It’s been almost a week since my little girl went “trick or treating.” The first few days she was obsessed with the candy. It was the first thing she thought about when she woke up and it was the last thing she thought about before she went to bed. I’ve talked to a lot of mothers for ideas on how to keep their kids from going insane with all the candy. I found several great ideas to get the sweets out of the house AND keep the little ones happy.
- Have your child keep a predetermined small number of his/her favorites candies and they rest of the candy is turned in for cash. Then the child gets to take a special trip to the store for a new toy or gift.
- Keep a small number of your childs favorites and then trade the rest of the candy for healthier, sugar-free candy or all natural candies with no artificial colorings or sweeteners.
- Have your child keep a some of their favorites and then take a family trip to your local shelter and donate the rest for kids that may not have had the opportunity to go trick or treating.
- Keep all the candy out of the hands of your child and distribute it as you, the parent, sees fit.
- Keep some of their favorites then bag up the rest and send it to your husband’s office. (I don’t want it at mine either)
- Set a time frame…any candy left over after a week is thrown away. We don’t need to still be nibbling on Halloween candy come Christmas!
The Holidays are hard with all the wonderful sweets and treats to enjoy. We don’t want to deprive our families from these indulgences, just set some limits that everyone can live with. It’s all about balance…balancing out the good with the not so good. And remember…keep them moving! Physical activity is key.
Good luck parents! ~Sandi
Oh…I love love love the Fall and Halloween, so I just had to post a picture of my “Little Leopard Kitty!”
![5936_1191436593933_1468923010_518308_3967220_s[1] We did it!](http://miniandme.files.wordpress.com/2009/07/5936_1191436593933_1468923010_518308_3967220_s11.jpg?w=130&h=111)
Continuing with our series on “Parenting to Prevent Obesity.”

The Alliance for a Healthier Generation, founded by the Clinton Foundation and the American Heart Association, has excellent tips for parents on how to prevent childhood obesity. Sandi and Shelly, the authors of Mini and Me: Learning Healthy Habits, will be starting a 5 day blog series on these suggestions. Sandi Stewart and Shelly Stockum are both AFPA certified Children’s Fitness Specialists and Health and Wellness consultants and have spent years researching children’s health and nutrition and childhood obesity.
hat that does for her body. She loves knowing the why and I’m sure your children do too. They are hungry for the knowledge.
Research funded by the National Institute on Aging, National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering, National Center for Research Resources, and the American Heart Association has concluded the following: Obese people have 8 percent less brain tissue than normal-weight individuals. Their brains look 16 years older than the brains of lean individuals. Those classified as overweight have 4 percent less brain tissue and their brains appear to have aged prematurely by 8 years. That’s a big loss of tissue and it depletes your cognitive reserves, putting you at much greater risk of Alzheimer’s and other diseases that attack the brain,” said Paul Thompson, senior author of the study and a UCLA professor of
So, Mini and Me: Learning Healthy Habits is available for purchase…let the buying begin! Right?! We have had so many people respond to our blog and our Facebook group with such amazing encouragement. They say what an awesome topic, how important this is, what an epidemic childhood obesity has become, how great the book looks, how cute the illustrations are, what a great story, how they love what Shelly and I have done, etc, etc, etc. Now if all these people would just go ahead and buy a copy. We did have a few days where our website was not working properly. Mill City Press says they have corrected that now, but we do know a handful of people tried to purchase and could not.
Mini and Me: Learning Healthy Habits has received a couple of reviews so far. This is very exciting for first time authors! It’s just nice to know that someone other than your family loves what you have done. (No offense Mom and Dad.)
Well, at least the moment Shelly and I have been waiting for! The – book – is – here! We are thrilled with the results. The illustrations look amazing, the colors are awesome, the quality is great! We are so proud and so happy that we decided to take this journey.