Dr. Seuss Week Includes Nutrition Piece Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss! LCCAA Head Start will celebrate the life and work of prolific children’s author Dr. Seuss with special events this week and activities that have been sent home. On Tuesday, classes will read One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish. Students are invited and encouraged to wear red or blue while attending in-person or virtual learning and to use the Goldfish® sent home for math activities. On Wednesday, all virtual events will include the story Wacky Wednesday. Students are invited to wear their clothing backwards, or create crazy hair styles and other expressions of wackiness. On Thursday, classes will read Fox in Socks. Both hybrid students and virtual students are encouraged to decorate the socks sent home and show off their creativity! Green Eggs and Ham is both a favorite book and a fun food. The book helps students practice rhyming words and learn that trying new foods can be fun. The recipe at right was sent home with family Care Bags. Wear green while you’re whipping it up! Please share photos of your child enjoying these activities on ClassTag or Facebook.
Stages of Development Matter in Eating Too “When do I begin to feed my baby solid food?” This is a question asked by many new moms. There are certain skills that an infant needs to have before introducing solid foods. Some of the skills you will want to see are: XX Ability to move tongue from side to side. XX Sitting with support. XX Swallowing soft foods without choking.
XX Opening mouth when seeing food. These skills usually appear between 4 and 6 months. The recommendation for formula-fed babies is to begin with iron-fortified infant cereal (limiting rice cereal). The recommendation for breast-fed babies is to begin with pureed baby meats to add more iron and zinc to the baby’s diet. Between 6 and 8 months you can introduce pureed fruits and vegetables. Add them one at a time so you can monitor for potential allergies. Once your baby is accustomed to these new foods, you can move on to denser, mashed or strained foods. These are often marketed as “Stage 2.” At around 8 to 12 months babies develop their pincer grasp and will be able to pick up food with their fingers. At this time, you can introduce finger foods such as unsweetened cereal, toast or crackers. Your baby will also want to begin to experiment with the spoon and will be able to feed him or herself between the ages of 15 and 18 months. A sippy cup can be introduced at about 11 months of age.
