With families so busy these days it’s sometimes hard to make time for your health by exercising. How can you justify an hour at the gym away from your family when you haven’t seen them all day and dinner’s still up in the air? With parents working harder than ever, homework piling up for kids, extracurricular activities plus the hours it takes to commute to and from those activities, it’s easy to let things slip through the cracks: Take-outs most days of the week, eating in front of the TV soon becomes the norm.

But in today’s stressful, high-tech world, it’s even more crucial to stay healthy and personally connect with your kids, and with your spouse. Your body is your only body, and if your health is neglected and falls by the wayside, everything can go by the wayside too. Your family is your only family, and the same rule applies.

How to keep your family healthy?

• Eat often and eat healthy. Pick healthy foods, and don’t skip meals. You and your kids have a lot on your day’s schedule and you need the fuel to get through it. Chips and soda isn’t going to help you stay alert and healthy. Experts say to eat every 2 hrs. That means a breakfast, lunch, dinner and two snacks in between meals.Time constrained? Pre-prepare meals before-hand if needed, and pre-package snacks in snack baggies that can be grabbed to go from the pantry . Make your own trailmix filled with nutritious foods like nuts, whole-wheat pretzels, raisins. Resist the temptation for frozen or pre-packackaged foods or snacks as they do not pack the same nutritional punch as home-made munchies, and often contain unhealthy ingredients like partially hydrogenated oils and high-fructose corn syrup.

• Exercise at least 20 minutes a day. An hour is just unmanageable for a lot of families, but just 20 minutes of exercise a day is better than nothing . What’s more, if the activity is something that you enjoy, you end up doing it for longer than 20 minutes.What can you do as a family? Chase the kids in the backyard for at least 20 minutes. Walk the dog together. Take a bike ride around the neighborhood. I know a lot of parents who’ve purchased the bike trailer to attach to their bikes.

• Eat dinner together at least five nights a week. First thing you should do is make sure the the TV is off. It IS possible to eat dinner together. Studies show that families who eat dinner together on most nights have healthier kids who choose more fruits and vegetables even when not at home. It also provides time and opportunity to catch up on everyone’s lives, and it becomes the perfect time to open up lines of communication.What if dinner together is just impossible to make happen? Turn breakfast into your family meal. Make sure you wake up early enough that it isn’t a harried affair.

• Have fun as a family. Take the time to do something silly and fun with the kids. Game night, playing music, dancing, throw water balloons in the backyard, even watching a favorite show together as a family can be a destressing event for each member of the family. All the activities listed are at-home activities because you’re not taking up more valuable time driving somewhere, and they usually end up being cheaper!

• Get plenty of sleep. Sleep should be a calming time, and you need it for your body to recover from the day. Lack of sleep carries the same symptoms as being under the influence. Your groggy, your reflexes aren’t as fast, and you can fall asleep at the wheel while driving. Your kids won’t be able to concentrate as well in school if they’re too sleepy to pay attention. Get your family into a routine that includes lights out at a time that gives you all plenty of time to sleep.

• Don’t forget date night. A strong, happy couple is the backbone of any happy family so you shouldn’t forget about each other. Sure you can hire a baby-sitter to get away from the kids once in a while, but any moment you take time to connect as a couple is better than nothing. This can mean having a later bed-time than the kids and popping open a bottle of wine, plopping in front of the TV and watching an R-rated movie together. Better yet, forget the TV and have a conversation. One caveat: kid topics not allowed. Talk about your day, reminisce, make plans for the future, anything as long as it’s not diapers, and toilet training. You’ll feel a lot closer doing so.

Six tips. How do you incorporate them into your day? Start one at a time. Announce it to the family and get everyone excited and on board. They all involve almost no work or minimal alterations at worst, and the payoff can be huge. Start this week and see if you can’t incorporate all six into your family routine by the end of the month. Please report back and tell us how your family feels after adopting these habits!

Source: Families.com

September marks several nutrition-related health observances and I would like to take this opportunity to touch on family nutrition. Specifically, the most common questions that parents ask regarding their children’s diet.

How much fruit and vegetables do children need?

We all know that our kids need fruit and veggies and we struggle everyday, trying to win the feeding/eating war. But do we know how much our kids really need? The common nutritional advice is that we need 5 servings of fresh fruit and veggies each day. Easy enough except that how big is a serving? Is a serving the same for a child and for an adult? The Centers for Disease Prevention and Control (CDC) has a great tool in calculating the amount of fruit and veggies everybody above the age of 2 needs. By just entering your age, gender, and physical activity, you get your personal food requirements result in terms of cups. What’s more, it even tells you what amounts to a cup. Finally, the sites also has recipes, and features “Fruit and Veggies” of the month. It’s chili peppers and figs for September.

