Letting Your Kids be Kids and Have Fun: Holiday Parties and More

Dear parents, the shot above has gone viral on social media and I'm sharing it here as to simply remind you that when it comes to the holidays, it’s okay to let your kids (and yourself for that matter) relax and have a little fun. There’s plenty of time for rules and routines during the rest of the year!

As with our diets, it’s easy as parents to let ourselves veer off the routine over the holidays when we don’t have to get up early for work or our kids don’t have school. It's not uncommon to have parents let their younger kids skip their naps in exchange for important time with relatives and friends they haven't seen for awhile.

It's all about finding the balance and knowing your child's temperament: is she/he easy going or easily over-stimulated? Does your child need a lot of activity? These are the things to know and respect about our kids. This will help us plan their schedules and holiday parties, but also make us better parents the rest of the time.

Best wishes for a joyful holiday season!

Farro with Confetti Vegetables - Video

Source: Harvard Public Health

Needing some inspiration for your kids' school lunches? Well this colorful combination of vegetables with whole-grain farro should fit the bill! It's adaptable for all seasons and substituting olive oil for canola oil is the only edit I suggest. 

The instructions and nutritional information follow, or click on the link to watch the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=38&v=m5bIPn8H1nY

Serves 8, as a side

Ingredients: 

• 1 cup farro, uncooked
• Seasonal vegetables, diced (4 vegetables make about 8-10 cups)
  • (Summer: zucchini, summer squash, bell pepper, eggplant)
  • (Winter: root vegetables: carrots, parsnips, beets; and winter squashes: butternut, acorn)
• ¼ cup canola, olive, or other healthy oil
• ¾ tablespoon pepper
• 2 cups low-sodium vegetable stock
• A pinch of salt
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• Fresh herbs as available, chopped

Preparation: 

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit.
2. Dice all vegetables into even pieces and set aside.
3. Bring vegetable stock to a boil in a medium saucepan, then stir in the farro. Reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer until the farro is tender (Approximately 40 minutes. Check package for cooking instructions).
4. Meanwhile, toss the diced vegetables in canola oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and place on a baking pan, and roast until browned in the preheated oven for 20 to 30 minutes. Check every 10 minutes, and toss the vegetables so that they brown evenly.
5. Once the vegetables are fully roasted, fold them into the farro. Add the lemon juice and taste to adjust for seasoning. Add additional salt, pepper, and fresh herbs, to taste.

Nutrition information per serving (1/8 of recipe):

Using summer vegetables and canola oil:

181 calories, 8 g protein, 25 g carbohydrate, 5 g fiber, 4 g sugar**, 0 g added sugar, 52 mg sodium, 365 mg potassium, 8 g fat (1 g sat, 4 g mono, 3 g poly, 0 g trans), 0 g cholesterol

Using winter vegetables and canola oil:

225 calories, 6 g protein, 36 g carbohydrate, 6 g fiber, 7 g sugar**, 0 g added sugar, 128 mg sodium, 298 mg potassium, 7 g fat (0 g sat, 4 g mono, 3 g poly, 0 g trans), 0 mg cholesterol

** Naturally occurring sugar

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!

Kids Need Water Not Fruit Juice

Fruit juice may taste great to your child, but it's loaded with sugars that can contribute to adverse health conditions like obesity, tooth decay, and overall poor nutrition. 

The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recent recommendations state that fruit juice should not be given to infants under 12 months of age because it offers no nutritional benefit to them. Water and breast milk should be the preferred drink. 

After 12 months of age, the AAP sates that infants can be given limited amounts of juice each day but advices that for all age groups:

• Fruit juice offers no nutritional benefits over whole fruits. Whole fruits and vegetables have nutrients and fiber while fruit juice is loaded with quick processing sugars (this includes fruit juices that have no sugar added).
• Children should not be given fruit juice at bedtime or as a treatment or management for diarrhea.
• For children ages one through 6 years of age it's still recommended to limit fruit juice to no more than 4 ounces per day. Read the label and make sure it is 100% fruit juice, a lot of juices are loaded with sugar and have very little 'real' juice if any. It should also be pasteurized for safety and don't give juice in a sippy cup or bottle, this is very important for preventing cavities.

These are guidelines — and with any guideline, there may be exceptions (if your child is on an iron supplement, for example, your doctor may want you to give it with orange juice). If you have questions about this recommendation, or anything else about what your child should eat or drink, talk to your pediatrician.

