In Pursuit of the Good Things for My Children

It's a constant battle finding good food and drinks for my children.  They are very picky probably just like any other child.  The problem added to my children are two medical conditions that lower immunity in both.  My seven year old's epilepsy poses many problems from epilepsy itself to migraines to insomnia to sicknesses quite frequently.  I did not know about the immune issue until I was invited on a few epilepsy Facebook groups and exchanging posts on that factor.  Apparently, it's pretty big with epileptics.  My three year old has a very serious pulmonary issue.  When she catches a cold, on average, every one and sometimes every other one, will land her in the hospital.  She crashes fast and the only cure is oxygen and liquid steroids.  She also starts coughing with just a little elevated activity and has who is deemed as the nation's national expert of childhood asthmas, puzzled.  He just prescribed Advair but after reading it has not been approved for children under four and it also has a black box warning, I am waiting for my next appointment with him to discuss.  Due to deaths, per the blackbox warning, I'm not comfortable putting her on it.


I probably rambled a bit but it set the background as to why I need to really find better alternatives to my children's love for sodas and McDonalds.  I found the pursuit of eating more natural or organic had to occur in baby steps.  It wasn't anything that I could just turn a switch without a revolt.  I started going to Earth Fare and loved the set up. It reminded me of a European market full of good, wholesome and fresh foods of every variety.  It was that one day, they had samples of Pirates Booty available and my girls loved them.  Success!  I found I could exchange one bad snack for something natural, no preservatives and prepared better for them.  I kept going to the store hoping for more samples and more new choices for the girls.  Unfortunately, the snack aisle is the only one that I have been able to convert so far.  I'm going to keep trying.

My next step was sneaking foods into their meals which did not work.  I followed the directions exactly but they did not like them.  As an alternative, I'm purchasing organic meat and milk without the hormones as well as whole wheat bread products.  They enjoy their Juicy Juice which is excellent since it is 100% natural juice and given the increased increase of natural products, there are now great selections of natural cheese from Sargento to Kraft.  It's nice to see the corporations are listening and understanding as parents or just people, we want healthy foods and not foods laden with antibiotics, pesticides, processed and refined foods, hormones and so forth.  The next step is removing and replacing GMO foods.  There are a lot of controversy going on about GMO foods.  If you think GMO foods are new, it's a misconception only because it's becoming more well known.  GMO (genetically modified) have been around for years.  I just have a problem consuming something where man has altered the genetic code either for increased production, more robust crops, disease and pest resistance qualities.  It seems when man tinkers with things for us, it makes it bad for us.  I'm finding that organic foods are putting "non GMO" on their labels so I have to watch for those.

Next is water.  Dr. Mercola, a leading authority of healthier alternatives, just sent an e-mail with the latest updates and this one included the continued controversy over bottled water.  Not only due to it possibly containing the same harmful chemicals as regular tap water but the connection to the various and sometimes fatal health issues from BPA plastics.  The harmful BPAs leach from the plastic into water and this also applies to the home filtration systems.  From what I read, the best approach is using glass.  I don't know why we just don't return to everything being in glass as it's healthier and there are no leaching concerns or at least until they learn otherwise or alter the manufacturing process.  They do drink water so I will have to switch them over to using a glass container to store and it's time to throw away all the plastic drinking cups unless they are BPA free.



Vitamins are a tough crowd to be in around my picky ones.  After many, many attempts of finding the right ones, they have settled on the Disney Fairies Gummy Vitamins.  I've tried other gummy vitamins but for some reason they won't eat them.  They taste just as good but they have just started on the second bottle so at least they are getting something good.  They also get their Vitamin D from being outside and milk.  The allergist prescribed 15 minutes of sunlight a day which is hard in the winter but I make sure they get that on the warm days.

As a parent, it's so hard to give your child what they need to thrive, ward of serious diseases and to learn healthy habits to take into adult hood.  When they are picky, it's even harder and I'm still in pursuit of getting them to eat more vegetables and fruit.  So far, they just like carrots, corn, potatoes and bananas.  I have a long way to go!