Struggling to get your growing child interested in fruits and veggies? Well, you are not alone because this is a big challenge for most toddler parents. There is a lot of advice out there on how to encourage your child to eat fruits and veggies, but no good tool that can help you succeed. That is why I was super excited to get this handy kit from Kia Robertson of Today I Ate A Rainbow!^TM. She has developed this tool especially for young children to get them excited about fruits and veggies. It is a very simple colorful chart you can post on a refrigerator or a magnetic board. The chart has 5 columns corresponding to different colored fruits and veggies – red, orange, yellow, green and blue/purple. Using color coded round or square shaped magnets, you can teach your child to track his intake of fruits and veggies during the day.  If they complete all 5 colors, they get a reward sticker!

We had a lot of fun with our twins the other night who found it fun as they tried fruits and veggies of these 5 different colors just to be able to stick those magnets on the chart.

My son picked the square shaped magnets while his sister got the round ones.

Here is what we like about this product -

1. It works!
2. It is simple and colorful
3. Kids love it and get a sense of accomplishment
4. They learn about different colored fruits and veggies
5. The kit also contains a very nice illustrated book “The Rainbow Bunch” written by Kia Robertson, perfect for bed time reading to reinforce the idea of eating fruits and veggies
6. There is a blank shopping list you can use to involve your kids in selecting their favorite fruits and veggies

Here is what we don’t like about this product -

1. The kit is supposed to have 4 sets of distinct round and square magnets for family of upto 4 children to track their progress. We found it a little confusing because it was not easy to separate them in groups. Still, it worked out for us since we have only 2 and we decided to play round magnets vs. square magnets.
2. If you have a stainless steel fridge, like we do, the magnets will not work. We decided to use a small magnetic dry erase board instead.

Overall, we love this product and will continue using it as long as our twins remain excited about it! Check out the Today I Ate A Rainbow!^TM website for details.

Disclaimer – The Today I Ate My Rainbow!^TM kit was sent as a gift to us for this review. Our opinions are based on our personal experience.

©2010 Littlestomaks.com

Okay, so this is a little off topic and not so much about nutrition. But we had so much fun making play dough at home this weekend that I just wanted to share it with you all!

First, here is the recipe we found from an old magazine:

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups water
• 2 tsp liquid food coloring
• 2 tbs cooking oil
• 2 cups flour
• 1/2 cup salt
• 4 tbsp cream of tartar

Method

1. Combine water, food coloring and oil in a small bowl
2. Add flour, salt and cream of tartar to a large saucepan
3. Over medium heat, slowly pour the water-oil-food coloring mixture into the saucepan while stirring constantly. Cook and stir for 5 minutes until a ball of dough forms
4. Cool the dough for 5 minutes then knead with your hands until it is smooth
5. Store in refrigerator when not in use

The twins had a lot of fun kneading the dough, mixing up food coloring and eventually making shapes out of the play dough!

Of course, being the scientists we are, we simply had to understand the chemistry of play dough! It is really quite fascinating. Here is a short excerpt from how play dough modeling comp0und works which also has a lot of other cool facts about play dough.

Starch granules break down as warm water is added to the flour and the mixture is stirred. Slowly, the mixture becomes gelatinized and turns into a soft, pliable dough. Cooking oil acts as a lubricant which makes it easy to form it into different shapes. Salt acts as a preservative. Cream of tartar is a very important player in this chemistry because it adds strength to the dough. Cream of tartar is actually a by product of wine fermentation where it forms as a potassium acid salt of tartaric acid. In cooking, it is commonly used to add stiffness to egg whites. It is also used to prevent crystallization of sugar.

Commercial play dough contains a lot of other chemicals for making it more stable, less sticky, moist and resistant to bacterial and fungus growth.

Enjoy!

©2010 Littlestomaks.com

Our little monkeys have recently picked up the expression I am horrified from somewhere, and once in a while, they play the horrified game with each other! Usually, it involves making a throaty “Aww” sound followed by a pause and and a shocked, surprised face like this:

And then they burst into laughter! It is a hilarious sight to watch.

Today, it turned out to be a great way to get them to sit down at the table and eat their lunch. We had some leftover cheese ravioli, which they like to eat with a sprinkle of organic cheese (their word for grated Parmesan cheese) without any sauce. They were tired after playing hard in the morning sun and were in no mood to sit down and eat! After a little thought, and in a flash of sudden inspiration, I got them into the horrified game in exchange for a few bites of different things on the table!

