Healthy Kids: Kids and Colds – Healthy Habits to Keep Your Family Germ-Free this Winter
It’s that time of year again: cold and flu season and even though it seems like kids and colds go hand-in-hand, it doesn’t mean you need to run out and stock up on Kleenex. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.
It’s true that germs are everywhere, and your kids will be at school, daycare or playgroups with coughing, sneezing and runny nosed children. It’s impossible to avoid the germs, but you can protect yourself and your kids by picking up a few healthy habits at your house this winter!
Eat Plenty of Fruits and Vegetables – Encourage your kids to try to eat a rainbow of colors every day. Cut into fun shapes, put on a stick and dip into yogurt, try broiled grapefruit or barbecued pineapple. Freeze grapes or a banana dipped in a little chocolate. Add pureed squash to thicken chili or spaghetti sauce. Make fruits and vegetables part of every meal.
Eat Yogurt – It has good bacteria that help your immune system resist colds! Add to a morning shake, put a few spoonfuls on the kids’ cereal, use as a dip for bananas, melon or apples before bedtime.
Drink Lots – Water is best, or 100% juice, to flush out the bad and keep you well hydrated. Dilute juice with water for same great taste and less sugar! Make your own fun flavours of water by adding lemon, or frozen melon, strawberries and grapes! Add orange, pineapple, passion fruit and cranberry juice together in a fancy glass for a fun treat the kids will love.
Wash Everything! – Doorknobs, light switches, telephones and remote controls all share your families’ germs! Wash kids hands and faces, even when not dirty. Get into the habit of washing up after school, before meals and even before bed.
Get Outside – So much fun can be had outside in the winter – go for a hike or build a hill in your front yard and toboggan with the kids! While you are at it, open the windows occasionally to bring some of that fresh air inside to rid your house of any lurking airborne virus.
Exercise Regularly – Did you know exercise that gets your heart pumping and oxygen flowing actually increases your body’s ability to ward off cold germs?
Get Enough Sleep – Getting the proper amount of rest give your body the energy it needs to fight off the cold and flu virus.
Take your Vitamins – Always good to fill in any gaps from your diet with a range of vitamins. Multi, Omega, Vitamin D, B12, and Calcium are all vital to a healthy immune system. Make sure you are getting enough!
The best defense against any illness is always a strong immune system. A healthy diet rich in protein, grains and all the vitamins your body needs, plus regular fresh air, exercise, plenty of fluids and rest, is sure to keep your family feeling good this winter!
Want to keep your family healthy this winter? Try Iron Kids Gummy vitamins or Adult Essentials Gummy vitamins!
Healthy Habits for Kids: Lunchbox Lessons – 5 Tips for Packing a Better Lunch
Trying to pack a healthy and delicious lunch 5 days a week can be quite the challenge! It’s a tricky balancing act of putting together food that is nutritious while also being food that your kids will eat!
5 Tips for Packing a Better Lunch
#1: Organize – Set up a cupboard where you keep all the lunch gear such as reusable containers, lids, thermoses, water bottles, lunch bags etc. Make sure it’s a cupboard that your kids can reach since they’ll be helping you out!
Designating a specific place for all the lunch gear means that everyone knows where things are when putting together lunches! It’ll also help your kids to put their lunch items in the right place when they are emptying the dishwasher.
#2: Team Work – Get your whole family involved with lunch preparation. It eases the workload on you and teaches your kids valuable life skills. Children of all ages can and should help with planning and preparing their lunch. Kids are far more likely to eat lunches that they helped put together!
#3: Plan Ahead – Take some time to sit with your kids and find out what healthy foods they like to eat. Come up with a simple lunch menu for the week, then put together your shopping list before you head out to the grocery store. That way you are buying items that will get used up during the week rather than ending up spoiling in the fridge.
#4 Think Rainbow – Fruits and vegetables are a must have for healthy lunches! Kids eat with their eyes so have fun chopping colourful fruits and vegetables into fun shapes. There are lots of great kitchen tools that make it easy to create fun designs and patterns!
