Little Footprints

Doctors Warn About Toddlers' Diets

2006-07-17T17:25:00.000-07:00

By JAMIE STENGLE, Associated Press Writer

DALLAS--As toddlers begin eating "grown-up" food, they may also develop grown-up eating habits--like too much junk food and too few vegetables, warn doctors who want parents to change their ways.

Within the childhood obesity outbreak is an increasing number of overweight 2-year-olds, according to pediatrics experts. In an effort to address the problem, the American Heart Association is offering this advice to parents: Children 2 and older should eat mostly fruits and vegetables, whole grains, low-fat and non-fat dairy products, beans, fish and lean meat.

...He said that 30 to 50 years ago, foods that were nutritional were considered "kids' foods." Now, he said, kids' foods are viewed as sweets, snacks or so-called comfort foods.

The heart association notes that by the time kids are 19 to 24 months, french fries are the most commonly eaten vegetable. Experts say that as jars of baby food packed with fruits and vegetables give way to solid foods, nutritious food is often bypassed for whatever is easiest.

The heart association guidelines urge parents not to give up if their kids at first reject healthy food. Experts say it can take up to 10 tries for a child to accept a new food.

Just for Fun: About Socialization

2006-07-17T17:23:00.000-07:00

Taken from Sonlight newsletter

A little reversal on the standard "Socialization Question" scenario that we all run into:

Two women meet at a playground, where their children are swinging and playing ball. The women are sitting on a bench watching. Eventually, they begin to talk.

HOMESCHOOL MOM: Hi. My name is Maggie. My kids are the three in red shirts - it helps me keep track of them.

OTHER MOTHER: (Smiles) I'm Terri. Mine are in the pink and yellow shirts. Do you come here a lot?

HOMESCHOOL MOM: Usually two or three times a week, after we go to the library.

OTHER MOTHER: Wow! Where do you find the time?

HOMESCHOOL MOM: We home school, so we do it during the day most of the time.

OTHER MOTHER: Some of my neighbours home school, but I send my kids to public school.

HOMESCHOOL MOM: How do you do it?

OTHER MOTHER: It's not easy. I go to all the PTA meetings and work with the kids every day after school and stay real involved.

HOMESCHOOL MOM: But what about socialization? Aren't you worried about them being cooped up all day with kids their own ages, never getting the opportunity for natural relationships?

OTHER MOTHER: Well, yes. But I work hard to balance that. They have some friends who're home schooled, and we visit their grandparents almost every month.

HOMESCHOOL MOM: Sounds like you're a very dedicated mom. But don't you worry about all the opportunities they're missing? I mean they're so isolated from real life - how will they know what the world is like - what people do to make a living - how to get along with all different kinds of people?

OTHER MOTHER: Oh, we discussed that at PTA, and we started a fund to bring real people into the classrooms. Last month, we had a policeman and a doctor come in to talk to every class. And next month, we're having a woman from Japan and a man from Kenya come to speak.

HOMESCHOOL MOM: Oh, we met a man from Japan in the grocery store the other week, and he got to talking about his childhood in Tokyo. My kids were absolutely fascinated. We invited him to dinner and got to meet his wife and their three children.

OTHER MOTHER: That's nice. Hmm. Maybe we should plan some Japanese food for the lunchroom on Multicultural Day.

HOMESCHOOL MOM: Maybe your Japanese guest could eat with the children.

OTHER MOTHER: Oh, no. She's on a very tight schedule. She has two other schools to visit that day. It's a system-wide thing we're doing.

HOMESCHOOL MOM: Oh, I'm sorry. Well, maybe you'll meet someone interesting in the grocery store sometime and you'll end up having them over for dinner.

OTHER MOTHER: I don't think so. I never talk to people in the store - certainly not people who might not even speak my language. What if that Japanese man hadn't spoken English?

HOMESCHOOL MOM: To tell you the truth, I never had time to think about it. Before I even saw him, my six-year-old had asked him what he was going to do with all the oranges he was buying.

OTHER MOTHER: Your child talks to strangers?

HOMESCHOOL MOM: I was right there with him. He knows that as long as he's with me, he can talk to anyone he wishes.

OTHER MOTHER: But you're developing dangerous habits in him. My children never talk to strangers.

HOMESCHOOL MOM: Not even when they're with you?

OTHER MOTHER: They're never with me, except at home after school. So you see why it's so important for them to understand that talking to strangers is a big no-no.

HOMESCHOOL MOM: Yes, I do. But if they were with you, they could get to meet interesting people and still be safe. They'd get a taste of the real world, in real settings. They'd also get a real feel for how to tell when a situation is dangerous or suspicious.

OTHER MOTHER: They'll get that in the third and fifth grades in their health courses.

