Getting Enough Fruits and Vegetables in you Older Baby’s Diet

Getting Enough Fruits and Vegetables in you Older Baby’s Diet

September 6th, 2010 by admin  |  No Comments

As your baby gets older and weans from breast milk or formula, you will need to make certain that his diet is filled with all the healthy foods necessary to meet his nutritional needs. Unfortunately, this is also the age when many babies start to develop a stronger opinion about which foods they like or dislike. It can become a challenge to fit in the 5 servings of fruits and vegetables recommended every day for good health. There are some easy ways to add extra servings of fruits and vegetables to your older baby’s diet, however, without a fight.

Super Smoothies

A fruit smoothie is a great way to get several servings of fruit into your baby all at once. Add yogurt for a protein punch and you have an excellent snack that could even serve as a meal. Frozen fruit works best for smoothies, and adding a little juice or milk will thin it out to make it easy for your older baby to drink. Great smoothie combinations include strawberry-banana, peach-mango and mixed berries. You can even slip in some vegetables

Smoothies offer a benefit over juice as a serving of fruit as they contain the whole fruit and not just the juice, meaning your child will benefit from all the available nutrients. They are also more filling and will offer longer lasting energy due to higher levels of fiber. 100% juice is an easy way to get an extra serving of fruits into your baby’s diet, but keep it to one drink of juice a day.

Spectacular Soup

Fruits are generally easier to fit into baby food diet. They are sweet, portable snacks that babies love to eat. Vegetables, however, can be a little more challenging. Even if your baby ate veggies with no qualms in the first months of solid foods, as he gets older, you might find he turns up his nose at them. There’s a simple, delicious way to get extra veggies into your baby’s diet, however – give soup a try!

Soups such as vegetable and minestrone are filled with all sorts of vegetables, and because they have been cooked so well, they are soft and easy for baby to chew and swallow. Because they are infused with the flavor of the broth, they don’t taste so much like veggies. Adding a few crackers will soak up some of the extra broth and make it easier to get the soup into your baby’s mouth.

Watch out for canned soups that can contain a lot of sodium, however. Check labels and buy low sodium versions, or try your hand at making your own soup at home for an even healthier version.

Spread Out the Servings

If you try to fit all of the fruits and veggies in at one part of the day, it’s harder to get enough of them in. Many parents don’t serve a vegetable until dinner time, but lunch and snacks are great times for veggies too!

If you serve a fruit or veggie at each of the three main meals of the day plus two snacks containing a serving each, you have hit your five without even trying. Still, sometimes it can be difficult to get baby to eat a fruit or vegetable at every sitting. Double up the fruits at breakfast by serving oatmeal mixed with berries and banana slices on the side. Do the same at dinner; try mixing finely chopped spinach into meatballs or a pasta sauce, and serve a regular portion of veggies on the side as well.

Fruits and vegetables are vitally important to good health, so make an effort to ensure your baby is getting enough. You’ll set a great example for a lifetime of good eating habits.

How Much Sugar and Salt is OK?

How Much Sugar and Salt is OK?

August 28th, 2010 by admin  |  No Comments

As adults, most of us know the pull of salty and sugary foods. They comprise most of our favorite snack foods, and we can’t help loving them even though we know they are bad for us. The foods that aren’t a part of our healthy diet aren’t a good part of a child’s diet either. Unfortunately, with added sugar and salt popping up everywhere, controlling your child’s intake isn’t easy. With vigilance and attention to food labels, you can keep your child’s salt and sugar intake under control.

Avoiding Excess Salt

Sodium is a mineral that is required by the body to maintain a balance of fluids and avoid dehydration. Fortunately, it isn’t difficult to get the required amount of sodium. Unfortunately, it’s all too easy to get too much, which can be just as bad as or worse than too little.

Sodium is added to all kinds of processed foods, from canned vegetables to frozen foods. It’s especially prevalent in things like canned soups, which are a popular quick meal option for busy parents. Happily, the food industry has recognized the problem with excess sodium and is offering low-sodium or even sodium free versions of canned foods. Canned vegetables are now available packed only in water. Soups are now available with much lower sodium content.

