This giveaway is now closed. Comments #44 and #86 won the $25 gift certificate from Restaurant.com and comment #149 got the $50 Target gift card. Congratulations!

Give yourself a treat this Mother’s Day!

Enter this giveaway to win a $50 gift certificate from Target!

And that is not all – we are also giving away 2 $25 gift certificates from Restaurant.com which can be used at over 13,000 restaurants in the United States (except Hawaii and Alaska).

Note: you must be a subscriber to the Littlestomaks newsletter to enter this giveaway.

3 simple ways to win (choose one or more if you like)

1. Leave a comment with an answer to this question: If you could ask one question to your pediatrician or a nutrition expert about your child’s nutrition, what would it be?
2. Become a fan of the Littlestomaks Facebook page for tips and updates on toddler nutrition. Leave a comment.
3. 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. Leave a comment.

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

1. You must be a current subscriber to the Littlestomaks newsletter
2. Open to individuals only from US and Canada, no commercial outfits
3. I will select one winner for the Target gift card, and 2 winners for the Restaurant.com gift cards by drawing random numbers using random.org. These numbers 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. This should be identical to your email address where you receive the weekly newsletter
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 gift certificate(s)
7. This giveaway will end at midnight EST on Saturday May 8, 2010
   

Let’s play!

©2010 Littlestomaks.com

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

This contest is now closed. Comment #2 is the winner.

Continue the St. Patrick’s Day party at your favorite restaurant!

Enter this giveaway to win a $50 gift certificate from Restaurant.com which can be used at over 13,000 restaurants in the United States (except Hawaii and Alaska).

Note: you must be a subscriber to the Littlestomaks newsletter to enter this giveaway.

3 simple ways to win (choose one or more if you like)

1. Leave a comment with an answer to this  question: What is your favorite kid-friendly restaurant and why?
2. Leave a comment with an answer to the second question: What is your child’s favorite meal at a restaurant?
3. Tell a friend to sign up for the Littlestomaks newsletter and leave a comment (they don’t actually need to sign up, but if they do, they can also play!)

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

1. You must be a current subscriber to the Littlestomaks newsletter
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. This should be identical to your email address where you receive the weekly newsletter
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 gift certificate
7. This giveaway will end at midnight EST on Sunday March 28, 2010
   

Let’s play!

©2010 Littlestomaks.com

This giveaway is now closed. Comment #133 is the winner!

Help me promote my eBook in support of Share Our Strength for a chance to win a $50 gift certificate from Target !!!!

Note: You do not need to buy the eBook to participate in this giveaway.

3 simple ways to win (choose one or more if you like)

1. Download a FREE excerpt of my eBook “Expert Nutrition Tips for Your Toddler“. Select the question you are most interested in from the Table of Contents on page 3. Write this question in a comment below.
2. Write a blog post to inform your readers about this eBook. Check out this page for details. Leave the link to your post in a comment below.
3. Tell your followers on Twitter and/or Facebook about this eBook. Cut and paste the following text in your tweet then come back and leave a comment below. Multiple tweets welcome!
   

   Check out this eBook on Toddler Nutrition to support @sharestrength fight childhood hunger http://bit.ly/5uK1tJ

Full disclosure a.k.a The Fine Print

1. U.S. and Canada residents only
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. This giveaway will end at midnight EST on Thursday December 17, 2009

Let’s play!

©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

This giveaway is now closed. Comment #154 from Deb Klein is the winner.

Enter to win a $50 gift certificate from Target to celebrate the Independence Day!!!!

3 simple ways to win (choose one or more if you like)

1. Sign up for my free weekly newsletter and leave a comment. You will get a free copy of my eBook of Toddler Friendly recipes too!
   
2. Leave a comment with your answer to any (or all) of the following questions -
   • What is your favorite category of articles on Littlestomaks.com?
   • What would you like to see more of on this blog?
   • What would you like to see less of on this blog?
   • If you could ask one question to your pediatrician or a nutrition expert about your child’s nutrition, what would it be?
3. Tweet or blog about this giveaway and leave the link in your comment below.

Full disclosure a.k.a The Fine Print

1. U.S. and Canada residents only
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 your 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. This giveaway will end at midnight EST on Friday July 3, 2009

Let’s play!

Photo credit – k_soggie on Flickr
©2009 Littlestomaks.com

This contest is now closed. Reiza (comment #8) is the winner.

Would you like to win a $25 gift certificate from Birthday in a Box for your next party?

Try Birthday in a Box for your child’s next birthday party. They have lots of cool stuff and many different themes to choose from. Our twins are turning 3 this May, so we will surely be looking into their stuff. Also very reasonably priced; on a typical order, this $25 gift certificate can save you 40% or more. So give it a shot!

Full disclosure a.k.a The Fine Print

1. U.S. and Canada residents only
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 your email address when you fill the comment box
5. If you win, contact me within 48h or another number will be drawn
6. You will receive the gift certificate directly from Birthday in a Box. For this purpose, you allow me to pass on your email address to them. They have assured me that your email address will not be used for any commercial purposes without your explicit consent
7. The gift certificate is valid for a period of 1 year
8. This giveaway will end at midnight EST on Sunday March 22, 2009

3 simple ways to win (choose one or more if you like)

1. Subscribe to my blog feed by RSS or email and confirm by leaving a comment below. If you already do, that also counts; simply confirm by leaving a comment. See instructions here if needed.
2. Tweet or blog about this contest and leave the link in your comment below.
3. Cast your vote in my current poll “Where do you go for advice on toddler nutrition” and confirm by a separate comment below. Feel free to explain your vote if you want. Only one vote please!