Which products should you buy?

Starting August, the food industry in the US has adapted the so-called green checkmark. The checkmark is part of Smart Choices Program, a US-wide collaboration of scientists, health advocates and food industry representatives to help consumers make healthier choices at the supermarket.

In order to use the green checkmark, food products need to meet certain criteria (Nutrition Criteria for the Smart Choices Program) set by Smart Choices. The program is implemented by the American Society for Nutrition, which also makes sure of maintaining the scientific integrity of the program and checking for conflicts of interest. The standards for the greencheck are based on:

• Nutrients that need to be limited, e.g. fats, sugar, and sodium

• Nutrients that need to be enforced, e.g. vitamins, minerals, and fiber)

• Food groups that to be encouraged, e.g. fruits and vegetables, whole grains, fat-free dairy products

All in all, the criteria cover 19 categories for products found in the supermarket, including cereals, processed fruits and vegetables, breads and pasta, meat, dairy, snacks, and sauces and dressings.

In addition to the greencheck mark, the food manufacturer is already required to display on the front of the package the calorie per serving and the number of servings per package to help us keep to our daily calorie needs.

Do we need to restrict our kids’ diet?

Forbidding certain types of food has high chances of backfiring, according to a study by obesity experts at Pennsylvania State University. It seems that the key factor in weight control is a child’s inhibitory control, which is similar to self-control. Those who lack self-regulation are most likely to be overweight before the age of 15. Low self-control combined with strong parental restriction seem to be a dangerous combination that drives the child towards the forbidden, and therefore more attractive food. Tips to reinforce your child’s inhibitory control are:

• Do not keep restricted food in the house, thus lessening the necessity to “forbid.”

• Find healthier alternatives, e.g. sugar-free or fat-free version of the forbidden snacks (see below).

• Provide different choices. Rather than telling your child “eat this, eat that”, it is better to ask “which would you prefer, the pear or the apple?” Take him/her to the supermarket and allow him to choose something that meets certain criteria (such as the abovementioned greecheckmark). By giving your child the right to choose within certain limits, you give him/her some degree of control over his/her diet.

What about snacks?

Snacking is not that bad. A recent study shows that many of the snacks that kids love – including popcorn – actually contains lots of antioxidants called polyphenols. And whole grain cereals, in addition to fibers, have comparable antioxidant content to fruit and vegetables. However, it is easy to binge on snacks and cereals, according to the researchers. Breakfast cereals contain lots of sugar and salty snacks contain lots of sodium. The key therefore is moderation and keeping to the suggested serving sizes.

Now that our son has begun to eat solid foods, I’d like to start making baby food for him myself. Not only is it more nutritious to make your own baby foods at home – especially with fresh, in season and organic produce– but it can also be less expensive. In our neighborhood grocery store, jars of baby food are sold for just under a dollar each; I can buy a half pound of apples for that price and make enough applesauce to not only feed him, but to freeze or can some as well. What’s more, by making the food myself, I know exactly what is going into it, and thus going into his little body.

Applesauce is a great first food for baby – the smooth consistency is easy for him or her to eat, and the sweet fruit is easy to digest. It’s also quite simple to prepare.

To make your own applesauce:

• peel and core apples

• chop into chunks

• steam the apples over medium heat for about five minutes, or until they are soft. (Using a steamer basket over a sauce pan)

• Set the cooking water aside and carefully remove the apples from heat

• Puree apples in a blender or in a bowl using an immersion blender until smooth

• Add as little of the cooking water as needed to obtain the desired consistency (smooth and thin for young babies, and slightly chunky for older babies; use your judgment and remember that it’s easier to add water and thin the mixture than to make it thicker)

The applesauce can be stored in the refrigerator for 2-3 days, or frozen for up to six months. Freeze the applesauce in ice cube trays, removing once they are frozen and placing in a zip top bag. Each cube measures out to be about one ounce.

As I was pondering all things pregnant this morning while gazing at my rapidly growing waistline, I wondered what my food cravings mean.  Do cravings tell you something, or is there no real reason for them other than to annoy your husband when you demand that he get you fried chicken take out at 11pm?

When I was pregnant with my older children, I craved carbohydrates.  All of my older children happen to be girls too.  I wonder if it was all the ice cream, pretzels, and cookies I ate during those pregnancies? Doesn’t that nursery rhyme say that little girls are made of  sugar and spice?

