photo credit: aJ GAZMEN ? GucciBeaR
I was going to respond to Picklebum’s post about Falling from a sugar high with a comment, but saw an opportunity for a post of my own.
My son responds to sugar (or is it certain additives?) in a negative way. I first noticed it when he had some lemonade and he started going quite silly, more silly than normal. From thereon I only let him have the Natural lemonade – one without the extra bits. I can’t remember the brand at the moment but it seemed to help negate the sugar high. He has since grown out of this so a glass of lemonade when we go out for dinner is okay by me.
There are two other instances when having a bunch of lollies was not a good thing.
The first was at a colleague’s leaving do at my workplace. There was the obligatory plate of lollies on the table and probably because I was too busy to see what he ate, he’d eaten a whole bunch of them. The sugar high hit when the speeches were being made. As the volume of the people in the room dropped to listen to the speeches, JJ’s volume rose and he got the dreaded ‘shoosh’ from someone. I thought, bugger it, I’m staying. He mustn’t have been too out of order otherwise I would have left while the speeches were on.
The other time was when we were at a party and he gobbled heaps of green jelly beans. I must have been feeling lenient that day because normally I wouldn’t let him eat this many but I knew he’d eaten too many when he starting vomiting green liquid while standing in the middle of a group I was a part of. It was a bit like the exorcist just much funnier – only because the vomit was bright green. I pretended I didn’t know who he was only that didn’t really work because they all knew he was my son. Luckily we were outside and he didn’t vomit all over someone’s carpet and all was forgotten pretty quickly.
Generally I try and oversee the junk food consumption when we’re out but it’s not always easy and when I see a whole packet of lollies being emptied into a bowl at any party I just cringe. He’s a bit easier to reason with now and I don’t think he’ scoff too many in one sitting especially if I said not to. But then as he’s older now the sugar thing doesn’t seem to affect him anywhere near as much as it used to.
Recently we were sitting down to dinner and The Surfer was around too and JJ informed me that I didn’t pack him enough in his lunch box. I asked him what he wanted, as if I’ve never asked him before, and he said he’d like some raw carrots. Ever since, I’ve put two raw carrots in his lunchbox in addition to the other bits and pieces. What I’m trying to say is that he’s a pretty healthy eater but I remember the time when it was an effort for him to eat vegetables at all. I had to really work at getting him back into eating them – after all he lived on mushed vegies when he first starting eating solids!
For the record he eats a HUGE breakfast – a bowl of corn flakes and about four to five weetbix. I serve him the same size meals as myself and he’s only eight, nearly nine. I don’t want to think about what he’s food intake will be when he’s a bit older but I’ve already told him he’ll be getting a job as soon as he’s legally able to, to help pay for the food he’ll eat.
A week or so ago I was sent four huge blocks of Cadbury Fairtrade certified chocolate. The PR company that sent it to me wrote on the note ‘Hope you like chocolate’. Ummm, yes, I love chocolate thank you very very much.
