Stashes and binges and such
There was a point about a year and a half ago that my youngest son started eating LOTS of ice cream. Lots and lots. I was worried it was "emotional eating". I was worried about the effect on his health. I was worried, in general. Thankfully, due to reading on unschooling lists and being around unschoolers, just worrying in my head and not out loud. And the worrying wasn't constant. I know he could pick up on my energy, but I figured smiling and enjoying his enjoyment of the ice cream would help toward ameliorating that.
I wanted to stop worrying, so I took some time to really look at him, at his life. He was (and is) really, really happy!! I figured, if he was eating for emotional reasons, it was working! And who was I to control how he handled that? He did gain some weight - but I read how lots of 11-year-olds get plump, then grow, so I didn't worry about that. That's *exactly* what happened with him! He grew close to 3 inches in just a few months then, and had a similar growth spurt recently. At 12, he's almost 6 feet tall!
My oldest really, really liked Coke a few years ago. After a childhood of preferring water over anything else to drink, he was asking for, and drinking, Coke. Coke, Coke, Coke. He took the Pepsi/Coke war personally. He got Coke drinking glasses, a Coke t-shirt, and saved his Coke cans. There were a LOT of Coke cans. I showed him natural alternatives, which did NOT taste like Coke, so he wasn't interested. Just as quickly as it had come, it faded. He will have a soda now and then, but prefers the natural-sugar ones, without High Fructose Corn Syrup. He mostly drinks water.
Alex Polikowsky Jan 5, 2012
Now in my home they have as many cookies as they want. I actually mostly always have cookies for their dad , who loves them and for my kids. My son MD has a huge basket of candy and chocolate in his room and it is getting fuller and not the other way around. He will ask for apples and cheese for snack a lot. With all the candy and cookies I always have at home he and his sister are all excited to eat some homemade mashed potatoes, salmon and broccoli. They are healthy and thriving and eat as much or as little they want. Sometimes they eat more, sometimes they eat none or very little. They will eat a carrot as happily as they will eat a candy bar.
Edited by Sandra in a few places because when Alex gets enthusiastic she writes a little like a foreigner, though her English is really great. Portuguese is her first language.