Try making small fruit kabobs as a fun alternative. If your kids aren’t too fond of fruits and vegetables, try including yummy dips such as their favorite salad dressing, hummus or plain yogurt. Dipping makes eating more fun!
Cutting up fruits and vegetables into to smaller pieces makes it easier for your kids to eat them. Carrot sticks, apple slices or loose grapes are much more appealing to kids than having to deal with the whole fruit or vegetable.
#5: Balancing Act – Try to incorporate a variety of proteins, grains, and produce for every lunch. Keep things interesting by switching between sandwiches, pita pockets, wraps, and leftovers. That way you won’t get stuck in the same old rut day after day!
When you have time toss in a little note maybe with a joke on it or a funny message – it’s a great way to be a part of your child’s day at school!
Putting together a healthy lunch can be easy with a little planning, creativity, and most importantly by getting the whole family involved!
Kia Robertson is a mom and the creator of the Today I Ate A Rainbow kit; a tool that helps parents establish healthy habits by setting the goal of eating a rainbow of fruits and vegetables every day.
Healthy Habits for Kids: Raising Healthy Eaters – How to Create a Family Food Culture by Becoming Aware
Our family food habits completely changed when my husband started his journey to lose over 100 pounds. With his new lifestyle, came a new lifestyle for the rest of the family – one where we do not eat fast food, our children consider apples and yogurt treats and where we ingredient shop labels.
How did we change our habits from fast food to healthy? Simple: awareness.
Like many modern families, we lived the fast paced, eat-on-the-run kind of lifestyle. Stopping at MacDonald’s on the way out of town was common practice for us on the way to the cabin every weekend. But when my husband decided to get healthy after our son was born, fast food was the first thing to go. Well, and beer, but that’s another article entirely!
First, let me clarify what we consider ‘fast food’. We do not eat at MacDonald’s, Wendy’s, Burger King, Dairy Queen, A&W or the like. We have replaced those restaurants with Jugo Juice and Extreme Pita when we are in a rush, but mostly we plan in advance, and don’t put ourselves in the position of ‘needing’ a quick trip through the drive-thru.
In this day and age, thanks to “Food Inc”, “Supersize Me” and Jamie Oliver’s “Food Revolution”, our awareness of why ‘fast food’ is not a healthy option is increasing. The facts are that people are eating way too much processed food. Many processed foods are made with trans-fats, saturated fats and high amounts of sodium and sugar. These types of foods should be avoided, or at least eaten sparingly.
Our awareness of the ill-effects of fast food was heightened when my husband began his weight-loss journey, but when our middle child was diagnosed with an ‘intolerance’ to corn syrup, a condition we were warned could become an allergy if we didn’t monitor it, our family became acutely aware of exactly what we were eating under the guise of convenience.
High-fructose corn syrup, also called glucose-fructose, is a very common sweetener that is used in a lot of different foods and beverages. You know those gummy ‘fruit’ treats you give your kids? Most are made with high-fructose corn syrup, as are most packaged drinks (even frozen condensed juices), and some products you wouldn’t consider to be ‘sweet’, such as some breads and lunch meats.
Beware of breakfast cereals and packaged cookies and other snacks. Food companies have recently changed their recipes and moved away from high-fructose corn syrup and back to good old fashioned sugar, but the only sure way to control your intake of high-fructose corn syrup is to stick to homemade snacks.
Why is high-fructose corn syrup so bad? Research studies have linked consumption of large amounts of any type of added sugar — not just high-fructose corn syrup — to such health problems as weight gain, dental cavities, poor nutrition, and increased triglyceride levels, which can increase your risk of heart attack. There is insufficient evidence to say that high-fructose corn syrup is less healthy than other types of added sweeteners, although many studies have shown it to be a major link to obesity.
Eating healthy doesn’t mean “no snacks allowed”, but we have created a family food culture where yogurt is dessert and our kids consider themselves lucky if they get two apples in one day. Now less than 2 years later our family food shift, our 7-year-old comments about all the people eating “crap” when we drive by a MacDonald’s and Halloween candy sits on a bin in the pantry half a year later because they eat it so sparingly.
