Birthday parties in school

www.thelighterweigh.com

As those of you who know me already know, I am against parents bringing unhealthy treats for the class to celebrate their child's birthday. Our children are exposed to so much fattening temptation and there is no need for us to make it worse. I can't tell you how many children have cried in my office because they are trying to lose weight and are faced with 'birthday cupcakes' weekly. On the one hand, they want to be good but it is hard to resist when all the other kids are scarfing them down. Why do we need to celebrate with fattening food? Wouldn't birthday watermelon suffice

I believe that a parent has the right to send whatever they want to for their own child. Let the parent give the birthday child a birthday cupcake. But it is not right for a parent to give somebody else's child a food that his/her parent may not allow.

Okay- so that is what I believe. But that is not the rule and all the parents bring in birthday treats. It is now my daughter's birthday. What do I do?

This is a real issue and besides being a pediatrician/child weight specialist, I am also a mommy. Do I really want to be the only one to bring in fruit? It's one thing if that is the rule; it is quite another thing to have the whole class annoyed that Danielle's mommy didn't bring cupcakes. I wish that wouldn't be the case, but I know it would be. And how would Danielle feel?

I have been struggling with this for days. Here is the solution I came up with. Instead of making large or even regular size cupcakes, Danielle and I made mini-cupcakes and I used applesauce in place of half of the oil. There are 17 children in her camp class and we made 40 mini-cupcakes. I plan to serve each child one cupcake but they can have more if they want more. Psychologically, the children are more likely to eat one mini- cupcake and be satisfied than they are to eat half of a larger cupcake, even though they would be eating the same amount. I am very curious to see how many of the three year olds go back for seconds. By doing this, I feel like I am not being completely hypocritical (just slightly!) Everything is okay in moderation and there is nothing wrong with eating a mini-cupcake. Thirty years ago, they were probably considered regular-sized cupcakes.

So- it will be an interesting experiment. I will let you all know how it turns out. I am also interested in hearing your thoughts about all of this.