Picky Eaters: There is help!

Helping kids develop healthy eating habits. (Part 3)

Well this week the tip I have to share fairly simple and highly effective. This is a technique I stumbled on somewhat unexpectedly, although I must say, had I really taken time to stop and recall past experiences, I would have realized the power of this technique and put it to use much sooner.

Have you ever tried to ask your spouse to do something another way, only to have your voice fall on deaf ears or end up in an argument? Well getting picky eaters to try new foods, or just eat a healthy balanced meal, can have exactly the same result. I recall many mealtimes that were filled with negotiations and arguments, prior to learning skills for dealing with this challenge.

So this week’s tip is: Let someone else help! Bringing your kids to one of our hand’s on cooking classes, allows them to interact with and learn directly from our nutrition experts. Inspiration and ownership of what they eat, along with the power to choose for themselves, results in an entirely new perspective for them – eating healthy food is no longer a chore, but rather a source of fun and pleasure.

Kids are welcome to attend our workshops and encouraged to be active participants. The enthusiasm of the kids as they participate often results in the parents being asked to stand back let the kids take charge of creating the recipes for you to eat. Nice reversal of roles isn’t it? So join us as we host workshop throughout the spring and summer. Sit back, relax and watch the magic happen.

Our next workshop is this Tuesday, May 25th. Contact us for more details;
michelle@bundlesofenergy.com

Love your food and eating! Series: Post 2

Dinner time is one of the most valuable teaching and learning opportunities in daily life.  To do it well requires organization, planning and precise execution!  It makes sense then to include our kids at a young age in every step along the way, from menu planning to meal preparation, eating together and of course, cleaning up!  Every Monday for 4 weeks I will delve into each of these steps offering some great tips and strategies to make eating healthy a joyful experience for the whole family!    

A joyful dinner experience begins days before with menu planning.  I can tell you from experience that I have bypassed this step only to be left in the lurches, scrambling to think of something last minute to make!  Undoubtedly, this leads to me preparing the meal in a state of chaos and much less likely to enjoy what I eventually put in front of everyone.  On a more positive note, most of the time I do begin with this step and then find it so easy to consult my plan and know I have all the ingredients on hand to make the meal stress-free.  Also, note that the menu does NOT need to be pretty or take much time.  It just needs to be written down!

To make our planning all-inclusive, we have separated the week into one night per person.  We have six people in our family with the youngest being three years old and yes, even she gets a night!  She may not be all that helpful yet but she is excited to be involved.  When kids are excited about the process, they are more likely to love the result, greens and all!  We each get to choose our meal, keeping in mind that there must be veggies, grains and protein.  Note that veggies come first as they should be the largest portion on the plate.   We also do not allow repeat meals on back to back weeks.

Each person then figures out what ingredients are required and checks the pantry and fridge to see if it should be added the grocery list.  David Bach, author of the "Finish Rich" series of books, says there is much money to be saved by simply knowing what you have on hand, making a grocery list for what you don't and following that list at the store.  By doing this you will also be much more likely to use everything you buy, putting an end to wasted food (and money)! 

At the store, the family contribution continues.  Sometimes we split the list up and give each of our ten-year-olds their own to fulfill.  The youngest ones stay with us but are given an item to be on the lookout for.  We read ingredients together, analyse cost differences and discuss the impact each product might have on the environment via growing methods, shipping, and use of pesticides and hormones.  I know some people can hardly imagine shopping with the kids but I promise you that by engaging them in the process, they will be better behaved!  Our children are learning in this process WHY we are eating the food we do so that when they leave home someday, they will have the tools to continue to eat well. 

Usually by the time we get home from groceries, the last thing I feel like doing is unpacking , let alone preparing the produce for later, however, doing it at this point makes it easier to use in the future and more likely that it will all get eaten.  The kids can help here too.  We wash and cut carrots and celery, enough for a large container that we can easily grab for dinner prep as well as several small containers that are easy to grab for a healthy school snack.  The fruit all gets washed and put in the fruit bowl on the table so that when the smallest ones are hungry and dinner is not ready yet, they can quickly grab a snack without my help!  Once everything is neatly put away, with the week's menu proudly displayed on the fridge, I can sit back and relax, knowing that the week ahead is planned and everything is ready! 

It takes some time to follow these steps but in the end saves time and money, and most importantly, develops healthy life skills in the kids and deepens the family bond.  I am the first to admit that this is very idealistic but it is possible and I have done this many times and found it to be very successful.  Could you see yourself adding one or more of these steps to your family routine?  Are you already doing something else that works well for you?  I would love to hear other tips and anecdotes! 

Picky Eaters: The Parent’s Perspective

Helping kids develop healthy eating habits.

