Category Archives: Children

Family Meals

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It has been known for a while: the family meal provides numerous benefits to the children. Several studies over the years have been done on this.

Children who eat one meal a day with their family as a whole:

  • eat more fruits and veggies
  • are less likely to do drugs
  • are less likely to bully and be bullied
  • are less likely to be overweight and obese

A study came out recently on the last bullet. Here is a quote from the abstract:

“Family meals may be protective against obesity or overweight because coming together for meals may provide opportunities for emotional connections among family members, the food is more likely to be healthful, and adolescents may be exposed to parental modeling of healthful eating behaviors”

In our busy lives, it is easy to forgo a sit down meal with the whole family. Since family meals have so many significant benefits, it is important to make the effort and build your day around one family meal.

Snack Ideas

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apples

Children need to eat regularly. Ideally on a schedule (no grazing) and with the proper surroundings (at a table and NO TV).

Snacking is an important part of a child’s overall nutrition. And because snacking contributes to the nutrient needs of your child’s day, a snack needs to be healthful.

Look at a snack as a mini meal. Would you give your child a pile of chips and a juice box for dinner? (Let’s put it this way-if you did, your child wouldn’t get the protein, vitamins, minerals and other things he needs.) So a snack should be no different.

Here are some ideas:

  • Cheese
    • With crackers
    • Stick pretzels through slices or cubes
    • Make cheese and fruit kabobs
  • Peanut butter
    • And apples
    • And celery
    • And banana
    • Add raisins and/or shredded coconut to any of the above
  • Homemade bread or muffins
    • Zucchini
    • Pumpkin
    • Carrot
    • Banana
  • Hummus
    • Crackers
    • Carrot sticks
  • Fruit
    • Make it fun: eat a banana like a monkey, clementines into pumpkins
    • Kabobs
    • Rainbow of fruit
    • Served in an ice cream cone
  • Ants on a log variations
    • Original: celery with pb and raisins
    • Celery with ricotta cheese and tomatoes
    • Celery with hummus and olives
    • Celery with cream cheese and fruit
  • Smoothies
  • Yogurt
  • Popcorn
  • Nuts
  • Avocado
    • And tomato salad
    • Smeared on cracker or bread
  • Deli meat
    • Ham and cheese rolled up and cut like sushi
    • Turkey, ham, cheese kabobs on a pretzel
  • Corn chips and
    • Salsa
    • Bean dip
    • Guacamole

Save things like:

  • dry cereal
  • granola bars
  • pretzels
  • whole portable fruit

for when you are on the run.

For more ideas go to the kids board on my pinterest page or just go to pinterest and search around!

 

photo: freedigitalphotos.net

How to Help Your Child have a Healthy Gut

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I have written a lot about your gut flora, why it is important and what happens when it goes bad.

For us adults, we have to work on setting our gut right. But for us parents, we have to work on keeping our child’s gut right. The microbiome (all the bacteria and other microbes that share our body with us) can help prevent or help cause: allergies, cancer, obesity, autoimmune diseases, to name just a few. People in undeveloped countries don’t have any of these problems, because their microbiome has never been disturbed.

A vaginal birth is ideal, as the baby gets coated in tons of protective bacteria that lay the groundwork for a healthy microbiome. Breastfeeding aids in this too. But sometimes these two factors are beyond our control.

What else to do to help them keep and cultivate the good bacteria and stave off the bad:

  • Avoid antibiotics unless it’s absolutely necessary (They kill off the good bacteria)
  • Sugar and refined starches to a minimum (They feed the bad bacteria)
  • Plenty of green veggies (feed the good bacteria)
  • Plenty of fresh fruit (feed the good bacteria)
  • Yogurt or other probiotic containing foods
  • No juice
  • Avoid steroid medicines or NSAIDs (aspirin)
    • Use Tylenol instead

What happens in your young child’s life can get his/her microbiome set up or destroyed, having tremendous impact on his/her long term health.