How many carbs should a child eat per day?

I have a 9 year old who need to loose weight she is atypical child a picky eater I want to start to limit her carb intake and try to get sugar out of her diet she is very active. I do not want to do anything that will harm her growth. I would like to know how many carbs a child should eat during the day that is healthy. I am a diabetic and I am doing well on about 20 carbs a day I lost 18 pounds in less than a months time. I do not want her to dramatically loose weight I am interested in her to learning to have healthier eating habits.

Keto Foods

[email protected] asked 5 years ago
last edited 5 years ago

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Answers (1)

Hi! I am certainly not a nutritionist so I only offer thoughts on this. Does she eat relatively clean now? I don’t limit carbs for our boys (5 and 6) but I do watch what they eat. I do my best to keep their diet free of dyes and lots of packaged foods. They have come to love fruits and salads. They are both picky too but I do find lots of the meals they used to love can be made into a keto or paleo version with minor tweaks. If she doesn’t already have gluten and processed sugars out of her diet, I would start there. I personally would not limit my kid’s carbs, especially at this impressionable age. I’m working to teach my boys about eating intuitively and naturally. If they want to leave the dinner table saying “I’m full” I never tell them “no you aren’t.” I also realize that kids are sneaky and may say that so they can go play, so I’ll say ok but you have to sit here until we are done eating and I leave their plates there. They aren’t allowed any other types of snacks if they didn’t finish their dinner, they eat from their plates at the table. I hope that makes sense. Another thing we try to do is not reward them with food. This teaches them that sugar is a reward for doing something good. Please know that my husband and I don’t obsess over this with our kids but we do stay aware of what we tell them. I’m an emotional eating coach so I guess I can’t turn that off when it comes to helping my kids learn to eat. 🙂

I want them to have a healthy relationship with foods but also to know which foods fuel their body and which just taste good as a sometimes food. I hope this helps answer your question. 🙂