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Birthday party – the new way!

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The post Birthday party – the new way! by Natalia Stasenko appeared first on Feeding Bytes.

I was born outside the US and before I moved here a few years ago with my husband and daughter, I was not very familiar with the birthday party traditions. Like a typical 3 year old, my daughter managed to make more friends over a summer than I probably did in all my life and we got invited to at least a dozen birthday parties that year.  I remember very well the first party we attended together. It was a simple and warm celebration for a small group of friends. When it was time for a treat, a delivery man brought 3 big boxes of steaming plain pizza (just cheese and tomato sauce) and everyone happily helped themselves washing it all down with apple juice. The dessert was a vanilla cake with chocolate frosting. Simple, unpretentious and still tasting pretty good. The next birthday party was just around the corner and I was a little surprised to see the same menu for the little guests: plain pizza and vanilla cake. This time I also noticed that different food for adults was paced on a side table. The third, forth and fifth party followed and, as you probably already guessed, the food for kids always remained the same, whether the party took place at 10 am or 4 pm at somebody’s house, in a gym or park. Needless to say, by the end of the year, I was not very enthusiastic about the simple unadulterated taste of plain pizza and vanilla cake although this was exactly what my kids were craving at parties.  So why and how should we break free from this “pizza+apple juice+plain cake” birthday trap? I do not think that eating pizza or vanilla cake once a week is going to wreck havoc in your or your kids’ health. And I am all for enjoying  treats at appropriate occasions like birthday parties. Here are the things that worry me: 1. Positive associations that are formed between a particular food such as pizza and a special and fun occasion. Because the food served at parties is always the same, kids begin thinking: “Pizza=fun” or “Pizza=hanging out with friends”. By the time our kids are in college pizza will be probably available in vending machines and I doubt that they will be waiting for their friend’s birthday to indulge. 2.   Lack of variety. Variety is crucial for good eating habits. Most likely, as our kids grow up, they will not turn miraculously into healthy eaters unless we do our food parenting job properly when they are small. Jenny Craig’s menu (a weight loss system for adults delivering prepared meals) in the US features kids’ favorites like mac and cheese and burgers while French dieters indulge in beef bourgonon and filler de merlu . Isn’t it another argument that pint-size picky eaters with limited palates grow into adults who are also picky eaters with limited palates? Interestingly, looking at different ethnic communities around the world it is obvious that kids can be as adventurous […]

The post Birthday party – the new way! by Natalia Stasenko appeared first on Feeding Bytes.


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