Food and kids

Food and kids!

Okay, I knew this was going to be a big one for me as a parent. Kids are given candy left and right in this country. I remember attending a birthday party during one of our visits here for a 3 or 4 year old. First, there were candy on the children's plates. Then, there were popsicles. Then cake. Oh, and then I think they maybe actually served some hot dogs. Well, things have been pretty similar this time around! Candy is given out constantly to kids.

We just came back from a week long camping trip with 5-6 other families here in the summer. To be fair, it was summer here, and summer hours are apparently different from school year hours. But, let's just say, breakfast was sometime around 10-12, depending on when you and your parents woke up. Lunch was never before 4 pm. And dinner was about 9 pm. The kids were given cookies and candy throughout the day between breakfast and lunch, but rarely did I see a healthy snack. Oh, and you want cookies for breakfast? Here you go! Nutella? No problem!

We eliminated artificial colors and flavors from our kids diet about 2 years ago. It is not cheap, nor is it easy, but it resulted in an improvement in behavior from the kids. So, when they mentioned in kindergarten they would be serving chocolate coins at a holiday party, and Trader Joe's and Whole Foods had already sold out of the natural ones, I made my own for Noah. That is how important it was to me to maintain the diet. Well, here artificial colors and flavors are everywhere and in virtually everything. I have yet to find a yogurt without artificial ingredients. Brightly colored popsicles are inevitable at any social occasion. It is a battle that is impossible to win. I finally brought my own real ingredient popsicles to the last social occasion, and that turned out okay, but it is just impossible to ward it all off. At the camping trip, the kids would appear with all sorts of candy in their mouths -- chocolate, lollipops, gummies... It is absolutely futile to avoid these. So I have given up for now. And yes, the behavior has been worse than normal too.

Now the boys are in school in Chile. In pre-K, we were given a sort of menu to follow for snacks. It is great -- fruit one day, cereal one day, a sandwich, and yogurt. Friday is "free". Well, first grade is another story. Noah has reported to me that all the kids bring junk food -- packages of cookies, packages of potato chips, etc. One thing he described as a "hamburger made of candy", which I can only guess was an alfajor (similar to a moon pie). You can even go over to the kiosk at school and buy colorful lollipops, packages of cookies, and other junk food. Snacking here is abominable. Peanut butter on crackers, or other less offensive snacks are rarely to never seen.

Perhaps it is not surprising then that Chile has the highest rates of childhood overweight and obesity in Latin America. And it is rising. How high is it? About 1 in 5 of children ages 3-6 is overweight, according to data from the Encuesta Longitudinal de Primera Infacia (ELPI) 2012.