I just received a newsletter from my daughter’s former pediatrician. It starts out pretty bland talking about how Fall is in the air and they are ‘busy working hard to keep our kids healthy and also take care of them when they are sick”. Then, of course, they proceeded to push their flu shot clinics. But that didn’t surprise me.
Wellness with a hefty side of sugar?
Something did catch my eye, however. It was a photo of a child with a cute turkey type craft. At first I thought how cute is that – maybe I will make that with my daughter this weekend. Then I noticed the statement they made intro-ing the recipe:
“This is a fun project for little ones and a yummy after dinner treat.”
Then I read the recipe and my jaw dropped:
Ingredients
- Double Stuff Oreos (2 per turkey)
- Small Reeses’ Peanut Butter Cups (1)
- Whoppers (1)
- Candy Corn
- White Frosting
- Black Frosting
I was incredulous!
Why would a pediatrician’s office be promoting this garbage as an after Turkey Day dinner treat for your kids? These processed candies in no way help ‘keep our children healthy’. Way to wire them up on high fructose corn syrup, chemicals, and GMOs right before bed! And what child would even eat their special Thanksgiving dinner with this sitting at their spot staring at them with that sweet chemical sugar smell screaming “SAVE ROOM FOR ME!”.
This is a serious failure in helping encourage healthy eating habits in children. This is why our kids suffer. The examples are set by the adults and in this case a doctor.
Eating sugar is a sure fire way to reduce your immune system allowing illness to take hold. I will stick to my goals of keeping my family healthy with real food this winter season and every season. Here is how I do it. I am so glad we left this office over two years ago. And I will now promptly unsubscribe.
What do you think? Does this sort of thing make you angry?
My son came home with two of these babies when he was in a group class the other evening. Not only do people not understand how we’re trying to keep our kids healthy, but they don’t really care about consulting me when they think the kids would enjoy it and have fun. Although I try to not freak out too much (if my kids bodies have been kept healthy enough, one little treat won’t throw them over the edge), it feels like it’s going to be a long road to make the positive, healthy changes that we believe in in today’s society.