Feeding Your Child A Cookie Should Never Be Called Child Abuse

shutterstock_97384268I love eating healthy. Nowadays, I may fall into the category of a #cleaneating mom because I have had to change my child’s diet dramatically in order to control his allergies and eczema.

Even though I prepare elaborate whole food meals and take Spirulina supplements like a devoted granola mom, I’m still human. I still love to binge on Cheetos about once a week, and I try my hardest not to judge other normal humans who also eat whatever they damn well please. I’m talking processed foods.

Sure, processed foods aren’t the healthiest thing you can put in your child’s mouth, but who’s one to judge? Who out there is the purest of the pure to cast the first stone against a child eating junk food?

I’ll tell you the answer to this not-so-hypothetical question. I stumbled upon an interesting Huffington Post article about a father’s encounter with a judgy health food zealot in the grocery store. The story went a little something like this:

A couple weeks back we went grocery shopping. My son was having a good day and he got a cookie at the store. He told the baker “thank you,” like I make him do every time. While he was eating his cookie, a woman dressed in workout clothing looked at me and said…

“That is child abuse!”

I looked around to see if a child was being yelled at or being hit, but saw no one. Then all of a sudden, while she made her next comment, I realized she was talking about me…

“Do you even know the ingredients in that cookie? Feeding your child any processed food is child abuse!”

Holy quinoa, would I be livid if anyone ever spoke to me like that about giving my child a cookie in the grocery store. If I was in that situation, I would be especially mad because I spend the other 23 hours in the day breaking my back to cling to some semblance of a clean eating diet for a picky two year old. One cookie treat on one random day of the week is in no way child abuse.

The father in this story shares my sentiments. He went on to say that he does not normally eat processed foods as he used to weigh 400 pounds. He has kept 200 pounds off for five years by eating a healthy diet, which has encouraged his family to do the same. So again, judgy, CPS-crazy lady in the grocery store who called processed foods child abuse had absolutely no clue what she was talking about.

I have to admit that there are times when I get a little ”concerned parent” about kids who are blatantly fed junk food and sugary soda at a young age, without any understanding of a balanced diet. But in any event, it is still not my place to judge. This story is even crazier as the stranger in the grocery store upped the ante. Giving a child a cookie is not child abuse by any stretch of the imagination. Not only did this woman insult legitimately abused children everywhere in need of help, but she needs to learn to mind her own business.

(Image: Mindy w.m. Chung/Shutterstock)

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