A decade ago, when my oldest son was a toddler, I monitored absolutely everything he consumed. He never had excessive sweets, soft drinks, sports drinks, etc. This was the same for my other three. But now, fast-forward to life with four children and the kids splitting time between their dad’s house and mine. Maybe it’s the busyness of life, the excitement of the holiday season or mom guilt, but I’ve come to the realization that I haven’t really been monitoring the kids’ sugar intake, like, at all. Oops!
Don’t get me wrong; I’m not saying that my four-year-old, Cove, has been totally pumped full of sugar, but at the same time, I cannot confidently say that we have been consciously monitoring how much junk food and candy he has been eating each day. I do know it is definitely not the same as when my first born was Cove’s age. We do not drink soft drinks, a lot of sports drinks, nor a lot of junk food. We have lots of fruit, baked crackers, and only water and milk at the house, and lately, seemingly more candy than we ever have. Cove also has older siblings who apparently have been bribing him with…you guessed it, candy. As a mom and ringleader, I have been working really hard to help my Baby Bear, who reminds me he is not in fact my bear (cue the tears) to make better decisions.
So last week, I talked to the big brothers after making a firm decision to cut out all sweets for Cove. We already limit dyes, but we cut those out entirely too. After a couple of days, I received numerous comments about Cove acting like a different child, and how they have never seen him sit still and I noticed it too! He hasn’t been a rambunctious four-year-old — he’s mellowed out.
All this to say, if you’re noticing your child is a bit of a wild child and always has so. much. energy, don’t forget what snacks they are eating and how much candy they are consuming as this plays a major role. It may sound silly that you could forget this, but it happened to me and it could happen to you too.
