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What is in fashion for the little ones this spring? 15 ways to make healthy eating fun!!
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contents
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Message: From the Editor-in-Chief
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Products: Kids Fashion For Spring
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Article: 15 Ways To Make Eating Healthy Fun
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Products: Hot Toys For All Kids Leading Up To Christmas
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Article: The Kids Driving Crazy
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Article: Cooking Is Fun! Chocolate Cupcakes
Message from the Editor Last week I was lucky enough to have a night out with my sister-in-law to see ‘Mother, Wife and the Complicated Life� (you might recall we spoke with Amity Dry, the woman behind the musical in our May issue). It was a fantastic night out and I found myself laughing and crying along a lot more than I expected. I left the Seymour Centre after the show feeling calm and positive. It is a reminder to us all that no matter our life stage we can only do what we can do and that we need to support the other women and mothers in our lives. The characters in the show were such a real representation of what we feel as women, mothers and wives and it gives perspective to know that you are not alone. The shows Sydney tour ends on 1 November but you can visit motherwifemusical.com to stay in the loop with future Australian tour dates. This months issue is filled with great articles on how to keep the kids on the straight and narrow of living a healthy lifestyle as well as what looks best coming into the hotter seasons of the year. I do encorague you take it as a goal to look further into the things covered in the issue to increase your own knowledge. Once again it is such a pleasure to be working with an amazing team to create a wonderful magazine that will hopefully help and guide you in every area that KiDDiES covers.
Sara Thorp ^
Photograph: Anton Belovodchenko
Ways To 15 Make Eating Healthy Fun! Every single day, I deal with picky eaters both big and small. I’m the mother of 7-year-old triplets, all of whom have very different eating habits; I’m also a dietitian who teaches the professional athletes on the Chicago Bears and Chicago Bulls teams how to improve their diets. Although it’s tough to convince a towering basketball player or a 300-pound linebacker that junk food is bad for him, trying to get my kids to eat well can be even more of a challenge. My daughter Kathleen has severe and life-threatening allergies to eggs, peanuts, and tree nuts, and Julia will not eat fresh fruit; luckily, my son, Marty, will try just about anything. Mothers constantly tell me that they feel guilty about their children’s diets; they know how important it is to feed their kids healthy foods, but they’re just not sure how to do it. Despite my own background in nutrition, I had to go through some trial and error with my triplets. Here are the most important lessons I’ve learned, which should help you guide your kids to eat better.
Make a schedule.
#1
Children need to eat every three to four hours: three meals, two snacks, and lots of fluids. If you plan for these, your child’s diet will be much more balanced and he’ll be less cranky, because he won’t be famished. I put a cooler in the car when I’m out with my kids and keep it stocked with carrots, pretzels, yogurt, and water so we don’t have to rely on fast food.
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Plan dinners.
#2
If thinking about a weekly menu is too daunting, start with two or three days at a time. A good dinner doesn’t have to be fancy, but it should be balanced: whole-grain bread, rice, or pasta; a fruit or a vegetable; and a protein source like lean meat, cheese, or beans. I often make simple entree soups or Mexican chili ahead of time and then freeze it; at dinnertime, I heat it up and add whole-grain bread and a bowl of cut-up apples or melon to round out the meal.
#3
Don’t become a short-order cook.
A few years ago, I got into a bad habit. I’d make two suppers -- one that I knew the kids would like and one for my husband and me. It was exhausting. Now I prepare one meal for everybody and serve it family-style so the kids can pick and choose what they want. Children often mimic their parents’ behavior, so one of these days, they’ll eat most of the food I serve them.
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Bite your tongue. #4
As hard as this may be, try not to comment on what or how much your kids are eating. Be as neutral as possible. Remember, you’ve done your job as a parent by serving balanced meals; your kids are responsible for eating them. If you play food enforcer -saying things like “Eat your vegetables” -- your child will only resist.
Introduce new foods slowly. #5
Children are new-food-phobic by nature. I tell my kids that their taste buds sometimes have to get used to a flavor before they’ll like the taste. A little hero worship can work wonders too. Marty refused to even try peas until I told him that Michael Jordan eats his to stay big and strong. Now Marty eats peas all the time.
Dip it.
#6
If your kids won’t eat vegetables, experiment with dips. Kathleen tried her first vegetable when I served her a thinly cut carrot with some ranch salad dressing. My children also like hummus, salsa, and yogurt-based dressing.
Make mornings count. #7
Most families don’t eat enough fiber on a daily basis, and breakfast is an easy place to sneak it in. Look for high-fiber cereals for a quick fix. Or, do what I do and make up batches of whole-grain pancake and waffle batter that last all week. For a batch that serves five, sift together 2 cups whole-wheat pastry flour, 4 tsp. baking powder, 1/2 tsp. salt, and 2 Tbs. sugar. When you’re ready to cook, mix in 2 Tbs. ground flax meal, 2 cups water, 3 Tbs. canola oil, 1/4 tsp. vanilla, and 2 Tbs. applesauce.
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Sneak in soy.
#8
Even if your kids don’t have milk allergies, soy milk is a terrific source of healthy phytochemicals. My kids don’t like soy milk but don’t notice when it’s hidden in a recipe. I use the low-fat, calcium-fortified kind in some recipes that call for milk, such as oatmeal, mashed potatoes, and sauces.
Sprinkle some sugar.
#9
Julia eats her cooked carrots with a bit of brown sugar, and I mix a little root beer into her prune juice to make prune-juice soda. Kathleen and Marty like a sprinkle of sugar on their fruit. I know that they’ll eventually outgrow this need for extra sweetness, but in the meantime, they’re eating fruits and vegetables.
