Tag Archives: health

4. The Growing Child, 5. The Adolescent, The Editor's Desk

Discouraging School-Age Children and Teens from Junk Food

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By Rita Brhel, managing editor and attachment parenting resource leader (API)

Sadly, the challenge of encouraging your child to eat nutritiously doesn’t get any easier as he grows. As they become more independent thinkers, school-aged children and teens are exposed to more people modeling unhealthy behaviors: their peers and friends, other adults in the community, television commercials, even school vending machines promoting quick, easy, and tasty sweets and fatty foods.

Role models don’t have to openly discourage eating nutritiously; ignoring healthy options and choosing junk food first is powerful persuasion.

As children grow, eventually what peers teach begins to compete with the importance of parental guidance. But, in a family that values strong parent-child attachments, the parent will continue to be the top role model. So, even if your teen’s friends are choosing candy bars and pop over healthy snacks and beverages, she’s still learning most of her life lessons from what’s going on at home.

Here are a few ways parents can positively influence their children’s food choices:

  • Lead by example – Your child, even a teen, is learning how to live life by watching what you do and doing it, so if you’re snacking on chips and candy, your child will be, too. Also, actions speak louder than words. Your child learns more from watching what you eat than by listening to you advocate for the apple while you’re munching on a cookie.
  • Cheer up! – Many people, children and adults, learn to eat when they’re unhappy. Help your child find other ways to work through their feelings, such as talking with you or a friend.
  • Beat the boredom – Some children eat when they’re bored, especially while watching television. Turn off the TV and turn on family time with games, outings, or other activities together. In addition to discouraging your child from eating while viewing, turning off the television will reduce the time your child is exposed to junk food advertisers.
  • Moderation is the key – An occasional sweet is OK, but limiting the portion is a must. Teach your child to limit junk food by eating chips only with healthy meals and only offering one or two cookies during one snack time. Be consistent and resilient against protests, especially if you’re starting to change your child’s eating habits.
  • Make your own “junk food” – Bypass the store-bought processed foods by making your own candy, ice cream, sweet breads, and chips. Learn ways to make recipes healthier, such as using skim milk instead of whole milk and using applesauce instead of sugar.
  • Prepare quick foods for your busy teen – Many older children and teens have extremely full schedules, running from sports practice to dance class to church activities before coming home to do schoolwork and getting ready for bed. Junk food is notoriously easy for them to get quick energy, even if it’s not healthy energy. Encourage your child to eat well when they’re looking for quick meals by preparing healthy, tasty snacks for them. Cheese and crackers, a banana, celery sticks with peanut butter are all easy to pack together and don’t have to be refrigerated.

There will still be times when your child or teen opts for a bag of chips and pop instead of a healthier choice, but the goal is to teach her to make the right choice from how you model what to eat. And be creative! Healthy food choices can compete with the sugar- and fat-packed junk food. Find recipes that appeal to your child’s sweet tooth but still give her some nutrition, like a fruit-nut trail mix or multi-grain cookies.

Striving for Balance: Personal & Family

Go Green with Holistic Parenting

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By Nancy Massotto, PhD, executive director of Holistic Moms Network

Everywhere you look, there is a growing interest in eco-conscious choices, natural solutions, and organic products.

While these trends are significant in the marketplace, they are also apparent in a movement toward parenting and lifestyle choices that focus on promoting awareness of environmental conservation, natural remedies, and the importance of reducing, reusing, and recycling.

But living a greener life means more than incorporating green ideas into daily living; it’s a mindset. Parents who are seeking and living this lifestyle are practicing holistic parenting.

Green Parenting

Holistic parenting springs from an awareness of how our choices are interconnected. Like Attachment Parenting, holistic parenting seeks to build and strengthen connections – between parent and child, between our lifestyle and our health, and between our choices and their impact upon the Earth. It’s about understanding the relationship between mind, body, and spirit and trying to find balance.

When you are out of balance emotionally, physically, or spiritually – or when your environment is toxic – it is a sign of illness. Making choices that embrace these interconnections and working with nature and our innate knowledge helps us to restore balance.

Holistic parenting is also about becoming informed and being cognizant of how different options affect our health and well-being, as well as their impact upon our communities and the world. Being conscious of our choices enables us to think on a larger scale and to do what is best for our families.

