Dealing with the Pokey Eater in Preschool and Beyond

Preschoolers are notorious dawdlers, according to grown-up standards. They are just so curious! They do not understand the concept of time or deadlines… what a wonderful way to live! Unfortunately for the parents of preschoolers, who could lose their job for continued tardiness, this charming preschool habit is not so desirable after all. But how can we hurry our little ones along, yet not stamp out the natural curiosity and wonder of childhood?

There is no easy answer, but there are a few compromises that can be reached.

Choose Your Battles

First, chose your battles carefully. Not every war needs to be won. If your child dawdles during dinner, you can allow him the extra time to pick away at his food. You can begin together as a family, sharing a simple table grace if such is your habit, and encourage family chat, the together time when everyone talks about their day, their dreams, and their challenges. But as the older members of the family finish, they could remain for a few minutes more, then simply leave the table but allow the pokey eater to finish his meal. One parent should remain in the room, to ensure that the child doesn’t choke on something, or decide to see how the walls would look if papered in mashed potatoes. The parent could continue to talk with the preschooler in an upbeat, friendly manner, while loading the dishwasher, or putting away the left-overs.

Breakfast, however, is a different situation. For many families, breakfast is only a short part of a busy morning schedule that includes getting dressed, packing lunches, gathering school supplies, and loading the car to head out in various directions to school, work, and day care. There simply isn’t enough time to allow the slow eater to take his time.

One solution, of course, is to get up earlier. At least, to wake the pokey eater up earlier, have him dress earlier, and begin on his meal sooner. This can work much of the time, because studies have shown that eating slower is actually very healthy. Most of us inhale our food. We barely chew it, then wash it down our throat with a glass of milk or water, and wonder why we suffer from indigestion. Each bite of food we take is supposed to thoroughly and carefully chewed – twenty times or more – until it is a soft, soggy mass well-saturated with saliva. Instead of hurrying along our preschooler, we should be working to slow ourselves down!

Remove Distractions

Some preschoolers are too easily distracted. I’ve noticed that my granddaughter cannot eat breakfast while watching cartoons. She may be very hungry, but while focused on the television, she will simply hold her toast or cereal and forget to put it in her mouth. So, the natural consequence is, turn off the television. This should be obvious, and should be true for every meal and snack. When we eat, we should concentrate on eating. We should visit with our family. We should be pleasant and respectful of one another, for this improves digestion, besides building strong families.

Other things that might distract the preschooler include the family pet, loud music, too much going on, unpleasant conversation, ringing telephones and buzzing doorbells. You cannot control every distraction, but it is in your best interest to limit as many as possible. Develop a house rule that cell phones are to be silenced during meal times. Turn off or down the radio. Do not use mealtimes to rehash past disagreements, and put the dog out or in another room.

To help your young child focus on the meal, set the table and eat there. Sometimes use the good dishes, sometimes use pretty paper tableware. Sometimes light candles or place a low bouquet of flowers for the centerpiece. Dim the lights, but not too low. Create a feeling of togetherness that will draw your child in. He will want to be a part of this, and will have healthier eating habits as a result.

Eliminate Between-Meal Snacks

Another cause for dawdling is a lack of hunger. This is especially true in our culture, where food is constantly available. Schedule regular meal times and regular snack times, and do NOT allow your child to eat in between. If your child complains that he is hungry in between meals, most of the time he is really thirsty. Allow him a glass of water. Many people mistake hunger for thirst. If your child is truly hungry, he must have decided not to eat what was offered to him at the last meal. Remind him that it was his choice, and perhaps at the next meal he will make a better choice. All children should be able to go two and a half to three hours between eating. If breakfast is at 7am, and lunch is at noon, then a small – emphasis on the word “small” – snack can be served at 9:30. After lunch, typically the preschooler naps, then afternoon snack is at 3:00pm, with dinner at 5:30 or 6:00pm. The preschool child should be in bed by 7:30, so no more snacks are required. Examine your child’s eating schedule, and see if he is getting too many snacks or too much food during the day. Cut back on serving sizes, and you may find that your hungrier child eats more quickly.

