A few weeks ago, Audrey and Antonino celebrated two
milestones: their second birthday and their first taste of ice cream and cake!
What?! Your kids haven't had ice cream and cake before? Our choice not to feed
the twins sweets during their first two years raised a few eyebrows but before
you react, let me tell you why we did it.
I had Gestational Diabetes Milletus (GDM) when I was
pregnant with Audrey and Antonino. I was diagnosed on my 24th week so aside
from seeing my OB, I also saw an endocrinologist regularly to keep my blood
sugar levels in check. Apparently, some hormones produced during pregnancy can
interfere with the way insulin does its job. I was put on a strict diet and
prescribed insulin shots. The diabetes went away after I gave birth but I was
told that aside from watching what I ate, I should also watch what the twins
ate because being born to a mom with GDM puts them at higher risk for
diabetes.
Delaying the twins' consumption of sweets was challenging
and tricky especially when they stareted talking and we were at parties where
they would see lots of people enjoying cake and ice cream. Our conversations
would go like this:
Audrey/Antonino (A/A): Was daaaat? (What's that?)
Joey/Katzi (J/K): That's cake / ice cream
A/A: Want cake! Want askim (ice cream)!
J/K: Not now. You can have cake and ice cream on your
birthday.
So that was our promise to them. They would get to eat cake
and ice cream on their second birthday. And boy did they hold us to it! A week
before their birthday, they kept on saying:
Cake! Cake! Adee eat cake on botday (birthday)!
Nino want askim on faday (Friday)!
Of course, we fulfilled our end of the deal and even
documented it:
Did the videos get you confused? That's because my Tita Rose
jokingly asked them:
How does it taste? Yucky, right?
She did it to help us avoid giving the twins a sweet tooth
but ended up getting them confused about yummy and yucky. Hehe. Thanks for the
support, Tita Rose! And don't worry, we got it all sorted out. The day after
their birthday, we reread their book Yummy, Yucky which says:
Ice cream is yummy.
Too much ice cream is yucky.
I guess those lines ought to help us regulate their sugar
consumption without depriving them.
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