This giveaway is now closed. Comments #5 and #17 are the winners of this book.

Teaching good behavior and manners to toddlers is not easy! That is why I am so excited to introduce you to this delightful, and surprisingly effective, illustrated book by Leslie McGuirk and co-author Alex von Bidder!

The main character of this book is Wiggens, a chocolate Labrador puppy, who is such a handful for his parents that they don’t know what to do with him anymore! They do, however, manage to find a special and elegant place where puppies of all kinds can learn refinement and good manners. This special place turns out to be the Four Seasons Restaurant in New York city where Wiggens finally manage to learn 10 useful manners with the help of the Saint Bernard!

I loved the illustrations in this book. I am glad that Leslie chose a chocolate Labrador puppy for her story because my son loves anything brown! He was so attracted to the puppy that he sat down patiently with me as I read the story to him and his twin sister. We have been doing this for the last couple of days and I am pleased to report that they are now beginning to memorize the good manners from the book. I am amazed by the effect it has had on them and recommend it highly to all toddler parents!

Check out this video for why there is such a buzz about this book!

And now the good news!

The folks at Candlewick Press were kind enough to donate 3 copies of this book to me. This book is so good that I am keeping one copy for myself, but the other two are up for grabs!

Here is what you need to do to be a lucky winner:

4 simple ways to win (choose one or more if you like in a separate comment)

1. Leave a comment with an answer to this question: What is your most difficult restaurant manners problem with your toddler (2-5 years old)?
   
2. Leave a comment with an answer to the second question: Share a difficult dining out experience with your toddler where you had to manage a “bad manners” situation and how you handled it
   
3. Become a fan of the Littlestomaks Facebook page for tips and updates on toddler nutrition
4. Tell a friend to sign up for the Littlestomaks Facebook page. Look for the “Suggest to Friends” link under the Littlestomaks logo on the Facebook page

Note: to maximize your chances of winning, a separate comment for the above 4 ways to win is required

Full Disclosure (a.k.a. the fine print)

1. You must be a parent of at least one toddler 2-5 years old
2. Open to individuals only, no commercial outfits
3. I will select a winner by drawing a random number using random.org. This number will correspond to the number assigned to your comment on this post. So, if you want all your chances to be counted, leave a separate comment for each; not all in one comment
4. Make sure to leave a valid email address when you fill the comment box
5. If you win, you will need to send me your mailing address within 48 h of receiving notification or I will draw another winner
6. Allow up to 2 weeks to receive your book
7. This giveaway will end at midnight EST on Sunday April 25, 2010
   

Let’s play!

©2010 Littlestomaks.com

Hello everyone! Seems like I still can’t let go of summer – this picture was so cute, I had to post it this week to remind us of summer fun on the beach. We did manage to get out a few times to the nearby beach, although my daughter refuses to step on the sand! She finds it too yucky – go figure!! Luckily both of our twins love the pool, so that is where we spent most of our summer this year.

It’s Friday, which means it’s time for another Five for Fridays! Here are 5 interesting nutrition stories of the week that caught my eye. Enjoy and drop a comment to let me know what’s on your mind.

Finally some guidance on daily sugar intake for Americans

I almost fell out of my chair when I read that Americans consume a whopping 22 teaspoons of sugar every day. That is about 355 calories, nearly 20% of the 2000 recommended daily caloric intake. I am sure you have noticed that on a typical nutritional facts label, there is no daily percentage for sugar content. This is because a daily limit has not been established, although there is good consensus on limiting the daily intake to less than 25% of total calories. As a result, it is very difficult for consumers to keep track of their daily sugar consumption. A while ago, I wrote about how to take the guesswork out of daily sugar to help set some boundaries and regulate the sugar intake.

Now, for the first time, the American Heart Association has come out with fairly clear guidelines on daily sugar which suggest that most women should limit it to less than 6 teaspoons and most men should limit it to 9 teaspoons. Note that these are still not official USDA recommendations, which I hope will follow soon. I think the breakfast cereal makers will respond first since their products tend to make heart-healthy claims although they contain a lot of sugar per serving. But I hope to see it change other food products as well. It is possible that this will drive the use of zero-calorie sweeteners in food products.

Ideas for packing a healthy lunch your kids will actually eat

My Twitter friend @RelevantMom alerted me to this article by the Associated Press which highlighted a few interesting school lunch box ideas from TV food stars Rachel Ray and Melissa d’Arabian. It is hard to resist the ready-to-go lunchables but they can end up costing a lot without providing good nutrition. Simple ideas like peanut butter, hummus, canned tuna, beans and lentils are good source of protein. You can mix them with breads, pitas and rice to create a quick and easy nutritious item. Add fruits and veggies selected by your child on the last grocery shopping trip to make sure he will actually have an interest in eating them. Get creative on snack ideas and skip the packaged snacks to save money. Their last tip is the best – add a loving note to the lunch box; it costs nothing but it can make your child feel special and loved when out of home in school where they might still not be very comfortable.