“If you eat this ravioli, I will be horrified, I said as I demonstrated their familiar horrified expression”.

It caught on, because they were soon going at each other popping a piece of ravioli in their mouth and playing the game.

Son: Baba, if I eat this ravioli, you will be horrified, right?

Me: Yes, absolutely! As I played horrified in return for his effort. He giggled as he saw my frozen face!

Meanwhile, I was eating some leftover pizza and I threw the challenge out to them -

Me: If I eat this pizza, you will be horrified!

It was my daughter who made the face this time in response:

It was incredibly funny! We went around several times, taking turns playing the horrified game. Soon the ravioli was gone, the glass of milk was empty and everybody was feeling happy.

It was now time to turn to the pieces of cantaloupe and honey dew melon waiting patiently in a bowl.

Me: (confident that the formula was working) If you eat this orange melon, I will be horrified..

It worked as both of them grabbed a piece each and popped it in their mouths, waiting for me to do the horrified face. And then some more giggling and laughter…and then we went around, taking turns playing the game.

Soon that was gone too and it was time to clean up before settling down for a nap.

Not bad for a half-hour of fun, I thought,  where fussiness was replaced by laughter as they finished their lunch.

Bottom line: Getting toddlers to sit down and eat as a family is a challenge for most parents, us included! We try to do something silly and make up interesting stories to keep their interest. Sometimes it is the Diesel Food For a Diesel Engine while at another time it might be something like Eating Salad Like a Giraffe! Recently, it was to get them to ask their little stomach about what it wanted to eat!. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t, but when it does, it is a great way of capturing their imagination while stretching your own.

Share your story. What has worked for you in getting your little ones to sit down and eat with you?

Greetings! Here are 5 nutrition related articles that caught my eye this week. Enjoy and drop me a comment to share your thoughts.

Snacks are in, Meals are out

That is our eating culture today according to this story in the recent New York Times. Research conducted by the Department of Agriculture and the Department of Health and Human Services between 1997 and 2002 found that fewer children ate 3 meals a day while the percentage of those who had a snack instead went up by 40%. This should hardly be a surprise since snacks are now available everywhere. And parents are asked to bring snacks to sporting events or other extracurricular activities. It is no wonder that the traditional family meal is no longer a tradition now except around the Holidays!

Right now, we are experiencing this problem first hand. It takes a lot of effort to create a distinction between mealtime and snack time. Healthy snacks have a place in a child’s diet, but when they begin to demand their favorite snacks at regular mealtimes, you have to draw the line. Snacks are meant to keep them from getting too hungry between meals. Not as a substitute for regular wholesome family meals. So we are trying to be gentle, yet firm in our approach to having our twins understand this difference. Share your tips for getting your child to eat regular meals and not demand snacks and mealtimes.

Obesity rates are flat, but that’s no reason to celebrate

New data from CDC suggests that obesity rates among US adults have reached a plateau, which means they are not rising anymore. But the bad news is that the number is quite high – nearly 34% of the US adults are obese, which is nearly double the number about 30 years ago. Although the number of obese children is at about 17%, this number as tripled over the same time frame. Some may see this as “halting the obesity epidemic”, but I think that attitude does nothing to solve the problem at hand.

This graph in the New York Times is interesting. It shows that Hispanic and African American children 2-5 year old have a higher rates of obesity (BMI is >95% of children in this age group) compared to White children of the same age. Same conclusion can be drawn for adults 20 and older. There is a clear correlation between race and, more importantly, the socioeconomic status, and obesity. And I don’t think there is any coherent strategy to target this group of people to solve this problem. There is no reason we should get complacent about “flat” rates of obesity in the US. This problem is deep and quite severe.

Fuel Up to Play 60

This is an interesting program sponsored by the National Dairy Council and the NFL to encourage kids to eat healthy, play at least 60 minutes a day and do fun activities in and out of school. Kids and Schools can enroll in a competition of sorts where they score points by tracking their food choices and activities. Even the USDA has joined in as a partner.

I think this is a great project. More than anything else, it will get kids to pay attention to what they are eating on a daily basis. I strongly believe in the power of measurement – you get better only when you measure. That is why tracking the food choices and physical activity is a good idea. And of course if they win, they get to hang out with NFL players, which is also very cool!

