I was looking for new toys for my 2 year old granddaughters the other day and was totally dumbfounded by the assortment of unhealthy toddler toys readily available for our children. I was so nauseated 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 notes at the end of the post.

It's terrible enough that we adults are bombarded on a regular basis with underhanded advertising strategies meant to brainwash and instigate hyper-consumerist tendencies, but so many of the ploys intended to hook toddlers through their toys is just plain shady! We as adults can at least recognize the rouse. We might still bite, but at the very least we have the judgment making skills and (for the most part) the mind to decipher when we are being catered to for our betterment or our impediment. Our kids merely don't have that skill; which is why it is up to us to cut out the injurious toddler toys.

One egregious example was the McDonald's McKids toy line. Inside the french fry and burger boxes, the backpack, and the kitchen structure were several dozen mini milkshakes, burgers, fries, and cookies. I shouldn't condemn the McDonald's corporation for trying to profit and let's be truthful, they wouldn't sell these toys if someone didn't buy them; but we have to understand that this is how our adolescents distinguish the brand and relate the golden arches with fun as a juvenile. This kind of brand recognition marketing will keep the obesity rate at a steady increase until we as role models take the issue into our own hands and begin saying no to damaging 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 prior to seeing the inside of the shop is destined for cavities and diabetes... and that's the best case scenario.

Like I said, I shouldn'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 necessary to ensure their fiscal well-being. Establishing unhealthy habits in our children can affect 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 on to encourage 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 little ones, but we need to try to remember that the strength is always in our hands to say NO!

We can stop purchasing these unhealthy toys for our children and help our toddlers form good 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 an additional unhealthy statistics in an increasingly unhealthy society. Or we can do what is correct instead of what is easy. We can value our kids by valuing our purchases for them. We can keep our honor by giving our kids a fighting chance against the diseases and dysfunction both instigated and ignored by the fast food industry. Nevertheless, it all starts by what we choose to surround our kids with.

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