We have been on a very interesting healing journey with our #5. From almost the beginning, around 2 months old, Ryan has been our little sufferer. He had silent reflux and some other issues. We (he + me) never slept, he could never be set down, constantly restless, all the things. Being that this was not my first rodeo, I knew this wasn't just a clingy baby. He was not feeling well, but being that he was considered a healthy weight, meeting milestones, and no other determining factors, I didn't have a lot of support from the pediatrician.
After the advise of several friends and desperation, we started taking him to a chiropractor around 6 months old, which seemed absolutely foreign to me and out of my comfort zone. We, then, started a path of natural medicine through the practitioner when he was closer to 18 months old. He made so many strides and we started seeing his little personality poke through and him beginning to play and have more better days.
In the long game of that journey, our family has learned a lot of natural medicine and remedies. We went from our kids constantly being in and out of the doctor's office and at least one kid or more on antibiotics every other month to now in the past 2 years, we've had no sick visits (minus this story below) and not one of our kids has been on antibiotics in two years now. I also want to note for the Covid years, we have been living life normally down here at the Florida border.
Fast forward now to 3 years old and he is in a better place in our journey. He's still not one hundred percent, but a vastly different kid.
We, recently, took our kids to a military celebration of a neighbor, who arrived home after a year deployment. There was a bounce house, fun, a snow cone truck, lots of treats, juice boxes, etc. Our kids participating in it all, of course.
Ryan was sitting on Kyle's lap when he had what is called a mini absence seizure. His eyes rolled up and went back and forth for a few seconds, but no abnormal body movements. It definitely scared this Mama bear no less.
Longer story short, the culprit seemed to result from his sugar getting too high. Hence, the party eating in that episode. This answer felt scary to me. I cried in the appointment. It felt overwhelming to think our child could be looking at pre-diabetic symptoms at 3 years old, but thankfully, we already have some successful alternatives that are working for him in healing the body and praying he will live far from these ailments.
In the meantime, our family had to make some changes....
I've always been a super conservative Mom when it comes to sugar intake in our home to begin with, so this felt like an equal blow. It's something I have always tried to watch in our home. I suffer from autoimmune and have learned the ugly sides of sugar and I wanted to teach our kids young to not over indulge and learn healthy eating habits as they grow into adults.
I think all the grandparents have always been the most frustrated with my practice because I'll cut off their spoilings after a moderate amount.
My husband and I don't drink sodas. It's never in our house. Our kids have never tried a Sprite and just recently tried a Gatorade. Our kids are allowed watered down juice at lunch time. Water and milk the rest of the day. Desserts after lunch or dinner are seldom or special occasions and we don't do cereals and sugar at breakfast, except Saturdays.
But starting to look at labels of what I was allowing or passively allowing our kids to consume, down to instant oatmeals, pasta sauces, and ketchup was still unsettling, and taking away some of the few treats they were allowed to have, at least mostly with a 3 year old, is hard to bargain with. Change is never easy especially these sweet treat ones.
At three years old...how was I going to do this in an easy way where I didn't have meltdowns and stalemates over loved snacks and try to offer what seemed less appealing foods in the process with our already hard eater?
The answer: Hot Wheels cars!
Ryan being only three, I didn't think he would understand or grasp my words, but I had to communicate the changes, so I told him frankly even though the verbiage felt big for his age. 'Ryan, your body does not like sugar. It doesn't make your body feel good when you eat it. We are going to have to start making healthy choices. That means, we are going to have to start giving up some of our foods and treats for healthier foods like....'
I was surprised at how well he seemed to take it in and understood a fair amount. I, honestly, didn't have that expectation. Sometimes I wonder if we just don't give kids enough credit, even at three years old!
I decided I would instate what we learned from our "Yes, Mommy! Yes, Daddy!" days when we taught our youngers how to establish respect at young ages. We started obedience out with incentives for two weeks and then took away the incentives and still acquire the behavior after it becomes more instilled habit.
So Ryan and I made a trip to the store. We went to the Hot Wheels aisle and we picked out a bunch of $1 Hot Wheels he loved. He's a cars guy! I let him know that these are going to be our 'Healthy Choices' cars and he will get them as rewards when making good choices.
A huge point I also learned myself from autoimmune diets is you have to stay focused on what you CAN eat and NOT what you can't eat, so I applied this as much as I could with Ryan. Positivity matters. We are eating to live well.
The first morning of going sugar less went great with Ryan. He ate chicken for breakfast. He was very positive and even tried a new food at dinner, which is huge for this guy, who has several food aversions. First day, I presented snack time with saying, 'Hey, we can have x, y, or z. Which one would you like?' instead of approaching him with, 'Hey, we can't have this today, but you can have this instead.'
I was surprised how well Ryan was doing, honestly. He's our hard kid. It seemed funny how setting an expectation and following through with it, seemed to go, but there always came that moment when we would have a stand off. He would become focused on having an old snack that he was no longer allowed to have. He would start fussing as a 3 year old does (I would want to too. I mean it's hard for adults too!) and it seemed like it's circles... that meltdown spot...and that's when I would break out a "Good Choices" Hot Wheels cars!