When I was pregnant with my son, I craved vegetables and meat.  With the child I am carrying now, I crave spinach souffle and sardines!  I don’t get it either, but it makes my husband laugh.  He tells me that he can’t wait until this child gets old enough to hear Popeye jokes.

My most embarrassing craving moment happened with my first child.  I had a craving for a sundae with whipped cream.  We lived in a very rural area and I stopped at both of the ice cream shops in town asking for a sundae with whipped cream.  Both of the shops had run out of whipped cream!  I actually refused to take the sundaes because of that and instead drove to the grocery store about a half and hour away to get ice cream and whipped cream.  By that time, I decided to just buy the whipped cream to eat.

I was eating a bowlful of whipped cream in my car when a neighbor spotted me!  She promptly gave me a long lecture on nutrition and scolded me for being so irresponsible.  I  patiently listened, waited until she left, and then resumed eating.  I felt so guilty afterwards though!

What food did you crave when you were pregnant?

A recent study by an Australian researcher that suggest that children tend to make food choices following their parents’ example even at an early age – as early as 5 in fact. The study was conducted through the University of Southern Australia’s Centre for Nutritional Physiology and was entitled Parental Attitudes and Nutrition Knowledge.

The researcher conducted a survey of 200 children age 5 to 6 years old about their food choices using picture cues and compared the results with surveys conducted with their parents.

The results showed that there is a strong positive link between parent’s nutritional knowledge and children’s food choices. In addition, even 5-year olds seem to be able to know the difference between healthy and unhealthy food choices based on their experiences at home.

As the researcher pointed out, parenting cannot be learned from the books and comes with many different roles – including that of a nutritionist/dietitian, a teacher and well – a good role model.

We’ve been lucky so far. Our twin boys will be turning 6 this year and they are so easy going when it comes to eating. Sometimes when I see how fussy about food some of my friends’ children can be, I really wonder what I and my husband did right except perhaps by just being ourselves – uncomplicated eaters with a strong inclination towards good nutrition and a strong aversion against fast food.

I remember when my nephews were growing up and the hard time my sister had in getting them to eat anything at all except fast food. For her two boys, the terms “food” and “eating” get response like “Oh, no! Not again!” as if the act of eating was a punishment. This changed as soon as they reached puberty but mealtimes during early years were quite tiring for both parents and children alike.

But it’s not only about eating as such but also about what my kids like to eat that sometimes surprises me. They are the only kids I know who would say “yummy” over a platter of vegetable cuts or a bowl of fruit salad, specifically request for a lunch of rice, broccoli soup and fish and are crazy about smelly French cheese. We (me and my husband) do set a good example but so did my sister. So do friends whose 6-year old girl would touch neither fruit nor vegetable.

So yes, parents do play a big role in influencing the eating habits of their children. But I still think there is more fussy eaters than just bad role models.

What do you think?

Those who know us well know that my husband is the cook extraordinaire of the family.  But now he’s gone to boot camp, and I’m left holding the fort at home.  My husband’s last note to me implores me, among many things, to make sure that Mina eats well.

He had cause to write that.  See, I come from a culture that eats very little veggies, and thinks a complete meal constitutes rice and meat.  I have pledged to make sure the same food approach doesn’t pass down to my 17-month old toddler.  After reading a book on nutrition for babies, I became even more convinced to instill a love for veggies and fruits to my daughter.

For parents who wish to do the same, there are three guidelines to follow:

1. Introduce veggies in all colors of the rainbow one a time.  This will ensure they aren’t allergic to anything (not likely but possible), and that they get enough nutrients from a variety of veggies.
2. If your baby rejects the veggies, try again.  Experts say to try to feed the food at least 8 more times, and a maximum of 16 times, before concluding they really don’t like it.  Children are just like adults; sometimes it takes a while for them to get used to something new.
3. Introduce vegetables before 18 mos. old.  They’re more amenable to new foods at this age.  The later you wait, the harder it will be for them to  be veggie-lovers.

You can puree any food in a food processor and feed them to your babies.  Peas, Carrots, Green Beans, are good to try.

For older babies, you will want to give it to them in its natural state.  Here are some tried and true recipes for my toddler in our home.

Crook Neck Squash – Cut up bite sized pieces of crook-neck squash.  Lay on a baking sheet drizzled with olive oil.  Brush squash with olive oil, oregano, and a pinch of sea salt.  Pre-heat oven to 325 F, and bake for 30-45 min., depending on how crisp you want it to be.  Cool and serve.