The only thing to watch out for is that undoubtedly dairy products including flavored milk will be pushed into schools and kids will be encouraged to grab them so they can “score” points. Milk is a far better option than soda or other sugary drinks in schools, but too much flavored milk is also not good. The reason is that it has added sugar in addition to the natural sugar found in plain milk.

Bottom line – stick to plain milk, eat fruits and veggies and give up on soda and junk food. But do bring this program to the attention of your child’s school if they don’t know about it. 60,000 schools have already signed up!

Here are 2 neat recipe ideas for you this week

Take the beef out of your burger and (still) enjoy the experience

Who doesn’t love to sink their teeth in a thick, juicy burger?! But with so many scary stories of E. coli contaminated beef recently, even the most devoted burger fan is probably looking for safer options. This article in the Well column of the New York Times offers 5 ways of enjoying a beef-less burger! You can make burger-like patties by combining fish, chicken, turkey, vegetables, beans  and mushrooms. Sounds like a good idea, certainly worth trying.

Cold quinoa salad with feta cheese

We like quinoa and we love feta cheese! That is why this simple recipe on The Nourished Kitchen caught my eye. First you cook the quinoa and chill it before preparing the whole salad. Aside from the feta cheese it also calls for chicken and pine nuts, both very healthy ingredients. I could also consider experimenting with finely chopped pieces of apple. Overall, it looks very good and worth a try.

Enjoy and let me know what is on your mind.

Photo Source: adactio on Flickr via everystockphoto
©2010 Littlestomaks.com

It has been an excellent year blogging about toddler nutrition! When I started writing back in the Fall of 2008, I did not realize how exciting it could be to learn and write about all aspects of a young child’s nutrition and growth. Blogging has also given me an opportunity to connect with both experts and moms in a unique way!

As we close on 2009, I would like to reflect upon the more than 220 posts I have published on this blog. Whether you are a brand new visitor, or a regular reader of this blog, I invite you to check out these top 10 posts of 2009 in terms of page views and comments.

Enjoy and let me know what is on your mind!

	Attachment Parenting and Toddler Nutrition This post by Annie of PhD In Parenting explains what it means to feed your child with love and respect. It is one of the 8 guiding principles of Attachment Parenting.
	All Natural Toddler Multivitamin My review of Floradix Kinder Love Children’s Multivitamin Liquid Extract Formula attracted a lot of attention because it is based on herbal extracts and fruit juices. It claims to be easy on the child’s digestive system while providing vitamins A, B, C, D and E. It is not a good source of minerals.
	Simple Recipes – Chicken with Quinoa This is a very easy recipe to make! Quinoa, in my opinion, is the unrecognized superfood because it is a good source of protein and low glycemic index carbs. It also provides a good mix of vitamins and minerals.
	Ask the Expert – Sushi and Toddlers If you are a sushi lover and you are thinking about introducing your toddler to sushi, you have got to read this informative piece from registered dietitian Janet Helm. She writes a great blog at Nutrition Unplugged with tons of excellent information about nutrition and food trends.
	Looking for a Multivitamin Supplement? This is a “mini” guide to toddler vitamin supplements on the market. If you are considering a supplement for your child, you can use a simple comparison chart in this post. Centrum Kids and Flintstones Complete offer a good balance of complete vitamins and minerals. But the most important advice is to rely on a balanced diet with plenty of fruits and vegetables.
	5 Reasons to Consider a Multivitamin Supplement I heard a variety of opinions from Moms who took my Global Toddler survey about use of multivitamins. In this post, I highlight 5 main reasons why you might consider it for your child. Vitamins should not be used to “fix” nutrition and eating issues; rather you should rely on them to supplement a balanced diet.
	Basmati Rice: It is Very Easy to Cook and You Will Love It’s Flavor and Fragrance We love basmati rice! It is an excellent source of low glycemic index carbohydrates. Try my simple recipe to cook it as a separate side dish. You can also try some of the links in this post for other great recipes.
	Help! My Kids Don’t Eat Enough Fruits and Veggies! This is a very common concern of most toddler parents. In this article, pediatrician Dr Ayala Laufer-Cahana offers a few practical tips to get your kids interested in fruits and veggies. Check out her blog at Ayala’s Herbal Water.
	Traffic Light and Food Labeling Clearly, consumers want simple and easy to understand front of the box food labels. FDA is worried about accuracy and manipulation by the food industry. A traffic light based food labeling system is gaining popularity in UK and Australia. It is not perfect, but clearly a step in the right direction.
	Think Play-Nutrition-Rest for Long Term Health of Your Children Play is an important part of your child’s physical, mental and emotional growth. Combine it with good nutrition and enough rest for long term health of your toddler.