We are by no-means perfect. Our kids do get the sugary cereals when we go camping, or the odd slurpee in the summer – after all, they are kids, but the biggest shift has been replacing candy with fruit and processed food with homemade snacks. Where once all they could think of was treats, our kids now consider sliced up banana on their Rice Krispies a fun breakfast.
A few words to live by from Michael Pollan, author of “In Defense to Food”, which are true words to live by:
- Never eat something that is pretending to be something else. (Exactly what high-fructose corn syrup is doing!)
- If you are not hungry enough to eat an apple, then you are not hungry.
- Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.
- Eat all the junk food you want—as long as you cook it yourself. That way, it’ll be less junky and you won’t eat it every day because it’s a lot of work.
Healthy Habits for Kids: The Solution to Body Pollution is Dilution – Tips on Keeping Kids Hydrated
“The solution to pollution is dilution.” The mantra of the environmental industry that advocates the avid use of water to dilute harmful chemical pollution also applies to our bodies. That’s why drinking water is such an important habit, especially during the summer months when dehydration is a risk.
Water makes up half of our body weight and without water, our bodies would not be able to function. Water is present in our blood to aid in transporting oxygen and nutrients and in our lymph to help fight off disease.
Unfortunately, many people are not sufficiently hydrated despite believing that they are drinking enough water. The introduction of bottled water improved peoples’ hydration habits, but the recent addition of flavored (hence sweetened) versions is contributing to other chronic health problems like obesity and diabetes.
For kids, we want them to drink even more fluids in the summer. Any activity in the hot sun can lead to dehydration, which can set in fast for children. Dehydration can lead to headaches and/or the even more dangerous heat exhaustion.
3 Simple Tips to Help Kids Stay Hydrated
The golden rule is to drink half your body weight. If you weigh 100 pounds, then drink 50 ounces of water. That may mean getting creative with ways to encourage your kids to drink enough. A few ideas to help them stay hydrated:
#1: Kids love straws so use them. Make a switch to colorful BPA-free glass straws. Kids love them and parents love them because they are easy to clean.
#2: Plain water not refreshing enough? Begin by infusing a pitcher of water with lemons, oranges or cucumbers. This adds some vivid color, and extra nutrients.
#3: Make popsicles… not with juice. Make a pitcher of your favorite herbal iced tea (Sweet Tazo orange or hibiscus) and make popsicles with them. They will be colorful and tasty and a guaranteed favorite for kids.
Now doesn’t that make you feel like having a nice cool refreshing glass of water?
Visit Dr. Heather, ND and Human Body Detectives series for kids, to learn more about Dr. Heather and her mission to have families be more proactive and healthy in their lives. You can also join the conversation on Twitter @drheathernd and HBD on Facebook.
Healthy Kids: Teaching Kids How to Shop Healthy – Fun at the Farmer’s Market
Imagine a place where you could buy the freshest produce, learn how it was grown, support your community and provide your children with a fun and educational shopping experience. Look no further than your local farmer’s market!
Farmers markets have a magical quality that brings families and communities together – farm fresh produce, knowledgeable farmers, and a relaxed outdoor feeling are just some of the benefits of shopping at your local farmer’s market.
Teaching Kids How to Shop Healthy at Your Local Farmer’s Market
#1: Freshness and Quality – Aside from growing your own produce, you won’t find it any fresher than at a farmer’s market! The colorful produce is grown locally and picked when perfectly ripened and full of nutrients. This means it will look, smell and taste fantastic…experiencing produce at its best is great when you are introducing them to your children! No one likes soggy old produce!
#2: Talk to the Farmers – You have an opportunity to talk to the people that grow your food! Farmers are a fantastic source of information and often have a favorite recipe or two to share! Your children can come up with a few questions for them such as: “What vegetable grows the fastest?” or “How do you know when carrots are ready to be picked?” Connecting your children with the foods they eat and the people who grow it is an important step in teaching them how to make smart food choices for themselves.