Broccoli – Believe or not, lots of kids love broccoli.  They can be served raw with a yogurt dip.

Recipe for yogurt dip: 2 8-oz containers of plain, non-fat yogurt dip, mixed with finely chopped cucumbers (about 1 lb., seeded and peeled).  Add 2 tsp. of finely chopped dill, lemon juice to taste, 2 cloves of minced garlic, and pepper to taste.

Carrot – The same yogurt above can be used for raw carrots.  Or you can cut up your carrot into bite-sized pieces, steam until soft, add cinnamon to taste and serve.

Can kiddie fast foods be actually nutritious as some claim themselves to be?

The answer is not encouraging. A study by researchers at the Michigan State University assessed the nutritional quality of children’s meals in Houston, US 4^th largest city – with disappointing results. Only 3% of children’s meals offered by fast food restaurants can be considered nutritious based on federal dietary guidelines making the term “nutritional fast food” a contradiction in terms. The exceptions, rather than the rule to this are mostly deli-sandwiches served with fruit as side dish. These meals also had “one-third the fat, one-sixth the added sugars, twice the iron and three times the amount of vitamin A and calcium” than the other 97%.

The nutritional assessment was conducted by comparing the nutritional values provided by fast food companies to the seven nutrient criteria used in the National School Lunch Program (NSLP), including dietary guidelines for sodium, fiber, additional sugar and trans fat content.

Other interesting results from the study are as follows:

• 65% of meals which did not make the grade exceeded fat requirements.
• 75% lacked calcium and 82% were deficient in iron.
• 85% were also lacking in vitamin A.

This information is very important for parents of young children, because according to the researchers, one out of four (25%) children eat fast food meals on a typical day. Do your children fall under this 25%?

With an active toddler and another baby on the way, it can be a challenge to find snacks or dessert items that are both healthy and fast. In addition, my daughter is becoming increasingly picky when it comes to food; her breakfast meal can be especially difficult. We like to get her day started with a somewhat nutritious meal as much as possible, preferably made at home with minimal ingredients, and have this fall discovered one food she just can‘t seem to get enough of: pumpkin.

My husband and I aren‘t terribly fond of pumpkin ourselves. Sure, we‘ll eat pumpkin pie on Thanksgiving or a slice of pumpkin bread here or there, but it’s not something we‘d seek out. However, since discovering just how much our daughter loves the taste of the orange stuff, we‘ve changed our habits to accommodate her - and have begun to eat healthier ourselves in the mean time.

The best and easiest pumpkin recipe I have found is for pumpkin cupcakes. These are simply made with a box of spice cake mix and a can of pureed pumpkin mixed together and baked. Can’t get much easier than that, can we - In fact, if your child is old enough, he or she can even help out with this one, by opening the box of cake mix, stirring the bowl or helping to fill the muffin tins.

To make, combine a box of spice cake mix with a 15 ounce can of pureed pumpkin in a large bowl. Stir until moistened, then use an electric mixer to beat for about 2 minutes on medium speed. Pour into a prepared cupcake tin and bake at 350 degrees for15-20 minutes, or until a wooden toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in the pans on a wire racks for 10 minutes, then remove to wire racks to cool completely.

Serve with cream cheese frosting, or plain. The cupcakes bake up to a somewhat dense, cake-like consistency, and are a great toddler breakfast or snack.

Planning meals can be a challenge at the best of times. Add picky eaters to the mix and it can sometimes become even more difficult.

Making a menu plan for the week can really help you become organized in the kitchen. Not only does it take the pressure off each day from deciding what you will serve, but it also helps you keep organized with grocery shopping and time management too.

If you decide to menu plan, you will find a groove that works best for you. I tend to plan on the weekend for the following week and do my groceries at the beginning of the week in order to have all of the ingredients in the house needed to cook each meal. I also do a 5 day plan instead of 7 days. I do this in order to maintain some flexibility in our schedule for leftovers, eating out and choosing weekend meals as a family (or to allow the opportunity for my husband to cook–lucky me!).

One idea to help picky eaters in your family is to dedicate one night each week for them to be in charge of the meal. Depending on their age, they can either choose the meal, assist in food preparation or take over all together. This will teach the children how to work in the kitchen, become more independent and give them life skills that are important later on. It will also allow them to have control of one meal and will in turn teach them about healthy eating (as you will guide them to include healthy choices in every meal).

