Would you accept a C- when it came to your child’s health?
b
y Lindsay Grubb, wife & mom to a nearly 3 yr old daughter and owner of L Communications where she helps you get the right message across to the right audience. Follow her on Twitter and LinkedIn
My daughter will eat anything you put in front of her with no arguments. She adores vegetables, happily munches away on broccoli, cauliflower, snap peas and carrots. My friends,(who sneakily try to blend vegetables and hide them in bolognaise sauces and stews), sit dumbstruck as she polishes off a big plate of salad at our weekend braais.
She is happiest when she’s running round the garden, treating us to a game drive, pointing out the animals in her imaginary zoo. At nearly three, she understands the importance of sunscreen and wearing hats, and why she has to stay out of the fenced pool area unless she’s with mom and dad. She is delighted when I carry her candy-pink plastic table and chairs outside, and layout the recycled purity bottle lids and fill them with paint so she can get her fingers and paint brushes busy on our recycled office paper.
None of these things have been particularly conscious steps we’ve taken in her upbringing, they just evolved naturally. I suppose we draw on our own personal memories of growing up as a guide for how we should be raising our children.
I was saddened to hear that as a nation we received a C- on the Healthy Active Kids Report Card for 2010.
The study showed that:
While the study focused on children of school going age, and discussed the steps being taken at government and private sector level to improve on the situation, it failed to address the most important time in a child’s life, those important formative years where impressions and habits are formed. As parents we should all be asking ourselves how we can make sure our children receive an A+ on their healthy kids’ report cards instead of a C-.
Perhaps if we all start working on this earlier, during those early formative years, it will help to improve the nation’s overall rating too.
Copyright © Lindsay Grubb 2011 – All rights reserved
YOU are what your child eats…
By Sholain Govender-Bateman , Pretoria based journalism lecturer who worked for The Star, Pretoria & other publications. She is mum to two gorgeous girls, Isobel and Aishwari, and wife to Barry. Follow her on Twitter @sholain
I am often confused when a parent complains about the poor eating habits of their child but doesn’t realise that the problem is usually their own eating habits.
Be honest now, how many times have you placed a plate of veggies and all things wholesome in front of your toddler for supper and then you’ve sat down with a meal that has the complete opposite amount of nutrition?
We have a profound influence on our children’s personalities and habits and even though their menus differ from ours for the large part of the first year of their lives, it is important to soon meld the kiddies and adult menu to provide a meal that will suit the tastebuds, development and health of all family members.
In our household, we managed to introduce our toddler(almost 3 years old), Isobel, to just about every food there is from sushi to salads, beetroot to braaivleis. I’m a huge fan of the ‘Baby Sense’ and ‘What to expect’ series of books so I used those as guidelines when introducing her to solids but we also realised that the only way we could really get her to eat something was if we ate it ourselves.
We let her play with her food and encouraged her to eat without stressing if she refused a meal from time to time or threw her food-tray on the floor. It was a wonderful and hugely rewarding experience as we now can sit at the dinner table with her and enjoy a meal together most evenings – being flexible to allow for the mid-meal wanderings of a toddler.
Isobel’s fond of veggies but not at all keen on raw tomatoes – and guess what… neither am I. She loves tinned tuna and pilchards but steers clear of prawns when daddy is around – could it be because dad never touches them because of his shellfish allergy? She has a penchant for raw onions and can handle spicy food – is it just a coincidence that I love onion and dad orders ‘extra hot’? I don’t think so.
It may seem obvious but sometimes we try so hard to make our kids eat the ‘right’ things with no luck and just don’t see that they are just copying us most of the time…
Many ‘lazy’ parents will simply say, “I grew up drinking Coke/ eating junk food every day/ I’ve always hated vegetables…” etc… “…and I’m still alive.” And some of these families may have excellent genes that carry no risk for heart disease, obesity, high cholesterol and the numerous other silent diseases that plague millions of people. But isn’t a change in your attitude to food worth it if it’s going to help you mould your child into a healthy eater and an overall happy being?
Healthy food tips for your schoolchild.
By Christine Phillips, mother of 3. Loves spending time with her family and enjoys the fulfilment of running her own business. She is the owner of Little Cooks Club.
I don’t know about you but I find that as my children get older, their days have become filled with more activities, responsibilities and homework.
I can definitely see my kids begin to flag around 2pm if they haven’t eaten well up until that point in the day. I know a lot of children who, at the age of 10 are already doing sports activities that run until 6 or 7 at night during the week.