How do we get our children to understand that eating healthy is good for them when sugary treats taste so yummy?

Children are bombarded daily - via television, radio, grocery store shelves, print ads, and more - with messages about what they should eat. Often those messages are the result of high powered marketing ads that are aimed at making money, not at creating genuinely healthy food for your kids. Children seem to be born as masters at manipulating their parents, and so when this skill is combined with the power of the ads that influence them daily, getting them to eat healthy can be a challenge.

Teaching healthy eating habits is a goal of most parents, but it can be full of challenges and obstacles. I was blessed with 2 amazing children that have taught me a lot about the challenges of dealing with picky eaters. My picky eater, Sam, starts each morning with a couple of bites of breakfast and then promptly moves on to relentless requests for candy. He is masterful to say the least, as are most picky eaters. They seem to be born with their instincts perfectly honed to know exactly how far to push us as parents; they know just when to cry, they know just how many times to ask, and they know just the right time to catch us...in a moment of distraction. You know, the moments when you will say yes to almost anything, without realizing what you just agreed to, because you are so focused on a particular task or deadline, or just desperate for a few moments of peace.

I have had good motivation to be alert to such tactics, as both my children are seriously impacted by some of the seemingly ‘harmless’ ingredients commonly found in junk food. I have spent the last 8 years learning to read labels and trying to gain an understanding of what is really in the foods my kids are eating. Any parent would be put on high alert if their children experienced night terrors as a result of eating red dye and this is exactly what occurred for my family. This personal experience was a blessing in disguise for my family as it put us on a path to healthy eating and has brought us tremendous awareness and benefits. In fact, it contributed to the creation of Bundles of Energy, which has begun opening the door to hundreds of people in transforming both their understanding of, and ability to, make the gentle shift to healthy, whole, natural foods.

My sons continue to educate me daily in how much there is to learn about raising kids and healthy eating. What worked on my older son typically does not work as well with my younger son, and so I am constantly on my toes creating or looking for new ways to keep him on track to eating well.

I want to help other parents out there with picky eaters by creating a series of blogs on my personal experiences. Stay tuned each week as I write about the actual techniques I have learned and developed to create success in dealing with these challenges. I encourage you to write comments to me with regards to your questions, concerns, or personal success stories, as it will be a learning opportunity for all of us.

Guest post from Dr. Joe Klassen

Digestive Health for Kids


There is a very longstanding wisdom that says good health starts in the gut. There can be no doubt that a healthy digestive tract is a fundamental issue for our children. Although concerned parents try to ensure that our kids get nutritious foods on their plate, it is also important that the food they eat is properly digested, absorbed and that undesired things are eliminated. It also bears study to ensure that we are not reacting to what we take in.

Digestive issues are often poorly understood as there is a huge variability among individuals and also variations over even short periods of time in any individual. With kids this can be even more complicated as they may be unable to properly articulate how and what they feel. The transient nature of the symptoms frustrates the child, caregiver and health professional alike. While I want to make the discussion as simple as possible, I still need to mention that any serious health issues need to be managed under the care of a professional, and that underlying serious issues are ruled out.

It is not uncommon for healthy children to have a tummy-ache on occasion. When it happens frequently and starts to limit our child’s play or schooling, then we have to get concerned. One of the frustrations many parents have is that with vague symptoms and nothing immediately dangerous, they are placated and told to go home and come back if there is any change. After many visits, there is a loss of confidence that “small” issues get any attention from a busy health care system. Given the nature of audience that reads this type of publication, I am going to skip the lectures on junk food, additives, colourings and high fat content as a contributor.

For anyone with some digestive complaints, a few simple tips can often improve the severity and frequency of complaints. Let’s start with a few simple tips that can help anybody. Chew your food well. This is almost a cliché of sorts in natural health, but it bears repeating especially with children who may gulp down their food to get to their next game or show. Remember not to dilute the digestive power of the stomach by having too much water with a meal. Have water throughout the day, but limit it in the half hour before and during meals to a small glass of water, letting the stomach produce it’s acid to dissolve the food. This improves ability to kill microorganisms on the food as well as to improve the stimulation of the rest of the process by having an increases-acid product moving out of the stomach to the small intestine. Being distracted while eating is a common impediment to a child’s good digestion. Try not to eat in front of the tv or standing while doing some other task. Although it is not always possible in our busy world, making an effort to have a group dinner at the family table is a boon to digestion. It is also a positive activity for the family, and some guidance from the parent’s on healthy discussions can ensure that we stay involved in each other’s lives. Offering thanks for our meal also serves as a bit of a stalling tactic to start the digestive process by anticipation. It also serves to start some very healthy habits in our kids. We go around the table after the meal is set, and everyone takes their turn sharing three things for which they are grateful today, and it really helps us see into each other, as well as start to salivate for our meal.