Although holistic parenting can take many routes, here are some simple things every parent can to do to begin their holistic living journey:

  • Stay informed – Being informed in our parenting and health care choices are cornerstones of whole living. From childbirth options to nutrition, from education alternatives to discipline, holistic parenting seeks a natural path. Parents should look beyond the surface to assess the risks and benefits of their choices to understand how their choices impact their lives on physical, spiritual, and emotional levels. Modern technology has enabled parents to access a wealth of information and to become aware of less conventional perspectives. Parents need to become advocates for themselves, their children, and our planet, and to be open to information that resonates with them regardless of whether or not the data confers with “mainstream” perspectives.
  • Cultivate trust – Living holistically starts with a shift in your perspective away from fear and uncertainty and toward trust in yourself, your body, and nature’s healing power. Cultivating this trust is challenging, but uncovering it is a source of empowerment. From childbirth and breastfeeding to natural healing, trusting in the body and its amazing abilities enables us to recognize that nature holds many miracles. This also means trusting in the needs of our children. We all know babies have needs and wants, but our society tends to minimize their levels of consciousness and awareness. If we trust in our babies’ abilities to know what they need, we will parent more successfully.
  • Tune into your wisdom – Deep within ourselves lies our inner wisdom and intuition. What feels right to us may not be the most traveled path but often will best serve our families. This wisdom guides not only our parenting styles but also simple choices we make everyday. Many times, we may wonder if something is really “good” for us, even if it is considered “safe” by the authorities. If your wisdom is questioning, become informed and seek alternatives. Parenting from the heart and trusting in our instinct honors our own wisdom and abilities.
  • Go natural – The preponderance of chemicals in our food, homes, and environment is wreaking havoc on our health. A 2004 article in The Journal of Pediatrics advised pediatricians to discuss the neurological risks of exposing babies to pesticides, whether through foods or environmental exposure on lawns. In the article, it was noted that the blood-brain barrier in babies is easily crossed by chemicals, thus reducing exposure is essential. They also noted that “we are currently able to characterize pediatric risks for only a handful of the approximately 80,000 man-made chemicals that have entered the environment since World War II.” We need to look for safe, non-toxic products to care for our homes, and to eliminate artificial ingredients, preservatives, and pesticides from our food for the health of our families, and our environment.
  • Live lightly on the earth – Living holistically means recognizing the interconnectedness of our choices. Treading lightly by supporting industries that nurture the earth (such as organic farming), incorporating green practices into your life (such as recycling), and giving back of yourself through volunteer work are essential components of natural living. As parents, we can educate our children to take simple but important steps to conserve, reuse, and to live simply and thoughtfully for themselves and future generations.
  • Find support – While all things “green” may be increasingly popular, living a holistic lifestyle continues to be considered “alternative” and often garners criticism from our own families and friends. Interacting with others who share similar philosophies is empowering and helps parents find the tools they need to grow a healthy family. Social support itself is health creating. Recent studies show that being socially connected to others can improve your physical health and is linked to lower mortality rates. Connecting with like-minded parents can help you learn and share as you continue your journey to a more natural and balanced life.

About the Holistic Moms Network
The Holistic Moms Network (HMN) is a nonprofit organization connecting parents who are passionate about holistic health and green living. For more information, visit www.holisticmoms.org.

1. Pregnancy & Birth, The Editor's Desk

Eating With Morning Sickness

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By Rita Brhel, managing editor and attachment parenting resource leader (API)

Of all the changes that take place in a woman’s body during pregnancy, the most uncomfortable for an estimated 70 percent of women – as reported by www.mayoclinic.com – may be so-called “morning sickness,” which isn’t often confined to just the morning hours.

Not every woman who experiences morning sickness finds it debilitating, although other pregnancy signs such as exhaustion, aversions to foods, and sensitivity to odors can aggravate the condition. Morning sickness can range from a loss of appetite and mild nausea to vomiting several times a day, which can lead to dehydration or worse.

For those with more severe morning sickness or morning sickness that lasts longer than the first four months, when many women begin to feel better, eating can become a chore – especially when you’re aware that your eating habits are affecting a new, little life!

Many medical professionals request that their pregnant patients be diligent in taking a daily dose of prenatal vitamin, to be sure that the mother is getting enough nutrition from what her diet.