We, as parents, need to be sure that we are providing our children’s bodies with enough fuel to sustain this kind of energy output.
How to begin?
A good breakfast
Remember to start slowly with any changes to children’s food routines as they can be resistant if the change is too drastic.
Next, let’s tackle the packed school lunches.
Now that you have your perfect lunchbox, what to pack?
With a bit of planning, you could save yourself the cost of expensive shop bought sandwiches and snacks and avoid the temptation of packing chips, sweets and other high calorie, no good food into your children’s lunchboxes.
Little Cooks Club runs classes for moms that include ideas for simple, healthy weeknight suppers and more ideas and recipes for snacks and lunchboxes.
Chocolate Hazelnut Cake Recipe (gluten Free)
provided by Matthew Ballenden, dad to Isabella & owner of the Fresh Earth Food Store, an organic health store and vegetarian restaurant with a great online store. Visit their website to find out more.
Cakes are for celebrating or simply to spoil your family. When we bake cakes we choose the best ingredients we can find. The finer the ingredients the finer the cake (try using an Organic stone ground flour next time you bake a cake).
Here is one of my favourite chocolate cake recipes which is suitable for kids (and big people) who are wheat or gluten intolerant.
Ingredients
35g Cacao powder
80ml Hot Water
150g Dark Eating Chocolate, melted
150g Butter, melted
295g Brown Sugar, firmly packed
100g Hazelnuts, finely ground
4 Organic Eggs, separated
20g Cacao powder (extra)
Method
Preheat the oven to 180 degrees.
Grease a deep, 20cm, round cake tin and line with baking paper.
Blend the cacao powder with the water in a large bowl until smooth.
Stir in the melted chocolate, butter, sugar, finely ground hazelnuts and egg yolks.
Beat the egg whites in a small bowl until soft peak stage.
Fold into chocolate mixture in two batches.
Pour mixture into prepared cake tin and bake for one hour.
Stand cake for 15 minutes. Turn onto wire rack, top side up, to cool.
Dust with extra cacao powder.
Serve with cream or ice cream and fresh gooseberries.
Browse through other healthy recipes on from Fresh Earth Food Store: http://www.freshearth.co.za/store/c-2-healthy-recipes.aspx
A meaty issue
Kerry Haggard works in corporate communications by day and desperately tries to sleep at night, despite the best efforts of her sons, dogs and her conscience to prevent her from doing so. Thankfully, her husband has learned the hard way to let sleeping Kerrys lie… Follow her on Twitter @KerryHaggard
Daniel (aged four and a half) and I were chatting over breakfast yesterday morning. “Where does meat come from, Mommy?” he asked. “From animals,” I said, hoping that that would be the end of that train of thought. Not so. “But how do the animals make meat?” he persisted? “Do cows make chicken?”
“No – chickens make chicken, and cows make beef,” I said. “What about horses?” was the next question – and after confirming that we definitely don’t eat horse, I quickly changed the subject, desperate to postpone the moment when I have to tell my animal-loving little boy that we kill animals to eat them … that the kind animals don’t just donate chunks of their flesh for us to consume, before they move on to the next pasture.
But it got me thinking (and I know there are vegetarians and vegans out there who will snort and say “It took you THIS long?). As a South African brought up in a braaing culture, where meat has been my primary source of protein since I can remember, the whole notion of where it actually comes from has kind of been absorbed into my psyche. I make good decisions about the meat that I buy – grass-fed beef and free range chicken, for example, but the fact remains that living creatures have to die for me and my family to eat them. How do I explain this to my little boy, without him thinking that I’m a complete monster for sanctioning the mass slaughter of cows, sheep, pigs and chickens?
Law of the jungle perhaps – our teeth classify us as omnivores, so we are just following what nature has set us up to do, surely? Or is it time to convince my whole household (we are seven now, including Thandi, my domestic goddess and my father-in-law whose given name is Johannes), that it’s time to ditch their meat-loving heritage and become vegetarian?
Fast food made healthy
Recipes supplied by Richard Rust , a 5 star trained, gourmet chef. He has cooked for, amongst others, British royalty, Woolworths and written for Taste magazine. See more details below.
These recipes are quick, nutritious, kids will love them and enjoy making them – especially the messy moulding or crumbing part!
Vegetable Nuggets
Process uncooked but defrosted ready cut vegetable mix. Add a pinch of salt and enough flour to make a workable paste. Place on a baking sheet and bake for 10 minutes at 200c until crisp.