Here is the American Academy of Pediatrics policy statement on fruit juice: http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/139/6/e20170967

Attributes of Bravery

Make time to watch "The Gutsy Girl" author Caroline Paul's talk on raising brave girls and boys. Get inspired by the power of adventure and productive risk-taking, no matter your age or gender! Parents: she provides references and resources for further learning on microbavery and resilience.

The fear we learn and the caution stays with us into adulthood -- hesitation in speaking out and our lack of confidence in our own decisions. So how do we raise brave kids?

Here are Caroline's key points on how kids become brave: 

Bravery is learned and like anything learned, it needs to be practiced. Take a deep breath and encourage your kids to skateboard, climb trees etc - studies show that risky play teaches hazard assessment, delayed gratification, resilience and confidence. When kids get outside and practice bravery, they learn invaluable life lessons.

Try and not over caution our kids, because then you're telling them that they shouldn't keep pushing themselves, that they're not good enough, that they shouldn't be brave. 

Moms and dads (especially moms) have to start practicing bravery too. We can't teach our kids unless we practice it ourselves. So practice... at home, in the office, in our relationships.

Guide your kids to access their bravery, maybe the hill is too steep, but let her be guided by courage not fear to determine what's possible and what isn't. This is not about the steep hill in front of her, but about her life ahead of her. 

Watch the Ted presentation here: http://www.ted.com/talks/caroline_paul_to_raise_brave_girls_encourage_adventure?utm_source=tedcomshare&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=tedspread

Parents, How Much Do You Know About Antibiotics?

There's an effort by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to help make sure that we use antibiotics wisely. In the U.S. 1 in 5 of children visits to health care practitioners result in a prescription of antibiotics. This amounts to over 50 million prescriptions annually! Of which 10 million are for respiratory illnesses that antibiotics aren't helpful for. 

Antibiotics are of course very important and life saving when they are needed, however, their use does not come without risks including the killing off of natural bacteria that grow in our bodies and that we rely upon for forging a healthy immune system to fight off disease and infections. Antibiotic resistance is another concern of indiscriminate prescribing. 

Here's a helpful quick quiz published in Harvard Health Publications to help families make informed decisions about antibiotic use. 

Take this quick quiz to check your antibiotic smarts

Question: (True or false) Any time the doctor says your child has an ear infection, you should leave the office with a prescription for antibiotics.

Answer: False. Turns out that most ear infections get better without antibiotics. In some circumstances, such as in young infants, severe infections, or children with immune system problems, antibiotics are necessary. But for most healthy children, all that is really needed is some acetaminophen or ibuprofen for pain, some time, and some TLC.

Question:  Which of the following set of symptoms means your child has sinusitis?

A. A cough for a week, with fever at the beginning and not since

B. Green nasal discharge and cough for four days, fever to 101

C. Both of the above

D. None of the above

Answer: D. The common cold, caused by a virus, can give you cough, fever, and green nasal discharge — and antibiotics are not only unnecessary, they won’t do a thing. Antibiotics should only be considered if:

• There is nasal congestion and cough, preferably with fever, that has lasted for 10 days or more (it still may be a cold, your doctor needs to examine and be sure)
• There is new fever, congestion, and cough after a cold seemed to be getting better
• There is high fever (103 F or more) and severe congestion and cough for three days

Question: Your child has a bad sore throat and fever. You take your child to the doctor, who says that the throat is very red and has pus, but doesn’t find anything else that worries her. What should happen?

A. You should get antibiotics, because pus means there must be a bacteria

B. You should get a strep test and antibiotics

C. You should get a strep test, but no antibiotics unless the rapid strep test or culture comes back positive.

Answer: C. Turns out that pus doesn’t necessarily mean there are bacteria. Some of the nastiest throat infections are caused by viruses — which, again, antibiotics don’t treat.

Question: (True or False) Since sometimes colds can lead to ear infections or sinusitis or pneumonia, it’s a good idea to take an antibiotic to prevent that from happening.

Answer: False. While it’s really understandable to want to “be on the safe side” and ward off a bacterial infection, most colds don’t lead to bacterial infections — and if you are in touch with your doctor, you should be able to pick up the signs of anything that needs to be treated by antibiotics.

To learn more about smart use of antibiotics, check out these resources from the CDC and the American Academy of Pediatrics.