My Babies Eat REAL Food

Can you believe that in the U.S., 1 out of every 3 kids today is overweight or obese?

It’s true. Pediatric obesity is a growing epidemic in this country.

What’s more, being overweight during childhood and adolescence isn’t only uncomfortable and embarrassing for many children, it also GREATLY increases their risk of developing high cholesterol, hypertension, respiratory ailments, orthopedic problems, depression and type 2 diabetes.

Problems that NO parent wants for their child.

Precarious Beginnings

My twin toddlers, Christopher and Ryan, had pretty rough starts.

We spent the last 90 days of their gestation in a Dallas hospital, where doctors and nurses fought to keep them in my uterus.

I was injected with several anti-contraction medications, steroids, and who knows what else in an insane effort to keep them growing inside of me until they were viable.

The twins were born six weeks early and ended up spending the same amount of time in the NICU (neonatal intensive care unit) after their birth.

What’s more, eight days after their birth, Christopher had to have a very complicated, but life-saving, open heart surgery for a condition that, thankfully, he was diagnosed with before birth, hypoplastic left-heart syndrome.

He’s had two open heart surgeries so far and two angioplasties. He’ll have a third open heart surgery around the age of 3.

They’ve had a difficult road.

I felt incredibly helpless those first six weeks.

All I could do was sit at their bedsides, pray and hope for the best.

I had absolutely no control over their well-being. All I could offer was my touch and my presence.

When I finally got them home, though, I knew that there were several things I had control over. Countless ways that I could make a difference in their little lives.

Fueling Their Bodies with REAL Foods

For one, I could ensure that their little bodies were fueled by nutritious foods. Real, whole foods. Not the fortified “food-like products” that are heavily marketed toward children and their parents.

They’re 16-months old now and I can actually count on one hand how many times they’ve eaten anything that’s come out of a box or can.

Instead, their diets consist mainly of fresh, whole foods. And I think it’s due to their diets that they’ve seen very little sickness their first 16 months.

They’ve each had two short-lived colds & Christopher’s had one respiratory infection. That’s saying a lot, especially since Christopher has a compromised immune system.

I’ve always been an avid student of nutrition, but since the twins, I’ve become even more so. And because of this, I want to share what I’ve learned here in hopes that my knowledge and experience can help other parents… and children.

It’s Our Responsibility to Educate Our Kids About Nutrition

I feel strongly that we need to educate not only ourselves, but also our children on the powerful effects of food.

Condition their impressionable minds and palates so that they grow to love the taste of foods that strengthen rather than deplete…

“Let food be thy medicine, and let thy medicine be food.” – Hippocrates

We need to talk to our kids and explain the profound effect food has on their bodies. And what they can expect from good food choices as well as poor ones.

We also need to be good examples.

I’m not saying that our kids should never have a pizza, hot dogs or ice cream. What I AM saying is that a majority of the time (for my family, it’s 90+% of the time) we should strive to make healthy food choices.

There are also PLENTY of healthy alternatives out there.

Healthy alternatives that actually taste GREAT.

Stay tuned to find many of these alternatives here.