Web statistics are surely important, but there are a lot of other articles which I am particularly very passionate about. Here are a few of my favorites. I hope you will check them out and leave me a comment with your opinion!

1. Twinkie tax will do nothing to reduce the sweetness
2. Shaking off a sweet addiction
3. Why we must address childhood obesity NOW
4. Good nutrition key to managing food allergy
5. Healthy fats for children

©2009 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.

This week, Registered Dietitian Cindy Williams offers practical tips to help you get your growing toddler to eat a variety of foods including fruits and vegetables.

Question: How do I get my 3 year old to eat better? He never eats veggies and only eats a handful of items like chicken nuggets, pizza, pasta, rice, and cereal.

Answer:

Toddlers are notoriously fussy eaters. There are a couple of reasons for this. First, their growth rate has slowed so they usually don’t need to eat so much.

Second, as we fret about the nutritional inadequacy of two bites of toast for breakfast and desperately cajole them to eat a bit more, our darling child learns that with one tiny word – NO – they can make mummy and daddy act really funny. And if they keep on saying it long enough they might get really yummy stuff to eat. This is when the frazzled parents finally give in to the child’s incessant tearful demands for his favorite food and think ‘At least he’s eating something’. What can we do to win this power battle and come through it with a healthy child that eats a wide range of foods? Here are a few ideas.

1. Serve one new food at a time, along with familiar foods. Include one favorite food with each meal.
2. It can take up to 15 tries of a new food for your child to like it. Don’t give up on the first refusal. Try again in a few days.
3. Just like adults there will be some foods that your child won’t like even after 15 tries. Take a break and try again when they are a little older and their taste-buds have developed a bit more.
4. Add vegetables to the favorite foods e.g. pizza topped with cooked spinach, finely chopped red pepper or broccoli or pasta topped with thick vegetable soup as a pasta sauce.
5. Hide vegetables in favorite foods e.g. grated carrot and pumpkin in pasta sauce, mince and burgers. Fried rice with egg, corn, red pepper and carrot.
6. Try corn on the cob. Cut a cob in three to make it easy for little fingers to handle.
7. Toddlers can’t eat huge meals. Give them small snacks through the day. Try carrot sticks, baby tomatoes, cut fruit pieces, grapes and cheese cubes.
8. Try it raw. Serve raw sliced vegetables for your children to nibble while you make dinner. They may eat their whole vegetable quota before the meal.
9. Turn food into play. Give food fun names e.g. ‘moon squirters’ for baby tomatoes. Arrange food to look like a face, a house, a rocket ship or a train. My 4-year-old ate a pile of mashed potato with fish and vegetables because it was called ‘Tracey Island’ from Thunderbirds!
10. Make finger food. Toddlers prefer distinctive pieces of food that they can identify and pick up in their fingers.Eat as a family when possible. Children learn by example. If they see their parents and older siblings enjoying vegetables and other healthy food they are more likely to want to try it.
11. Involve your child in growing or picking fruit, vegetables and herbs. Taste it right there in the garden. It’s much more fun than eating at the table.
12. Point out interesting fruit and vegetables in the supermarket and let your child choose one to take home.
13. Let your child help out in the kitchen. They could drop tomatoes in the salad, shell peas, peel a banana, drop fruit into the blender or turn it on when making a fruit smoothie, pat out some pizza dough or sprinkle cheese.

REMEMBER…

You are not a restaurant

When a toddler complains that they don’t like their meal and that they want something different, empathize with them but don’t jump up and make something else.

You provide the quality, they choose the quantity

Young children are perfectly designed to eat when they are hungry and stop when they are full. They may miss a meal in protest at the ‘yukky’ food but their rumbling tummy will eventually have them eating whatever you have provided.

My niece went through this fussy stage as a toddler. One evening came the final showdown. She refused her dinner and demanded something else. Her dad told her that was fine; they would just keep it for her breakfast. Off she went to bed with no dinner and lots of tears, much to the horror of her mom. The next morning dinner was waiting. She refused it. Off they went to church. The dinner went too! Finally she gave in and the battle was won. Hopefully you won’t need to be this brutal, but it worked.