Use a Timer

One final option, is to set a timer. A good time is about twenty minutes. Let your child know that this meal time will be twenty minutes long. When the timer dings, the meal is over. Then do not nag him. Set the timer in front of him, so he can see the passage of time – which is a good pre-science and pre-math activity. When the timer does go off, simply remove the rest of the child’s food from the table. If he howls, be calm, be patient, but be firm. Remind him that he has had enough time to eat, and meal time is over. He chose to take too long. Tomorrow, he will have the opportunity to make better choices. Let him get down from the table, but DO NOT give him any snacks until the next scheduled time. Let his slight hunger be his guide. You are not punishing him. You are teaching him that actions have consequences, and helping him to learn responsibility. This is a wonderful lesson for him to learn!

With a little patience and loving guidance, you can create a harmonious home where every member of the family feels loved and valued. That is a far more important goal, than whether your child can inhale his breakfast in ten minutes or less.

Photo Credits:
Top: photo by Tatiana Gladskikh
Middle: Photo by Daniel Dezura
Bottom: Photo by Nagy-Bagoly Ilona

Genetically modified foods are banned in Europe

These toxic foods have been banned in Europe for a decade! Yet in the United States, they aren’t even labeled so savvy consumers can make the decision for themselves. October is Non-GMO month. Thousands of volunteers and concerned citizens are banding together to try to raise awareness of this growing potential health risk.

What are GMO foods?

Genetically modifying foods is not the same as hybrid seeds or cross-breeding animals. You can cross a horse with a donkey to get a mule, but the mule is generally infertile. You cannot cross a pig with a potato – unless you genetically alter its DNA. Some of the absurd and ridiculous things that have been done to our “natural” foods are:

• arctic fish genes put into tomatoes, to make them resistant to frost
• jellyfish crossed into pig genes, so their noses glow in the dark
• spider genes crossed into goat DNA to make bullet-proof vests
• corn is genetically modified with bacteria to make it poisonous to insects
• soybeans genetically modified with bacteria to make them resistant to herbicides

Diabetes, Autism, and Allergies reach epidemic levels

But whether GMOs are harmful or not – something is definitely wrong in our society. Type II diabetes is reaching nearly epidemic levels, and younger and younger children are being diagnosed with what has often been called “adult onset diabetes”. This information isn’t being presented by some blogger with too much time on her hands, but by the American Diabetes Association, the World Health Organization, and Science Daily. Diabetes has risen 33% in the past decade. Guess what? So have genetically modified foods in our diet!

Another sudden epidemic – the rise in children diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder. In a ten-year period from 1993 to 2003, the rate of children in the United States diagnosed with Autism rose 657 percent! Some may argue that these numbers are inflated, because we have better methods of diagnosing autism, or because of higher public awareness. Physicians and educators agree that they are seeing more and more children thus afflicted. Could this again be related to the genetically altered foods in our diet?

What about the rise in peanut allergies? Several decades ago it was unheard of! Now, nearly every school has a policy for dealing with children suffering from severe, life-threatening food allergies, including gluten intolerance, milk allergy, strawberries, peanuts, even chocolate. The number of children diagnosed with peanut allergies is about 1 in 100 in the United States, yet virtually non-existent in Asia where the peanut is a major food source. Peanut allergies have doubled in the past ten years – right along with the rise in GMOs. Yet, researchers are trying to genetically modify a peanut that will be hypo-allergenic! Why don’t they just study why Asians don’t have peanut allergies? I’ll bet it is related to the fact Asians don’t consume the quantity of genetically modified food that are causing irreparable damage to our health.

How to avoid genetically altered food in your diet

Should you avoid all genetically modified foods in the future? Without proper labeling, it can be difficult. Until then, here are four tips to help you avoid these potentially harmful foods:

1) Buy organic. Certified organic foods cannot intentionally include any GMO ingredients
2) Look for “Non-GMO Project” verified seals
3) Avoid at-risk ingredients, including corn, soybeans, canola, and cottonseed
4) Buy products listed in the “Non-GMO Project” shopping guide

If just 5% of the American population would boycott genetically altered foods, grocery stores would stop stocking them, and ultimately, companies would stop producing them. We don’t need more government control to end this potentially devastating practice! We can use consumerism at its best. It worked in Europe.

Spread the word.

