Unhealthy Toys For Toddlers May Lead To Unhealthy Habits Later In Life

I went looking for new toys for my 2 year old granddaughters the other day and was absolutely dumbfounded by the choice of unhealthy baby toys readily available for our children. I was so troubled by the vast selection of unhealthy baby toys I felt I needed to vent here, both for myself and for those of you who want to leave comments at the end of the post.

It's bad enough that we adults are bombarded on a daily basis with underhanded marketing approaches meant to brainwash and instigate hyper-consumerist tendencies, but so many of the ploys meant to hook adolescents through their toys is just plain wrong! We as adults can at least spot the rouse. We may still bite, but we have the judgment making skills and (for the most part) the capacity to decipher when we are being catered to for our betterment or our disadvantage. Our kids simply don't have that ability; which is why it is up to us to cut out the unhealthy baby toys.

One egregious violator was the McDonald's McKids toy line. Inside the french fry and burger cases, the backpack, and the kitchen setup were several dozen mini milkshakes, burgers, fries, and cookies. I shouldn't blame the McDonald's corporation for trying to make a profit and let's be honest, they wouldn't sell these toys if people didn't buy them; but we have to comprehend that this is how our youngsters recognize the brand and associate the golden arches with fun at a very young age. This sort of brand recognition marketing will keep the obesity rate at a steady incline until we as role models take the issue into our own hands and start saying no to unhealthy child's toys.

I also saw a donut shop toy set...yup, donuts. Let's face it, any child that recognizes custard filled donuts and iced mocha before they even see the inside of the store is destined for cavities and diabetes... and that's the best case scenario.

Like I said, I can't blame these billion dollar businesses for doing what they do first. We already know what they're all about. We know that for the most part they are cold, methodical, profit machines that will do whatever is required to ensure their fiscal well-being. Establishing unhealthy habits in our children only helps their future bottom line.

It is up to us to educate and inform our children so that these marketing firms that are successfully initiating brand recognition at such an early age do not continue to feed the unhealthy baby habits that feed into the childhood obesity epidemic through unhealthy toys for our children and babies. They will continue to create and market these toys to our children, but we need to bear in mind that the authority is always in our hands to say NO!

We can stop purchasing these unhealthy toys for our babies and help our toddlers form healthy habits; or we can continue down the same path. Let our children be influenced by people who don't care about them or their well-being. Allow them to be yet another unhealthy statistics in a growing unhealthy society. Or we can do what is correct rather than what is easy. We can value our kids by valuing our purchases for them. We can keep our integrity by giving our kids a fighting chance against the illness and dysfunction both instigated and ignored by the fast food industry. Nevertheless, it all begins by what we choose to surround our children with.

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