Healthy Mum, Happy Baby

As a promised follow up to my post on Grow Your Own, we went right to the source and asked the fine (and knowledgeable) folks at Barbara Jo’s Books to Cooks for their favourite books for cooking with and for kids. I’ll start with cooking with kids and post later on cooking for kids.

Mark Bittman himself (author of one of my most used and recommended cookbooks How to Cook Everything) recommends KIDS COOK 1-2-3: Recipes for Young Chefs Using Only 3 Ingredients, By Rozanne Gold, Illustrated by Sara Pinto. You can read his review of a few different kid’s cookbooks in the New York Times, you’ll need to sign up for an account, but it is free.

Kitchen Garden Cooking with Kids by Stephanie Alexander is definitely in keeping with the whole idea of getting your children interested in their food and where it comes from. Because it’s Australian it uses metric measures and temperatures, but Barbara Jo’s still recommends it because Stephanie Alexander is (and I quote) “wonderful” and the book is chock-a-block with project ideas for getting your kids interested in food, gardening, composting, etc. There’s a great website that goes along with the book that’s definitely worth checking out.

Sam Stern’s Cooking Up a Storm: The Teen Survival Cookbook by Sam and Susan Stern, this is a British book, but all the measurements and temperatures have been converted to North American standards. Now, I’ve yet to start thinking about the teen year issues, my feet are still firmly planted in toddler and preschooler survival mode. Share 14-year-old Sam Stern’s recipes, and try them yourself if you’re a teen cook or cook wannabe.

Barbara Jo’s has also created a list of great books on Socially Conscious Consumption, which includes two of my current favourites, Marion Nestle’s What to Eat and local phenom The 100 Mile Diet. I’m thinking of starting, either in tandem with Barbara Jo’s or as an offshoot of Healthy Mum, Happy Baby and yoyomama a . If that sounds interesting to you it would be great if you could comment on this post or send me an email - I’m thinking books around food and gardening and going green and eating locally that are either aimed at kids or their parents. So let me know a) if you’re interested and b) what you think the focus should be!

We thought it would be colour appropriate to go strawberry picking today. We were tempted by more festive celebrations, but after seeing how mellow (& sleepy) the girls were after we visited the UBC Farm yesterday morning (an aside – we highly recommend the Saturday morning market to all parents, bring a picnic and stake out one of their table, and bring lettuce for the chickens.) we thought another agricultural outing might be more fun, and guarantee good napping.

We met my Dad and the girls went for it. M preferred filling her bucket from strawberries my Dad had already picked over picking her own. Lucy was in her own private strawberry heaven – eating them, squishing them in her fingers, and stomping on them…who knows how much dirt and pesticides she ingested, but I’m hoping the whole picking locally thing will mean they’re not as bad as strawberries from farther afield. Plus M, who’s not previously been a strawberry fan, now says she loves them, which gives credence to the whole theory behind getting your kids involved in growing their own food!

Our berry picking tips for going with the very young include making sure you have a ratio of one adult per child, don’t plan to stay for more than 45 minutes or an hour, make sure everyone has their own basket for picking, bring lots of wet naps, sunscreen, sun hats and refreshing beverages.

If it wasn’t for yoyomama I wouldn’t be tracking all the goings on in town as much as I am, so it’s a great offshoot of the site that we’re exploring our city more than ever.

In light of all the news of late about the benefits of Vitamin D I’ve been wondering if I should start supplementing with it or mainlining it or not worrying about it at all. . .Health Canada has just updated their recommendations around Vitamin D and Health and they’ll be participating in a conference in September of 2007 to review the efficacy and safety of Vitamin D – in the meantime, they recommend that for now “all Canadians over the age of two consume 500 mL (two cups) of milk every day for adequate vitamin D and in addition encourages everyone over the age of 50 to take a daily supplement of 400 IU of vitamin D. ”

Remember – too much Vitamin D can be as bad for you as too little – I’ve made a mental note to update this in September once they’re newer recommendations are out.

So not only did China manufacture each of the 24 kinds of toys recalled for safety reasons in the US so far this year, but the recent pet food scare was over Chinese made pet food and there is more and more in the news about the dangers of food imported from China. Of course since China manufactures about 80% of all the world’s toys it’s hardly surprising…

What’s a mum to do? This is one more persuasive argument for shopping locally – not just for toys but for food too.