Gas and bloating are common complaints and are often due to overeating and rushing through a meal. When it is more persistent we should examine if there is a pattern of certain foods that sets this off. Many of us are becoming more reactive to foods such as dairy, wheat, corn, soy, eggs and citrus. The reason why this is occurring goes beyond our space here, but put simply, these foods contain some hard-to-digest proteins, are omnipresent in our diet, and are extremely concentrated in our food. Simply reducing or eliminating these foods for a period of time can offer a rest period and time to heal the gut. The judicious use of digestive enzymes or apple cider vinegar to improve digestion can help to minimize the impact of these or other reactive foods. Poor gut microflora can also contribute to discomfort in digestion. Gas-producing bacteria or yeasts can feed on the contents of our digestive tract and produce the gas that causes distension and discomfort.

Health gut flora is a whole topic of importance for our kids. The use of antibiotics without probiotic support, as well as the use of cleaning products and aggressive hygiene (eg chlorine in our water) in our community can wipeout the gut flora. Use of a probiotic on an occasional basis is adequate for most to establish a healthy flora. I don’t recommend using these constantly as we should give time for one’s bowel to establish its own balance (there are instances where this may not be so).

IBS is a condition that afflicts a larger number of people every year. It is diagnosed as a collection of symptoms after workup for other serious ailments have been ruled out. The common symptoms are abdominal pain, cramps, bloating, diarrhea and constipation. There are no specific tests to identify this “diagnosis of exclusion. From a naturopathic perspective, it is important to understand why there is such an irritation in the digestive system. We’ll start by looking at the quality of physical digestion; is the food being broken down to its basic components? If the food is incompletely digested, then it may cause much irritation farther down the tract, or it may serve as the food source for fermentive microflora. This leads to much gas, bloating and discomfort. The poorly digested food may also then be identified by the immune system, causing inflammation and irritation of the tissue and also more systemically (this is one relationship of foods to ADHD and other conditions). The irritated digestive tract may experience pain, cramps, and an excess or lack of motility corresponding to irregular and uncomfortable bowel movements.

More serious digestive issues include celiac disease, which is a significant immune response to the gluten contained in wheat and some other grains. Our body reacts to this protein and the anti-body/antigen complex leads to an immune attack on the lining of the digestive tract. This in turn can lead to a myriad of symptoms in the GI tract, and also to issues related to poor absorption of nutrients as in anaemia, fatigue and depression. This condition is becoming more prevalent and yet conventional medicine lacks an effective management of the issue beyond avoidance of gluten-containing foods. We see there can also be a similar reaction to other foods and one must ensure that our children are not encountering reactive foods in their diet. An excellent way to find out if there is a reaction to certain foods is to do a food allergy blood test. This blood test will show if there is an immune reaction to foods based on the presence of antibodies in the blood. This IgG test is for the delayed-onset allergies as found in celiac and other food allergies. I need to point out that it is not a test for the IgE antibodies that moderate histamine in the more obvious “hayfever” or “beesting” allergy presentation. The blood sample can be taken in your practitioners office, and is processed by a recognized laboratory. Fortunately for children, the basic panel of 96 foods can be sampled from a fingerstick and a few blood drops so we don’t have to endure a needle venipuncture and the trauma to kids (and myself) that comes with it.

Remember that much of our gut’s reaction to foods is at the root of many digestive complaints and if we can improve the quality of digestion, gut flora balance and reduce reactivity to foods, we can dramatically improve our health. When it comes to our children, it is important that we choose to select foods carefully and to observe their reaction. Many other conditions are a result of the inflammatory response from the gut, such as asthma, ADHD, eczema, depression and hormone issues. Food additives, preservatives and colourings are a whole new dimension to this issue that can be covered in future issues. As we develop a better understanding of our relationship with our food intake, we can reduce the increase in many of these childhood health concerns.

-Dr. Joe Klassen, ND practices at Fish Creek Naturopathic Medicine in Calgary, AB. He has a focus on digestive health, hormones, allergies and childhood issues. He chooses to include food and digestion as an integral approach to all health issues and includes these recommendations in his treatment guidelines.

Snack Idea

Hello Everyone! I would love to pass along a wonderful snack idea that I stumbled across yesterday while snooping around one of my favorite blogs! This is a perfect way to include a variety of great textures, colors, shapes, tastes and nutrients into your child's diet. Use this snack plate to introduce new interesting foods into your child's diet without overwhelming them. I absolutely love this and think that you and your family will as well. Let me know what you think, and include your ideas!

http://todayscreativeblog.blogspot.com/2008/08/sycamore-stirrings.html

Have a great day, Adrianne