February 2014
Medford School Nurses
MA Nurses Association - Greater Boston Council After-school programs
Sign-ups are probably starting now for spring afterschool activities. Look at the lineup with your youngster, and consider a nutrition-related program. Her school might have a gardening club, or your community center may offer a kids cooking class. Being involved in growing and cooking healthy foods can get her excited about eating them!
Making good choices
How does your child decide what to eat? At this age, his choices are influenced by the food you buy, where you keep it, and how much you serve for meals and snacks. Consider these strategies for making your home a healthy eating zone.
Enjoy a rainbow
Work with your child to plan meals that include a variety of colors. For instance, you could serve orange carrots and brown rice at dinner or white chicken strips and yellow pineapple chunks at lunch. During meals, take turns calling out a color to have next. As your youngster eats the colors, he will get a good variety of vitamins and minerals.
At the store
Food decisions at home all start with whats there in the first place. If you buy three kinds of cookies or three flavors of ice cream, your youngster will want to taste them all. Instead, bring home three kinds of fruits and three kinds of vegetables. Likewise, skip the soda and fruit drink aisle. When the only choices are water or fat-free milk, thats what your child will drink when hes thirsty.
reach. On the flip side, if you buy chips, cookies, or candy, place them out of sight. If he doesnt see them, hes less apt to eat them.
Serving sizes
Its no secret restaurant portion sizes have grown larger. What you may not know is that serving sizes at home are bigger, too. Try plating meals yourself with smaller amounts, and put away leftovers. Use smaller dishes and utensils eating stews or pudding with a teaspoon rather than a tablespoon will cut down on how much everyone eats.
Be active indoors
For a fun change of pace this winter, let your children bring outdoor toys inside. Suggest that they jump on a pogo stick in the basement, roller-skate in a garage rink, or play badminton (without the net) in a bedroom. Mixing things up like this can inspire them to get more physical activity.
Front and center
Your youngster will most likely snack on the foods he sees. Keep a bowl of fruit on the kitchen table. Cut up vegetables, and put them at the front of the refrigerator shelf at his eye level. Freeze grapes in small bags on the freezer shelf he can
Games for snow (or no snow)
When your children wake up to a snow day, make the most of it with these active ideas.
Treasure hunts. To encourage your kids to
Just for fun
Sign in a cafeteria: Shoes are required to eat in the cafeteria. Socks can eat anyplace they want.
run around in the snow, have them take turns burying a plastic toy and shouting out clues for the others to find it. No snow? Hide the toy in bushes, in tall grass, or behind a shed.
Colorful trails. Let your children fill spray bottles with water and food coloring. Then, they can make colorful trails for each other to follow. No snow? Spray the color onto grass (it will wash away in the rain), or make trails with pebbles.
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February 2014 Page 2
Yikes yeast is alive!
Your youngster may not know that her bread is alive. Have her experiment with a main ingredient in bread the live organism known as yeast and shell learn more about the foods she eats.
1. Ask your child to empty a yeast
2. Let her pour the yeast into a bowl
1 cup and add 1 tsp. sugar and 4 warm water.
3. Have her wait 20 minutes and
observe (shell see bubbles in the mixture). She can pour the mixture back onto the dark paper and look with a magnifying glass again (shell see movement). What happened? The bubbles are carbon dioxide, the gas produced when the yeast eats the sugar. The movement is the yeast making more yeast as the chemical reaction continues. Show your youngster a few pieces of bread. If she looks closely, she will find the bubbles baked right inmaking the bread lighter and fluffier.
packet onto dark construction paper and examine it with a magnifying glass. Does it move or look alive?
Everyday activity boosts
Small bursts of activity will help your child reach the recommended 60 minutes of daily physical activity. Try these suggestions: him to walk, Rollerblade, bike, or ride a scooter everywhere that he can. If you live close enough, you could travel by foot power to the bank, a store, or friends houses. you want to get through chores as quickly as possible. Not so with this idea. Have your youngster deliver folded laundry piece by piece to its destination (his drawer, the linen closet). He can count his trips and multiply his exercise! you drive to the library, community center, or mall, park far from the entrance and take a hike to the front door. Or park in one central location in town, and walk to your different errands. Your child just might get into a lifelong habit of walking extra steps.
To provide busy parents with practical ways to promote healthy nutrition and physical activity for their children. Resources for Educators, a division of CCH Incorporated 128 N. Royal Avenue Front Royal, VA 22630 540-636-4280
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Nutrition Nuggets is reviewed by a registered dietitian. Consult a physician before beginning any major change in diet or exercise.
Price of healthy food
Q: It seems like healthy food costs more. Is that really true? A: While it might be that way sometimes, it
Encourage
Typically,
depends on what you get and how you shop. In fact, some produce can cost less than snacks like chocolate candy or chips, and youll save on sugar and fats in addition to money. For instance, a bunch of bananas might work out to 25 cents per banana less than the price of most packaged snacks. And a 5-lb. bag of potatoes will cost only a little more than one order of French fries at the drive-thru. To keep prices down, purchase fruits and vegetables in season, or buy them frozen. Join your supermarket so you get member prices, and be sure to use coupons. Also, buying in bulk could save you money on cereal, nuts, seeds, and other healthy items. If those quantities are too much for your family, try shopping at a warehouse store with a neighbor and splitting the amounts.
Make-ahead breakfast cupcakes
Making breakfast can be challenging on busy mornings. Instead, whip up these savory cupcakes with your child on a weekend, and freeze them. Then, pop them in the microwave for a hot and healthy breakfast. Note: For each recipe, use a 12-cup muffin pan with liners or coated with nonfat cooking spray. Freeze the cupcakes in the pan until solid, and then store them in a freezer bag.
When
or brown sugar. Spoon the oatmeal into the muffin tin, and add raisins, dried cherries or cranberries, chopped nuts, or pumpkin seeds to each cup.
Eggs
Beat a dozen eggs, and stir in a 20-oz. bag of shredded hash brownstyle potatoes (thawed, if frozen), 1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese, 1 chopped bell pepper, and 4 tbsp. flour. Divide the mixture into the muffin cups. Bake at 400 for 2530 minutes, until set.
Oatmeal
In a saucepan, combine 2 cups 1 cups water, and rolled oats and 3 2 bring to a boil. Boil, stirring frequently, for 35 minutes. Mix in 1 tbsp. honey
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