This week my house is going on a sugar purge. Lately my daughter has been earning a D rating…D as in downright disrespectful, disobedient, disagreeable, defiant daughter (or as my child psychologist aunt says, very “attention seeking.” Mind you she is not like this all the time. In fact, often she is a very sweet little girl who loves to cuddle in your lap, read books, and create imaginative stories with her blocks and doll house. Yet on occasion it’s like a little devil comes out in her and when that little devil peaks her head out from within, it’s awful…and embarrassing. What’s worse, she is often at her peak when we have company; this past weekend’s family visits were no exception.
We’ve tried everything we can think of to guide her to make the right decisions but to no avail. It has definitely given us a whole new perspective on understanding the “sinful nature.” All that to say, the only thing we can somewhat connect her unacceptable behaviors to is her intake of sugar. So, this week we are going on a sugar purge.
No sugar…of…any…kind.
I needed to spell that out for my own accountability more than hers. I mean, think about it. Eliminating sugar completely from your diet is no easy task. Take cereal for example–name one kind of cereal besides the original box of Cheerios that does not have sugar within the first three ingredients. Or what about peanut butter? Only a few brands can be found that are completely sugar free. And snacks…no granola bars, no yogurt, no graham crackers…. Sugar is now integrated into nearly everything. If they could figure out a way to add it to pears they probably would.
Even as we begin our sugar purge and hope for positive results, I’d love to hear your stories. Have you ever had a strong-willed child who gave you some extra challenges until you found the connection to a food, event, or person? How did you encourage them to do what is right? What was the turning point that made the difference in your child’s behavior?
I realize that until Peanut knows and loves the Lord Jesus as her personal Savior, sin will continue to rein in her body. Even so, we are still responsible as parents for training her in righteousness…I just wish it were easier, you know?
Hi! Welcome to Cornerstone Confessions. My name is Kathy Gossen and I'm a full time homemaker learning about what it means to be a godly woman in the everyday. On Cornerstone Confessions I share my adventures in organizing, homeschooling, cooking, parenting, and more as a means to encourage other women in their quest to becoming a Titus 2 model in their homes and beyond.
My son is very strong-willed. My husband and I have been going back and forth about what to do. Our church encourages parents to read the book Shepherding Your Child’s Heart by Tedd Tripp. It has given us a lot to think about and practical goals to reach with our son. It could be something you could look into. It seems to be helping us. Good luck on this venture.
We have read that book. Definitely a good one.
Kathy
I have a cousin who is extremely hyper and high energy as well as a bit strong willed and mischievous (he is now an adult and still that way
He is also very allergic to red dye 40 (I think that is what is called) I have never personally seen it, but I heard that before they discovered this allergy whenever he ate the red dye he would be a complete terror. And I have heard that this is a common reaction to red dye (and remember purple has red in it too). You may want to think about some of those sugary sweets she had. Were any of them red? It may be worth a try. How is the sugar free thing going?
We have avoided red dye for awhile as even our doctor shared that red dye has that common reaction in children. The other one on the list–gluten. Who’d have thought?!
As far as how we are doing, we let her have one small cookie last night and that is it. So far, we are behaving great. A totally different little girl…not the holy terror of sugar days. Now I’m not going to say she’s not hyper anymore. That’s just her nature but she is now not “a complete terror” which everyone is very thankful for. That just did not fit her sweet personality.
Kathy
I didn’t see you specify as to what kind of sugar you are eliminating? ALL sugar in any form (even unrefined, such as Sugar in the Raw), or just corn syrup and high fructose corn syrup? If it’s the latter two, I can give you brands to avoid (i.e., all, if not most Kellogg’s, most Quaker products), and brands to look for (such as Whole Foods peanut butter or their fruit and grain bars which I think are completely sugar free, save for the fruit). Even banking, extra sugar isn’t needed if you, say, use bananas for substituting the fat or the eggs.
We are not really sugar free, but just avoid corn syrup and high fructose corn syrup. (We also avoid palm oil, artificial colors, artificial flavors, hydrogenated oils, partially hydrogenated oils, and anything that looks as though it was created in a lab by humans and not in nature by God. I’m vegan and over all, we, including my meat-eating husband, just generally avoid junk when we are shopping. We’ll buy white flour in say, the whole wheat tortillas we got at Meijer today, but whole wheat was listed before wheat. We also do this with the Meijer wheat saltines as they are a cheap, easy car snack for the kids.
Anyway, I hope this helps. (If you are close to Whole Foods and/or Trader Joe’s go there. They are great. We live two hours from them and when we go, we stock up as we used to live in Columbus, OH and shopped there regularly while my husband was in seminary.)
Wow. Thank you for the tips. Yes Whole Foods is great. Would love to have a Trader Joes in Oklahoma but none yet. We are avoiding unrefined sugars as well as HFC as much as possible. It’s really making a big difference. No more emotional blowouts. Thank goodness.
That said, we do still use honey on occasion but in much more limited quantities. We have found that even cereals at Whole Foods have a sugar challenge. Finding any cereals that do not have a type of sugar listed in the first three ingredients is next to impossible! So, we have come up with other breakfast alternatives that have been much better anyway.
Thanks again for the tips.
Kathy
I was avoiding that stuff five years ago when I was pregnant with my first child. (Even two years before that, as I had been vegan for that long, but I got pickier with my first pregnancy.) That was when I was buying organic ketchup because it was the only kind that did not have CS or HFCS. For the past couple of years, we were able to find Hunt’s with out CS or HFCS. However, it appears that Hunt’s is going back to HFCS– Something I have complained about on the Facebook page.
I’m not a total “freak”. When my husband and I go to our favorite bar and grill, I’ll get either sweet potato fries (I don’t think they are healthier than potato fries, but I like the taste) or potato skins without cheese and sour cream.
Anyway, I’m glad I’ve been of some help.
Hunts is going back to BFCS?! Ugh! That is no good. What a bummer. They were the exception. I’ll definitely add my complaint to that.
I would definitely say we are not totally freaks about it either. Last night we all had some iced animal crackers at our park picnic…a special treat knowing that today was an at home day where we could run it off. Thanks again.
Kathy