Let’s play!

Beginning this Friday, I am starting a new feature on Littlestomaks.com! Every Friday I will share with you 5 interesting and noteworthy stories on nutrition that I come across during my weekly reading. This will also be a place for my soapbox – and if you wish to indulge me – it will give you a chance to soak up my rants and not-so-scientific personal opinions! I will also use it to frequently highlight the works of my favorite nutrition bloggers. As always, comments are welcome and highly valued. Feel free to leave me a link to a story you would like me write about in this series.

Not Many Kids are Candidates for Cholesterol Drugs

This post in the Wall Street Journal’s Health Blog is supposed to provide a sense of “comfort” to all those parents worried about their kids being put on cholesterol lowering drugs by suggesting that the percentage of teens 12-17 years old that would qualify for such a treatment is a mere 0.8%. In real terms, the number is estimated to be around 200,000, which seems to be a mere “drop in the bucket” of 25 million teens in this age group. And, if you still need to be comforted, there is a picture of a boy eating a slice of pizza; so surely it must be quite ok not to worry about rising cholesterol levels in kids!

The CDC study cited in the post has troubling details. The average LDL cholesterol levels in teens 12-17 years old is about 90 mg/dL, and the average total cholesterol is 163 mg/dL. Note that these are “averages”, which means that there is a large number of teens well over these numbers (anything over 100 for LDL and over 200 for total cholesterol is a red flag). When the average is so close to the “red flag” zone, we need to pay attention and not let be fooled into a false sense of comfort just because it is not high enough for medical intervention.

If you have a child with BMI > 85th percentile and/or you have a family history of heart disease, diabetes and smoking, the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends a lipid profile screen even at a very early age. Ask for a test – it is better to know early and take appropriate action rather than relying on drugs when things get worse.

I have nothing against pizza; all kids love it including mine. Just don’t overdo it!

Even Top Chefs Have Picky Kids

I have not seen the otherwise popular show “Top Chef”, but I really liked this interview with Chef Tom Colicchio in the New York Times. Despite his celebrity status, he appears to be quite modest and down-to-earth. Like most parents, he too struggles with his teenage son’s eating habits. I liked his ideas about wholesome food made from fresh ingredients and setting an example by eating healthy food at home. According to him, the choice of food is not between unhealthy and healthy, it is between good and bad! Although he acknowledges that people are busy, it is not really that hard and time consuming to make a healthy recipe (if you know what you are doing of course!). He proves that by giving an example of a 20-minute pasta dish with a yummy clams sauce.

Study Finds No Benefits From Daily Multivitamin

Surprise! Surprise! After a 8-year long study of more than 160,000 post-menopausal women, researchers found no benefit of multivitamin use in 10 categories including breast or colon cancer, heart attack, stroke, blood clot or mortality. I am confused about why anyone believed that multivitamin will have an impact on these diseases in the first place. Vitamin supplements do not claim such a benefit after all. If people “believe” that taking a multivitamin each day will protect them against such life-threatening diseases, then this is not a rational belief anyway. So, is there any reason to believe that the results of this study will change this behavior? This study is based on a flawed hypothesis in my opinion and I am quite confused about the motivation behind this project.

Dr. Marian Neyhouser, the lead author of the study, suggests in this New York Times article that people should rather spend their money on fruits and vegetables instead of vitamins. This is very presumptous on her part; how can she claim to know the exact circumstances under which people take multivitamins! And why should she assume those same people are not eating fruits and vegetables? I am amazed that they got government funding to do this research!

How To Make Whole Wheat Pita Bread

Check it out! Dr Ayala, a guest poster on this blog, offers this fun-filled easy baking recipe for making whole wheat pita bread. She provides detailed instructions and a picture of puffy pitas inside the oven. Get your kids involved and watch them knead the dough by hand (take pictures of course!). Sounds like a great project for a Saturday afternoon!

By the way, if you are on Twitter, you can follow her @DrAyala. She is pretty cool.

Check Out These Two Giveaways

Jenna of Food with Kid Appeal, another guest poster for this blog, has a great giveaway going on until February 25th. Check out her post 101 Foods That Can Save Your Life Review and Givaway for details. She has done a great job reviewing this book by David Grotto, which you can get to win if you decide to play. I am adding the book to my reading list. You can follow her on Twitter at @Kidappeal.

Cathy from A Life Less Sweet, is checking out POM Wonderful pomegranate juice this week and giving away a coupon for a free 16 oz. POM wonderful bottle. The giveaway is open until February 22 and all you have to do is to leave a comment onn her post. You can follow her on Twitter @less_sweet.

Have a great weekend! Let me know what you think of this feature, and feel free to leave a link for a story you would like me to read and write about next week.

Image source: Dreamstime
©2009 Littlestomaks.com