Giving kids healthy eating tips can be stressful for some parents, as it often simply doesn’t seem to work. Kids often only care about what tastes good with little or no regard to what’s healthy. The idea of eating healthy is one that needs to be developed by a child’s parents, so here are a few ideas for turning this battle in your favor.

Understanding Food as Fuel

Many children, even young ones, understand the very basic idea that a vehicle like a car needs fuel to run. When the fuel runs out, the car can’t move. This can be a great concept for teaching children about the importance of food. You can use it to relate to the child’s favorite physical activities. Say your child is a keen soccer player – point it out to her that she can’t run around the field and score goals without the right fuel in her body, and that means eating the right amounts of the right foods.

Variety of Food

It’s important that you provide a variety of food for your child to eat. To illustrate this point: you know eggs are healthy in many ways, but you wouldn’t eat them all day every day. Different foods contain different nutrients, and a wide variety of these nutrients are needed to maintain a healthy body.

Important nutrients for growing kids include protein, calcium, and iron. Protein provides the building blocks for growth, and can be eaten in the form of fish, chicken and eggs. Calcium is important for bone development and exists in milk, cheese and yogurt. Iron is important for the blood – a lack of it can lead to sleeping problems and constant tiredness. Red meats such as beef are a good source of iron – but not in the form of a patty between two burger buns and drenched in grease!

Carbohydrates are also important for kids as they provide energy for all that running around. This is why milk and cereal is a common breakfast food, because it tends to provide plenty of carbohydrates, plus some protein and calcium. However, steer clear of extremely sugar-rich cereals as these do more harm than good.

Moderation of Unhealthy Food

Trying to tell a kid she isn’t allowed her favorite unhealthy food anymore is usually a recipe for disaster. Instead, the key is to allow the food sometimes, but only in moderation. A good way to do this is to use it as a reward for good behavior. In particular, try to limit your child’s intake of foods that are high in sugar and foods high in saturated fats.

Food and TV

Unfortunately, you’re up against clever advertising agencies with multi-million dollar food companies behind them who specifically target children with unhealthy foods. Many parents consider limiting their children’s TV watching time because they worry about the lack of exercise, but this is another point to consider – restricting your child’s access to TV also limits their exposure to food advertising and can help decrease their desires for certain unhealthy food.

By: Debbie Madson

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Day cares are great for building a child’s social skills. When you make the decision to enroll your child in a daycare you will more than likely be responsible for bringing certain items to school to ensure that your child has a great time and feels comfortable away from home.

Some of the items you will need to provide for your child are:

Crib sheet for their crib or cot during nap time Diapers, pull ups or extra change of big kid underwear Wipes Pre-made bottles of formula or breast milk Unopened cans of baby food Change of clothes -this must correspond with the season Pacifier if they use one Diaper rash cream Blanket for nap time Lovie if your child needs one Band Aids Neosporin Other items you will probably be asked to bring especially during the warm months are:
Sunscreen – with small children it should always be a SPF of 50 or higher and waterproof. Bug Spray- Make sure to check with your Dr to see if there is one they recommend. Bathing suit Swimming shoes to keep their little feet protected Towel to dry off with after having fun out in the sun if your child’s daycare has a Splash Day This may seem like a lot that you have to provide for your child on top of paying tuition but due to laws and regulations day cares are not allowed to provide certain items for safety reasons. All of these items are useful and will help your child have a wonderful and comfortable time while they are not in your care so it will be worth every penny in the end.

By: Jessica Chamberlain

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Have you ever wondered why some teenagers have fairly good teeth, while some do not? This boils down to the way that the teeth was properly taken cared of at a younger age. The teeth are very important and therefore must be given the proper care from infancy up to the time that permanent teeth begin to grow. The favorite question usually posed by parents is how to take care of their kid’s permanent teeth?

One of the things that add beauty to any person is the teeth. Next to the face the teeth contribute to the overall appearance of any person. In fact, having good teeth helps improve the self-confidence of anybody. This is the reason why it is very important for the permanent teeth of a kid to be well-taken cared of, especially that it is one of the factors that would greatly affect his future.

Even before the first set of permanent teeth sprout sometime at the age of six, depending on the development of the child, proper care should be given to the primary teeth and gums. Brushing must constantly be done on a regular basis. Milk should not be left overnight in the mouths of children especially when they have not been weaned from a feeding bottle. Milk is one primary cause of tooth decay and it is best to give some water to the child after drinking milk if he is still a baby or in the toddler years. If not, brushing is still highly recommended.

When the permanent teeth start to emerge, it is very important to be more vigilant in keeping the teeth clean by brushing and using the right kind of toothpaste. As much as possible, the teeth should be brushed after every meal, preferably three times a day. The kind of toothbrush to be used must also be considered since there are poor quality toothbrushes available that cannot even reach the inner areas of the mouth properly, while there are good quality toothbrushes that work really well in cleaning the teeth and gums altogether.

Aside from brushing the teeth, regularly seeing the dentist is imperative. The child, even at a young age must be exposed to the dentist so that he would not be afraid of the dentist. A child must also undergo dental prophylaxis to ensure that the entire teeth and gums are clean. Visiting the dentist at least twice a year is very ideal if you want your child’s teeth to grow healthy.

Lastly, eat nutritious kinds of food. Milk should not be missed in the diet as it contributes to the healthy growth of teeth. And ultimately, sweets and strong mint candies must be avoided. Following all these would mean healthy permanent teeth for your kid.

By: Suzie Sanchez

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