Peas Pointers by Melanie Silverman

We have teamed up with a pediatric registered dietitian who thinks we are doing a great job getting veggies into your kids!  Melanie R. Silverman MS, RD, IBCLC, is not only a pediatric registered dietitian and board certified lactation consultant, she is also the owner of Feeding Philosophies (www.feedingphilosophies.com) and has loads of tips and tricks to help your kids eat the way they should, from infancy through their adolescent years.

Melanie's tips will now be called Peas Pointers and she plans to guest write for our blog every month. Here is her first:

If you have a picky eater, I bet the one food they will eat are those prehistoric animal shaped chicken nuggets. While I tend to believe most foods can be part of a healthy diet, in my opinion, chicken nuggets are grossly over-served to kids. 

If you have a picky eater and you want them to eat a variety of foods, you must offer it to them. And, as hard as it may be, you cannot fall back on foods your picky eater will eat when they skip a meal or two. I have learned through the years that kids will not starve themselves.

So go ahead.  Roast broccoli.  Grill fish.  Bake sweet potatoes.  Be patient.  Picky eaters will try new foods.  It just takes time.   

Peas, Melanie

Holiday Meals: Bring the Good Option

Watching waistlines during the holidays is always a challenge. Plan for success this year by bringing the good option to holiday gatherings. Whatever your favorite dish / greatest weakness is, offer to make that dish and then bring a dish that you feel good about eating yourself and about serving to family and friends.

Here are a few suggestions for good options to bring:

Salad
Use a luxury ingredient like pecans or avocados for some heart-healthy fats that will curb your holiday appetite and help prevent over-indulging later in the meal. And take a stab at making your our salad dressing!

Hot Vegetable Side
Bring green beans simply sauteed in a dribble of olive oil with some sea salt (rather than drowned in 'cream of something soup'). Or, depending on the crowd (whether people love garlic or not), make Angry Broccoli: lightly saute several cloves of minced garlic with some red pepper flakes in a tablespoon of olive oil, toss in steamed broccoli and top with a few shavings of parmesan or pecorino cheese.


Dessert:
A fresh fruit plate with plain greek-style yogurt or a fresh farmers cheese (low in fat and calories) drizzled with honey, or a simple baked fruit dessert (without a pastry crust) garnished with a few nuts.

Happy Holidays!

Take A Seat

We recently checked in with one of our biggest supporters, Melanie R. Silverman, a Registered Dietitian who specializes in pediatric nutritional care. We asked her what was on her mind these days. Her answer: "meal time" and here is what she had to say about it:

Meal time behavior and manners is probably something you hope your child develops, but let’s be face it, on the big list of what you want for your child, health, happiness and a college education certainly beat good manners at the table.  What if we considered moving the importance of meal time behavior and manners up the list because I am beginning to believe that the health, happiness and college education you want for your child starts at the kitchen table.  Here is how it works…

1) Watch your snacks.  If dinner is at 6:30pm and you gave a few handfuls of cheesy crispy kiddie crackers at 5:00pm to “hold them off”, you are in for it; they are not going to eat and those cheesy crispy kiddie crackers just displaced your dinner.  Spread out your meals and snacks by at least two to three hours so the kids come to the table hungry and do a decent job eating the nutritious food you prepared.

2) Sit together.  Make sure that everyone in the family is seated together at the table. While kid tables are adorable, don’t separate the kids from the adults during meal time.  Gather around the table as a family.  Eat.  Talk.  Laugh.  Meal time should be fun.

3) Correct behavior.  Kids learn by observation.  How will they learn to use a fork, drink from an open cup, cut their food or place a napkin in their laps if you do not show them?  Meal time also gives you an opportunity to spend time with your kids which teaches them how to talk, listen and communicate effectively.

So how do these three tips get your child healthy, happy and into
college?  If your child is coming to the table hungry because you spread the snacking out, the probability goes way up that he or she will actually eat the nutritious food you took time to prepare.   Your child is now healthy!  Research has shown time and time again how valuable the family meal is for children because shared meals can provide a sense of community, love, and support.  Your child is now happy!  Colleges are looking for people with high cognitive abilities that can also relate well to people.  Eating as a family at the table gives your child exposure to both aspects of development.   Your child is going to college!

Pull up a chair to the kitchen table and have your child take a seat. The meals you provide are so much more than just calories.

photo credit: kitchen table from www.thekitchn.com  

Melanie R. Silverman MS, RD, IBCLC is pediatric registered dietitian and lactation consultant in Laguna Beach, California.  You can learn more about her private practice at www.feedingphilosophies.com and what her feeding philosophies are at blog.feedingphilosophies.com

Eat for a Low-Stress 2011

One of our New Year's resolutions is to reduce stress in our lives... through what we eat! We thought this would be a great blog entry for the whole family!

A stressed person's body will hold onto less calcium, magnesium and potassium. Prolonged stress can lead to deficiencies of these minerals as well as B vitamins and electrolytes while experiencing increased production of free radicals which stresses the body further, leaving us more susceptible to illness and slower to heal. Although we'll be preemptively reducing stresses in our lives, when faced with unavoidable stresses, we'll count on certain foods to help our body fight the physical effects of stress.

Here's the list of soothing, stress-relieving foods that we'll be eating more of in 2011 and hope that you will too:

Other recommendations include:

• a diet that's 50% raw fruits and vegetables
• minimize dairy consumption
• limit caffeine intake
• supplement vitamin D to aid calcium absorption
• regular exercise
• "tense and release"progressive relaxation. Tense a muscle group for a count of ten and then release.
• solid night's sleep. For mild, natural assistance, try camomile tea and/or melatonin.

Wishing you a happy New Year!