Share your tips for the school lunch box this back-to-school season. Here is what @themenumom suggested when I asked this question to my Twitter followers:

What has worked for you so far?

How normal is your eating?

Ever wonder if you practice normal eating? I can see you rolling your eyes and thinking “please, not another diet buzzword to make me feel guilty about my eating behavior”!

I was intrigued by a short note in the Well column of the New York Times by Tara Parker-Pope this week which asked this question. I am sure if you ask different people, they will come up with their own answer, and be quite sure that their eating preferences are perfectly normal. Turns out that the term normal eating was coined by famous dietitian Ellyn Satter. She explained that normal eating is when you “listen” to your body, eat when hungry and stop when full. Sounds simple and common sense. Except that we now seem to listen more to our tongue than to our stomach when it comes to eating. There are some who believe that the food industry has figured out how to rule the tongue by loads of salt, sugar, fat and other taste enhancing chemicals in processed foods. Self-control is lacking, especially when most family meals are consumed in front of the TV. We no longer have a sense of portion control. We try hard when we are motivated to go on a diet, only to give it all up and return to our old ways when things don’t work out the way expect. From this point of view, today’s normal eating is hardly normal the way nature intended it to be. I think it is about time we paid attention to it, especially when it comes to raising healthy children.

Functional food is nothing but dressed up junk food

That seems to be the opinion of many nutrition experts such as New York University’s Marion Nestle as cited by one of my favorite bloggers Dr. Ayala on her recent post “Are functional foods healthy foods?” I liked her article very much because she reminds us that with a little bit of right information, planning and effort you can prepare your own nutritious foods without having to waste money on these so called functional foods. It is easy to slap catchy slogans like low cholesterol, zero trans fats and fortified with brain-boosting omega-3′s without really changing the basic nature of the food inside the box. Sad truth is that such marketing works since such fortified functional foods deliver over $27 billion in sales each growing at up to 20% each year.

I am not personally against all processed foods. To our busy lives, they offer the convenience of immediate consumption although there is a cost to it. I do want to credit the food industry for many innovations that have made the modern life possible. I am not suggesting we turn the clock back by making all of our food from scratch. What I don’t like is that the industry at its heart is no longer concerned about the health of its consumers, rather the profit motive has become the main driver of innovation. Surely there are exceptions, which I hope will become the norm in future.

One Hungry Monkey and a dad committed to raising a healthy eater

I was finally able to finish reading a delightful book by Matthew Amster-Burton called Hungry Monkey! If you did not get a chance yet, check out my review of Hungry Monkey published this week. And let me know what you think.

Enjoy your weekend!

Photo source -sara.atkins on Flickr via everystockphoto
©2009 Littlestomaks.com

The title of this book resonated with me a lot! Except that in our case, we have two hungry monkeys on our hands!!

I first came across this book by Matthew Amster-Burton when I read a review in the New York Times last month. I contacted Matthew who graciously sent me a complimentary copy so I could write my own review on this blog. I thoroughly enjoyed this book as I read it cover-to-cover during the last couple of weeks. I wish I had time to try out a few of his recipes before writing this review, but I don’t want to delay presenting to you my first impressions about this book. I will surely be writing more about it as we try some of the recipes and tricks with our kiddos.

Overview

Overall, I found this book honest, delightful and deliciously funny! And of course, extremely useful because of over 50 recipes spread across the 21 chapters. Don’t let that scare you though – the book is just a little over 200 pages and reads extremely well, almost like a nice story!

Written in an informal and conversational tone, it keeps your interest while delivering a few chuckles if you have lived through the daily battles with a picky eater. As a dad, I could relate to Matthew’s trials and tribulations on many levels. In all honesty though, I must admit that I frequently felt pangs of envy since he gets to spend so much time with his daughter Iris while having a lot of fun experimenting with all sorts of recipes. His knowledge of food, different cuisines and cooking methods is very impressive. Although he has the right experience over the years as a restaurant critic and food writer, he does not take the high ground in this book and writes in a down-to-earth practical way. Here are a few things I really liked about this book -

• His overall attitude that you don’t have to be a good cook to share food with your child. No need to put so much pressure on yourself to make perfect recipes all the time.
• No reason to prepare a different meal for your child; make something that all of you can eat as a family.
• I loved the Little Fingers tips in his recipes for getting the kids involved in a cooking project.
• His attitude on picky eating – picky eating is annoying but not a medical problem. It sure puts things in perspective.
• Reading the chapter Sugar Makes Parents Hyper made me realize that my son’s interest in anything sweet is perfectly normal. Of course, it is fine to regulate the overall sugar consumption, but there is no point getting agitated by a few cookies during the day.
• Eating = Fun, that’s the attitude we need to cultivate as parents.
• Amazing stories of how he managed to teach Iris to cook pancakes and grilled sandwiches.
• Good breakfast tips- McCann’s Irish Oatmeal, french toast and syrup, homemade waffles

