When I was growing up in the '80s, I rarely drank anything but soda, and nobody gave it a second thought. My parents taught me good oral hygiene, so I ended up with crowns on my baby teeth but no other long-term damage. I used to see kids at the playground with rotten teeth--it was pretty gruesome.

Now, I've had a few kids come through my day care who eat nothing but fruit. Their parents are proud of how "healthy" this is, and they're giving whole fruit instead of juice, but I think all fruit all the time is just their kids' way of taking in sugar constantly instead of the balance of healthy fats and protein and minerals and vitamins they can't get from fruit. (I broke a tooth a couple of years ago and it turns out all the women in my family have low calcium--heckuva way to find out!)

The outcome of a diet that's too heavy in fruit? It's an outcome indeed. These kids poop over, and over, and over, all day--smelly, tacky poop.

Does anybody else think this is a parenting trend, or am I reading too much into a few people's habits?

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