GMO FAQs

References:
The “Myth” of Autism
Is There Really an Autism Epidemic? Scientific American
The Peanut Allergy Epidemic by Dr. Daniel More
Institute for Responsible Technology

Photo Credits:
Boy with an Apple: by Larry Grubs

Drop in to any parenting website, chat room, or pick up a magazine aimed toward parents of young children, and I can almost guarantee that you will find at least one discussion – and probably many more than one – on the fussy eater. It’s almost an epidemic! Many young children between the ages of eighteen months and forty-eight months seem to survive on love alone. They don’t want to drink their milk, eat their cereal, finish their sandwich, taste their vegetables, or even look at their dinner. But when you’re in the checkout aisle at the grocery store they’re always hungry for that candy bar or sugary soda. To exacerbate the problem, the young child is often loud and vocal about their changing food preferences. Instead of a polite “no thank you” to the spaghetti or green beans you are about to serve, they may shout a resounding, “Yuck!”

The Finicky Eater

The worst meal of the day for families with young children is definitely dinner time. Moms and dads are tired. One or both of them just got home from work. They’re eager to get dinner over with, so they can get their screaming tots into the bath, then into bed, before they can finally take a break. And the worst, absolutely the worst thing either of them can do is engage in a power struggle with that child over what food passes between his lips. Once a parent demands that they clean up their plate, it is no longer an issue of health and nutrition. This is a battle of wills, and one the parent cannot win. If the child does eat, he’s not forming healthy, happy eating habits. If he doesn’t eat, the parent will either cave in, or be forced to discipline the child, which can lead to life-long eating disorders.

So end the meal time battle right now, and try a few of the following alternatives:

• Eliminate all refined sugar from your child’s diet. Sugar is not nutritious, but when your child eats even just a little sugar, it changes his palate, and he’ll crave sugary foods even more. He won’t want to eat anything that isn’t sweet. It takes a few weeks to break the sugar addiction, but once you do, you’ll really appreciate how much better all your other food tastes. Natural sugar found in fruit is fine – in moderation, of course.
• Establish specific meal times, and stick to the plan. Write down what time you eat breakfast, lunch, afternoon snack, and dinner. Serve them at the same time every day. Keep them about three hours apart, with NO SNACKING in between. Your child is more likely to eat if he comes to the dinner table hungry.
• Provide plenty of activity during your child’s day. See that he has time to run and play outside, dance, jump, ride a tricycle, throw a ball, climb, hop, crawl, and turn somersaults. Don’t raise a couch potato. If your child is burning calories, he’ll need to refuel at the dinner table.
• Serve more raw foods, more individual foods, and fewer casseroles. It is not uncommon for a little child to like to eat carrots, corn, green beans, and peas, but refuse to eat “veg-all” with all of those vegetables mixed in together. Remember when your young child was still an infant, you might have fed him a jar of peas and a jar of apricots for a meal, but you probably didn’t feed him a jar of lasagna.

Just Because It's Green, Doesn't Mean It Has to be Yucky
• Set the table. Eat at the table. Don’t serve dinner in the car – ever – if possible! Use a tablecloth sometimes. Set out special plates. Use cloth napkins. Light the candles. Make dinner fun! Play Italian music when you serve pizza, or Mexican music when you have tacos.
• Go on a picnic. No matter what the season, you can take a picnic outdoors. My dad used to love winter picnics. I can remember him bringing a broom to wipe the snow off the picnic tables in the park. We’d have thermoses of hot soup and cocoa. You could build a fire in the fire pit or charcoal grill and toast marshmallows.
• Who said picnics have to be outside? Once in a while, take a picnic to the living room. Spread a vinyl tablecloth over the carpet, and serve your favorite picnic fare on the floor. Maybe the teddy bears could join you for this picnic?
• be realistic about what you expect your young child to eat. His stomach is only about the size of his fist. Make his servings MUCH smaller! Half of one slice of bread is a serving for the 2 – 5 year old child, yet if you make him a sandwich, he’s getting four times that amount! For many fruits, a serving size is only 2 Tablespoons – not the whole banana. It’s better to get him to eat two grapes, then ask for more,than to overwhelm him with a whole bunch.
• Plan mealtime conversations. Instead of talking about what he is or isn’t eating, or yelling at him to clean up his plate, engage him in conversation about his day. Ask what he did, what he enjoyed, what he learned. There are whole websites devoted to encouraging pleasant mealtime conversations for the family. (See a few listed at the end of this article).
• If your child still does not eat his supper, he can still sit at the table with the family until they are all finished. He is part of the family, and mealtimes is an important time to build relationships. After dinner, he will NOT be allowed any snacks. It won’t hurt him to go to bed hungry once in a while. In fact, no one should be eating after dinner. The after-dinner snack is a terrible habit to get in to, and if you or your child are not waking up hungry for breakfast it could be because too much food was consumed too close to bedtime the night before. Breakfast is supposed to be ‘breaking the fast” – not just throwing another log on the hot coals of a slow-burning metabolism.