10 things I learned from this book I did not know before

1. You can blend spinach into meatballs. I want to try his recipe for chicken and spinach meatballs.
2. Some veggies, especially leafy greens can irritate the taste buds of a small child. That could explain the early aversion to vegetables.
3. All eel sold in the US comes from China even though a lot of eel is caught off the Southeastern US and shipped to Japan. Doesn’t sound very “green” to me!
4. Chicken Teriyaki is Seattle’s favorite lunch. I have never been to Seattle, so I did not know that. Amazing coincidence – our twins love to go to the local Mall to enjoy the Japanese style fast food Teriyaki chicken with fried rice.
5. Meat grinding at home can be fun for kids to watch as the “worms” come out of the other end. It also gives you higher quality meat since oxygen has not had enough time to turn it “stale”.
6. Quote from Ellyn Satter – involving children in cooking and gardening in the hope that doing so will make them eat better does not work.
7. You can mix shrimp with grits. I always thought grits were something you had for breakfast – and for some reason – I never thought of mixing it with shrimp.
8. Taste for food develops over time and is based on personal experience. Based on an experiment from MIT, if you know you are not going to like something, it is unlikely you will develop a “taste” for it after trying it. This flies in the face of “try a bite” strategy for getting your child to eat new foods.
9. Peer pressure works very well in getting people to develop a taste for different foods later during the adult years. I wonder – can it start early?
10. Iris had raw fish at 11 months in the form of mashed tuna from a spicy tuna roll. Bottom line – be adventurous (but not foolish) when it comes to exposing your child to new stuff.

What I did not like so much

• I thought Matthew was a little too harsh on Ruth Yaron’s Super Baby Food especially when it comes to food allergies. I admit, I have not read this book, nor do I plan to. I am glad things worked out well for Iris, but there is nothing more nerve-wracking for a parent than to watch her child throw up violently for no reason. In my opinion, it is better to be cautious at least in the first two years. I do like his attitude that of still finding ways to enjoy food when you have known food allergies by experimenting with recipes and ingredients.
• I am surprised that he did not mention Basmati rice even though Iris is a big rice-eater. Unlike jasmine rice, basmati rice is low in glycemic index and has a great texture and fragrance.
• He uses  a little too much butter in his recipes. I am also not a big fan of pork and bacon.
• I would have liked a few more vegetarian recipes.
• I love pictures, so it would have been nice to see the pictures of his recipes.

Recommendation

Overall, a very entertaining and yet a very informative book, which you may consider in case you find yourself

• wanting to read a real dad’s real experiences when it comes to raising a healthy eater;
• wanting to experience a variety of foods and eating experiences with your child;
• feeling overwhelmed and confused by tons of heavy technical information related to nutrition;
• feeling motivated to bring a sense of fun, adventure and enjoyment to family mealtimes;
• wanting to enjoy your child’s growth in the early years when the daily battles at mealtimes make you want to say I quit!

Overall, I give it a big thumbs up! Visit hungrymonkeybook.com to read the first 3 chapters and information on how to buy this book.

Leave me a comment if you found this review useful.

©2009 Littlestomaks.com

Greetings!This week is the World Breastfeeding Week. Organized by the World Alliance for Breastfeeding Action (WABA), the focus this year is In Emergencies, Breastfeeding is a Lifeline. I never thought about breastfeeding this way, but it makes sense. Children and infants are most vulnerable during a catastrophic emergency – whether natural or man-made. According to WABA estimates, child mortality can be 2 to 70 times higher than normal under these conditions due to diarrhea, malnutrition and respiratory illness. They believe that by supporting breastfeeding in non-emergency situations, we can be better prepared to save the lives of young children during emergencies. Here is a great post by my blogger friend Annie on this subject by Annie on PhdInParenting.

Here again are 5 interesting nutrition stories of the week that caught my eye. Enjoy and drop a comment to let me know what’s on your mind.

Millions of kids vitamin D deficient – here we go again!

It seems like our appetite for reporting vitamin D deficiency in kids is insatiable! In yet another study published recently in Pediatrics, researchers report an alarming prevalence of vitamin D deficiency in kids 1-21 years old. They find that 9% (about 7.6 million) children are deficient and 61% (about 50.8 million) have insufficient levels of 25-hydroxyvitamin D. This news got a lot of coverage this week, mainly because the numbers seem so high. Also, in the same article, these researchers highlight a link between low levels of vitamin D and increased risk of cardiovascular disease. This sounds really scary, and no doubt, makes a perfect headline for an attention-grabbing story.