HOMESCHOOL MOM: Well, I can tell you're a very caring mom. Let me give you my number--if you ever want to talk, give me call. It was good to meet you.

Awakening Your Toddler's Love of Learning

2006-07-16T09:43:00.000-07:00

By Jan Katzen-Luchenta, Web reprint

Toddlers are an active, inquisitive lot--so much so that this age can be a difficult one for both parents and toddlers. Toddlers' communication and fine motor skills are limited, yet their strong desire for independence can frustrate the most devoted parents. From the parents' point of view, a toddler is a "big kid" one minute and an infant the next.

How do we understand each other? Let's take a stroll down the road less toddled and see.

Just think what it would be like if suddenly your two-year-old could speak clearly within the context of "articulate assertive communication." What would be the ten most common requests your toddler might make to you?

1. Please don't grab things out of my hands or touch my activities without asking, "May I?" You'll be respecting me and giving me a choice, and I'll probably say "yes."
2. Slow ... down ... your ... speech. Crisply enunciate beginning, middle, and ending sounds in all words. You will make it easier for me to understand what you're saying and help me to communicate my thoughts and feelings earlier.
3. If I'm in deep concentration, please wait until I take a break before you wipe my nose. Better yet, show me how to wipe my own nose (and keep tissues on hand within my reach).
4. Please look into my eyes when I'm talking to you or you are talking to me. Bend down if you must. If you wear glasses, take them off. This will increase my visibility into your eyes and heart. A fringe benefit is that you will have my undivided attention, which will promote good concentration skills throughout my life.
5. Talk lovingly to me even when I've made a mistake. Tenderness will attract my attention and compliance much quicker than raising your voice. Remember, your emotional energy is contagious.
6. Please don't say anything if I get food all over my face and in my lap as I feed myself. I'll clean it up if you show me how. I am perfecting a new skill. God didn't just graft wings together to make a butterfly; allow me to be a gooey, messy caterpillar for a while.
7. I want and need to be with you and feel like I'm a contributing member of the household. Stop getting me toys that have no purpose. Set up tables, chairs and work areas that are my size. Let me sand wood with Dad or chop bananas (use a butter knife) with Mom.
8. Please don't interrupt me when I'm talking, or speak for me. I might become shy or stutter.
9. Pay attention to my nutritional needs. This might mean you'll have to get out of bed twenty minutes earlier to prepare a balanced breakfast. I'll gladly get up with you if you let me help and we can eat breakfast together.
10. Make sure my living environment is designed for my complete sensorial exploration. I see with my fingers and sometimes even my mouth. Inhibiting that deep craving within me would be like having someone put a blindfold over your eyes while you are trying to enjoy a beautiful sunset.

If we look into our own eyes, feelings, needs, and hearts, we gain a simple understanding of the toddler's seemingly unexplainable behavior and language, even when there are no words.

(Jesus:) This is all very good advice.--And remember, the best way to know the specifics of your toddler's heart, mind, feelings and thoughts is to ask Me. I know how his little mind ticks, what makes him happy, and why he does all those funny--and sometimes frustrating--things. (End of message.)

(Kidland 037)

The Three Best Toys

2006-06-09T16:56:00.000-07:00

Turn out to be the classics: blocks, balls, and stacking cups, according to an article in "American Baby" by Moira Moderelli. Nice reminder—kids don't NEED tons of fancy, flashy toys, and those very things might just rob them of the wonderful abilities to hone their creativity, imagination, and the art of concentration. I can agree with that article... Justin's favorite toys are two things: A marble track (put it together, let the marbles go down the tracks), and a wooden train set (he'll link the trains together and make the track himself now.

Pull quote:

"While baby's playing with blocks, balls, and stacking cups, he's getting a sneak peek at math and science."

Book Excerpt 01: "How to Raise a Healthy Child...

2006-06-02T20:40:00.001-07:00

...In Spite of Your Doctor."
By Robert S. Mendelsohn.
tag line: One of America's leading pediatricians puts parents back in control of their children's health.

(Blogger's note: This book recommended by my older sister years ago. Now that I have two small children I finally got my own copy! I highly recommend it—which is why I'm taking the trouble to share some book excerpts—once you're done reading you'll realize how simple and common sense much of the author's writing is. But it does seem to take a veteran pediatrician of 30 years to reassure us that parental common sense does in many if not most cases, provide for the best remedies for our children when they are sick.)

Introduction

In my two previous books, Confessions of a Medical Heretic and Male Practice: How Doctors Manipulate Women, I sought to caution my readers about the hazards of blind faith in the American medical profession. It was not my purpose then, nor is it now, to discourage my readers from seeking needed medical attention. Despite the shortcomings of their education and training, doctors do save lives, and they do make sick people well. They are at their best when challenged by medical emergencies and at their worst when they feel compelled—as they were taught to do—to treat people who aren't really sick. ...

