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Hi everyone, Melissa here. CloudMom. So I read a very interesting piece recently by
a woman named Melinda Moyer about her attempt to raise a sugar-free baby. Looking at my
notes here, here is this woman's theory. It's very interesting. And she went so far as to
delay giving fruits to her baby and gave him pureed vegetables first. Her theory is if
she encourages her baby to appreciate non-sweet foods, he will hopefully crave sugar less
later in life, and we all know the detrimental effects of sugar; diabetes, obesity, heart
disease, not to mention bad teeth. So, while I actually applaud this effort to limit sugar,
I actually will not be prohibiting my children from eating sugar such as Melinda suggests.
And I thought about this and I wrote down my three reasons why. The number one reason
is that in my gut, what happens when you totally prohibit something, is in a way you make it
more attractive. And I think that if I told my kids they couldn't have any sugar, that
as soon as they went to a birthday party and someone plopped down a nice big fat piece
of cake with frosting, they would have two pieces rather than one because they would
think it was prohibited. And I think they would also feel like they were missing out
on all the things that other kids could have. The number two reason is that I want my kids
to actually enjoy all the foods that I loved growing up and that I still love. Homemade
chocolate chip cookies, Swedish pancakes with maple syrup, and a few M&Ms. I just want them
to learn to have two cookies and not 10. I want them to learn moderation, which is not
easy for any of us, but I want to try to teach them moderation. And the third reason why
I won't be doing this is that I would be a flat out hypocrite. I am an Oreo with my coffee
kind of person. What am I gonna do? Hide my cookies in my kitchen and then when I want
to have one, hide it under my shirt and go eat it in the bathroom? I mean, what kind
of example does that set? So I'm not willing myself to lead a sugar-free life. I feel that
life is hard enough. There are already too many other things we're not supposed to do,
so why make life even harder? So that is my reaction to this article on raising a sugar-free
baby. But I want to hear what you're doing when it comes to sugar and your kids. So please
comment on my blog on CloudMom.com. You can also tweet me @CloudMom. Thanks for joining.