Our son puked at his first Thanksgiving Dinner… at the house of my husband’s family. (Insert head smack here)

You know how there are moments in life that seem to move in slow motion?

Our son was sitting at the dinner table, on the lap of my husband’s aunt when we heard the retching sound. Time slowed down. Our son puked all over her, the Thanksgiving dinner table, AND onto their carpet. And it wasn’t just milk spit-up. Mom guilt moment: I think I was more concerned for their carpet than for the health of my son initially. I’ll work through that guilty memory with my therapist.

Time sped up and there was a hustle bustle and the carpet cleaner was pulled out.

I was mortified. Our son seemed fine at that point. I snuggled with him and prayed that it was just something that disagreed with his tummy, again wishing for some kind of scanner that would tell me what was wrong and what to do.

Here is one simple tip you can use to improve the chances your kids stay healthy over the holidays:

Cut down on the sugar in their diet.

Studies show that spikes in sugar intake suppress your immune system. Wait! What?

I know, I didn’t know either and sugar is basically in almost every packaged food we purchase. Know Better, Do Better. Once we know sugar is lurking in most packaged food, we can use that knowledge to make different purchases. Buy whole foods. My friend Felicia is always saying shop the perimeter of the store, that’s where you’ll find the whole foods. It may take a little time to learn how to make some quick & easy, wholesome meals, and Mama, if I can do it, You can do it.

Look at those labels Mamas. Sugar has many different names, like:

Here’s the other tough part

Our bodies love refined sugar because it is easy to process and convert into energy. Our bodies love it when our sugar intake makes it easy to get by, so we have sugar cravings. I once eliminated all but low-sugar fruit from my diet for several months and then had a piece of birthday cake. I craved sweet stuff for days. Truth.

So, if our kids are used to having a sugar-rich diet, how do we reduce the sugar in their diet without them turning into little sugar monsters?

We can do things like switch out processed sugar for fresh fruit. Kids love colorful things, so mix fruit like fresh mandarin orange pieces, blueberries, strawberries, kiwi, banana slices, and watermelon. Definitely, the sweetness flavor is different and I promise that eventually we help retrain our sense of taste to recognize the sweetness of fruits. Fresh fruit will become their new normal for sweetness if you stick to it.

TIP: arrange the fruit in designs to make it more fun:

• Arrange the fruit in a smiley face
• Arrange orange segments to make a butterflies
• Arrange it by color to make a rainbow
• Make a fruit pizza with no added sugar cream cheese and tortillas
• Cut fruit into shapes like stars
• Invite your kids to make designs with their fruit before eating it too

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