Climate Strike Vancouver

The teachers of Gingerbread House Daycare along with the BC Teachers Federation are in solidarity with all the youth from around the world, including Canada that are striking every Friday to raise awareness about the global climate crisis.

Today, we are in solidarity with the youth of Vancouver who will strike at 1 p.m. at City Hall! If you are able, please take the time to join Vancouver's courageous (and understandably outraged) youth like @sustainteens & stand up for mitigating action. #climatestrike

Healthy Lunches for Preschool and Daycare Kids

Send your kids back to school with healthy foods in their lunch box! Summer is coming to a close and school is right around the corner.  If you are a parent, you are probably cherishing the peace and calm from having your kids at home all summer looking to be entertained.  But one of the more challenging things as a parent is coming up with healthy and nutritious snacks on the go for your children – that they’ll eat.  

Consider purchasing a bento style lunchbox (we like Onyx stainless steel lunch boxes which are more sustainable on the environment and decrease packaging waste) so you can easily arrange healthy food items. And remember to buy organic whenever possible (especially for animal products like dairy, poultry, and meat). 

Here's some helpful lunch menu ideas with healthy food hacks to follow!

MONDAY

• Hard Boiled Eggs
• Baby Carrots + Ranch dressing (consider making your own without the additives and preservatives)
• Peaches
• Applesauce

TUESDAY

• Turkey Slices or roll ups
• Fresh Berries
• Yogurt (sugar free, you can add fresh fruit)
• Trail Mix

WEDNESDAY

• Hummus
• Pita Bread
• Grape Tomatoes
• Cucumber slices
• Sliced Oranges

THURSDAY

• Cheese Quesadilla
• Guacamole
• Salsa
• Tortilla Chips
• Strawberries

FRIDAY

• Shredded BBQ chicken + Cheese Kabobs
• Red Pepper Slices
• Apples
• Carrots with almond butter

Interested in learning more about healthy products and foods for your kids, check out the Environmental Working Groups website. They have everything covered from the best sunscreens to the top rated pesticides in produce.

Water

Plain water is the best drink for kids (and adults). If your child is used to juice and you want to transition her/him to water, try adding a few berries to water for some taste? Some frozen blueberries or raspberries can add some zing to water and keep it cool at the same time. 

Sneaky vegetable hack

While you’re steaming carrots, sweet potato or cauliflower for dinner, set a cup or two aside. Blend with ¾ cup of water (more if the mixture is thick) and when smooth and liquidy, add to a thermos lunch, like soup, macaroni and cheese, spaghetti and meatballs. Combine well, and your kids will never know.

Seed/Nut butter apple

Keep skin on apple and use a corer/slicer to remove the core and cut the apple into even pieces. Assemble the apple back together and secure with a rubber band. Add a spoonful of your favourite nut or seed butter (pumpkin or sunflower butters are delicious and safe for “nut-free” schools) inside the cored section and wrap the entire apple in plastic wrap.

When your child unwraps the apple and takes off the rubber band, the apple pieces already have a layer of yummy spread on top!

Reusable lunch containers

Some schools are starting to crack down on plastic bags and wrap and are encouraging parents and students to pack lunches in reusable containers instead. Bento boxes are especially popular. They are already sectioned so lunch and recess snacks are all conveniently packed in one container. Just make sure the plastic is BPA free. You can buy stainless steel snack containers now as well which are much safer in a classroom than glass. I like Onyx, it's expensive, but it'll last a lifetime!

Lunchbox Love

A quick search on Pinterest will lead you to some downloadable daily affirmations that you can print out, cut up and include one in your child’s lunch bag every day. For younger kids that don’t yet read, include pictures of hearts or cute animals hugging to symbolize your love!  

Summary

Our staff suggest starting to teach children when they're 1-3 years of age about eating the "rainbow."

Always pack a protein, dairy, meat, nuts and seeds (check your school’s policy on nuts). Also, include fresh cut up veggies, one or two fruit options, apple sauce, cut up apples, peaches, pears. Smaller children do better with cut up fruit. Let kids choose what goes into their lunch, and they will be more likely to eat it. Include more food items than you think they are going to need. Kids self-regulate. Packed with an ice pack, the items that return home can be after-school snacks.

If you are going to use pre-packaged foods, please check food labels carefully to monitor the sugar content in order to avoid hidden or added sugars and preservatives.

One last back to school tip is to send your kids off to school with a reminder of the importance of hand washing prior to eating their lunch and remind them again to do so when they return home. Frequent hand washing is the best defense against getting sick. Singing the alphabet while hand washing can make sure that they’re doing it long enough to count.

To your child's ultimate well-being!

Gingerbread House Daycare

Sugary Drinks

Our kids drink too much sugar, with the school year starting, let's rethink their drinks! 

Are you aware that fruit drinks, sport drinks, sweetened waters and teas, energy drinks, and sodas are the primary source of added sugars in Canadian diets. In fact, sugary drinks are a huge contributing factor to the rise of childhood obesity in Canada. 

Fortunately, health groups and physicians across North America are working with policy makers to encourage educational campaigns and other initiatives to help parents make informed decisions about their kids' diets. 

The World Health Organization is urging all nations to implement a sugar tax. Many countries and US states have already begun to do so. The result has been very impressive with sugar consumption precipitously decline. 