#3: Earth-Friendly Choices – You are making an earth-friendly choice when purchasing produce grown in your local area. Buying local produce reduces transportation pollution and costs. Choosing to buy locally grown produce is healthier for you and the planet! It’s also a great way to support the hard working farmers in your area. Talk about a win-win situation for all!
#4: Hands-on Experience – It’s a wonderful hands-on learning adventure for your children. Give them a bag and start them on a scavenger hunt to find a rainbow of colorful fruits and vegetables! They’ll have fun tracking down a red fruit, an orange vegetable and so on! Let them help you select and purchase the produce. The more you involve your children in selecting, preparing and cooking produce the more comfortable and willing they’ll be to eat it!
My family looks forward to our weekly trips to the farmers market where we see familiar friendly faces, sample new produce and come home with bags full of beautiful fresh fruits and vegetables!
Kia Robertson is a mom and the creator of the Today I Ate A Rainbow kit; a tool that helps parents establish healthy habits by setting the goal of eating a rainbow of fruits and vegetables every day. Kia is passionate about creating tools that help parents raise healthy kids!
Kia Robertson is a mom and the creator of the Today I Ate A Rainbow kit; a tool that helps parents establish healthy eating habits by setting the goal of eating a rainbow of fruits and vegetables every day.
Healthy Habits for Kids – “Barf! I’m Not Eating THAT!” 4 Ways to Help Your Picky Eater!
Trying to get a picky eater to eat anything beyond their 3 or 4 ‘favorites’ can be quite an adventure as a parent. One day they love bananas, eating 2 or 3 a day for breakfast, lunch and snack time, and the next you couldn’t get them to take a single bite if their lives depended on it!
As a recovering picky eater myself, I understand what picky eaters are being so picky about. My mother says I was such a picky eater that I used to pick the carrots out of carrot cake! These picky eating habits are especially difficult for parents who have never experienced being picky themselves.
How to Help Your Picky Eater be Less Picky
#1 Stay Calm – Adding anger, stress and pressure to a picky eater doesn’t help the situation. You may succeed in forcing them to choke down their peas, but that doesn’t help your long-term goal of raising a healthy eater.
Creating negative associations with food can last a long time! My parents once forced me to eat cooked asparagus, which I promptly threw up all over the kitchen table and to this day cooked asparagus is a tough one for me because it always makes me think of that unpleasant event!
#2 Texture Texture Texture! – Did I mention texture? Try serving your picky eater fruits and veggies in different forms and textures. For example, if your toddler can’t stand cooked peas, try serving them raw!
Texture can be one of the biggest hold ups for a picky eater. The key is finding out what textures they like and focusing on expanding their food choices within that category. Maybe they like crunchy, or perhaps smooth, some may prefer bumpy (like broccoli). Every picky eater is different! So if your picky eater turns their nose up at steamed carrots, try raw slices instead or maybe even grated carrots!
#3: Serve Small Portions – Trying new food can be far less intimidating when it’s just a small bite or two. If you heap a large portion on the plate, it can be as daunting to a picky eater as climbing Mount Everest!
The goal is to create successes for your picky eater. Getting them to try one small bite is worth celebrating! One bite at a time is the way to work with picky eaters! It took me two years to learn to enjoy red peppers, starting with a bite that was about the size of a pencil eraser! Consider it taste bud training where every little bite makes a difference and overtime adds up!
#4: Make it fun – Kids want to have fun – that’s what makes them such great people to be around! So when you want to get your kids on board for something, try making a game out of it! Look at your kitchen through the eyes of your little one and suddenly the salad spinner becomes a merry-go-round for lettuce and the sink turns into a carwash for vegetable shaped vehicles! Use mini cookie cutters to cut out fun shapes in fruits and vegetables. Get them involved! Keeping things light and fun will help your picky eater be more open to trying new things!
Kia Robertson is a mom and the creator of the Today I Ate A Rainbow kit; a tool that helps parents establish healthy eating habits by setting the goal of eating a rainbow of fruits and vegetables every day.
