June 29, 2010

Sugar Babies

I am not anti-sugar. After lunch, I'm happy to give my daughters a little candy or "fruit snacks" as a dessert. I let them have cookies every now and then. When I give them juice, it's not always 100% natural... mainly because the real stuff seems to upset their stomachs.
Still, I try to limit their sugar intake. Sue Sue has decided she wants Pop Tarts every single morning. Every two or three days I steer her toward something else... French toast, waffles with peanut butter, regular toast, anything but Pop Tarts. When the girls do have Pop Tarts, I try to level the playing field by also giving them some fruit... raspberries, blueberries, grapes... it's still sugar, but it's natural so that has to be better, right?
Unfortunately, the occasional sugar rush is inevitable. Take the other day, for example. We went to an early morning birthday party. In my opinion, all birthday parties should be held at 10 am so kids have a chance to run off the sugar! The birthday girl had a beautiful butterfly cake. I swear the pink and purple frosting was two inches thick. Most of the kids had a few bites and then ran back to the attractions of the children's museum where the party was held. My girls, however, were full of bliss... they ate every stinkin' piece of their cake. The casual observer would think they never get sugar. Anyway, the party favor was a huge butterfly cookie which coordinated with the cake. As soon as they finished their cake my girls asked to have the cookie. Not. A. Chance. We saved the cookies for the next day. They had a slight sugar crash after the cake and after the cookies, but it wasn't anything too dramatic.
The interesting thing is my daughters are getting to the point where they sometimes stay away from sugar. Sue Sue is now requesting options other than Pop Tarts without prodding. Sometimes after lunch they don't want candy. Some days they'll turn down popsicles. So while I doubt they'll ever turn down birthday cake, I'm hoping they're starting to learn it's OK to say no to sweets... no matter how tempting they may be.

5 comments:

MaryAnne said...

My kids won't eat cake. I have no idea what is wrong with them, because it's a trait they most certainly did not inherit from me. Instead, Johnny thinks he should live off of milk and milk alone (he will accept ice cream as a substitute) and Emma rarely chose to eat anything before her fourth birthday. I used to schedule play dates for lunch time, because she was more likely to eat if her friends were eating...

Quadmama said...

No cake?! Actually, after their first birthday my daughters wouldn't eat cake at birthday parties for the longest time. I think they had such a sugar overload that day they just could bear to eat any sweets.

Stephanie Barr said...

My son won't eat the cake, just the frosting, and rarely a whole piece of that. Actually, what both my youngest love are crackers and salty things. Popcorn? They're in heaven.

Quadmama said...

I've been known to scrape off some of the frosting... so thank goodness mine will eat the cake part, too!

MandyE (Twin Trials and Triumphs) said...

I think there's a balance to introducing your children to the sugary treats of life, but trying to guide them to eat those things only as a treat. Since the girls were born, the thought of buying a big box of sugar cereal, or making a pitcher of Kool-Aid, makes me shudder...but I want to let the girls experience those things (the same things I ate growing up) in moderation.

One of my girlfriends jokes that her mom never let her have anything "sinful" to eat, but as soon as she learned to drive, she went straight to the grocery store, stopping by a fast-food restaurant on the way home, to indulge. She swears that's why she a little tubby today. HA!

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