Another suggestion to include children in meal planning and preparation is to allow children to make a healthy choice at the grocery store, perhaps in the fruits and vegetable section. When it comes time to prepare their choice, allow them to help either by washing it or giving them a butter knife or a small spreader knife to “cut” the food in preparation for a meal. Children love to help in the kitchen and when you give them control over a food item, it will often increase the changes of them consuming the food.

One website that I have found to be very helpful with regards to meal planning is Menus 4 Moms. You can sign up for their weekly newsletter where they will send you a meal plan for the following week along with recipes. If anything, it gives you some good meal ideas to add to your repertoire.

Just when I thought I was out of the woods, it struck. That horrible, nothing sounds good to eat, nothing sounds good to drink, I think I?ll just lie down right here and wait for it to be over feeling also known as morning sickness. Except my morning sickness (as is the case with most) doesn?t seem to be able to tell time. It?s not morning sickness ? it?s afternoon sickness, or nighttime sickness, or any time of day sickness.

Turns out, a hormone surge that takes place in the third trimester (as well as the fact that your organs are all squished up to make room for your expanding uterus) can cause an increase in nausea, as well as indigestion, stomach shrinkage and a general feeling of un-wellness.

To deal with third-trimester morning sickness ? or morning sickness any time during your pregnancy ? find out what calms your tummy down and eat or drink it. It may be plain pasta, bread, a banana, ice water, or a greasy cheeseburger, but whatever sounds good is going to be the best thing for you. Eat small, frequent meals to avoid or decrease your chances of getting heartburn, indigestion or nausea.

In addition, try to find a juice, water or tea that tastes good to you and that will keep you hydrated. Ice water can be more soothing and easier to drink than room temperature water, and lemon water might be even better. Just be sure to drink small amounts at a time ?large quantities will end up making you feel sicker.

Other foods to try include citrus fruits, especially lemon or orange, or sucking on citrus flavored hard candy. Also try eating solid foods that are bland in taste and smell, and high in carbohydrates, such as pasta, crackers, mashed potatoes, or rice or pasta. Avoid anything with a strong smell or taste, such as garlic or many ethnic foods, as it may trigger more nausea. In addition, consider telling your family members or immediate coworkers about which foods make you nauseous; if they can, they might be able to alter their mealtimes or routines to avoid making you feel worse.

What foods or drinks help you when you are feeling morning sickness?

It was the second time that one of my son’s preschool teacher mentioned that “he is really not the biggest eater in his class.” This time, I asked whether he finishes his vegetables at least. And she said. “Oh yes. When it comes to salads, he always asks for seconds.” Well, I don’t see any problem at all, I told her. He is just eating the way he is used to eating at home – concentrating on the vegetables.

The truth is, my twin boys don’t like meat that much. And their sweets intake tends be limited. However, when it comes to fruits and vegetables, they have free access and almost endless supply at home. I would place a plate full of sliced apples, pears, cucumbers, carrots, and red bell peppers on the kitchen table and it would be gone in an hour or two. Add to that the grapes, the cherry tomatoes, the oranges, the strawberries and the nuts.

A recent study by researchers at the Washington University at St. Louis shows that children acquire the taste for certain types of food rather early – before they turn 5 actually. In addition, the food environment at home plays an important role. In fact, parents actually shape their children’s taste for fruits and vegetables. Take as an example somenody we know whose 2 daughters wouldn’t touch anything with fruit in it. The problem is, their dad doesn’t eat fruit either.

Coming from a multicultural (Eurasian) family environment, my boys take Asian and European food in equal stride. If I’d let them, they’ll eat rice with French cheese or German sausages with no qualms about culinary culture.

One thing they learned rather early though is that sliced apples or bananas are the only snacks they will find in mommy’s backpack. Their mommy doesn’t have any cookies or chocolates in her purse as other mommies do.

It’s not that I run a purely health food operation at home. Every 2 weeks, we have hotcakes or waffles for breakfast. The boys occasionally get peanut butter, jam or nutella (hazelnut chocolate spread) on their toast. We indulge in nice desserts from time to time. We bake Christmas cookies. And it’s inevitable that they get to eat fries when travelling. But these are always topped by fresh fruits as snacks and in-betweens and vegetables for lunch and supper.

Researchers say that children learn eating patterns at home that can lead to either obesity or healthy weight. According to lead researcher Debra Haire-Joshu, “overweight children have already been exposed to salty, sweet foods and learned to like them. To keep a child from becoming overweight, parents need to expose them early to a variety of healthy foods and offer the foods many times.”

