Cupcakes and Celebrations

By: Hillary Vaillancourt (July 2023)

I never expected to parent a child with ADHD. 

When my now five year old son was born, he was healthy. He met all of his milestones on time or early, but I started noticing behaviors when he was two that had me worried. 

It wasn’t until I saw him in a swim class two years later that I knew for sure something was

different. Where other kids sat still waiting for their turn to swim, my son splashed his feet in the water, fiddled with the nearby floats, clapped his hands, talked to his neighbor, wriggled on his behind. He couldn’t sit still for a second. 

A formal evaluation confirmed my suspicions, my sweet boy has ADHD. What I later realized

was before that swim lesson, I had taken my son to get cupcakes. 

Although I tend to strive for natural ingredients, that day, my son’s eyes lit up at the sight of a

cupcake with red sprinkles. It was just a few harmless sprinkles, I thought. 

Wrong. 

I later learned food coloring, sugar, and even wheat may impact kids with ADHD. Even though they seemed harmless and fun, those cupcakes made my son feel worse.

But, when I looked for safe alternatives to the cupcakes, I couldn’t find any. I couldn’t take my son anywhere and see his eyes light up again at the sight of a special treat. 

So, I made them. 

Together, we made safe vanilla cupcakes and filled them with strawberry coulis and basil pastry cream. He helped me pipe lemon buttercream on top in fun swirls. 

And, then, my sweet boy with an enormous heart who barrels into my chest at full speed to tell me he loves me, who smashes his lips onto my cheeks, who loves life as hard as he can,

smushed a cupcake into his mouth. 

“What do you think?” I asked.

“These aren’t good,” he said. 

“Oh.” 

“They’re outstanding!” He cheered, flashing a dimpled grin. 

I wiped a small bit of frosting off his cheek. Yes, baby, yes you are.