All Done, Mommy!

What a big, beautiful smile! Wouldn’t you love to see this at your dinner table every night? Why can’t mealtimes be the highlight of the day? With a little planning, patience, and ingenuity, it can be!

Check out the book, Table Talk, Creating Meaningful Conversation with Family and Friends, now available in my store.

Table Talk websites:
Table Topics for Kids
Table Talk, How Mealtime Chatter Strengthens the Family
Conversation Jar

Related Reading:
Feeding the Finicky Eater

Top: photo by Chris Denbow
Second:photo by Linda Aslund
Third:photo by Elizabeth Table4Five
Bottom:photo by Robert Lowe

My third week of raw menus is finally posted. I tested all of the recipes except the Banana Creme Pie – I’m going to make that tomorrow, but it sure sounds good. I don’t know if I’m getting better at this whole raw-foods diet idea, or if my taste buds are getting sharper now that I’m not drowning them in animal fats, but these menus were really delicious! Even my husband was pleasantly surprised. One of the meals – the Gingered Carrot Coleslaw, he asked me several times, “are you sure this is good for you?” Because anything that’s good for you can’t possibly taste so good! Even if we someday give up eating raw foods, we’ll keep that recipe.

Using the Menus

I tried something different this time, too. I wrote out recipes, not just the menu suggestions, and I tried to put things in chronological order – because some recipes require advance preparation. For instance, to make almond milk, you need to soak the almonds for 12 hours before you puree them in the blender. So if you want almond milk on your cereal for breakfast, you need to set the almonds to soak the night before.

Finally, at the end I typed up a list of ingredients, but not quantities. It’s hard to figure how much you’ll need, because I don’t know how many people are in your family, or how hungry they are. If I suggest mangoes for breakfast, a child might eat only half of one, but a husband might eat two or three whole ones. Either is fine! With the raw foods diet, it is important to eat enough raw foods to fill you. Most of us think of a 10-oz cereal bowl full of lettuce for a serving of salad. But when you’re eating raw, and the salad is your whole meal not just a side-dish, you should think more of eating the entire head of lettuce yourself!

What to Eat on a Raw Food Diet

There is, of course, a lot of variety on the web of “how” to eat a raw food diet. Some sources say as long as it’s raw, it’s okay. Some say you shouldn’t eat potatoes, carrots, or beets which are “hybrid” vegetables. I wonder why they didn’t put corn on the list – isn’t that the most genetically altered vegetable on the planet? Other sources say to avoid spices, which are all slightly toxic and harmful for the digestive system. Other sources say to be sure to add avocados and olive oil to your diet, so you do have some source of fat, yet of course, other sources claim that most of us who transition to raw eat too much fats even in our raw diet. So, unless you want to get several degrees in nutrition and fitness, you just have to make a few decisions for yourself based on the best information you have available.

I suggest using your body as a guideline. I love garlic. I’ve always cooked with garlic, and I’ve read a lot about the health benefits of garlic. But when I put two cloves of raw garlic in one of this week’s recipes, I had a bellyache for 24 hours. I may try cutting the raw garlic down to a single clove, but if it happens again, I think I’ll cut raw garlic from my diet.

The best guide for how much to eat is your body, unless you don’t trust your instincts yet. If you, like me, have a weight problem, then the cooked foods of the Standard American Diet (SAD) have overburdened your system. Your body may not know when it’s truly hungry or when it’s truly satisfied. While you transition to eating raw, you may want to consider the “recommended daily allowance” for raw foods.

