Get the Jump on Halloween!
Last October, Dr. Pretlow was interviewed by another website for an article titled, “How’s this for scary, kids: Little or no candy on Halloween.” One of the interesting points made in the article was that the American Dental Association polled a bunch of kids (ages 5 through 13) and learned that well over half of them […]
An Early Start on Halloween
Halloween can be a horror for an overweight kid. It’s all about doing the exact thing she or he is not supposed to do — acquire and consume a bunch of sweets. But it’s also a lot of fun, and why take away any potential fun by skipping the holiday altogether? In fact, the enjoyment […]
Childhood Obesity Halloween Prep
Let’s get an early start on Halloween this year, shall we? Before we start buying candy for parties and trick-or-treat, stop and take a breath and plan ahead. Because when a Web post shows up the day before Halloween, no matter how many great alternative suggestions it might contain, it’s already too late. That ship […]
Last-Minute Halloween Hints
As we head into the season that encompasses the traditional American Big Four — Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year — and a number of other ethnic, religious, and cultural holiday festivals, let us reflect on the words of psychotherapist Stefanie Barthmare, as quoted in ScienceDaily: If you use food as a crutch, this time […]
Will Childhood Obesity Kill Halloween?
Since First Lady Michelle Obama’s mission is to end childhood obesity, it’s interesting to note that cookies, trail mix, and “White House M&Ms” were the trick-or-treat goodies distributed at the presidential Halloween celebration, which apparently was not attended by the First Children. (The picture, by the way, is from a satirical website. If these are […]
Halloween Proximity Alert: It’s a Childhood Obesity Issue
Poor old Halloween! It has been criticized for years on other grounds. More recently, the anti-Halloween sentiment centers around the health aspect. Even people who don’t want to abolish Halloween would like to radically change its nature. In Edmonds, CO, they have a newly established custom promoted by local activist Corey Colwell-Lipson. In her family, […]
Rethinking Halloween With SAAD
The variety of Halloween costumes available for babies is amazing. Here are only a few of the food items a baby can be disguised as: taco, banana, chili pepper, hamburger, hot dog, pizza slice, lobster, roast turkey, ketchup packet, gingerbread man, Tootsie Roll. It wasn’t easy to find a picture of a baby dressed up […]
Allergies, Addiction, Childhood Obesity, and Halloween: All Scary
“In the interest of fighting the childhood obesity epidemic, I’ve decided to eat all the Halloween candy I bought.” Just kidding. The line is from Someecards, a company that devises — you guessed it — greeting cards in electronic format. The picture above is not the ecard, by the way. The boy in the picture […]
Life Hacks for Parents
Try to look at every parenting annoyance as a challenge, and every challenge as an opportunity, and see what happens.
Sidestep the Winter Holiday Blues
The food-as-hospitality equation is beautiful but also dangerous. Ideally hosts should refrain from goading their guests into consuming more than they wish to.