Posted by mareserinitatis in food/cooking, older son, societal commentary.
Tags: food, hypoglycemia, older son, younger son
I have a major irritation that flaired up today: parents who feed junk food to their kids…or, more importantly, my kids.
Yes, I do realize it’s Valentine’s Day and that such an occasion requires force feeding large amounts of sugar-laden artificially produced stuff to small people, as was the custom when I was in school. However, some of the parents went overboard at younger boy’s school and provided a chocolate fountain. I also realize they brought healthy stuff to dip in it (like strawberries and bananas)…but I don’t understand why they didn’t just bring the strawberries and bananas while leaving out the chocolate fountain.
Before you accuse me of being heartless (ha!) Scrooge, I am not some health nut who only feeds her kids macrobiotic foods (although I do see the wisdom in that). My problem with this is that my kids are hypoglycemic, and I’ve suffered for years with parents bringing cookies and crap like that for snacks at school.
For the older boy, his hypoglycemia results in very angry outbursts. Some of these outbursts got him sent to the principal. The younger boy, however, will be bouncing off the walls and unable to focus. If we hadn’t determined the food connection, I’d swear up and down that he’s got some sort of ADHD that comes and goes.
On the other hand, I don’t think it’s just my kid. I’ve had teachers discuss with me how a LOT of kids seem to get unfocused after having particularly high levels of sugar.
That being said, if you are a parent, please think about these things when bringing snacks. Good foods would include things like crackers and bread, cheese sticks, nuts (if no one has nut allergies), whole fruit, beef jerky, celery and carrot sticks.
Things to avoid: yogurt pops (they are LOADED with sugar); most granola bars – also loaded with sugar, although the Kashi brands aren’t too bad; fruit juice…you may as well being giving them kool aid; cookies and cake are just plain out.
We’ve made an agreement with the younger boy’s teacher that he has cheese and crackers in his backpack. If the snack tastes sweet, he’s supposed to have his cheese and crackers along with the snack to prevent a huge blood-sugar spike and crash. Prior to this agreement, my son would be coming home from school half the time, unable to concentrate on any thing aside from a video game.
I realize most people’s kids aren’t as sensitive, but it makes sense to me that you’d want to avoid unnecessary sugar anyway. However, that doesn’t seem to be the case, and it’s amazingly frustrating to deal with on nearly a daily basis. So please – before you buy the frosting-covered cookies from the bakery, see if there isn’t something even marginally less sugary. My kids and I thank you.
I also blog at Engineer Blogs, home away from home to some of the best engineering blogs.
A Note to Parents: Healthy Food February 15, 2012
Posted by mareserinitatis in food/cooking, older son, societal commentary.Tags: food, hypoglycemia, older son, younger son
1 comment so far
I have a major irritation that flaired up today: parents who feed junk food to their kids…or, more importantly, my kids.
Yes, I do realize it’s Valentine’s Day and that such an occasion requires force feeding large amounts of sugar-laden artificially produced stuff to small people, as was the custom when I was in school. However, some of the parents went overboard at younger boy’s school and provided a chocolate fountain. I also realize they brought healthy stuff to dip in it (like strawberries and bananas)…but I don’t understand why they didn’t just bring the strawberries and bananas while leaving out the chocolate fountain.
Before you accuse me of being heartless (ha!) Scrooge, I am not some health nut who only feeds her kids macrobiotic foods (although I do see the wisdom in that). My problem with this is that my kids are hypoglycemic, and I’ve suffered for years with parents bringing cookies and crap like that for snacks at school.
For the older boy, his hypoglycemia results in very angry outbursts. Some of these outbursts got him sent to the principal. The younger boy, however, will be bouncing off the walls and unable to focus. If we hadn’t determined the food connection, I’d swear up and down that he’s got some sort of ADHD that comes and goes.
On the other hand, I don’t think it’s just my kid. I’ve had teachers discuss with me how a LOT of kids seem to get unfocused after having particularly high levels of sugar.
That being said, if you are a parent, please think about these things when bringing snacks. Good foods would include things like crackers and bread, cheese sticks, nuts (if no one has nut allergies), whole fruit, beef jerky, celery and carrot sticks.
Things to avoid: yogurt pops (they are LOADED with sugar); most granola bars – also loaded with sugar, although the Kashi brands aren’t too bad; fruit juice…you may as well being giving them kool aid; cookies and cake are just plain out.
We’ve made an agreement with the younger boy’s teacher that he has cheese and crackers in his backpack. If the snack tastes sweet, he’s supposed to have his cheese and crackers along with the snack to prevent a huge blood-sugar spike and crash. Prior to this agreement, my son would be coming home from school half the time, unable to concentrate on any thing aside from a video game.
I realize most people’s kids aren’t as sensitive, but it makes sense to me that you’d want to avoid unnecessary sugar anyway. However, that doesn’t seem to be the case, and it’s amazingly frustrating to deal with on nearly a daily basis. So please – before you buy the frosting-covered cookies from the bakery, see if there isn’t something even marginally less sugary. My kids and I thank you.