14 Comments
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Becky Karush's avatar

I mean. The candy. Anything that lists “organic giggles” as their first ingredient is telling you straight up it’s a con!!

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Mara Gordon, MD's avatar

🤣🤣🤣

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JRS_RDN's avatar

Well said! We need more MDs to think like you! 🙏❤️

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Mara Gordon, MD's avatar

<3

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A Gal Somewhere's avatar

The class reproduction analysis is spot on. A final frontier for me in letting go of food rules was letting my kids eat Cheetos. But the other day when my daughter wanted Cheetos in her school lunch, I said no, she could have them after school. Why? Because I didn't want the teachers judging me for letting her eat them, or other kids saying to their parents "but mom, L. gets Cheetos!". Not proud of it--but trying to give myself some grace since 2016 me cannot BELIEVE there are Cheetos in my house

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Mara Gordon, MD's avatar

I totally, totally empathize…. I feel the same way. It can be hard to unlearn some of the class associations around food.

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Elizabeth Heydary's avatar

I was on a family trip for my FIL’s bday last weekend and the food stuff on display is very anxiety provoking- I have talked to my SIl about what we do but my husband comes from a family of athletes and they just have a lot of food stuff in their family of origin- the kids on this side are two almost 8 yos, two 5 yos, and a 3 yo. My almost 8 yo niece wasn’t with us this weekend.

The drama was about s’mores- we were in the mountains and we had a fire but due to a lack of stores up there we usually get dollar general candy on the way in when we get our milk and the kids had split a bag of gummy worms. So because they had gummy worms the rest of the fam determined they couldn’t have s’mores. And we had them like after lunch the next day which was good because we had a big fire but I don’t understand the rigidity of “one treat food.”

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Mara Gordon, MD's avatar

Oh gosh, this sounds like a LOT! Traveling/staying with other families seems to bring out a lot of food feelings...

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Meredith's avatar

Such food for thought as a pediatrician! Thank you, this has me thinking about some of my own stock questions to families a little differently!

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Mara Gordon, MD's avatar

Thank you!!!! I'd love to hear what you're thinking about and how you might phrase the questions you ask of your families. <3

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Jennifer H's avatar

I was reading the reviews for that "healthy candy", and it turns out that it's not even allergy-safe because there's cross-contamination risk. Really, for $20???

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Mara Gordon, MD's avatar

No thanks!

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Oona Hanson's avatar

Another great essay—and right up my alley, as you know!

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Mara Gordon, MD's avatar

Yes! I can't wait to read your book, Oona!

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