If necessary, give your child a temporary nutritional supplement

If you’re concerned that your fussy toddler isn’t getting enough nutrients, particularly iron which is critically important at this age, give him a temporary nutritional supplement. Nutrient fortified milk is great. Also give him fruit with his meals to increase iron absorption. Once you feel assured that he’s getting all his nutritional needs, you are less likely to fall into the ‘At least he’s eating something’ trap. You’ll be ready to take back the reins of power.

It’s a stage that will end

Hang in there. Keep serving up a variety of food and flavours. Take a few deep breaths, perhaps a glass of wine, and know that this stage won’t last forever.

©2009 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.

Getting your toddler to sit down at the dinner table and eat with you as a family is a task of monumental proportions for most parents, us included! It is something we all want, yet we struggle each day; only to pick up the pieces of our valiant efforts and move on to the next! We even stop going out to restaurants because we hate the looks we get from others – some sympathetic, some politely unapproving while some others rudely hostile! We wish for the toddler years to magically fly by hoping that one day our energetic monkey will simply learn to sit quietly in his seat and finish his meal like a grown-up, well-behaved child.

In her guest post The Power of Family Meals – Tips for Feeding Toddlers, Dr. Kathleen Cuneo offered some tips for making mealtimes a pleasant experience unlike the daily battles most toddler parents are used to. We have been trying some of these ideas, sometimes with success. But there is nothing predictable about our 3-year olds when it comes to mealtime behavior. Recently, however we stumbled upon a trick that seems to have worked a few times. I want to share it with you in this post.

A couple of days back, we took our twins to the community pool, and on our way back stopped by to pick up some pizza we had ordered earlier. As soon as we came home, we got the twins in their high chairs on the dinner table and immediately offered them a slice of their favorite cheese pizza. We got our own plates out and started with our own veggie pizza. A few minutes passed by, and still no one jumped out of their chair! So far so good, I thought – give them a few more minutes then we will see!

Suddenly, without any plan or serious thinking, I started a “question” game with the twins:

And my favorite food is?

PIZZA, shouted out my daughter.

I looked at my son, and asked “And what is your favorite food?”

He stopped, looked at me for a moment, his mouth full of the bite of pizza he had just taken. Holding the half-eaten slice in his hand, he shouted COOKIES! – well no surprises there!!

This is fun, let us keep playing I told myself.

And …. your favorite animal is? I paused as I looked at my daughter.

SHEEP, she answered, obviously remembering her recent favorite stuffed animal.

TRAIN, reflected my son – in his mind, a train was an animal! But hey there is no point debating on this topic with an imaginative 3-year old, right?

And my favorite animal ….I paused….is FISH!

They both looked at me and laughed. By this time, one full slice of pizza had disappeared.

And …… what is your favorite drink?

MILK (daughter), and a few seconds later, Hmmmm….ICE CREAM! (son). (we give him homemade OJ ice cream cup)

And my favorite drink…another pause…is WATER!

By this time, both of them were fully engaged in this game as the whole family enjoyed pizza. Almost 15 minutes had passed and everyone was still in their chairs. Their plates had a second slice of pizza now.

We kept on – the questions and answers kept going in a pattern, first my daughter, then my son, then me and then their mom, who by now seemed to be thoroughly enjoying this spectacle with befuddled amusement.

And …. who is your favorite person?

MOM! cried my daughter. I was so disappointed, but then the sight of mom’s beaming face was a memorable moment!

Eventually, we all finished the pizza. Mom and I even enjoyed a glass of wine!

Looking back, having fun is probably the most important trick of all. Play is the secret ingredient for success at mealtime!

What is your favorite tip for fun at mealtime?

In case you are wondering, the photo of our twins in this post was taken at a Thai restaurant when we went out to celeberate our 10th anniversary this year. It is not often that we find them having so much fun, but when they do, it is nice to have a camera handy!

Enjoy!

©2009 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.

This week, published author and Reflux expert Jan Gambino offers some tips for getting your picky eater to eat regular foods.

Question: I am at my wit’s end with my picky eater! Can you give some advice on how to get her to eat regular food?

Answer:

Your baby used to eagerly anticipate every scoop of pureed peas and creamed spinach. If you didn’t scoop the food fast enough, she would yelp and complain. After the jars were empty, she was content to drink an entire bottle. Now your toddler turns away when you present anything green and healthy and shrieks with anger if you dare put a new food on her plate. A “meal” consists of a few bites of chicken nuggets and a sip or two of milk from a cup before she leaps up to chase the dog or rearrange her toys. So what happened?