I have a few problems with these types of studies. First, they rely mainly on the level of 25-hydroxyvitamin D in blood. There is no consensus among experts when it comes to estimating deficiency or insufficiency in children. Second, the biochemistry and processing of vitamin D is very complex, something I don’t claim to understand at all. But I am certain of this – it cannot be as simple as just the blood level of 25-hydroxyvitamin D which relates to cardiovascular health or bone density. But the real reason why I get frustrated is that these studies do not answer the “so what?” question a parent might be concerned about. Drink milk and vitamin D fortified OJ, let your kids out to play, not watch too much TV – well, that is old advice and should be followed with our without such sensational news.  Should you ask your pediatrician for a 25-hydroxyvitamin D test? Should you take supplements? There is no real, practical and actionable advice from these “experts”.

My 2 cents – when you hear this type of news, take a deep breath and don’t panic. Take a quick look at what your child is getting on average – milk, OJ, cereals, fish, eggs, cod liver oil etc. How much outdoor activity in the sun he gets on average. Take a long term view on this but continue to watch the diet and activity level regularly. If you still have doubts, ask your pediatrician if a supplement is needed.

No one wants to hang out with overweight kids

Why are overweight kids so picked on? A very interesting post from Dr Joanna Dolgoff – one of our Ask the Expert contributors – provides some insight. Appears that kids have more sympathy for children with handicaps, and would rather be friends with them, than hang out with overweight or aggressive kids. Deep down, overweight kids are blamed for their condition. They should be able to change it by losing weight is a common belief. I wrote about this in my post on childhood obesity because this kind of negativity leads to low self-esteem and a downward spiral of physical and emotional health problems among overweight and obese kids. Stereotypes about obesity form early in life it seems.

FDA and USDA get a budget of $125 billion

That is a giant number! Extra funding is supposed to go for improving food safety and farm subsidies. What surprised me though is the estimate that almost half of the budget for the two agencies is set aside for food stamps and Government nutrition programs. What kind of a return on investment can we expect from this level of spending? I find it ironical that on one hand we spend extra on healthcare in managing obesity-related diseases, while on the other, we have to also budget a huge amount fighting hunger and poverty. These two problems are two sides of the same coin in my opinion, but I do not yet see a comprehensive policy (and budget) to address them. We know that there is poor communication and cooperation between different Government agencies – the right hand does not know what the left is doing, but both want to get bigger and fatter and demand more funding! And as far as food safety is concerned, the approach is to focus on compliance rather than prevention. This smells of more bureaucracy to me!

So many cooking shows, so little cooking

Michale Pollan wrote a very good – although very long – article in the New York Times magazine this week. Out of the Kitchen, Onto the Couch takes us through the history of cooking shows starting with Julia Child to the likes of present day Iron Chef and Rachel Ray. We watch the Prime Time food network for entertainment value these days, not to learn anything about cooking the food ourselves! Pollan makes two great points – one, that the food industry along with the Television has been quite successful in taking over the “cooking” part from us by providing us with relatively cheap, readily available, packaged nutrition (poor nutrition I must admit). And second, that we are now quite comfortable ordering fancy items at restaurants and our appetite and desire for an ever increasing array of foods seem never ending. The less we cook, the more we eat and the more weight we put on. So how can we get back to cooking? We don’t have time for cooking, but we have time to watch a cooking show. Seems to me it is a matter of priority and attitude. I think we need to invoke Nike’s Just Do It! for preparing our own food. Not necessarily from scratch, as a lot of purists might want you to, but enough so that you can control what goes inside your body.

Check out this cookbook review and giveaway

Here is a shout out for my blogger friend Jenna of Kidappeal. She has done a great review of Vegetables Get the Royal Treatment by Jill Nussinow (aka The Veggie Queen!), and she is giving away a copy of this book to one lucky winner selected from the comments on the post. It is very simple to enter – all you need to do is to leave a comment about your favorite vegetable and your favorite ways to prepare and eat it. Check it out, the contest ends on August 16th.

Enjoy your weekend! And let me know what you think.

Photo source -Raphael Goetter on Flickr via everystockphoto
©2009 Littlestomaks.com

I have asked this question on my Global Toddler survey, but I want to open this one up for everybody in a new poll on my blog. Please vote, and if you feel like it, leave a comment explaining your vote.

So where do you go for advice on toddler nutrition?

1. Your pediatrician
2. Nutritionist or Registered Dietitian
3. Internet
4. Trusted friend/family
5. Books or Magazines
6. Networking group
7. Other

Select up to 3 out of these 7 categories. I would love to hear your comments, especially if you choose the “other” category. Feel free to share your reasons for relying on your preferred sources.

©2009 Littlestomaks.com