photo credit: 11950mike

The recent recall of over half billion eggs due to an outbreak of salmonella has everyone worried about the safety of eggs they buy from the store. There is quite a buzz in the media over this recall, which is once again being used to create a sense of panic so people sit up and pay attention to the so called breaking news! Sure, there is reason to be careful, but there are many ways you can protect your family without giving up on eggs completely. Eggs are a good source of complete protein especially useful for growing children.

Recently I connected with Mitch Kantor, Ph.D., who is the Executive Director of the Egg Nutrition Center (ENC). He provided answers to a few questions about egg nutrition via email:

Question: What is the benefit of including eggs in my toddler’s diet? At what age should I start?

Answer: A  primary function at the toddler  stage is growth ,  and the high quality protein in eggs is an excellent source of all the necessary amino acids  needed  to promote growth. In  addition , choline, a nutrient found in eggs  (and not found in abundance in many other food sources) , helps support the development of the memory center in the child’s rapidly growing brain.

Question: Are there any egg allergies I should be concerned about?

Answer: The American Academy of Pediatrics no longer recommends refraining from introducing eggs beyond 6 months of age. Although eggs are one of the more common food allergies, pediatricians are now suggesting introducing small amounts of known allergens into the diets of children who are suspected to have allergic reactions in order to develop a tolerance.

Question: What is the benefit of organic eggs vs. standard eggs?

Answer: Organic eggs are eggs that come from hens whose diets contain grain grown without pesticides. Nutritionally, there is no evidence to support a nutritional benefit of organic vs standard eggs.

Question: What is meant by “free range”, “antibiotics free” on the label?

Answer: Free range eggs means that the hens have access to the outdoors. Their diets are uncontrolled so the nutrient value of their eggs may vary.  The use of antibiotics in laying hens is not a standard practice in the egg industry. So, for the most part, almost all eggs in the food supply are antibiotic free.

Question: I have heard that eggs contain a lot of cholesterol. Is that true?

Answer: A  large egg contains  around  212 mg of cholesterol according to the USDA. Scientific evidence has shown that dietary cholesterol like that found in eggs does not raise blood cholesterol in most people. Our liver makes most of the cholesterol that travels in our blood and unless there is an abnormality, excess dietary cholesterol is excreted by our body , or used in various bodily processes .

Question: What is the best way of cooking eggs to preserve their nutritional value?

Answer: The best way to preserve nutrients in any food is to keep it refrigerated until ready to use and cook it for a short time in a minimum of water. Using the microwave to quickly cook an egg would be the best way to preserve the many healthy nutrients in an egg.

Do you have an egg-related question not answered above? Leave it in comments below. I will follow up with Dr Kantor and get it answered. Feel free to also share any other comments or opinions.

©2010 Littlestomaks.com

Ask The Expert is a weekly column on Littlestomaks.com. The idea is to have a reader-submitted question answered by a nutrition expert or a pediatrician. Feel free to submit your question in the comments section below.

March is the National Nutrition Month with the theme of Nutrition from the Ground Up! I asked Dr. Husbands to share a few tips for parents so they could ensure proper nutrition for their kids and help them establish healthy eating habits early on.

Question: What does Nutrition from the Ground Up meant to you? What changes, if any, should I consider to make sure my child gets proper nutrition and develops healthy eating habits?

Answer:

Being a role model: Starting good dietary habits starts with what kids see their parents eating regularly. So it’s the parents responsibility to model good eating, healthy lifestyle and exercise habits to their children. One of the most common flaws in the parents diet is: insufficient amounts of fresh vegetables being regularly eaten! Kids pick up on this and they start to not like vegetables because the parents don’t.

Eating On the Run: Many parents allow their toddlers and young kids to take a bite of food, run and play, then take another bite, then run and play. This behavior may seem harmless and innocent enough, but the kids don’t really learn to taste and appreciate all the intricacies of different flavors and textures of foods. Note that you will rarely see kids doing this behavior with cake or ice cream…they want to savor every morsel of the sweet treat! Teach them to appreciate the differences in foods taste and textures by modeling mealtimes as a time to slow-down and really taste their food with sufficient chewing and calm, unhurried, visually pleasant meals. This also encourages proper digestion and absorption of nutrients, so the kids also get more nutrients assimilated!

