The Beech Group

HOW CAN MOTHER KNOW BEST?
I am so pleased that I am not just starting a family at this time of ultra-consciousness about diet when it comes to children and, I mustn’t forget, adults.
Mums were recently told that they must watch what their children eat, they mustn’t eat between meals, they must eat healthily, they mustn’t be allowed to become obese and now the latest thinking is that too much “healthy” food can damage normal growth and cause problems in later life.
I do sometimes wonder how my children survived into adulthood unscathed. Then it was a question of using common sense and giving the children a balanced diet that, of course, included cake and ice cream and sweets. I didn’t worry about whether they would become too fat or too thin I just wanted them enjoy their food and grow into healthy and happy adults.
Way back then I didn’t have the benefit of wall-to-wall television telling me how to be a mother, I just muddled along – oh I forgot – there was Dr Spock, he had plenty to say about bringing up children, but having read his words of wisdom I decided it was all too wishy washy and I would go my own way.
Talking of Dr Spock and his “modern” ideas on bringing up children. At the time he made a great deal of money out of his books only to be maligned in later years for having got it completely wrong.
Is this what will happen again? All these pundits stipulating what children need only to be discredited at a later date.