Women should consume 6 pounds of fruit, 2.5 pounds of vegetables, and 1/4 pound of nuts and seeds daily.
Men should consume a bit more – 7.5 pounds of fruit, 3 pounds of vegetables, and 1/3 pound of nuts or seeds daily.

A “fruit” is any food that has seeds. So while apples, pears and peaches are fruits, so are tomatoes, cucumbers and avocados. Avoid eating hybrid fruits that do not have seeds, like seedless watermelon. I’m not sure why folks recommend that, but if you are trying to eat a raw “living” foods diet, it would stand to reason that seedless watermelon cannot be a living food.

I’m learning that in the raw foods diet, all vegetables are great, but concentrate mostly on dark green leafy vegetables as they have the highest nutrient count. There is a wide variety – chard, collards, spinach, kale, and more. Lettuce should be leaf lettuce, not iceberg, which doesn’t have much for nutrients at all.

Chew Your Food Thoroughly

Another tip I’ve learned – be sure to chew your food carefully! Many people tend to give their food a few good chews, then swallow and wash it down with a drink of beverage. This is very hard on the digestive system and may cause heart-burn and gas! If you chew each mouthful 30 – 40 times before you swallow, you may find that you can throw away the ant-acids entirely. And never wash your foods down with a beverage, as you dilute your stomach acids. If you are thirsty, drink a glass of filtered water at least 30 minutes before the meal, or 2 hours afterward.

Many weight-loss programs also advise careful and thorough chewing of food, but for a different reason. If we eat too fast, our bellies are full before our brains realize it. Eat slower, and your brain can tell you when you’ve had enough, so you don’t overeat. Then I read that if you want to train yourself to eat slower, switch to chopsticks for now! Before you master the trick of chopsticks (unless you already know how to use them) you’ll have established the habit of slower eating and careful chewing.

I hope you enjoy this week’s menus! As an added bonus, I simply LOVE how much quicker most of these meals are to prepare. There are NO cooking dishes to scrub. No messy, greasy clean-up, no long-lasting food odors that hang in the air for days. And I feel so much better! Happy eating!

For more information on Raw Foods, read:
Going Raw
Raw for Life
Creative Health Institute

Photo Credits:
Top:photo by Nadia Progoda-Lee
Middle: photo by Summer
Bottom: photo by Terren in Virginia

When was the last time you were stuck in traffic with your toddler or preschool child, when he just did not want to be in his car seat any more? Maybe you had a head-ache, or weren’t feeling great yourself. Maybe it was getting hot inside, and the air conditioner wasn’t working properly. Or maybe the opposite was true – it was the middle of winter and the windows were too foggy to see out of? Nearly all of us can recall at least one time when we were sorry the automobile was ever invented.

Traveling with children doesn’t have to be synonymous with horrendous, grueling, pull-out-your-hair bad days. With a little planning and foresight, young children can learn to amuse themselves and be great traveling companions. So, it’s time to put plan “B” into action. Think ahead and plan for those “worst possible moments” so you’ll have an alternative to swallowing half a bottle of pain relievers with the cold dregs of this morning’s left-over coffee.

A Special Travel Bag Will Amuse a Cranky Child

Use a child-sized backpack in a bright, pretty color. It’s important to get something the child likes and recognizes, something the child could carry. Don’t get an adult backpack, and fill it with so much stuff that you need a dolly to carry it out to the car. Children are funny, in that more isn’t necessarily better. A few great toys will amuse a child longer than a hundred cheap toys, which are generally just dumped onto the floor and trampled on.

Your travel bag is ONLY for in the car. Do not use it for rainy days, sick days, doctor visits, or even in church. If you want, you can create separate “play bags” for each of those situations. But the trick to a successful travel bag is that it stays fresh. The more you use it, the less it will work for you. If you are only going to be in the car for ten minutes, then don’t even bother to get out the travel bag. The travel bag is for that half-hour commute, or when you will be running errands all morning.

Cheap Toys are Better for in the Car, In Case Pieces Get Lost

I’m not a big fan of fast food, but those silly little toys that come in kids meals stay in our car. I never bring them into the house. It doesn’t matter if the toy gets lost on the trip, because I would probably just throw it out anyway. This sounds like I’m contradicting myself, as I said above that a few good toys were better than a hundred cheap ones! But I won’t keep a hundred freebies from the fast-food chains, as we just don’t eat there that often.