Fish fingers
Slice hake fillets into bite sized pieces, dip in flour, beaten egg and breadcrumbs. Bake at 200c for 10 minutes until crisp.
‘Fried’ Chicken
Mix freshly grated breadcrumbs with salt, paprika, and BBQ spice. Dip chicken braai cut pieces into flour, egg then crumb mixture. Bake at 180c for 40 minutes or cooked through
Beef Burgers
Fry until soft finely diced onion, mix into beef mince, egg, breadcrumbs, salt and pepper. Mix well. Form balls and squish to make patties. Grill until golden brown on each side. Let the kids make their own burgers with a selection of greens, relishes and condiments.
Oven baked potato, sweet potatoe or butternut wedges
Cut washed unpeeled potatoes, sweet potato and/or butternut. Boil for 5-10minutes until just going soft. Place on a baking sheet sprayed with cook and bake and roast on a high heat 220c for 20-30 minutes until crisp.
Lower Fat Fruity Coleslaw
Mix equal quantities grated cabbage (red or white or a combination), and carrot, mix in some raisins and diced pineapple. Mix equal amounts of reduced fat mayonnaise and smooth cottage cheese and simply mix all together.
Funky Rice Salad
Chop a handful of dried apricots, peaches, mangoes and apples together. Mix into cold rice with a tin of creamed corn.
Low Fat Butternut and Feta Pasta salad
Mix cooked and cooled penne pasta with cooked butternut, feta, fat free yoghurt and a squeeze of lemon juice season to taste and serve.
Recipes supplied by Richard Rust, Chef and co owner of Deli SuCasa, Restaurant and Deli, Fourways – “feel at home” – Cell 0741722312 or richard@delisucasa.co.za
A balanced nutritious diet for kids
By Freda Paxinos, an educator and authority on the use of dietary supplements in the effective treatment of ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder) and ADHD (Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorder) in children. Read her blog
(And, NO, kids… that should not be “Love and a PS3!)
We are half way through the first term, and your child should have settled into the school routine by now.
If he hasn’t, you need to ask yourself if he’s getting enough sleep, if he’s stressed out, getting sufficient exercise, and most importantly, is he eating properly balanced meals that provide him with the essential Vitamins and Minerals needed to stay healthy, energetic and alert?
Going back to school can be stressful. There is the anxiety of being in a new class, making new friends, bonding with a new teacher, absorbing more complex information, etc. Most children deal with all this, with ease, but if your child is battling, get to the bottom of it now.
Make sure your child gets enough sleep. The “Early to bed, early to rise” verse is not as clichéd as you might think. A child needs ample sleep in order to concentrate and focus at school.
But, what about nutrition?Most people lead a fast-paced lifestyle, which can, unfortunately, lead to bad eating habits. Sorry mom, but hamburgers and chips, fried chicken or sausages and…errrr…. chips, and pizza (with or without chips) are NOT nutritional meals. Fruit, vegetables, high fibre foods, dairy products, eggs and lean meat and fish are all essential to your child’s well-being.
IRON is essential in the building of healthy brain tissue. Research has shown that increased iron levels lead to better concentration in children. If your child is lethargic, apathetic and irritable (well, more than usual!), his iron levels could be low. Lean beef mince, eggs, dried fruits, nuts, whole grains and green leafy veggies (yep, the dreaded spinach!) are excellent sources of natural iron.
PROTEIN is essential “brain food” for children. Your child should be eating small portions of lean meat or fish, eggs, or plant protein such as soya, lentils, tofu and other pulses.
UNREFINED CARBOHYDRATES will provide the body with the necessary supply of glucose. Wholewheat bread, oats and brown rice are great examples of “good carbs” and they will keep your child’s glycaemic index on an even keel and ensure that his blood sugar is kept at optimum level.
CALCIUM is vital for the growth of young brains and bones! Dairy products are an excellent source of calcium.
OMEGA-3, found mainly in salmon, tuna and sardines, is important for optimal brain function in children, and research has shown that it has proven to be an effective alternative to drugs, in the treatment of ADD and ADHD.
In conclusion, if your child refuses to eat healthy foods, you need to try and re-educate him, but fortunately, there are scientifically tested natural supplements, yummy fruit flavoured vitamins and delicious protein shakes available on the market.
If you need advice in this regard, or have any questions, please feel free to ask!
