the parent. Also if you talk to the other parent about this difficulty they may have a good suggestion.

A further step (if needed) would be to have your daughter (or the carpooling parent) report back to you what your daughter ate so that you can keep track of her moods, how she feels at practice, and pre-practice food intake. Some kids want proof that not eating harms them, and so it helps if you can provide that proof.

You also may want to talk to her about what she is eating throughout the school day. If a kid is not eating much all day at school, their body is in catch-up mode and even eating a good snack right before gym is probably not going to cut it.

Also we have found that enough hydration is very important for mood (as well as obviously for all the other reasons proper hydration is vitally important.) This past winter I came to realize that my sons were not drinking nearly the daily recommended amount of water for average kids their age- let alone what athletes should consume. We started a water intake chart so they could set a daily goal and track how much they were drinking. After a few months of that they started to remember to drink more without the chart.

 

[Gymmom0824]

We also struggle with this, not only with gym but other sports as well. I appreciate reading everyone's comments and suggestions.