Mini Me

My son was running around at his friend's ninja birthday red faced and wild. Happy screams and the smell of pizza filled the air. A mom from his class walked by with her 4 year old daughter in adorable matching mom and me floral outfits. It reminded me of my childhood and a Laura Ashley floral dress with puffy sleeves I wore. No wonder my mom didn't want to match. It must have been the sleeves. 

I'm guilty of wanting to have those like mother like daughter moments and thinking that my girls are juuuust like me. The one place I've learned to avoid this is with food. 

I was reminded about this when my son came home with some notes from his teacher on yummy and yucky foods. She gave the example that if she eats a lot of sugar she doesn't feel very good or have a lot of energy. I used to think my kids felt similar to me after eating certain foods, too. 

Guess what? Kids have a very different metabolism and their bodies handle blood sugar a lot differently than yours. Just because YOU might feel like you don't have energy after eating birthday party cupcakes, take a look around at the energy level at your next birthday party. I think you'll see most kids are doing just fine in the energy department and, NO, studies don't show sugar makes kids hyperactive. You'll have to blame that post party meltdown on the overstimulation of the event and not the overflow from the pinata. 

Match your mini to your heart's content, but don't assume your mini and your body have the same reaction when it comes to food. That doesn't mean you can't help your child learn about how different foods help them feel more satisfied. It just means you can't shame your kid for eating something that you couldn't tolerate for whatever reason. It also means that you don't want to label your foods as good or bad or yummy or yucky. You don't want to yuck someone else's yum. 

Let kids be kids and make their own food choices.

Match outfits and not metabolisms.