Lay off the Chicken Nuggets

Here's another reason to cut back on the Happy Meals at McD's. Giving your toddler fatty and sugary processed foods could lower their IQ later in life!

British researchers tracked over 3,000 kids in a lengthy study... (click here to read more) and overall, kids who ate junky fast-food diets at age 3 had a small drop in IQ by age 8.5, compared with kids eating healthy foods. The researchers also took into account factors that often affect IQ like socioeconomic status, parental education, and the mother's diet during pregnancy.

Obviously you don't need experts to tell you that fast food is bad for your little ones. But both my kids LOVE french fries. Yes, I am guilty of giving my 4-year-old and not-yet-2-year-old french fries. In n Out, McDonalds, Red Robin, they never met a fry they didn't like. Does this make me a bad mother? Am I ruining their chances of attending Harvard and ruling the world? Granted, we don't indulge in fast food that often... maybe once a week to once every two weeks... but this latest study certainly gave me pause. Yeah, I was raised by one of those tiger moms... where education and achievement was everything. Obviously some of those ideals have rubbed off on me when it comes to me kids. I'm already thinking about violin and piano lessons for my 4-year-old, but only after she's signed up for dance, gymnastics and tennis. When my toddler son had trouble talking and enunciating, I started asking around for a vocal coach. Little did I know, treating them to fries could be canceling out all my efforts! That's it! We're laying off the chicken nuggets. You know... those couple points on the SAT could really make a difference. LOL!