Get a toy that has any moving parts attached to the bigger part. Sometimes a smaller version of the tracking toy will work – the wooden beads on a curved metal bar that you push around. They aren’t that much fun compared to how much they cost, but if someone gave you one, you could keep it in the car. Another good toy for in the car are lacing cards. You can buy them or make them yourself. Cut out a variety of shapes from bright colored cardboard and punch holes around the edge. The child then “sews” it up with a shoe lace. This is great small-motor control practice, developing finger dexterity that is so necessary before learning to hold a pencil and write. When your child graduates beyond lacing cards, then get plain plastic canvas, strings of yarn and blunt-tipped darning needles. You’d be amazed at what your child can create!

Other toy suggestions include: Etch-a-sketch, Magna-Doodle, Colorforms (these stick to car windows, too!), magnetic puzzles, stringing beads. You can try crayons and coloring books, or get a stack of blank computer paper and a clip board. You can even pack your “junk” mail, and let your youngster tear it open, scribble it up, and rip it to shreds. We survived a lengthy traffic jam through Chicago one trip just ripping up junk mail. Sure, it made a mess, but it was harmless, and my granddaughter had so much fun doing it!

The car is about the only time I allow electronic toys. I don’t like such toys, I don’t buy them, and I don’t keep them in the house. But someone gave my granddaughter a “leap frog” learning toy. This has kept her entertained in her car seat or a half-hour or more, when she would otherwise have been bored. I don’t think she would play with it that long if she were in the house. The noises most electronic toys make can be quite annoying, but they aren’t as bad as listening to a screaming child.

Collect CDs of Children’s Songs

Pack a collection of children’s tapes or CDs, like Raffi, Sesame Street, or whatever your child enjoys.  When the toys are no longer working, pop in a tape and sing along with your child.

Pack an Extra Dose of Patience and Some Imagination

Your child really just wants your attention.  Most temper tantrums are attention-getters, even if the attention they get – in the form of discipline – is not the kind of attention they really wanted.  When your toddler or preschooler is getting fractious and the toys aren’t working, the snacks are gone, and you still can’t just return home, then it’s time to play a game.  This can be really challenging if you are also driving!  Be very, very careful!  But especially if someone else is in the car with you, engage your child in any sort of “look out the window and what do you see” game.  You can play “look for something red!”  or “count the cows”.  Or “find an airplane”.  Older preschoolers can play games involving the alphabet – finding certain letters of the alphabet on the billboards.  We used to play that you had to find an A, then a B, and so forth – the first one to get to Z wins!  I can remember always getting stuck on “Q” until I learned to read and could spot a liquor store at a hundred paces.  But if your preschooler is too young to find all the letters of the alphabet, just find the letters that are in his name.  Or if you’re doing the lesson plans, you can just look for the letter of the week.

Pack Nutritious Snacks and Skip the Drive-Through

Keep something available in your car that won’t spoil and isn’t pure sugar. Granola bars, G.O.R.P., raisins, pretzels, and animal crackers are good ideas. Keep a supply of snacks somewhere – in your house, your purse, your glove box, where ever. Then pop ONE into the child’s travel bag before the trip. You don’t want to stuff your child so that he won’t eat his next meal. You just want to take the edge off his hunger so you don’t feel compelled to go through a drive-through for some fast-food junk. You might want to keep bottles of plain water in the car, as well. Juice and soda are sticky when they spill. Water is the perfect travel beverage.

Always Carry Wipes or Paper Towels for Accidents

Keep a package of wet-ones (commercial or home-made) in the car at all times. You probably do already, but even if your child has outgrown the need for a diaper bag, he will never outgrow the ability to get dirty. I try to keep wet-ones, a plastic bag for soiled clothing, a change of clothes, and a sweater in the car. The trick is to put them back, once they get brought into the house!

At the end of any trip, have your child help you put everything back into the travel bag and zip it shut for the next trip. Don’t forget to restock it – if you used the change of clothes, or ate the snacks. Keep it ready, and keep it out of reach.

Safe, and happy traveling!

