Udder time

Field trips were one of my favorite things when I was little, loved them! Alex loves them too. In fact every child I know loves them. Yesterday's was a busy crazy fun filled day at the Children's musuem. Another parent and I, who I know from Tiger Cubs, were in charge of 7 boys and one girl. That one girl was more trouble then the seven boys put together. She ignored us, ran away, was stubborn in every way, and refused (!) to listen. Her parents have their hands full with her.

Another parent joined our group with her son who is Autistic, but highly functioning. We ended up carpooling there and back and we of course got to talking about Autism. Let me tell you folks, the numbers are scary. And they keep getting higher. We talked about diet control, sensory issues, immunizations and are they the root?. We talked fears, joys, and troubles with schools. We just talked like moms. The entire conversation ran parallel to another conversation I had Friday night with a group of moms. We discovered that two of us had really hard labor and delivery, and our two sons were so similar in attitude and "issues". Trend here?

We talked about all the food additives that are factors in behavior and all the ways you can make your household food healthier. I am and was amazed at what people don't know or just don't think about. Or horrors, don't care. Like pre-shredded cheese, don't you ever wonder why it doesn't stick together in the bags at the store??? Some people say it is coated in wax, others say a small amount of plastic. All I know is it is gross and I don't want to put that in my families tummies. Red dye #40 has so many links to health issues, but kids foods are packed with it. Which also makes me think about all the foods that are out there that are dyed for our eating pleasure. Yogurt is not meant to be neon pink. GROSS, personally I think Mother nature has provided us plenty of color to choose from. I could go on about the crushed bugs in foods used as additives (see it isn't a mistake at the processing plant) and coloring agents, and I could talk about high fructose corn syrup, but I won't. Because you are big kids and can google it yourself.

Does this mean that I don't buy foods with gross additives in it? NO, I just try to make the right choice, but sometimes nothing will do but frozen pizza bites. I say buy what you want, but start reading the food labels. Start making small changes, like buying sandwich breads that are 100% whole grain (whole wheat doesn't count, it has to be whole grain) AND be High Fructose Corn Syrup free. We have only found one, Pepperridge Farms. Maybe start buying block cheese and shredding it yourself. It is super easy if you have a Cuisineart. Add veggies to anything you can, like pasta sauces. Last night I snuck in red bell pepper, green bell pepper, onion, garlic and mushrooms. Everyone loved it. Go Veggies.

After the field trip the kids ate lunch in the classroom. Alex is one of 5 kids who brings his lunch daily. Most of the kids eat school lunchs, and man I could go off on this. I recommend seeing Jamie Oliver's School Lunch Project if you haven't. Bleck. Anyways, more kids brought lunch yesterday due to the field trip. I counted 7 Lunchables in that room. SEVEN! All I could think about was the sodium intake and the food colorings and the waxes and the empty calories those kids were scarfing down. Alex always wants lunchables, so we make our own and use a plastic tray that we saved from one actual lunchable. At least I know the meat is better and fresher and I know the cheese isn't coated and I know the crackers are better then others because I purchased healthier ones. *sigh* Then there are the yogurts and puddings in tubes. Ugh. And of course the requist piece of candy in each box. AND juice pouches filled with sugar water, not juice.

*sigh*

People need to start caring about what they feed their kids.

Be educated. Don't take the convience food outlet when it really is your families health on the line.