I don’t believe in complete abstinence from sweets or fatty food. Keeping these away from kids only make them more attractive. My policy is they can handle these foods in limited amounts However, I agree with the researchers that offering children healthy food as early as possible can provide the environment for healthy eating habits. I don’t really mind if my son doesn’t finish his spaghetti at preschool as long as he gobbles his salad with gusto. In the end, it’s quality, not quantity that counts.

In a recently published Melbourne University research, 2 out of 5 parents of underweight or overweight children still believe their children is in the healthy weight range. Some other interesting findings:

• Children who are not in the average weight range, are also more likely to over or underestimate their body size
• A small number of parents believe their underweight children are overweight or that their overweight children are underweight.
• According to BMI, more children were classified as overweight, than compared to waist circumference.

The study has shown researchers that the way children’s weight and health classification is measured needs to be evaluated and changed. The study also aims to educate parents on what a healthy weight range should be for a particular child’s age and height. This would then signal to parents of overweight/underweight children to either boost a child’s nutritional intake or boost physical activity.

What you can do for your overweight child:

• Have your child’s evaluated by a physician specializing in pediatrics. They can best guide you in determining the proper weight range for your child.
• Decrease fat, greasy foods, cooked in transfat; decrease processed foods, sugary and salty snacks.
• Increase fruits, vegetables, and natural foods.
• Increase physical activity. Sign them up for karate, a group or individual sports, walk or ride a bike with them after school and on the weekends.
• Keep them out of the house doing sedentary activities like spending hours in front of the television or computer, or playing video games.
• Be a model of healthy eating and partake in physical activity yourself.
• Emphasize healthy eating, and physical activity, and not losing weight to your child.

What to do for your underweight child:

• Visit a pediatrician for an evaluation as well.
• Aside from the usual fruits and vegetables, for a very picky eater, pick a particular dish/treat that they like and pack it with calories. Examples include yogurt smoothies made with full fat yogurt and higher calorie fruits like bananas.
• Drizzle healthy olive oil in anything you can sneak into their stomachs.
• Don’t let them skip meals, and add plenty of snack times to the mix. Muffins or other calorie-packed snacks are a must, but balance them with fruits or vegetables snacks on alternate snack times or days.
• Don’t make meals unpleasant, but as relaxed and fun as possible. Eat as a family and focus on connecting as a family, instead of watching your child and counting each bite they take.
• Model healthy eating to your child.

Have you ever looked at the sugar content of your children’s favorite cereal? According to a recent study, only 4 out of 25 popular kids’ cereals were rated very good, based on sugar content. The 4 are Kix, Honey Nut Cheerios, Cheerios, and Life, with Cheerios topping the list. All of the badly rated cereals had 40% to 50% of sugar content.

So why should you care that a cereal is too sugary?

• Kids who eat cereal with 50% sugar are eating less of other more nutritious ingredients.
• These sugary cereals have more sodium as well, and significantly less fiber.
• Getting kids used to sugary breakfast and other treats preps them to prefer sugary everything, and are less able to appreciate the subtle sweetness of fruits, and other natural foods.
• Sugar isn’t very nutritious, and can raise insulin levels fast, which can lead to a depressed immune system.
• Too much sugar can lead to weight gain.

Check your kids’ cereals and give them something more nutritious for breakfast. After all, it’s the most important meal of the day.

When our daughter first began eating finger foods, it was as if a whole new world opened up. Suddenly, we could give her table food! Not just a teeny tiny bite that even a mouse couldn?t taste, but an actual little bit of food that she could eat on her own.

Each time we?d sit down to a meal, we?d cut off a corner of some of the foods we were eating, and put the slivers on her high chair tray. Some went down easily and happily ? like bananas and, oddly, ground red meats. Others were a bit of a struggle, or ended up getting spit back out or pushed to the side of her mouth (like green peppers and lettuce). Eventually, we learned which foods were her favorites and which ones to try again with later.

Here are five healthy first finger foods for toddlers just learning to eat them. Remember to cut things up small, or smash them, to reduce the risk of baby choking. Also keep a glass of water handy.

1. Cooked vegetables (hold the salt) ? Cooked veggies, preferably steamed to maintain the most nutrients, are great first finger foods. Try sweet potatoes, carrots and peas.
2. Corn on the cob ? When baby is ready, he or she can hold onto the cob of corn and take bites from it. We loved this because it slowed our daughter down (she had to work for each bite!) so she couldn?t stuff too much in her mouth at once.
3. Crackers ? Whole grain crackers, graham crackers and baby crackers are all tasty treats for baby.
4. Fresh fruits and vegetables ? Try giving your child what is currently in season ? such as small bits of peaches, pears, bananas or other soft fruits.
5. Steamed or cooked fish ? Salmon is especially nutritious, but other low-mercury fish, such as cod or trout, also offer health benefits.