I’m toying with the idea of trying the 100-Mile Diet for our family for a few weeks this summer, but first I need to convince my husband and also source some local bread and pasta as I don’t see us surviving on a 100-Mile Diet until they make 100-Mile Annie’s Mac ‘n Cheese.

If any of you out there have tried eating locally with tots I’d love your feedback and ideas on how to make it work.

When Canada’s  new Food Guide to Healthy Eating was released mere days after the final draft of Healthy Mum, Happy Baby was due, I was a bit frustrated, which is why a site like this is so great, because I can update info that won’t be updated in the book until the next edition comes out. And I did list updates when this site launched. I’ve also found this great article from Nutrition Action, a magazine that my friend Tina (of the hummus fame) turned me onto on Fine Tuning our Food Guide that’s an interesting read (warning: it’s a PDF).  They’re ongoing listing of “Right Stuff” vs. “Food Porn” (again, a PDF) is pretty interesting too!

Gayla of You Grow Girl sent along a few more links for ideas for gardening with kids. She suggested www.kidsgardening.com and a section on her site with realistic jobs for kids in the garden: www.yougrowgirl.com/garden/jobsforkids.php 

She also suggested starting small with “really simple stuff like starting a small herb from plant or seed…giving the kids one plant that is already there is a good start for a really young kid.”

Does all this talk of childhood obesity freak you out a little? Me too. A new report from the Saint Louis University Medical Center concludes that children who are involved with growing and cooking their food have a better diet. If a school has a garden the students also eat more fruits and veggies, and know more about eating healthily.

It’s a good time of year to start thinking about growing your own fruits and veggies to harvest over the summer and in the fall – apparently this past weekend was a doozy for garden centres etc. If’ you’ve got a black thumb like I do you may need some help,so here are a few websites with helpful planting info:

You Grow Girl – Canadian Gayla Trail’s site and books approach gardening with a laid-back approach which focuses equally on environmentalism, style, affordability, art and humour.

If you’re like us and you don’t have a patch of garden to call your own, you may want to look for space in your local community garden – it may be too late for this season, but you can always reserve for next and you could start small by growing fresh herbs on your windowsill.

Here are a few tips from Better Homes & Gardens on starting a garden. Brian Minter’s site is good too, as is his call in segment on BC Almanac on CBC. The Natural Gardener, a store on West 10th Avenue here in Vancouver, also has useful classes to get you going, and an archive of articles. Plus if you go in, Bob, the owner, is super helpful.

Coming soon – cooking with your kids, tips & tricks for involving them without destroying your kitchen…

Source & more info on the Saint Louis study >>

Want a sneak peek at Healthy Mum, Happy Baby? Check out the June issue of Today’s Parent on newsstands or online now.

There’s an excerpt from Healthy Mum, Happy Baby with the lowdown on what nutrients you need, which vices you can indulge in – at least a little bit – how to order the healthiest take out, and more.

Enjoy!

A lot of emotions can prompt overeating – stress, frustration, boredom, anxiety – and new mums can be prone to all of those emotions. Here are a few tips on avoiding overeating to fill a void:

• Try and avoid or limit caffeine and alcohol, which can be especially hard on your system if you’re already anxious.
• Keep hydrated by drinking six to eight glasses of water a day. It’ll stop you from confusing hunger with thirst and keeping your thirst at bay can also help you feel less fatigued.
• Use healthy snacks to help keep your blood sugar levels stable. When I was on Breakfast TV today I had an array of snacks to do just that – stock up on foods like hummus, nuts, energy bars, homemade muffins, and yummy cheeses.
• Omega-3 fatty acids do great things for your mood, your skin, your hair, your brain…try walnuts for a snack or sardines on toast for lunch.
• Magnesium helps relax your muscles, so try adding more whole grains, legumes, vegetables, nuts and seeds into your diet. They’re all rich in magnesium.
• Keep an eye on portion size too, there’s no harm in putting something in the fridge to finish up later, it’s a perfect snack.

Source & more info

The more we learn about fish oil the more it seems we should be mainlining it or something…it’s so touted that it makes me wonder how people ever thrived in landlocked locations? A new study has just found that fish oil speeds maturing of infants’ immune systems – yet another reason to make sure you (and your baby) are getting enough of it!