Friday, September 07, 2007

hyperactive

Back in the 70s, one of the kids in my day care group was forbidden from eating additives and preservatives. That meant that he was on a special diet. He couldn't eat the food that the rest of us ate. Like hotdogs. The only reason it sticks in my mind was that I remember he was served a peanut butter and jelly sandwich in a hot dog bun - that seemed to so wrong to me. I still hate non-purposive bun usage.

And why couldn't he eat the hot dog for which the bun was intended? Because his parents claimed the chemicals in it would make him hyper. Crazy hippies. He wasn't badly behaved, at least from what I can remember. But he had to suffer a PBJ on the wrong bread.

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Turns out my nursery mate's parents had the right idea. Apparently all that gook in the food will make kids go crazy. I heard about this in the news briefly and thought - hmmm, as a parent*, maybe I should check that out, maybe you know - do an Internet search. But I didn't, I couldn't seem to stay focused. I dunno, coulda been the fruit loops.

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Fortunately, The Crone Speaks did link the story.

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* hey, I think that's the first time I've used the "as a parent" phrase.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Kids really are allergic to food additives. A little girl at my old church was allergic to red dye in food. Almost all manufactured food has red dye in it.

If she accidentally ingested a small out of red dye, the kid hit the roof, and it took a team of adults to control her.

There probably is something to only feeding kids organic or homemade food. When I worked with kids in the past, it was always shocking to see how many additives and preservatives they eat with their sugary cereals, wcokes, snacks and Lunchables by noon each day.

Vol Abroad said...

Oh I definitely agree that the processed food they get is terrible crap. And it doesn't surprise me in the least that kids do better off that stuff. And it's not just the chemicals - it's the total lack of nutritional goodness in many of these products.

Furrow said...

And all the Baby Einstein. Don't forget the Baby Einstein.

I'm getting seriously bummed. You mean I'm not going to be able to use television and Lit.tle Debb.ies as baby sitters? This parenting thing is starting to sound like a lot of work.

Vol Abroad said...

It's really all about informed choice. The junk food, I'm going to try to do in very small doses. The tv as baby sitter....the sooner he learns how to use the remote the better.