Drinking Plenty of Water Between Meals: Water is one of the most important nutrients for our bodies, but most people I see in clinical practice neglect this fact. Most adults drink far too little water each day. As a general rule, most people should drink half an ounce of water per pound of bodyweight each day. This poor habit is often passed on to kids. This is also one factor in kids having atopic disorders, that is disorders of the mucous membrane linings and the skin. This includes atopic dermatitis, asthma, and allergies. Adequate water alone is definitely not the only factor in these disorders, but is one of the factors that is easily addressed.

Ensuring adequate vitamin D: Vitamin D is one of those supernutrients and has been getting it’s due recognition lately. The RDA’s for vitamin D are set far too low, often times about 5 to 10 times too low for healthy functioning. Many infants and toddlers, due to various factors, can benefit from 1000 to 2000 IU of vitamin D/day. Also many middle school age to teenagers could benefit from 2000 to 3000 IU of vitamin D/day. Most adults should get a maintenance dose of about 3000 to 4000 IU/day. In cases of acute upper respiratory illnesses (colds and flu), even in toddlers and young children, a short term dose of 10,000 IU of vitamin D/day for a few days until the child gets over the cold or flu is helpful. A sufficiently high dose for adults (approximately 20,000 IU/day) is also beneficial for short term use in adults with upper respiratory illnesses.

Addressing clinical vitamin D deficiency immediately: In any person who has blood vitamin D levels measured below 20 ng/ml, they must take a short-term loading dose to get their blood vitamin D levels in the healthy range of about 40 to 80 ng/ml. For a few weeks, they may need to take 10,000 to 20,000 IU vitamin D/day, have their blood levels re-measured, then stay at a lower maintenance dose. It analogous to having a bucket of water with a slow leak, where by the time you see it, the bucket is almost empty: You have to put a lot of water in to top it off, but after topping it off, you just have to keep putting a little in regularly to keep it full.

Taking care of intestinal microflora: For anyone, anywhere at any age: If antibiotics are used, or if steroid inhalers, or topical steroid-containing creams are used, these drastically reduce the beneficial microflora that should be lining a healthy upper respiratory tract, the GI tract and all the mucous membrane linings. It is always, always, always necessary to replenish the beneficial microflora lining the gut and mucous membranes to prevent recurrent infections and damage to these linings to prevent more side effects, such as atopic associated diseases.

©2010 Littlestomaks.com. All Rights Reserved
Disclaimer – Information provided in Ask The Expert column on Littlestomaks.com is intended to give you general guidance on a question related to toddler nutrition. It is not meant to be treated as medical advice. You are welcome to contact this expert for a detailed consultation on your specific situation to determine what actions, if any, you should take regarding nutrition and health of your toddlers. We do not recommend you to take any action based solely on the information presented in this column. Experts have agreed to provide their professional opinion on toddler nutrition related questions on a voluntary basis and no compensation is offered to them by Littlestomaks.com.

In her recent article Vaccine for ear infections soon to be on the market,  Chicago Family Health Examiner Jasmine Jafferali, MPH, wrote that the underlying cause of chronic ear infections in children could be milk allergy. I was so intrigued by this suggestion that I contacted her to address this idea in a Question-Answer format for my blog. If your child is suffering from chronic ear infections and you are concerned about excessive use of antibiotics, this article is a must read for you! Let me know what you think!

Question: You have said that milk allergy is an underlying cause for chronic ear infections. Can you provide a credible reference to support this?

Jasmine: Dr. Greene, a prominent pediatrician,  has discussed a link to milk allergies and ear infections.  Up to 40 percent of kids who suffer from chronic ear infections has a milk allergy.  In fact a 1997 report on food allergies in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that cow’s milk allergies tend to hit children in their infancies, showing up as colic, acid reflux or eczema.  However many pediatricians are overlooking the possibility of food allergies, especially milk allergies to chronic ear infections.

Question: How can parents recognize the signs of food allergy and dairy allergy in particular?

Jasmine: Although a child can develop an allergy to almost any food, well over 90 percent of food allergies in children are caused by one of only six foods: milk, eggs, peanuts, wheat, soy, and tree nuts. The immediate symptoms of food allergies in babies and toddlers are irritability, colic, wheezing (sometimes asthma), a minor rash, chronic runny nose, or itchy eyes. These more immediate symptoms are less likely to occur than slower onset symptoms, which your baby can experience seven to 10 days after exposure to cow’s milk.  These more common symptoms include diarrhea (possibly with blood), abdominal cramps, vomiting, coughing, gagging, acid reflux, ear infections, runny nose, eczema and colic.