“The increased demand for blood and hormones raises nutritional demands for the mother,” writes Wendy Hodsdon, ND, in her 2007 article “Prenatal Vitamins: Why Pregnant Women Should Take Them” on www.thedietchannel.com. “Since her fetus is completely dependent on her for nutrition, her body will give it what it needs, depleting her stores, if necessary. This will exacerbate any nutritional deficiencies she may already be experiencing.”

The medical community, as a whole, isn’t entirely certain what causes morning sickness, although many blame a rapid increase in hormones supporting the pregnancy, a sluggish digestive system, low blood sugar, and other possibilities. Sometimes, morning sickness seems genetic, and rarely, it may be related to a complication.

But, according to http://survivemorningsickness.com, the incidence and severity of morning sickness may actually be a result of a woman’s diet. One 2006 study shows that a link with diets rich in sugars, sweeteners, oils used in frying, alcohol, and caffeine; and that women who eat more cereals and pulse foods tend not to have morning sickness.

Still, women shouldn’t force themselves to eat foods to which they have aversions. Fortunately, there are many choices in nutrient-rich foods. Here are some tips for women from SurviveMorningSickness.com to be sure they’re eating right when their pregnant:

  • Do take a prenatal vitamin – Sometimes, the iron in the vitamin can temporarily increase nausea. Talk to your doctor about other brands of prenatal vitamins that may have lesser amounts of this nutrient, while still within the recommended guidelines, and about improving your intake of foods naturally containing large amounts of iron.
  • Take an extra folate supplement – Women who do not get enough folic acid in their diet can get extremely ill. The recommended guideline is at least 400 micrograms per day.
  • Take an extra vitamin B6 supplement – Vitamin B6 can be very effective at relieving morning sickness. The recommended dose is 50 milligrams daily. Be sure to check your prenatal vitamins to make certain your intake of this vitamin doesn’t exceed the maximum 75 milligrams each day. When using vitamin B6 to treat morning sickness, it’s best to divide the dose into three, taking one in the morning, mid-afternoon, and at bedtime.
  • Eat more foods containing iron, less salt – Iron-rich foods include red meat, eggs, chicken, fish, whole grains, spinach, and raisins.
  • Eat more foods containing folic acid – Folic acid-rich foods include bananas, strawberries, oranges, green vegetables, chickpeas, nuts, and cereals.
  • Eat more foods containing vitamin C – Tomato and orange juice taken with meals or prenatal vitamins helps the body better absorb iron.
  • Eat more foods containing calcium – Not only milk, yogurt, and cheese but also fish like salmon and sardines.
  • Eat more fiber – Fiber-containing foods include cereals, breads, rice, oats, and pasta made of whole grain, as well as unpeeled fruits and vegetables. As an added bonus, fiber prevents constipation.
  • Eat more foods containing protein – Foods high in protein include meat, chicken, fish, nuts, tofu, dried beans, peas, milk, and cheese.
  • Eat more foods containing vitamin B6 – Try green, leafy vegetables.
  • Drink six to eight glasses of water daily – Drinking lots of water helps many women, ill or not, feel better. It helps prevent urinary tract infections, which can cause nausea and other discomforts, and if left untreated, can result in premature labor. Drinking plenty of water also decreases Braxton-Hicks contractions, especially in hot weather.
  • Eat more fruits and vegetables – Especially during snacks, opt for fruits and vegetables over breads and sweets.
  • Eat some fish – Some medical doctors advise against eating too much fish due to the risk of ingesting mercury, but eating some fish is part of a healthy diet.
  • When drinking soy milk, be sure it’s enriched with calcium.
  • Avoid coffee, cola, chocolate, and other caffeinated foods.
  • Avoid fatty or fried foods.

Other tips include:

  • Get plenty of rest.
  • Stay away from triggers – If a certain odor or food brings on the morning sickness, try to avoid it.
  • Consult your medical provider – If you’re unable to keep anything down, not even fluids, it’s imperative that you contact your health practitioner, as this can lead to not only dehydration but also production of toxic ketones, which are caused when the body begins to metabolize fat for energy. Immediate treatment for severe morning sickness is typically hospitalization and intravenous fluid treatments; long-term treatment may include pressure point therapy for motion sickness or sometimes medication.

The incidence and severity of morning sickness may actually be a result of a woman’s diet.