Heart Patients in the Making

[velvetpage]

I saw a mother, her baby (about one year old, I think) and the baby's father, presumably, on the bus today. The mother weighed at least three hundred pounds. Now, I am no featherweight, but neither will I ever look like that! I wouldn't care what she had looked like, though, because that's between her and her doctor. The problem was the contents of the baby's bottle and food tray.

Pop and French Fries, respectively.

Now, my daughter has had the occasional sip of pop. Most of the time, it was her aunts giving it to her, and I protested loudly. She has never had pop (as far as I know) in a glass, and if I ever learned she had been given that by my sisters, they would be fired as babysitters, at least for a while. The occasional French fry has come her way, too.

The problem here was that the baby was given a whole fast-food carton of fries. Not the small carton, either. A super-size one. When the mom realized that the baby had apparently finished her fries, she took the bottle and filled it with coke from her own glass.

I have trouble believing that a) there was no reasonably baby-appropriate food in the child's diaper bag; b) the mother appeared to consider these offerings baby-appropriate; c) this didn't appear to be a first or an occasional thing; there was no sign of exploration, only the same nonchalance the baby would have expressed at finding milk in the bottle; and d) that the father was doing nothing about it, either.

Parenting should be a required course in high school.

Comments

[velvetpage.livejournal.com]

Of course, I have to be careful where I go with role modeling, because I don't always eat that healthily myself. Still - I do better than to feed my baby fast food! And when I buy stuff to take with us in her diaper bag, it's fruit cups, fruit-to-go, cheerios and raisins, even animal crackers or whole-wheat digestive crackers. As you say, it's negligence not to have items like that on hand.

[sassy-fae.livejournal.com]

Mmm, I love digestives and animal crackers (arrowroot cookies in animal form, yum!) I think it's not too bad to try little bits of junk food when you're little. If you're never allowed any, it's just another thing to rebel against at puberty :D

[velvetpage.livejournal.com]

That's my theory, too. I let her taste crumbs of chocolatey stuff, and if there's cake at a party, she gets some. She regularly bakes stuff at Oma's house (and often brings it home to share - yum!) and she's not lacking for treats. The trick is to teach kids that junk food is okay for a treat, but it's not a food group and it can't take the place of healthy foods. That means having it available, in small quantities, and trusting them to know some limits - or setting some, if they're too young for that. I think part of the reason I like my junk food so much is that it was such a luxury when I was growing up - we just couldn't afford it. I didn't start to gain weight until my disposable income reached the point where a chocolate bar was a near-daily snack. If more had been available at home, it might not have been a problem.

[sassy-fae.livejournal.com]

"junk food is okay .. but it is not a food group"

I hinestly think a lot of kids don't know that. Or some twist it around like "chocolate has milk in it!" or "chips are made from potatoes!" (I can recall a few times where I tried to justify my snacks that way) :D

I love this, I wish it was big enough to be my desktop: http://community.webshots.com/photo/46099036/52432968sDIdtg

[velvetpage.livejournal.com]

I've done stuff like that too. What's needed is better education of kids and parents. As aforementioned, a parenting class.