The post Toddler nutrition: Keep forcing those veggies! appeared first on All4Baby.
]]>Faced with a nine-month old who makes faces at anything green, or a toddler who throws a tantrum at the sight of a carrot, many parents are tempted to give up on getting their kids to enjoy veggies.
But the findings of the HabEat project — a multidisciplinary Pan-European study of how food behaviors are formed in infants and children — give parents plenty of reasons to persevere. At the final symposium of the project, held in Dijon, France on March 31 and April 1, the research teams also presented practical recommendations for improving children’s intake of fruit and vegetables.
Initiated in January 2010 by 11 partner organizations from five European countries, the HabEat project followed the eating habits of several cohorts of children (aged six months to six years) over a four-year period. The goal: to understand how eating habits are formed and sometimes broken during the first years of life. Using various psychological, epidemiological, behavioral and nutritional analyses, the project sought to identify the key mechanisms in the development of children’s taste or distaste for certain foods.
At the end of the project, researchers’ recommendations all center around one essential point: children must be taught to enjoy fruits and vegetables at the earliest age possible.
The project’s findings also emphasize the importance of diversity in the diet, suggesting that children should be introduced to a wide variety of fruits and vegetables early on. For better chances of success, researchers advise introducing only one new fruit or vegetable per meal, without combining them.
Parents should act as role models during the process, encouraging their child to appreciate fruits and vegetables without forcing them.
In fact, coercive techniques and reward-based motivations (“Eat your sprouts and you’ll get cake”) can be counterproductive, as they alter a child’s natural ability to gauge hunger and satiety, leading to a risk of compulsive eating and obesity later in life.
It is better to trust the child’s appetite, however fickle it may be. Sometimes, the same vegetable may be offered and rejected 8 to 10 times over the course of a few weeks before a child finally takes a liking to it.
For older children, being involved in the cooking process can lead to more willingness to try new foods, especially if parents and caretakers bring them along to farmer’s markets to help pick out fruits and vegetables.
Finally, the HabEat project concludes that breastfeeding plays a vital role in the development of healthy eating habits. Researchers found a positive correlation between the number of months an infant was breastfed and the quantity of fruit and vegetables he or she consumed during later childhood.
(AFP Relaxnews)
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]]>The post Is your toddler not sleeping? Try these tips tonight! appeared first on All4Baby.
]]>Okay, this might seem obvious, but I’m going to make sure I say it loud and clear anyways…
Don’t make your child angry at bedtime!
Seems like common sense, but you’d be surprised how many clients I’ve worked with who insist on including baths in a bedtime routine — even though their child HATES taking a bath.
When I ask them why they’re forcing their child to do something that he or she hates right before bedtime, they usually say, “Because that’s what I was told to do.” Their mom or sister or friend told them that ALL children need a bath before bedtime, so they just started doing it. But trying to get your child to do something she hates right before bedtime is a flat-out bad idea.
Tempers flare, tears are shed and your child gets so emotionally wound up that it takes much longer for her to calm down and get back into her happy place.
So make sure your bedtime routine includes only activities that are enjoyable for your child.
Specifically, somewhere between 20 and 30 minutes, from start to finish.
Why? Well, you want it to be long enough to get your child calmed down, relaxed, and ready for sleep.
Plus, bedtime is a wonderful way to spend time bonding with your child. For many parents, it’s the best “quality time” you’ll spend with your child all day.
However, if you let your bedtime routine drag on for too long, you risk letting your child get overtired, which makes falling asleep much more difficult!
Tip Three: No sugar or TV right before bed
Yes, I know this one sounds “preachy,” but if you’re giving your child sweets (or juice) right before bed, it’s going to be harder for him to fall asleep. Same thing goes for letting a child watch TV right before bed.
The juice or sweets will give him a “sugar rush” of jittery energy, which is the last thing we want before bedtime. And, watching TV or playing on the computer can (for lots of children) overstimulate them.
Is letting your child doze off BEFORE you put them into bed. Now, I know it’s tempting for many parents to let their child fall asleep while rocking, bouncing, or feeding. After all, for many toddlers, this is the way they’ve ALWAYS gotten to sleep. Unfortunately, it’s also the reason why they tend to wake frequently in the night.
About the Author: Good Night is a child and baby sleep consultancy that specialises in helping parents with children who struggle to sleep soundly. For more information, visit: www.goodnightbaby.co.za
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]]>The post How to prevent your toddler from catching the flu appeared first on All4Baby.
]]>Crowded and closed environments, which are most common during the winter season, have been proven to be one way for the flu virus to spread. Studies have shown that one person coughing out 300 infectious droplets or virions can actually infect 300 people.
In closed environments, this means the virus has a shorter distance to travel in order to reach the next person. Keep safe this winter and make sure you take a small bottle of hand sanitizer wherever you go.
There are a number of ways in which the flu can infect people but few realize that toilet flushing (toilet water aerosolisation) is one way to expel the germs in the air.
Added to this, Director of the CDC Influenza Division in the US stated that school absenteeism due to influenza is largely due to children disseminating the virus even through toilet flushing.
It was discovered that an eight year old super-emitter spewed out 200 infectious flu viruses making schools the perfect petri dishes for flu transmission (this includes creches).
The combination of low humidity, super-emitter children and toilet flush aerosolisation has become a toxic combination that many parents are still unaware of.
Just because winter is approaching, it doesn’t mean you should brace yourself to be attacked by the flu virus.
Vaccines and vitamins should not be viewed as the only measures to protect you this winter.
Non-pharmaceutical methods of protecting you toddler should include:
About the Author: Visit www.hygizone.com for more information on how you can better keep your home more hygienic for you and your toddler.
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