What?s your favorite finger food to give your child?

Sometimes when it comes to kids, food is all about presentation. If something looks ‘yucky’ they probably won’t touch it. Most kids I know, including my own, usually do not like their foods mixed together, even if we as adults know they taste better that way.

When I served tacos to my kids when they were much younger, I would fill the shell with meat and cheese, knowing that anything resembling a vegetable would not be tolerated, at least not in the taco.

If your kids are willing to eat veggies or salad on their own, serve the shredded lettuce and chopped tomatoes as a little salad on the side. My boys would always eat this taco/salad combination.

I’m sure there are many kids who won’t touch chili, since it looks like a bowl of mysterious ingredients. I usually serve chili over rice. For the kids, I pick out any bits of onion, tomato and pepper and give them a serving of ground beef and beans. Sometimes, they’ll pick the beans out and sometimes we’ll get lucky and they’ll clean their plates. I serve their rice on the side instead of beneath the chili.

Presentation can also mean making the food look fun. I saw an idea somewhere for making a ’sailboat lunch’: Serve a sandwich cut into two small triangles as the sail, connect it to an apple slice boat with a carrot stick.

Many healthy snacks can be cut up with cookie cutters. Cut sliced cheese into fun shapes, such as stars, or make heart-shaped PB & J’s.

Fruit can be cut up and served on a skewer as a fruit-kebob. Make a colorful combination of banana, grapes, orange slice and melon.

There are many fun plates, cups, straws, etc. made with kids in mind. I recently picked up some brightly colored plastic plates with little compartments for different foods. My little guy won’t be using these anytime soon but at 75% off (end of summer clearance) I figured I’d buy them and put them away until he’s a bit older.

What have you done to make food more appealing for your kids?

I’m sure you’ve seen the “older infant formulas” available as you peruse the baby aisle while shopping. They are, according to most of the labels, for infants from 9-24 months who are eating some solid foods.

I asked a nutritionist friend of mine about these products and she told me to not waste my money on them. “Leave your child on regular formula until the doctor says he can tolerate milk and then make the switch.”

Sounds simple doesn’t it? Well, sometimes real life isn’t real simple.

The pediatrician told me that my child was old enough to tolerate milk and so I attempted to make the switch. With my 4 other children, this was not really a big deal. One child had allergies to milk and I had to switch to soy milk; another child was allergic to both cow milk and soy milk so she actually drank rice milk. Both children outgrew their food allergies within a few years and were on regular cow’s milk. So, except for those disclaimers, it was pretty easy to make that switch.

My son was not amused at all when I made the switch. He tolerated the milk fine, but he just didn’t like the taste. I tried to switch slowly, but he was not fooled by the formula/milk mix I offered to him. The child went on a strike and wouldn’t drink anything but juice, which worried me as he has other health issues and dehydrates easily.

My son also has some issues with foods that have certain textures too. He refuses to eat meat for whatever reason and also has trouble using a sippy cup, although he’s almost 17 months old. I’ve taken him to a speech therapist who assures me that he is doing fine, but just progressing a little bit slower than usual in his transition to solid foods.

I made an appointment with the doctor to discuss my concerns. She wasn’t very worried at all. “It takes some children a little bit longer to transition and some kids do have food aversions. In your son’s case, I would recommend using the older infant formula just to make sure he gets all the nutrients he needs. If he doesn’t like the milk, don’t force it upon him.”

I went out and bought the “older infant” formula on the way home from the doctor and mixed it up for my son. He drank it and handed the bottle back to me and signed “more” to me.

Well what do you know. It occurs to me that as parents, we sometimes tend to discount what our infant or toddler is trying to “tell” us. Sometimes we believe the experts who tend to generalize instead of looking for solutions geared to our individual child’s needs.

Sometimes, baby does know best.

Many healthy infants and toddlers have low levels of vitamin D, according to a report released in June 2008 in the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine. About a third of these children had some evidence of reduced bone mineral content on X-rays.

Global research has shown that people around the world have low levels of vitamin D. In North America, an estimated 60 percent or more of the population has low vitamin D levels ? both in the older and younger populations.

There have been many reasons suggested for this, including decreased outdoor activity (especially in older children) and more air pollution. Even vitamin D fortified foods, including many dairy products, aren?t helping; in fact, in many places, the amount of vitamin D from dietary sources is considered too insignificant to have an effect on people?s vitamin D levels. And for the older population, our bodies reduce the amount of vitamin D we produce with age.