While home cooking should be safer because we control the amount of salt we put into our foods, we often don’t realize that sodium at home doesn’t just come from a salt shaker. Condiments, seasoning blends, and popular cooking flavorings all contain more sodium that most of us realize. By trying to cook healthy foods at home, you could be serving your child more sodium than is healthy. Again, reading labels is important!

The Sweet Side of Life

The good news is, there is no evidence that sugar really causes children to be overactive, nor does it necessarily lead to obesity – in moderation. The real problem with sugary foods in a child’s diet is that they tend to replace healthier foods, and provide empty calories instead of options full of nutrients.

Sugar is added to all kinds of foods, even those aimed at children – perhaps especially those aimed at children. It’s well know that kids like the sweet stuff, and manufacturers are tuned in to your little one’s sweet tooth. Candy isn’t the only culprit, in fact it isn’t even the main culprit. Fruit “drinks”, yogurt, cereals, granola bars and more all contain large amounts of sugar. While some of these foods might also offer nutritional value, usually due to being fortified, it doesn’t make them the healthiest choice. Nutrients that appear naturally in foods are better absorbed by the body and healthier for kids. Try sweet treats that appear in nature, like fruits and berries, instead of processed sugar for a treat that is both sweet and healthy too.

Everything In Moderation

You have heard it before, and it applies here. Denying kids the odd treat will make them more likely to gorge on it when they do get the chance. And what’s life without a little fun? As long as you keep the sweet and salty treats to a minimum, there won’t be a lasting impact on your child’s health. Making a regular habit of it, however, will set your child up for potential health problems in the years to come.

Salt Intake During Pregnancy

Salt Intake During Pregnancy

July 9th, 2010 by admin  |  No Comments

Pregnant women are often advised to cut back on their salt intake during pregnancy by well meaning friends and relatives. Even the medical community believed that salt in the diet contributed to water retention resulting in swelling and bloating. While having too much salt in your diet can cause problems, especially if you have high blood pressure, a moderate intake of sodium is actually healthy for a pregnant woman. It helps to maintain the higher fluid levels required during pregnancy.

What Is Sodium?

Although it has a bad name due to the unhealthy effects of getting too much in your diet, sodium is actually a necessary mineral for good health. It is an electrolyte that helps regulate the fluid levels in the body and helps your body to absorb nutrients.

Salt and Edema

Many women experience problems with swelling of the legs and feet during pregnancy, a condition known as edema. While edema has traditionally been blamed on sodium in the diet, this is not entirely accurate. Edema is caused by higher levels of estrogen and the increased volume of blood in a pregnant woman’s body. Edema is not pleasant, but isn’t a matter for concern in a pregnant woman unless it is accompanied by signs of preeclampsia such as high blood pressure. Although a very high sodium diet may make edema worse, it is not the only culprit.

How Much Salt Is Ok to Eat?

The appropriate amount of sodium for an adult to consume in a day, including a pregnant woman, is about 2400 micrograms. Unfortunately, many of us consume far, far more than that amount. Thus, while it isn’t recommended that you consume too little sodium during pregnancy, if your diet is too high in sodium currently, you should reduce your intake for a healthy pregnancy.

Avoiding too much sodium can be tricky, as it appears in so many different processed foods, so be sure to read the label before you eat. Fast food is a huge culprit for large amounts of sodium. Ask to see the nutritional information before ordering or better yet, skip fast food altogether and go for a healthier option. Avoid using excess salt on your food at home as well. Remember that all kinds of things from salad dressing to ketchup contain sodium, so use them sparingly. And take it easy with the salt shaker too!

Sodium and Blood Pressure

Diets that are too high in sodium can result in high blood pressure, which is not healthy at any time including during pregnancy. Pregnant women are already at risk of pregnancy-induced high blood pressure, which can be a precursor of preeclampsia, a much more serious condition. If your blood pressure is elevated, you should be tested for other symptoms. Preeclampsia is a serious complication during pregnancy that can result in premature birth and dangerous health problems for the mother. It should be monitored closely. Women who have had preeclampsia in the past should discuss sodium intake with their doctor.

The bottom line on sodium is that it is an important part of a pregnancy diet, but should be watched carefully as it is easy to get too much. Before embarking on a low-sodium diet during your pregnancy, discuss it with your doctor. Both too much and too little sodium can be very unhealthy for you and your baby.