Photo Credits:
Top: photo by RBPhalen
Middle: photo by Dweekly
Bottom: photo by Neeta Lind

GORP is a great snack to keep on hand. I like to keep a jelly-jar of it in my car glove box for those emergency moments, when my stomach (or my granddaughter’s stomach) is growling, and I can’t get back home in time to fix a snack. Because the recipe is flexible, you can keep it around all year and never grow tired of it.

Begin with:
2 cups raisins
2 cups peanuts

Add some or all of the following:
Cheerios
pretzels
M&Ms
dried cranberries
dried apples
dried peaches
dried pineapple
dates
almonds
cashews
sesame seeds (raw, unsalted)
banana chips
dried zucchini chips
chocolate chips (will be messy in the car)

Chop anything that is too big and poses a choking hazard. Mix, and store in an airtight container.

Enjoy! It beats stopping for French Fries and a shake. It’s lower in fat, higher in nutrients, and may save you money in the long run.

As I reported earlier in Raw for Life, I won the Dr. Ann Wigmore Raw and Living Foods Home Study Program. I’ve had the course for a couple of months now, and I’m still not even half way through all the information! I’m on information-overload, I think. But the small steps I’ve taken have made a BIG difference! I’ve dropped a couple of pounds. I’m sleeping better at night. And I’ve cut some of my medications in half. I intend to cut out the cholesterol-lowering medication entirely after my next doctor visit. Now that I’m not eating meat or dairy products, I expect I’ll be able to control my cholesterol without medication.

Preschoolers Love Finger Foods

My finicky eater loves raw foods! Young children generally prefer finger foods over anything cooked, and they prefer their food separated. While many kids will eat apples or raisins or celery, they will not eat an apple-raisin-celery salad with mayonnaise. I’ve served raw apple slices with raw sunflower seed butter, which is very popular. I tried a raw carrot soup that neither of us liked much. I froze the left-over soup until I can find a way to make it more tasty. The literature I’ve read on raw foods allows sun-dried foods, dehydrated foods if dehydrated at less than 108 degrees, and frozen foods. Of course, fresh is always best.

Muesli – or Raw Oatmeal – Can Be Delicious

I learned how to make muesli – another food item my granddaughter loves. It’s raw oatmeal -which sounds faintly disgusting – but you soak it for a while to soften it, then serve it with fruits and nuts. We like it with banana or blueberries and a dollop of pure maple syrup. Yum-yum! Best of all, besides all that wonderful natural oatbran for its cholesterol-lowering ability, it’s quick and easy to prepare, and no yucky pot to wash. I think I like that part about the best. When you serve raw foods, there are no cooking dishes!

I haven’t learned to like “energy soup” yet. That’s simply a garden salad pureed smooth and you drink it. Lots of good reasons why energy soup is good for you. I just wish it tasted better! I like salad. I guess I’m just not a “soup” person.

Raw Foods Menus Are Posted

Anyway, I’m taking the long way around announcing that I’ve posted Week Two of the raw foods menu. I’m new to raw foods, so I’m not certain that my menus are complete or balanced. This is me, learning about raw foods, and what I’m going to feed my family next week. On Sundays it is our tradition to not eat breakfast before we go to Mass. Then we have a big brunch, so aren’t hungry for lunch. We have a mid-day snack, and then supper at the normal time. This coming Sunday, I’ll be making a raw Peach Pie! I can hardly wait! My mouth is watering already. Peach Pie is one of my favorites, but I don’t like “peach pie filling” that comes in a can. Too gooey. This pie has ripe, raw, sliced peaches with an almond cream topping and a ground almond crust. Maybe I’ll have to make the pie early and sample it, before I serve it to my family? It’s a good thing raw fruits are good for you. I’m really enjoying them a lot, and still managing to lose a few pounds.

Transition to Raw Foods Gradually

If you chose to try raw foods with your family, you may want to check out Creative Health Institute – from where I got the home study course. One thing I like about this “diet” is that you don’t have to commit to it 100 percent. There is such a thing as being “fifty percent” raw, or “eighty percent” raw. With most diets, if you don’t follow them exactly, then there is a sense of failure and guilt. But with raw foods, every little bit that you do only improves your overall health. There is no failure. Only success. Isn’t that the way we want our children to grow up? Eating good, nutritious foods that nourish the body as well as the soul?