Along the way, your baby has turned into an independent, opinionated little person called a toddler! She has learned to control her world in such grand ways-from crawling to walking and then climbing, offering new ways to challenge herself. Communication has taught her the power of words with “no” being the one that really tickles her! She is finding that she has the ability to make decisions and communicate her wants and needs.

She is beginning to get longer and leaner too. The rapid growth of the first year is slowing down and her body is changing. So are her eating habits. It makes sense that she will use her new skills to explore new ways of eating.

Toddlers are often labeled as picky eaters. A picky eater is a child who eats only a few foods from a few food groups. For instance, a child may eat 5 foods over and over again. Typically a picky eater will crave carbohydrates and omit fruits and vegetables. I call this the “White Diet” or “Prison Diet”. During the toddler years, my daughter was on the White Diet and would only eat chicken nuggets, mashed potatoes, crackers and dry cereal. I was worried that she was missing vital vitamins and nutrients from her limited eating. The pediatrician assured me that this was very common and somehow, most children continue to grow and thrive despite such a limited diet.

Top Tips for Coping with a Picky Eater:

1. Leave your emotions at the Kitchen Door: Remember, picky eating is normal and she will most likely emerge from this stage and expand her diet. Try not to show your anger or disappointment about her picky eating. Do not negotiate, offer bribes or withhold dessert. This just fuels the fire.
2. Routines: Try to eat at least one meal per day as a family. Little ones model our behavior whether we want them to or not. Maybe if she sees you eating fruits and vegetables over and over again, she will eventually decide to try some.
3. Kitchen Helper: An older toddler can “help” you in the kitchen. My daughter loved ripping the lettuce and making a salad each night. We told her how delicious the salad was and she beamed with pride. It was a full year before she decided to take a nibble of her handiwork!
4. Vitamins and Minerals: A picky eater may benefit from a multivitamin with minerals. Check with your doctor.
5. Nutrition Drinks: Some picky eaters may benefit from a nutrition drink made for children ages 1-12 years. It can be served as a substitute for a meal, added to a shake or smoothie or used in cooking instead of milk (i.e.: pudding pancakes).
6. Hide the Oreos: I kept my emergency chocolate supply on a high shelf. The “snack drawer” was full of healthy snacks within her reach: crackers, pretzels, raisins, nuts. That way, she was not tempted by unhealthy food choices.
7. Little Stomachs/Little Meals: Make sure you are offering small portions to your toddler. In the morning, she ate breakfast followed by her “fruit snack”. My picky eater ate half her lunch at noon and then in the afternoon, her “snack” consisted of the other half of her lunch. After dinner, if she was still hungry, it was time for her “yogurt snack”.
8. Play with your food: Make sure mealtime is enjoyable and playful. Bring out the special silverware and plates (with your child’s favorite character on it of course); invite a friend to join you. Eat in a new place: on a big rock, on the top of the jungle gym or in a kid friendly restaurant.

Remember, your picky eater will be a teenager before you know it and will surely eat you out of house and home! Good luck and happy eating!

©2009 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.

This is a second post under the Carnival of Play being hosted by phdinparenting. Here are a few very simple ideas for you to try at mealtime with your little one. Feel free to share your favorite tips for trying new foods.

Indulge their imagination

Kids have a vivid imagination! Slices of grapes or kiwi can become the eyes of a cheese monster, an almond its nose and a moon-shaped piece of strawberry its smiley face. In her guest post Help Your Child with Autism Have Fun with Food on this blog, Melissa offered another fun idea of letting your child discover her inner Van Gogh by messing around with carrot, broccoli and finger paint! Food is not just for eating, as we adults tend to focus on in our hurried lifestyle. It can also allow a child to develop a connection with many other interesting things as he makes sense of the world around him. The good thing is that fruits and vegetables come in many different shapes, sizes and colors, so the possibilities of creating interesting patterns are almost limitless. Come to think of it – Edible Arrangements has done exactly that and created a very successful business. Hmmm, I wonder if they have anything for kids!