When doctors are compelled to question their own behavior, to reconsider objectively many of the things that they have been taught, and to cast an eye on prevention rather than intervention, their patients inevitably enjoy beneficial results.

During the last few years many of medicine's most cherished procedures have come into disrepute because they could not withstand the public scrutiny to which they were being subjected. For example:

- The American Academy of Pediatrics has advised against routine administration of chest x-rays when children are admitted to hospitals, a tacit acknowledgement of the potential cumulative hazards of radiology.

- The Acadaemy has also reversed its position on routine use of the tuberculin test, except in areas of high incidence of the disease. Hopefully, this may be the first step toward elimination of all dangerous and unnecessary screening tests and immunizations that benefit the doctors who administer them more than their patients.

- Obstetrical procedures are being questioned and modified, and there is a slow but gradual movement toward natural childbirth and even home birth.

[Note: many examples skipped in the interest of brevity.]

...Because pediatrics is my specialty, which I have practiced and taught for more than a quarter-century, I feel competent to do more than point out its flaws. This book will offer appropriate advice to parents who want to avoid the risk and expense of needless intervention while providing the care that will assure the health of their children.

Without attempting to be encyclopedic. I will offer specific advice on the medical problems that your child is likely to encounter from the moment of conception to the day he leaves the nest. You will learn how to tell when he is seriously ill, how you can deal with problems that don't require medical attention, how to determine when you should call your doctor, and how to assure that the treatems prescribed for your children are appropriate and safe.

With this basic information all parents can assume a larger role in maintaining the health of their children. However, this does not mean that you should assume the doctor's role, doing badly those things that a good doctor can do well. Despite the deficiencies of medical schools, doctors do learn technical skills that parents should not try to perform. This book will teach you what you need to know to care for most of the ills that may afflict your child, but also how to know when prudence demands that you employ a doctor's skills.

If you read the chapters that follow carefully, they will resolve most of your doubts and fears about the health of your child and help you prepare him or her for a long, healthy, and happy life!

Rober S. Mendelsohn, M.D.
Evanston, Illinois

(Note: This and all subsequent book excerpts on this blog are provided for non-commercial educational purposes only and remain the property of the original copyright holder.)

You can also find and purchase this book on Amazon.com, if you want to read the entire book for yourself.

Montessori Quotes

2006-05-27T00:40:00.000-07:00

"A child is an eager observer and is particularly attracted by the actions of the adults and wants to imitate them. In this regard an adult can have a kind of mission. He can be an inspiration for the child's actions, a kind of open book wherein a child can learn how to direct his own movements. But an adult, if he is to afford proper guidance, must always be calm and act slowly so that the child who is watching him can clearly see his actions in all their particulars."
- The Secret of Childhood :: Fides Publishers, 1966 :: p. 93

"But in those countries where the toy making industry is less advanced, you will find children with quite different tastes. They are also calmer, more sensible and happy. Their one idea is to take part in the activities going on about them. They are more like ordinary folk, using and handling the same things as the grown-ups."
- The Absorbent Mind :: Clio Press Limited, 1994 :: p. 154

"There are many who hold, as I do, that the most important part of life is not the age of university studies, but the first one, the period from birth to the age of six. For that is the time when a man's intelligence itself, his greatest implement, is being formed. But not only his intelligence; the full totality of his psychic powers."
- The Absorbent Mind :: Dell Publishing, 1984 :: p. 33

"A teacher said a word rapidly in passing, and on return saw it had been written with moveable letters. For these mites of four, once was enough, though a child of seven requires much repetition before he grasps the word correctly. All this was due to that special period of sensitivity; the mind was like soft wax, susceptible at this age to impressions which could not be taken in at a later stage, when this special malleability would have disappeared."
- Education for a New World :: Clio Montessori Series,1996 :: p. 5

"A child learns to adjust himself and make acquisitions in his sensitive periods. These are like a beam that lights interiorly or a battery that furnishes energy. It is this sensibility which enables a child to come into contact with the external world in a particularly intense manner. At such a time everything is easy; all is life and enthusiasm. Every effort marks an increase in power. Only when the goal has been obtained does fatigue and the weight of indifference come on."
- The Secret of Childhood :: Fides Publishers, 1966 :: p. 40

"The concept of an education centered upon the care of the living being alters all previous ideas. Resting no longer on a curriculum, or a timetable, education must conform to the facts of human life."
- The Absorbent Mind :: Clio Press Limited, 1994 :: p. 12

Originally found here.

Inspirational unschooling/montessori photos

2006-05-26T23:55:00.000-07:00

Click here to see.