When Cotton Candy is a Bad Idea

Ian's elementary school had their winter social on Saturday night. Games, cake walk, dancing, silent auction, raffle. . .the usual fund raiser stuff. Our PTA does a wonderful job making sure the kids have everything they need. It is unbelievable how many parents are involved at this school. Since it is difficult for me to put in much time volunteering, I donated a painting to the silent auction. I kept sneaking into the library to see what the bids were bringing. It was such a rush! My first painting to be sold for charity!

Ainsley wanted to do everything that Ian did. First they both bought a bag of popcorn. Then Ian had his hair spray painted orange and red. Ainsley went for purple and green. Then Ian had a lightning bolt painted on his cheek, just after he told the artist a Lightning McQueen joke from Cars. Then Ainsley did the same. Finally, we went to the gym for the dance. The kids each had cotton candy and bopped around a little. The music, of course, was loud with loads of people standing around.

Ian did very well for the next few minutes while we put our raffle entries in the baskets. He didn't quite understand the concept of the raffle. He thought he could just go up and claim any prize he wanted and we could buy it for him. As I was explaining the rules of the raffle, the cotton candy high hit him. He became completely irrational.

The more I tried to clarify the concept for him, the angrier he got. Steve and I quickly saw this was only going to spiral rapidly downward, so we left.

At home, he marched upstairs, stripping as he went, and mumbling something about tearing down our house and punching all of us. We knew the atmosphere had been too much for him, so it was very unlikely that he would really do much damage. Instead, he started crying. He was completely exhausted.

Since the behavior change had come on so quickly after the cotton candy, I assumed he needed some protein in his belly to help his metabolism level out. I brought him some peanut butter, and within a minute he was breathing normally, had calmed down, and seemed better able to focus outward instead of inward. He then asked for CHEESE! He never does that. After eating a couple of ounces of cheese, he was his old self again and was ready to put on pj's and go to bed.

So now we know. . .cotton candy and reactive hypoglycemia are a bad combination. DUH!