Getting messy is not so bad

I love to watch my daughter play with strands of cooked spaghetti and get the buttery sauce all over hands! It is her favorite and she can’t wait to play (and of course eat) whenever it is on our dinner menu. My son, on the other hand, enjoys eating fruit yogurt and pudding straight out of the containers with his fingers! It is no longer a problem for me to watch him make a big mess of his hands and clothes.

It is natural for kids to explore foods with their hands. This is how they get a feel for its texture, shape and eventually taste. Sure it is a nightmare to clean up after them, but it does get better as they acquire more skills with their hands and fingers. We have been using these oversized vinyl spill mats from One Step Ahead under their high chairs. They don’t get too sticky with spilled food and are very easy to clean. Also, getting them to wash their hands before eating is one habit you would want to develop very early on.

It’s ok to add Fruit Loops to the soup

Combination of different food items may seem “weird” to adults, but for a curious child it is all fair game. One of our recent favorite is adding fruit loops to lentil soup, which my daughter seem to enjoy a lot as she uses her spoon to fish them out one-by-one from her soup. Here are a few more:

Edamame beans and plain yogurt

Plain yogurt on macaroni ‘n cheese

Honey on macaroni ‘n cheese

Dip crackers in orange juice

Dip pieces of fried Tilapia in pudding

Drinking “shots” of orange juice from small yogurt containers

Although I am glad our twins do not try to eat the soup with their fingers, it is still weird to watch them sip from a straw!

Pretending to be a grown-up

Sometimes we like to enjoy a glass of wine with our meal. On one of those occasions my daughter insisted to try a glass herself! It surely took us a while to figure out how to satisfy her request, but then my wife came up with a brilliant idea to offer her a glass of no-sugar added cranberry juice. It looked just like our red wine and she enjoyed it sipping from her straw! Kids love to imitate the grown ups; use it to build healthy eating habits and mealtime behaviors. Too much fruit juice, even though no-sugar added, is not good of course! But it sure is a lot of fun watching them try all sorts of grown up acts in a childlike way!

Encourage them to invent games with food

It helps if kids can build a story around the food they are eating. Sometimes, they can come up with interesting stuff on their own. It was quite entertaining to recently watch them try to stir in milk inside their fruit yogurt container, mixing it over and over again with a spoon and singing “Bate Bate Chocolate!” Seems like they picked it up from a Dora episode and decided to make their own chocolate with milk and yogurt! We of course, joined the fun and encouraged them to continue playing as they finished it in no time!

Flexibility + patience + perseverance + fun = healthy eating habits

Just like the  secret ingredient of a great recipe, fun and play at mealtime works very well with kids as you encourage them to try a variety of new foods. We live very busy lives these days, and it is very tempting to try to get over with dinner quickly so you can wash them and tuck them into bed soon after. When we are constantly thinking of the next step, we end up getting frustrated as we try to force them to finish their food and move on. Unfortunately, kids don’t follow the clock like we do; they want to live in the moment and enjoy it at their own pace. As parents of these active toddlers, we have to be very patient, stay flexible and keep on trying new ideas to make them comfortable with these new foods. By living in the moment with them and having fun yourself, you can take the stress out from mealtime.

What are you favorite tips for fun at mealtime?

©2009 Littlestomaks.com

One of my good blogger friends Annie from PhD in Parenting is running a Carnival of Play theme on her blog this month. What a fantastic idea! I decided to write this post as a part of her carnival to highlight the importance of both play and good nutrition on overall growth of toddlers.

Why play?

We have all heard about rising rates of childhood obesity. Kids today are eating more junk food, consuming more sugary drinks and spending  a lot of time in front of the TV or playing computer games. To some, this lifestyle might already fit the definition of “play” because it is so much fun  and kids don’t seem to complain about it. There are no immediate health problems and parents can find time to do their own thing if their kids are happy and busy with TV or computers. So what could be wrong? And as far as obesity is concerned, if the child is not really fat and his friends are about the same, who cares?

There is enough evidence from scientific research and surveys that the overall health of our children today is in a state of decline. Childhood obesity is real;  BMI’s are rising; attention spans are shortening and immune systems are weakening. What I find most worrisome is that there are now reports of increasing rates of Type II diabetes in children as young as 8 years old. Diseases like this don’t happen overnight; they slowly creep up on you. On a day-to-day basis, a lifestyle of poor nutrition and no physical play may seem ok, but it can lead to serious health problems in the long run.

