Keeping a Balanced Diet for your Child

Keeping
Our Children

Healthy

Making the right choices can be a habit children pick up in infancy into toddler hood, then to adolescence and later adult decisions for food. Obviously parents are the major influence because they are the provider for their children.

The best way to keep your child healthy and full of energy is to offer healthy, smart meal options. The image above explains what is recommended for ages 2-6 yrs old: very little sugar/sweets, 2 Milk group, 2 Meat group, 2 Fruit group, 3 Vegetable group, & 6 grain group.

As children get older they can increase food by following the recommend food pyramid for adults:

This chart is estimated on daily serving sizes and given examples on what a serving equals.

Another important factor of childhood and adolescence is learning how to keep a fit body. Exercise can be fun and entertaining; they can work-out without even knowing it. Relating with the child by find out what interest them can get you started, then help them find a friend with the same interest so they have a partner.

It is so important to have a routine of fitness for yourself and share that with your children. Personally, I get busy and slack on working out at a gym, but I do try to get the walk around the neighborhood a few nights a week and enjoy riding bikes.

My son will be 3 in October and when he is ready for all the little league type sports, and if he wants to play, we will encourage him to be the best at whatever he wants to accomplish.

The USDA has recently updated the new food pyramids; giving 11 different options to build a customized food pyramid based on a certain number of daily calories. See this informative YouTube video :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJnGFacO3Vs&feature=related

To get more information on the customized food pyramid, I visited www.mypyramid.gov

It gave me a ton of information about how to gradually change a diet to lose weight, it also gives an option to maintain my current weight.

I found this very helpful and a great resource for anyone who just wants to stay healthy. The website is also loaded with recipes and exercise tips.

Baby Language

Baby Language

It was not until within the last year that I was aware of an actual infant baby language being researched. The research studies the infants ability to communicate with their caregivers by making sounds and gestures every time they are in need. Generally, like our textbook mentions with 3 basic syllables; "ee", "ah", & "oh". The Dunstan baby language introduces 5 universal sounds all infants make to communicate. Yes! Amazingly, these infants all over the globe react the exact same way. This research is from Priscilla Dunstan, creator of the Dunstan Baby Language. After 8 years of research and her unique ability to sense colors from sounds and vibrations helped her zone in on the situations her own children were in as infants; creating this way to teach other parents how to listen to the cry in order to know what they are wanting.

NO way! Was my initial reaction. Then, I felt hope for my next child; the infant months are so stressful for mothers and anything to help out and make communicating with your newborn is a valuable tool. However, the basis for this research is in the baby's cry along with the caregivers ability to hear and respond.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JEFefKdSGWM

Please click the link above for a video found on You Tube which better explains this phenomenal speech at such an early age. Thank goodness for someone like Mrs. Dunstan, who has shared her unique ability with the world so that we all can benefit from it.

Our text goes on to explain how even deaf mothers communicate with their infants in a slower version of sign language. It also mention they repeat these signs often, obviously so the child can get used to what it's associated with. Another great idea, I heard of before the Dunstan language was using sign language in all infants. They can signal to you before they are able to speak to you.

Why not take advantage of this communication? Either listening or hand signals - they both are ways babies are willing to help communicate to their caregivers. I am so excited that there are resources available to help mother's and families nurture to infants needs. It's a wonderful to understand our children are unique in this way.

Notes: The picture is my son Matthew, at 3 months old... he was talking in the photo to the fish hanging from his swing. He is now 2 1/2 yrs old

Postpartum Depression

The topic of postpartum depression is not something I heard about until I was in my twenty’s. In fact, my understanding of the issue was very narrow-minded and judgmental on the idea that a mother could feel ill or unhappiness after such a wonderful experience. My understanding was it probably would not happen to me, or anyone that I could think of. I think it goes without further detail my ideas on the issue were uneducated and stereotyped from media stories of unfortunate happenings because of this disease.

The Highs and Lows of Motherhood

Our textbook gave very small detail on this type of depression, but it mentions that it effects 10% of new mothers. That seems like such a low amount, so I went to the internet to research if these were current ratings and found several website articles that listed the same findings.
Personally, I feel that is low and probably due to the sources they are researching. Many women might not confide in their healthcare providers or to the proper person’s attention, making it hard to believe that is a true number. However, I believe this issue needs to be addressed to the mother before delivery. By group sessions in Lamaze classes or their doctor explains in detail; not just a simple question “How are you feeling?”
This is how it went in my case. I feel blessed that I did not suffer from this type of depression for long, maybe six months. From about day 2- coming home from the hospital is what triggered it for me. I read a few books while I was pregnant, but nothing ever made me feel like I was a “candidate” for this kind of emotional rollercoaster. It took me about 3 weeks to help my brain catch on to the idea that this is a temporary feeling and grip on to what little sanity I felt was left. I really thought I was not going to feel down, I really thought that mothers who felt that way, where already depressed or had some other problem. For me, it was not anything like that. I had a normal pregnancy and felt so excited to have my little boy here in my arms. It was just this odd gut feeling that made me feel like something was wrong all the time. Nevertheless, I refused to fill the prescription for the anti-depressant unless it took too long to feel better, which took about 6 months to feel a bit better. I could feel myself starting to feel better, or myself again. My reaction to this life lesson was that whenever I feel comfortable enough with someone who is pregnant I always remind her of the realness of this depression. Being aware of what could happen helped me know that it was NOT a permanent state of mind. I feel like this is why so many women can be stuck in this depression, because they feel like they are trapped. Not aware of their resources that can get them help.
Babies are so rewarding and full of ways to show us how to experience the world…. Like our text says infants can sense the mother’s mood. I feel very blessed to have my son and I will have another baby, when the time is right!