Get kids cooking.#10
If your children become involved in choosing or preparing meals, they’ll be more interested in eating what they’ve created. Take them to the store, and let them choose produce for you. If they’re old enough, allow them to cut up vegetables and mix them into a salad. Although Julia refuses to eat fresh fruit, she and I make banana or apple muffins together -- and she always eats them once they’re done.
Cut back on junk.
#11
Remember, you -- not your kids -- are in charge of the foods that enter the house. By having fewer junk foods around, you’ll force your children to eat more fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and dairy products.
Allow treats. #12
Having less healthy foods occasionally keeps them from becoming forbidden -- and thus even more appealing. We call candy, soda, and cookies “sometimes” foods. I generally buy only healthy cereals such as Cheerios and Raisin Bran, but I let my kids have sugary cereals when they visit their grandparents or when we’re on vacation. And I treat them to McDonald’s for lunch every so often.
Have fun. #13
The more creative the meal is, the greater the variety of foods my kids eat. We make smiley-face pancakes and give foods silly names. (Broccoli florets are “baby trees” or “dinosaur food.”) Anything mini is always a hit too. I often use cookie cutters to turn toast into hearts and stars, which the children love.
Be a role model.
#14
If you’re constantly on a diet or have erratic eating habits, your children will grow up thinking that this sort of behavior is normal. Be honest with yourself about the kinds of food messages you’re sending. Trust your body to tell you when you’re hungry and when you’re full, and your kids will learn to do the same.
Adjust your attitude. #15
Realize that what your kids eat over time is what matters. Having popcorn at the movies or eating an ice-cream sundae are some of life’s real pleasures. As long as you balance these times with smart food choices and physical activity, your children will be fine.
Article by Julie Burns
www.jamesbroomephotography.com
Photograph: Benjamin Earwicker
The Kids Driving Crazy Your local police department could soon be adding to its revenue stream with the implementation of so-called “distracted driving” laws, which would fine drivers for talking on their cell phones, texting, and engaging in other activities that steal their attention from the road. And a new investigation by CBS2 News in Chicago takes aim at parents with children, having found that driving with kids in the car is roughly 12 times more distracting than talking on a cell phone.
50 percent there for a good minute to two minutes, and that’s really dangerous,” Klauer is quoted as saying to CBS2. “You can talk, you can sing, you can do all those kinds of interactions with your kids while you’re driving, but you need to keep your eyes on the forward roadway.”
To see which scenarios are the most distracting to drivers, CBS2 reporters installed cameras in the vehicles of drivers with varying life situations. Some of the participating drivers had no children, for instance, but spent a lot of time talking on their mobile phones while driving. Others had multiple children who caused varying levels of commotion inside the car while in motion. Researchers paid close attention to the amount of time each of the drivers had his or her eyes off the road during an average trip, and compared distraction levels among all participants.
Overall, drivers with children in the car were found to be distracted with their eyes completely off the road an astounding 21 percent of the time. This translates into roughly three minutes and 22 seconds of total distraction during a 16-minute car ride, which is 12 times longer than the average amount of distraction time for someone talking on a cell phone. Young children in the car are particularly dangerous, according to the survey, as they were found to be eight times more distracting than an adult passenger.
What they found was that, among all the drivers, a mother of three children, all under the age of three, was the most distracted. According to CBS2, she continually looked back to check the position of her newborn child, for instance, or to tell the other kids to settle down. According to Charlie Klauer, a transportation researcher at Virginia Tech, this particular mother took her eyes off the road on several instances for a notably long period of time. “Her ‘eyes off road’ time was at least
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“Young passengers eight times more distracting the adult passengers”
Wodka’s village recently passed an ordinance permitting drivers to be fined for any reason involving a distraction, including having children in the car. The ordinance has been in effect since January, and at least 26 warnings have been issued thus far. But fines of $35 per incident are set to begin on July 1, according to reports, which means parents will need to take extra caution when driving to avoid getting ticketed. “Lots of attention has been given to distracted teen drivers,” says Michelle Macy, lead author of a recent study on the issue that was put forth by the American Academy of Pediatrics. “However, our results indicate parents are frequently distracted while driving their 1-to-12-year-old children, and these distracted drivers were more likely to have been in a crash.”
Article by Jonathan Benson
“In half a second, a child can run out into the middle of the roadway, or somebody else who’s distracted can come into your lane of travel,” says Mark Wodka, Deputy Police Chief for the Hinsdale Police Department near Chicago.
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COOKING IS FUN! Photograph: Kitchen Adventures
40 min Easy Makes 10
Chocolate Cupcakes � 300g dark chocolate, (broken into chunks) � 200g sellf raising flour � 200g light muscovado sugar, plus 3 tbsp extra � 6 tbsp cocoa � 150ml sunflower oil, plus a little extra for greasing � 284ml pot soured cream � 2 eggs � 1 tsp vanilla extract
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Method Step One: Heat oven to 180C/fan 160C/gas 4 and line a 10-hole muffin tin with paper cases. Whizz the chocolate into small pieces in a food processor. In the largest mixing bowl you have, tip in the flour, sugar, cocoa, oil, 100ml soured cream, eggs, vanilla and 100ml water. Whisk everything together with electric beaters until smooth, then quickly stir in 100g of the whizzed-up chocolate bits. Divide between the 10 cases, then bake for 20 mins until a skewer inserted comes out clean (make sure you don’t poke it into a chocolate chip bit). Cool on a wire rack.
Step Two: To make the icing, put the remaining chocolate bits, soured cream and 3 tbsp sugar in a small saucepan. Heat gently, stirring, until the chocolate is melted and you have a smooth icing. Chill in the fridge until firm enough to swirl on top of the muffins, then tuck in.
Recipe by GoodFood
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