Benefits of play

Bone growth

This is very important especially in the early years of life. Most of the current debate is focused on calcium and vitamin D deficiency when it comes to healthy bone growth. But physical play has an important role in growing strong bones. The Iowa Bone Development Study concluded that various forms of physical activity, particularly vigorous physical activity, plays a critical role in early childhood bone development well ahead of reaching peak bone mass.

Muscle and joint development

Physical activity involving running, jumping and climbing builds strength in the muscles and joints as they try to support the body weight. It does not have to be a power workout for the strength to build; the good thing about physical activity is that even a small amount adds to itself. In fact it is better to go slow and watch your child carefully as she attempts increasingly difficult tasks in the playground. Over the long run you will notice a clear increase in upper body strength and legs.

Hand-eye coordination, balancing and making sense of physical forces

By engaging in physical activity, children begin to develop an intuitive sense of how the physical forces work. The begin to understand and feel how their bodies respond to gravity (jumping), friction (sliding), rotation (swinging), motion of all kinds and action-reaction of push-pull. It helps them to make sense of the physical world so they can anticipate the reaction to their actions.

Cardiovascular health

Just like adults, children also benefit from the benefits of elevated heart rates during sustained physical activity. The heart is also a big muscle, which gets stronger when it is forced to pump blood through the body at a faster rate during physical play. Lungs are also hard at work which increases their capacity of providing oxygen to the blood at faster rates. The entire circulation system benefits from physical work. The American Heart Association has some great tips for raising heart-healthy active children.

Creativity and mental growth

Although it may not seem so at first, physical activity also builds mental agility and creative thinking. As I watch my twins play in the park, I am constantly amazed by the games they invent around the simple equipment (slides, swings, tunnels, monkey bars etc). Sometimes we play “train” and run around under the big slide making all kinds of train noises. At home we play the “tunnel” in which I stand with my feet apart and they come running through the space pretending to be a truck or a train. It is a lot of fun, and the good thing is that it does not require any fancy toys. Just pure imagination and a willingness to indulge them in whatever gives them a good “workout”.

Risk taking, team work, leadership

As children grow and engage in team sports, they begin to develop a sense of teamwork and leadership. These two qualities are critical for their future success in life. They have to learn the rules of the game and figure out what is acceptable and not acceptable. It promotes a drive to achieve success, builds confidence and increase their self worth if they finish a task successfully. No wonder, sports are a big part of our popular culture.

They also develop a sense of risk and an ability to decide their action which will keep them safe. I have been amazed to watch my son pause at the top of a tall slide before coming down. I don’t see fear in his eyes; but clearly his mind is doing a quick calculation to figure out if he should really take the plunge or not. He feels comforted when he can see me waiting for him at the bottom and lets himself go!

Nutritional needs of an active child

Physical activity burns calories. It is important to make sure your child is well fed before taking him to the park. Also pack a healthy, nutritious snack after he is done. Handing out a no-sugar added fruit juice is ok if not overdone during the rest of the day. One of our favorites snacks is from Earth’s Best, which goes very well after a visit to the park. We also give organic milk and string cheese sometimes. Overall, active children need more calories during the day according to the following data from MyPyramid.gov:

Play is good for Mom and Dad too

Sometimes it may seem overwhelming to run after energetic toddlers all the time. Usually we are pretty tired when we return home from work, but playing with my twins is a lot of fun. It gives me a chance to unwind and not think about deadlines at work or the all-too-important meeting the next day. We simply run around, get silly and make up all sorts of games! Even if it is for a short period of time, it is a great bonding experience for otherwise busy parents.

Don’t ignore safety

Slips, trips and falls are the major hazards of physical activity. Even for adults, these 3 risks are responsible for a large number of injuries each year. Keeping a watchful eye on children without making them fearful while playing is very important. Expect the unexpected and stay close. Make sure children have comfortable clothing and good shoes on. And no cell phones or Blackberrys!

Summing it all up

For long-term healthy growth of your child, think PNR – Play, Nutrition and Rest. There is nothing wrong with watching TV and playing computer games -  both of them can stimulate the mind by entertaining and educating at the same time. It becomes a problem when they take over and there is no time left for play involving physical activity on a daily basis. Like everything else, balance is key, and although there is no fixed formula, common sense can help you figure out how to provide appropriate PNR for your child each day. Good luck, enjoy each day and feel free to share your ideas and opinions on how you are managing them for your child.

Top Photo Source:  OliverAlex on Flickr
©2009 Littlestomaks.com