I'm married and with young kids and I have to agree with what Bryanc said - it applies to our family anyway. We've tried to feed kids 'healthier' alternatives of stuff, but ultimately, they sense that we, as parents (my wife and I) think that this type of snack is 'OK' and they demand it more and more as a food and less as a snack. When we give them candy, they know it is a snack, and a relatively occasional one at that. Maybe the problem is with the attitude I convey to my kids. So now snacks are, for the most part, fruits and sometimes nuts, that we cut and put in front of them. When we do this, we find they'll eat the apple, pear, etc, whereas when we give it to them whole, we see it being met with resistance. Just our family's experience. As families and kids, vary, so will yours I'm sure. If you can control the kids urges for the Balance bars and it truly serves as a replacement for soemething else that is calorically similar (since they are very calorie heavy), I'd do it. But we can't control that in our family dynamic, so we avoid it.
Bryan, what would a post be without my disagreeing with you on something? [img]smile.gif[/img] Who do you know who is going to overindulge in a bag of baby carrots? Like most other fruits and veggies, consumption is self-limiting: your body will sense that you are full because of all of the fiber and water well before you overindulge, calorically speaking. Your bowels will make sure you don't overindulge on carrots like you would on a bag of chips. [img]redface.gif[/img]
