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Waldorf Early Childhood Education class - nutrition and space
bensmommy | | 
0
I missed a post last week so there is a lot to cover now!
We've been celebrating festivals of other cultures - made dumpling soup for Chinese New Year last week and sushi and miso this week. I love the sushi as a portable snack for my son. It's easy to pack all sorts of nutritious bits in there!
Last week we discussed a bit about nutrition. I have nutrition training so not much was new to me but it's great to be reminded of the basics, especially in terms of feeding our children. Here are a couple of my favorite tips (though we were given many more)
1. Create a schedule for eating. Once the child's body is used to the time they are eating, they tend to eat better. And make a ritual of it. Light a candle, say a prayer, fold a napkin a certain way or whatever. Just make some recognition that this is quiet eating time.
- General guidelines - Breakfast: Whole grains, fat and protein. Lunch: Fats and Protein. Dinner: More grains and vegetables, little to no fat and protein, for healthy liver function.
- Try to get greens in there. Cover them with butter or cheese or grind them into pancakes or some other form. Whatever works. Get them in there!
Those are just a few. If anyone has more questions, I'm happy to offer what I know.
Secondly, the notion of "space" has come up both in this class and at another lecture I attended "Movement in Childhood". A couple of key points here...
- Have a space for your child in the home. Make this a warm and welcoming space. If you ask them to "go play alone" for awhile, bring some things out for them to get them started. This will help them get engaged.
- The space around the child is just as much theirs as their body. Coming in with a pointed finger is an invasion of the space. Instead of coming close and saying "don't go past those trees", stand next to the child, point out to the trees and say "you can play all the way up to those trees". That leaves the space open for them to explore.
Something to chew on. I certainly am.
Have a great weekend,
Jessie
waldorf, early childhood education, nutrition, space, ritual (all tags)
Momma, I’ll Have Some of Whatever You’re Having
BrittG | | 1
Tony Cenicola/The New York Times
What are your thoughts?
By KEITH DIXON
Published: September 30, 2008
Nytimes.com
A FEW months ago, my wife, Jessica, lured me into a hardware store a few blocks from our apartment, saying she wanted to show me a food mill she was thinking about buying.
’m an obsessive collector of kitchen gadgets, but when I laid eyes on the thing I was skeptical. Composed of three white plastic pieces — a base, a basket and a hand-crank — the food mill was too small, almost a toy, and would never stand up to the rigors of, say, a bushel basket of tomatoes. I protested. Jessica waited patiently until I got it: the mill wasn’t for me. It was for the baby.
Jessica had begun making meals for Gracie, our 7-month-old daughter, following the recommended pattern for carefully introducing individual puréed foods.
That all changed when she called me at work one day to tell me that she’d taken the food mill to the next level: since Gracie had tried all the basic ingredients from what we’d eaten the night before — my pasta Bolognese with mint — she had milled some up and watched with delight as Gracie happily finished every bite.
Jessica was only too happy to have at her fingertips a complete and healthy meal for Gracie. I was only too happy to hear that my baby had such good taste.
To be safe, I consulted two pediatric nutrition specialists. Dr. Jatinder Bhatia, a member of the committee on nutrition for the American Academy of Pediatrics, liked the meal sharing idea. He said feeding a child a range of foods encourages the child to be more adventurous at the table as she moves into her second year.
“This is how you teach your baby to develop likes similar to yours,” he said. “Otherwise, how would an Indian child eat curry or a Mexican child consume salsa?”
But he had some concerns, including allergic reactions. (It’s best to talk to your pediatrician about what solid foods you want to feed your baby.)
FDA Finds Lead in Many Children's & Women's Vitamins
BrittG | | 0
Posted by Jeremiah McNichols
Z Recommends
The FDA has released the results of recent tests which indicate that almost all vitamins produced for consumption by women and children contain trace amounts of lead.
Although the FDA is not taking a position on whether the levels of lead in these vitamins poses a health hazard, leaders on the issue in public policy have consistently told consumers that there is "no known safe level of lead exposure," particularly when the CPSC has ordering mass recalls of children's jewelry in recent years.
Below are shortlists of the children's vitamins containing the highest and lowest amounts of lead.
Highest & Lowest Lead Exposure Levels (Ages 0-6) - posted after the jump
Vitamin D Deficiency May Lurk in Babies
BrittG | | 1
By RONI CARYN RABIN
Published: August 25, 2008
NYTimes.com
Until she was 11 months old, Aleanie Remy-Marquez could have starred in an advertisement for breast milk. She took to nursing easily, was breast-fed exclusively for six or seven months, and ate little else even after that. She was alert and precocious and developed at astonishing speed, her mother said, sitting at four months and walking by eight months.
But once Aleanie started putting weight on her feet, her mother noticed that her legs were curving in a bow shape below the knees. Doctors diagnosed vitamin D-deficiency rickets, a softening of the bones that develops when children do not get enough vitamin D — a crucial ingredient for absorbing calcium and building bone, and the one critical hormone that breast milk often cannot provide enough of.
Should Pregnant Women Eat More Seafood?
DaniBerri009 | | 0
Fearing mercury contamination, many pregnant women avoid seafood altogether. That may actually harm newborns, according to some scientists.
EATING DURING PREGNANCY
DaniBerri009 | | 0
To eat well during pregnancy you must do more than simply increase how much you eat. You must also consider what you eat. Although you need about 300 extra calories a day — especially later in your pregnancy, when your baby grows quickly — those calories should come from nutritious foods so they can contribute to your baby's growth and development.