Additionally, there's been a concerted effort to use money generated from the sugar tax to fund public health campaigns encouraging children and adults to choose healthier drink alternatives, like water, milk, plant and nut milks, and 100% juice with no added sugars or artificial sweeteners. 

Through sugar taxes, cities and states across North America and other parts of the world are working to decrease diet-related diseases, such as diabetes and heart disease. The revenue used from the sugar tax can also be used to support clean drinking water programs in schools, walking trails and bike paths, and many other health-promoting initiatives. 

Access to healthy drinks is crucial to helping kids grow up at a healthy weight and avoid diabetes and heart disease. Who doesn’t want that? 

The staff at Gingerbread House Daycare are committed to supporting parents and the government with initiatives that improve the health and welfare of children everywhere!

Prenatal Vitamins May Make Your Children Cleverer

A new study led by a research team at Harvard University has reported that taking multivitamins during pregnancy can "add the equivalent of up to a full year of schooling to a child's cognitive abilities." 

The results also found that early life factors including a nurturing environment was very important for a child's intellectual development including educational achievement and fine motor dexterity. 

The multivitamins studied contained iron, folic acid, retinol, vitamin D, vitamin E, ascorbic acid, vitamin B, niacin, zinc, copper, selenium and iodine. Maternal supplementation aided children's procedural memory by an additional 1/2 year of schooling and for anemic mothers, the effect equalled one year of extra schooling. 

In conclusion, the most impactful factors on a child's cognitive ability that trump biological factors include: nurturing home environment, parental happiness, parental education, socio-economic status. 

The research was published in the journal The Lancet Global Health. 

Which Milk is Best for Kids' Health

Recently a New York Times article weighed in on the different milk options available to us. So what is the best nutritional option for your children?

Dairy milk seems to come out in front as far as protein content and absorbable form of calcium. However, all the milk substitutes - Rice, Almond, Soy, Coconut, etc - contain 30% of the recommended daily intake (RDI) for calcium. However, this type of supplemental calcium may not be as absorbable as the calcium naturally occurring in dairy milk.

An important factor to consider if your family drinks dairy milk is to purchase milk that is organic or at the very least, derived from grass-fed cows. In the U.S. cows are given hormones and these hormones are present in the milk supplied. A number of studies have reported hormonal changes in girls and boys due to the hormones in the dairy cattle.

The dairy industry in Canada prohibits hormones from being given to cattle, however, their feed may contain many undesirable chemicals and be of poorer nutrition. What's more, cattle can be given antibiotics and all these substances will be passed on to the milk supply. 

Dairy milk may also not be suitable for your child if s/he has an allergy to lactose or casein, both of which are found in milk. Also, pediatricians tend to advise against dairy milk form cattle if the child has any of the atopic triad conditions: asthma, eczema, allergies. Goat's milk or one of the milk substitutes (rice, almond, cashew etc) may be a more appropriate substitute. Best to speak with your child's physician regarding this.

Another note about the dairy industry is the climate impact from the methane gas released. Climate change has a big impact on global health and every consumer choice has a powerful impact. So try and support your local farmer and sustainable farming practices.

To our global health!

Here's the link to the NYTimes article for your reference: Which Milk is Most Nutritious: Soy, Cashew, Almond or Coconut? 

Our Kids Need to Get Dirty!

Microbes are important for health and prevention of diseases. Researchers suggest it's time for kids (and adults) to get dirty, eat nutritious foods and stop overusing antibiotics.

Diabetes, allergies, asthma, IBS, autism,obesity and autoimmune diseases are at an all time high. The prevalence of these conditions are now being linked to the quality of microbes that are an inherent part of our physiological makeup. 

These diseases are largely a consequence of a our lifestyle - modern diet, oversanitisation, excessive use of antibiotics...and they are being diagnosed in more children. We urgently need to find ways to modify our behavior so that our microbes can function properly. Our kids are growing up so cleanly and our diets have lost many of the nutrients due to processing and packaging. 

Here's some positive changes we can make as parents: 

1. Expose children to a diverse array of microbes by encouraging them to play outdoors.

2. Allow your children to follow their innate impulse to get dirty (microbes help us build our immune system)

3. Encourage healthy eating. The Western diet's highly processed diet is very high in preservatives, artificial colours, artificial flavours and sugars. There is a very strong association between this diet and many diseases, including obesity and type 2 diabetes. 

Focus on a variety of food to ensure a health gut and body. Good foods for children to snack on: vegetables, fruit and nuts. Include a variety of grains such as oats, rice, barley, quinoa. It's important that these are whole grains, not refined ones (such as bread and cereal). Whole grains are higher in fiber and have more nutrients for a growing child's demands. Try adding protein from lentils, beans and peas as well as non-starchy vegetables like sweet potatoes, parsnips and yams (nice alternative to potatoes). Older children can benefit from fermented foods such as yogurt, kefir, sauerkraut and other pickled vegetables. 

For children, eating healthy foods becomes a habit in the same way as cleaning their room does: by doing it frequently.

4. Be restrictive with the use of antibiotics in your children.  Upper respiratory tract infections and colds are often caused by viruses, so antibacterials won’t cure them. Most sore throats, especially if the child also has a runny nose and cough, are caused by viruses and don’t need antibiotic therapy. Also, probiotic supplements (with live bacteria and yeasts) can be beneficial if a child is given antibiotics.

5. Avoid antibacterial soaps.

Reference: The Wall Street Journal