Yesterday, picking up my daugther she told me she had Pokémon cereal for breakfast. That seemed like a horrible idea. So, I looked it up. 12 grams of sugar per 1 ¼ cups of cereal. Zero natural sugar. 12 grams of added sugar. Plus, zero anything even skirting nutritious. She literally had 12 to, one can assume, 48 grams of a bowl of sugar to start her day.
When she comes here it takes 1-2 days to detox / reset her. It takes that time for her body and brain to adjust. She has become an experiment in of the effects of health, wellness, nutrition, sleep, sugar in a child. It is heart breaking.
Every first day she is here is a practice in patience and calm. Adjusting to child that is up and down. Depressed. Sad. Crashing. Asking for sugar and sweet throughout the day. Finding ways to sneakily ask me for those little hits, knowing my options will be carrots, hummus, frozen fruit, soup, crackers. Anything to get food to her that is not dipped, laced, coated, baked, frozen, or free basing sugar straight from the spoon.
This is frustrating and it makes no sense. Making these choices for a child. Before this gets accused of shaming. Her mom is upper middle class, or higher. I am financially below the poverty line. Talking about these choices are not shaming, they are a choices purposefully being made eveyday. Her nutritional habits should be growing and progressing. Instead, she has regressed significantly from where she was just a year and half ago.
There are multiple articles online about sugar and the affects on the brain. Here’s one that is scientifically based The Negative Impact of Sugar on the Brain (verywellmind.com). It is easy to find “influencers” that are talking about this. Those are read to. I see my daugther uncontrolled. Then depressed. Then begging for sugar. Then crashing. Then just wanting anything to eat. Then just trying to get something, anything sweet. We get through the first day any way we can.
She will wake up soon. Her mood will be better. Her attitude will be better. She will want to read and play. She will slowly regain her equilibrium and become the person I know her to be.
Every morning I pick her up, I write in my two-minute journal: Be patient. It is not her fault. Be calm. She not in control of her actions or mood. Focus on getting to tomorrow. It will be better. I must write that, or risk forgetting and react to a child not in control of her emotions or actions.
It helps. It does not make it any less hard to watch.
Posted. Not Perfect.
A Vegan Father, navigating a non-vegan world.
A Better Father 