For further reading, check out:
Raw for Life
Feeding the Finicky Eater
We Like it Raw
Transition Kids to Raw

Photo Credits:
Top: Photo by Tiffany Washko
Middle: photo by Geoff Peters
Bottom:photo by Bruce Tuten

Years ago when my husband and I were young, we struggled to make ends meet. We were both full-time students, with one infant and another on the way. For about a year we lived in subsidized housing. We used food stamps, medical assistance, and stood in lines to receive government commodities distributions. I was grateful, but I sort of hated it, too. I mean, my parents had struggled when they were newly weds, but that was long before I came along. I was fourth out of five, and grew up in a lovely parsonage, and was used to a higher standard of living. My husband was the only son of a first generation Polish Catholic family. He’d grown up on a dairy farm, and had learned to be independent, self-sufficient, and proud. We did not want to be on welfare. But the alternative – drop out of school and try to find a decent job – just didn’t seem to make sense in the long run. And so we accepted the help. We both graduated, and have been paying taxes ever since.

I remember how it felt to use food stamps. Back then we got colored bits of paper that looked like Monopoly money, and everyone who stood in line in the grocery store knew that we were buying our groceries with their tax dollars. I felt like they were checking out the items I had chosen, wondering if I were spending their money on pop and candy. I felt like I had no business driving a decent car – that we should sell the Firebird and buy a wreck, even though my husband’s car was paid for in full, ran well, and cost us no repair bills. Accepting Federal Aid made me feel stupid. All except for WIC.

WIC is Not a Welfare Program

W.I.C. stands for Women, Infants, and Children. It is NOT a welfare program. It receives its funds from the Department of Agriculture, not the Department of Human Services! I don’t know why that makes a difference, but it does. I was always treated with respect as I went to the required monthly meetings to get my dose of nutritional education along with the coupons that would supply me with free milk, eggs, juice, and iron-fortified cereals.

Just last week I dragged my daughter in to the W.I.C. office to get her signed up. She dreaded the trip, perhaps because she’s had such dreadful experiences with the Department of Human Services. We waited less than five minutes in a cheery waiting room filled with other young moms and their babies. We met with a social worker who took her information, checked my granddaughter’s weight, height, and blood iron-level with calm patience, even when the 2 yr old was acting particularly two-ish. Then we met with a nutritionist who gave her some advice on meals and menu-planning. We left less than an hour after we arrived, and walked out with a cute, generic looking “credit card” that will make all her purchases discretely.

We Can All Benefit From Nutritional Education

I used to feel a little superior – like I didn’t need the nutritional part of the W.I.C. program. I graduated suma cum laude from college! But being smart doesn’t necessarily make you a smart shopper. And even after years of meal planning and preparing, I can still learn something new! The W.I.C. nutritionist told my daughter and me that you should never serve your bologna raw. I have never heard of cooking bologna, have you? She claimed that bologna and hot dogs are basically the same, and that you would never give your child a hot dog raw. Bologna is moist, and exposed to other raw meats on the deli slicer, and is a perfect environment for food-born contaminants like salmonella. She said, “Always cook your sandwich meats, especially when you are serving them to a young child.”

Studies Show That WIC Works

W.I.C. works. It provides supplemental nutritious foods for women who are pregnant, nursing, or postpartum and not nursing. It also provides such foods for infants, toddlers, and preschoolers up to age five, who may be at nutritional risk. Studies have shown that spending the money on nutritional programs like W.I.C. is cheaper in the long run, as medical care expenses drop. Women on W.I.C. have healthier babies. Children on W.I.C. have larger vocabularies and better memories. Infants on W.I.C. have higher birth weights, lower mortality rates, and are more likely to get all their vaccinations and receive routine medical care.

Currently, I believe the income guidelines for W.I.C. is $39,000 a year for a family of four. If you fall below that, you may be eligible to receive W.I.C. You can contact your state agency to find out where to apply.

In some states, W.I.C. also provides vouchers to take to the farmer’s markets in the summer! Fresh, locally grown, organic vegetables! I feel kind of proud. My tax dollars are doing something good, after all.

For further reading, check out:
Feeding the Finicky Eater
Raw for Life
Going Raw

Photo credits:
Top photo: Leonid Mamchenkov
Middle photo: Andrew Eick
Bottom photo: ultrakickgirl