I am a new a parent, the mother to a 6-month-old little boy. When I read this, it hit me between the eyes.

The article begins,

“You would never give a child a cigarette. Or a drink, or a snort of cocaine. But every day we American parents are giving our children something almost as addictive—meals laden with sugar, salt and fat. That mac n’cheese we all think is the only thing our child will eat is priming them for a lifetime of 'conditioned hypereating.' That is, eating that is excessive, out of control and has nothing to do with satisfying hunger.”

As a mother, it is my responsibility to teach my child what is right, what is wrong, what is good for him, what is not so good, and what is okay in moderation. The problems of obesity and food addiction strongly resonate with me because as I start my son on solid food, I have a heightened awareness of what manufacturers are providing for us to feed to our kids. I do not like what I have found. When I can barely pronounce some of the preservatives and chemicals on the package labels, why would I give that to my son? Why did I have to be so extremely careful about what I ingested into my body during my pregnancy to throw it all away the second he starts learning to eat solid food?

I think about how I was raised. My mom stayed home, but used to work as a home economics teacher. Sure, once in a while we had a pre-packaged meal. But 95% of the time or more, our food was homemade, from scratch, and we saw popcorn and soda as treats, not as daily occurrences. Sure, you are thinking, your mom stayed home so she could do that. Well, both my husband and I work full time, but for the most part, we have a homemade meal every night (and so does our dog!).

So what do I feed my baby? It is surprisingly easy to find natural, whole food solutions.  I like to steam peas and puree them and then freeze the puree in ice cube trays. One cube is 1oz. of food, so I just warm one up and feed it to my son. Now I will say that plain peas don’t taste so great, so I add just a hint of sea salt -- he eats it right up! We have introduced him to yams, sweet potatoes, regular potatoes, apple sauce, and bananas. This week it will be green beans or carrots. So far, so good!

Being so careful about what I am feeding my son has made me really look at myself and what am I taking in for my daily calories, and what am I expending in exercise. My husband and I still drink a glass of milk with our meal, just like our parents taught us. No, we wouldn’t be considered “health nuts.” I am from Wisconsin – just give me my beer, brats and cheese, please, and nobody will get hurt! But we eat these in moderation; and I think that once in a blue moon, that is okay. But the rest of the time, I like my carrot sticks and celery sticks, and just about any other vegetable just the same.

Now I have two motivators to get me back in pre-pregnancy shape (or better!): my son, and working for the Healthy Behaviors Company. And just for the record, they say it takes 9 months to put the weight on in a pregnancy and 9 months to take it off again. I am already 10 pounds UNDER my pre-pregnancy weight thanks to a little blue-eyed motivation and some behavior modeling in my household and my job. I have to be the example for my son (and my husband), and if I want him to have a happy, healthy lifestyle, it starts with responsible parenting, which starts with me.