Food allergies is becoming more and more common in our children.  Parents are fearful and the information out there is confusing.  These findings are all consistent with the 2008 American Academy of Pediatrics guidelines that overturned previous recommendations by declaring that there is no evidence that delaying any food beyond 4 to 6 months helps prevent allergies at all — for healthy term children who are not already allergic.  However, many parents get quite excited introducing solids to their infants.  Remember, the main source of nutrition for an infant is breastmilk or formula for the first year of life and solid food is meant to be the supplement.  Look for signs that your baby is ready to eat solids.

Question: What kind of questions should parents ask when an antibiotic is prescribed?

Jasmine: If an antibiotic is prescribed some questions to ask are:

1. Is the infection bacterial or viral?  If viral, then antibiotics will not improve symptoms of the ear infection.  It is like being prescribed antibiotics for a cold.  Ask for possible alternatives.
2. Where is the location of the infection?  If the infection is in the middle ear, ask if waiting it out is an option and what you can do to help minimize their pain.  Eighty percent of ear infections will resolve on its own within 4 to 7 days without antibiotics.  WebMD wrote an article on this study back in 2005.
3. If my child must take antibiotics, can I give them some probiotics after the finished antibiotics to help replenish their good bacteria?  (remember antibiotics kills BOTH good and bacteria and you have replace the good back into the body)  Studies are showing the benefits of taking probiotics after antibiotic treatment and during cold and flu season.

Question: How can parents tell if they are exposing their child to excessive antibiotic use?

Jasmine: If you are in the doctor’s office for the third time in one year getting another round of antibiotics it is time to ask the long term effects of getting the antibiotics and start looking into the underlying cause for the chronic condition.  If your child is an infant, you may want to switch formulas where the formula is more broken down and easier for your baby to digest.  Or if you are breastfeeding looking at your own diet as possible issues.

Question: Can ear infections be treated without the use of antibiotics?

Jasmine: Often, an antibiotics is prescribed to treat the ear infection. According to the June 2009 British Medical Journal article, prescribing antibiotics leads to more ear infections.  In fact, if the children had taken antibiotics, there was a 63 percent chance they’d had at least one subsequent infection. The risk was only 43 percent for children who’d been given an inactive placebo.  Other studies show that it takes children only three days longer to recover from the middle ear infection without antibiotic treatment.  (see the WebMD article)

There are alternate treatments to chronic ear infections.  In fact, my own grandmother used some of these home remedies on us when we suffered from ear infections.

1. Warm compresses with a warm washcloth. Do not put the water in the ear and make sure the washcloth is not too hot.
2. Hyland’s ear drops is used with a confirmed diagnosed ear infection.  This can be purchased at your local drugstore or health food store.
3. Warm olive oil, or warm garlic infused olive oil: In test tube studies garlic has been found to have antibacterial, antiviral, and antifungal activity-garlic is a natural antiseptic!  Chop 2 garlic cloves and allow the small pieces to marinate in a half cup of olive oil for a day (if you can’t wait proceed to warming the oil over the stove).  Warm the oil slowly over the stove, it should be warm to your touch.  Get an ear dropper and put a few drops into the ear.  You may add a few more drops later in the day, the first round should do the trick.  This mix will last for about two weeks.  Many parents are turned off by this home remedy, however, there are plenty that use and swear by this method.
4. Echinacea – this is an herb which can safely and effectively boost the immune system.  Click on Dr. Greene’s guide to using Echinacea properly.
5. Chiropractic care – chiropractic adjustments to the skull and neck can improve middle ear drainage and decrease ear infections.  Many parents are finding relief going this route

Using a combo of the above will be helpful such as warm compresses and whichever remedy you choose.
WARNING – if you see any liquid or pus draining out of the ear, DO NOT PUT ANY OF THE ABOVE DROPS INTO THE EAR.

Question: Can you give suggestions to dairy alternatives if dairy allergy is found to be the cause of ear infections?

Jasmine: If you child has a confirmed milk allergy with an ELISA allergy testing, then eliminating all dairy can be a difficult transition for your child.  Finding the right dairy substitute is tricky.  Often kids allergic to dairy are often or have a hard time digesting soy.  As rice cereal was probably your child’s first food, rice milk is a nice alternative and easy to digest.  If there are no tree nut allergies, almond milk is another great substitute.  If you are concerned about your child getting the fat from the milk, you may add up to 1tsp of flax oil to the milk substitute.   There is now coconut milk yogurt and coconut milk ice cream which is both delicious and provides some great health benefits.  So Delicious is a wonderful brand and your child will not miss out.

©2009 Littlestomaks.com