Fighting the Good Food Fight with My Son
A co-worker wrote passionately about the food battle she and her son are now facing…together. We thought something so personal might best be shared anonymously as a guest blog:
My 10-year-old son weighs more than me. Most parents of multiple kids have wondered at one time or another how kids can turn out so differently when we raise them the same.
I shake my head at how this twist of the gene could’ve happened to my little boy after having 3 girls with normal body weights. For a while I blamed myself as I watched him hungrily devour food like I’d been starving him, but I have finally come to realize that the problem is bigger than me, a genetic disposition shared by my 350 pound brother that I (weighing in at about 105) don’t understand. Can he fight this battle on his own? Do I give up and blame it on genetics? Do I just push him into football and hope for the best? Our family eats “healthy” food, or so I thought, so what else can I do to help him?
My son’s world revolves around his next meal or snack. He loves to eat, and quite frankly, he needs to eat. If you know that look in your child’s eyes when he or she is tired or sick, you can relate to the look I see in my son’s eyes when he needs food. He needs it and doesn’t have the “I’m full” cue to turn it off. So, at the suggestion at my dear coworker, Sophie (queen of our blog), I took my son on a field trip to Whole Foods. I told him that I wanted to teach him how he can eat as much as he wants if it’s the right kind of food. We had a great time looking at all of the fruits and vegetables he had never seen before. I have to admit that when we put Daikon in the cart, I wasn’t quite sure what we were going to do with it. We found multi-colored carrots, a huge pumelo, herbs, and the best tasting strawberries ever. We ground our own almond butter and strolled through aisles of unidentifiable products. We had a great time and then grabbed lunch from the Whole Foods deli before heading home to take the first step on a long journey. A journey toward satisfying an insatiable appetite with whole foods. A journey for my not-so-little boy’s health. As we began to wash and cut up all the goodies from our adventure, his eager smile told me that it’s worth fighting the good fight of food for my kids. Anyone struggling with the same issue?