Vitamin D is crucial for the body to metabolize calcium and it promotes mineralization of teeth and bones; studies have also shown that it has an huge impact on many other body functions, including blood lipids level, plaque formation (called thrombogenesis), the ability of the inside cells in blood vessels to regenerate, and the way in which smooth muscle grows.

To make sure you and your child are both getting enough vitamin D, have your doctor test your blood.

Parents should talk to their child?s pediatrician before stocking up on vitamin D supplements, because there are different dosages and types on the market. Instead, many doctors advise simply spending more time outdoors ? 10-15 minutes? exposure to sunlight without sunscreen will do the trick, most experts say. Just be sure to go outside before the hottest part of the day, from around noon until 4 p.m.

Calories, fat content, fiber, protein, vitamins. All of these are things that my husband and I wanted to keep track of when we started our daughter on solids. Unfortunately, short of creating a cumbersome spread sheet and logging the data for how many ounces of which food she consumed at any given time, we just couldn?t keep up. A half jar here, a couple of spoonfuls there – not to mention the times we?d feed her while we were out and then lost or threw away the food containers.

After a few weeks, I came up with a trick to keep track of what she was eating ? or at least that she was eating a somewhat nutritionally balanced diet. Remember how they tell us as adults to eat a variety of colors in each meal? That?s the premise behind my feeding by colors baby diet. Each morning, I set aside the jars of baby food I plan to feed her that day, as well as notes on any fresh fruits or vegetables or dry foods, and make sure that there are several colors represented. Usually, there?s an orange or two (such as sweet potatoes or carrots), green (peas, green beans, spinach, pears), pink/red (applesauce or raspberries), brown (meats, grains), and sometimes a yellow (squash, corn or bananas) or purple (prunes or grapes).

I?ll be the first to admit that it isn?t a fool proof diet ? we are no longer counting calories or grams of vitamins and minerals ? but we are giving her what I have come to see as a variety of foods and a variety of flavors each day. In fact, it?s a lot more colorful than my own diet tends to be, which has got me thinking ? maybe I need to start my husband and myself on this diet as well! Maybe not with baby food, but with making sure our dinner plates represent a variety of colors.

Be sure to also give your child enough fluids throughout the day, including water and juice, and dairy products.

We buy bananas at the grocery store at almost every visit ? usually because they?re too old and brown to use by the time we get around to using them. Our daughter loves bananas, though, so off to the store again we go to replenish our supply!

Instead of throwing them into the compost bin or making yet another loaf of banana bread (which is delicious, but tiresome after a while), I found a new way to incorporate some of those over-ripe bananas into a healthy snack for the whole family ? banana smoothies.

To make smoothies, combine in a blender:

• 1 ripe banana
• 1 cup frozen or fresh berries or chopped fruit (either in season fruits or berries, or frozen berries)
• 1 cup yogurt ? plain or any flavor you have in the fridge
• ? cup milk
• Optional: add 2-3 tablespoons ground flaxseed or wheat germ for extra protein and fiber

Blend on high speed until smooth. Makes two to three servings.

With gas and grocery prices soaring, it can be tricky to stay on budget and feed your family. Here are a few tips to keep your family fed – and your budget on track.

1. Don’t buy pre-packaged foods. It might be tempting (and convenient) to buy those single-serving snacks, but they’ll end up costing far more than you’d pay for a larger package. Purchase the bigger bag, and then use zip top plastic bags or reuseable containers to divide it into your own single servings.
2. Check store circulars. Review the store sales circular before you begin shopping and take advantage of specials and sales. Stock up on items that will keep well in the cupboards or freezer.
3. Chop it yourself. Carrot sticks and baby carrots, pre-cut celery, and other veggie snacks are handy, but expensive. Consumer Reports once found that two pounds of carrots cost $1.29 at the store; it was $7.16 for the same amount of precut sticks. Set aside a few minutes to do all your chopping at once, then sort the vegetables into separate snack-sized servings and store in the fridge.
4. Eat at home. We all know eating out can be expensive, especially when it comes to kids. What’s more, many times they’ll order something, take two bites and decide that they are ‘full’ or just don’t want it anymore. Save everyone the trouble (and a few bucks) by eating dinner at home.
5. Go vegetarian. Even just replacing one meal in a week with a meat-free meal can make a difference, both on your pocketbook and the environment. With all the fresh vegetables in season right now, why not have a veggie stir fry, vegetable pizza or lasagna, or grilled veggies for dinner?