Eat Healthy So You'll Grow Healthy

Peacekeeping Note: I don't mean to offend any parents out there. This is strictly to encourage and educate.

I am reading a book right now called the Baby Book Bible, and it's quoting some really sad statistics of rising number of kids who are overweight and eating junk food.

As a Filipino, I have noticed that our culture has a penchant for adding a lot of salt via actual salt or patis (fish sauce), and frying our dishes in a lot of oil, and eat a LOT of pork. We usually top all of that with a lot of rice. And veggies in our diet are more likely to be in dishes that have been boiled and have therefore stripped the veggies of most of it's nutrients.

For my non Filipino friends, they have their own dietary problems, usually concerning the same thing: lots of fried, lots of carbs, and lack of veggies and fruits in their diet. It's a sobering reality in my life right now that a lot of people I know have diabetes, are overweight, have kidney problems, etc. etc.

I went to a Christmas party last season, and Mina and I wandered to the "kids" area. All the kids were 11 and under, some just 2 and 3 years old. They were all watching TV and had been for hours. Either that or playing video games. I've given my opinion on TV watching but I understand it's the holidays. Even if the parent's rule were no TV, or limited TV, the rules may have been relaxed for the vacation.

There was a 2/3 year old there who had her own bag of chips. Mina loves crackers and corn chips, and when she saw the girl's bag, she wanted some. I let her have two. Mina wandered away, and I followed her only to follow her back again some time later. The little girl now had another bag of chips, this time a flaming hot cheetos. This, I wouldn't let Mina taste.

Chips as snacks. Fried foods as snacks. This is the normal snack for a toddler in many household.

I don't think it's too much to for parents to limit these things EVEN during the holidays. Is it?

Parents need to be simply more dilligent in watching what their kids eat. What you eat, and what they eat now, is what they'll be eating the rest of their lives. Learn recipes to make veggies more palatable for you and then introduce them to your kids before 18 mos. old. Insist they finish their veggies, and make it delicious, and show them that you have fun eating it, so they will too.

Start with something easy that all kids will love, like carrots and corn, and broccoli. Broccoli is easy to make delicious. Just steam, put a pat of butter on top and sprinkle with cheese. Mina loves it!

Then start branching out to zucchini, squash, bell peppers, etc. Remember, it takes at least 8 times of trying to feed your child a food before you can really conclude they don't like it. That's how long they make take to get used to it. Other experts say 16 times. Just keep trying and don't give up.

For afternoon snacks? What's more nutritious and delicious than a bunch of cut up apples, pears, strawberries, or wedges of oranges? To make it even more appetizing, whip it into a yogurt smoothie using a blender and serve it as dessert. They'll get the sweet but with loaded nutrients than just a slice of chocolate cake.

As a parent, it is up to you make sure you child grow up happy and healthy. One of the best ways to do that is to give them a foundation of healthy eating. It will "school" their tongue to always crave fruits and veggies instead of friend snacks, junk foods and processed foods, if you start them as young as possible.

If you child is all grown up, it is not too late. It is never too late. Let's all make 2009 the year we cut down on the junk foods and pile up on fruits and veggies!

More Mina News

Mina, you Dad has gone away for a few months and he'll be back. In the meantime, he is entrusting me your complete well-being; your healthy, your eating habits, your social and emotional happiness. I am honored to step in when he can't for now.

I don't know if you're aware of this, but your Dad simply ADORES you. Everyone does, but it's pretty special coming from your Dad, because your Dad is pretty special. You've got his heart cupped firmly in the cusp of your hand.

What makes your Dad so special?

He is funny, patient, generous, considerate, loving, loves being with his family, loves us above all, takes care of us, is very unique...Trust me on this little one, there is no one like your father out there. He defies category, and can't be boxed down.

As for you little one, you are currently 23 lbs. and 32 inches. This places you in the 59th and 93rd percentile for kids your age!

You can do somersaults.

You can say three-word phrases like "I like it".

You've done the potty a few times but we're not rushing you, and you haven't mastered it.

YOu love dancing.

YOu love watching videos of you!

YOu like singing; like, not love but that's good enough for me

Your love affair with Elmo seems over.

YOu're very affectionate. I am soaking it all up because I know you won't be like this forever.

This is officially my favorite age of yours! :)

The Worry Never Ends With a Child

I don't know why I ever worried about Mina being fat before. Babies are supposed to be fat! If a mom isn't worrying about her baby being skinny, she worries that her child is on its way to experience the cruelest teasing from her or his classmate about their overweightness by having the tiniest bit of extra fat.

I'm serious. I just watched a show on FitTv.com where this obese mom watered down her baby daughter's milk because she doesn't want her daughter to be overweight. I think the baby was less than a year old.

So I never watered down Mina's milk, but I worried she was on the path to weight problems. See, I hadn't watched my diet when I was pregnant with her as close as I would have liked. I gained 40 lbs. To me, that was a heck of a lot. And I ate fried foods. I couldn't help it, I was craving fried chicken strips from Chili's all the time! So Mina came out bigger than any baby in my family had come out. 8 lbs. 3 oz. Nice and healthy right? I couldn't be happy, I had to worry.

Now Mina's leaning towards being a skinny string bean at 1 year old. Boy, my breastmilk must have packed a punch. We can't seem to feed her anything that will put some fat back in her bones. She's 21 lbs. 6 oz at her 1 year check up. Based on projections, she should have tripled her baby weight. She's missing an extra 3 lbs.

And still I worry, though she's fine on the charts of normalcy. I think it's a parent's perogative. If she were to gain weight and keep gaining, I would probably swing to the other side of the pendulum again.

She has a runny nose now too. I'm sure if I tried hard enough, I could come up with a terrible thing to worry about that might be causing this runny nose.