Today’s blog was written by Jensen Wheeler Wolfe, a certified yoga teacher in Manhattan.  She is the creator and owner of The Little Yoga Mat.

As our babies grow and discover the world we live in, sometimes what accompanies this indoctrination is fear, stress and a feeling of over-stimulation. City children, in particular, are exposed to thousands of images and sounds daily, not to mention technology. With this barrage of stimuli it’s easy to overload. What can help them is yoga.

Yoga for small children is becoming a staple in preschools around the country. Schools find that the practice helps kids cope and find balance. Children learn to take time to breathe, focus and strengthen their bodies. Kids classes are also playful and stir the imagination.

As children become familiar with yoga poses they can expand on this foundation and carry their practice into adulthood so it’s beneficial to start young. Research is proving that boys and girls who practice yoga are more self-confident and better able to focus in school.

Yoga can also help grown-ups bond emotionally with their children creating the foundation for lifelong healthy relationships. By practicing yoga with your baby or toddler a few times a week, your child will increase flexibility, coordination, and concentration.

What many people don’t know is that yoga can also aid digestion because the movements promote healthy circulation and deep relaxation. This means better quality sleep for your little one.

For a few moves to get started with your baby or toddler visit The Little Yoga Mat’s “why yoga” page.

The Little Yoga Mat is an eco-friendly, mini yoga mat for toddlers and babies and is sold at the YinOva Center!

I just love me some groceries…

“We are proud to have film maker and activist Penelope Jagesser Chaffer joining us on the blog today.”  – Jill

I’m so glad to be writing this post.  It’s probably the number one question I get asked: “How can you feed a family frugally if you are living an organic, non-toxic life?”  My lovely friends at Healthy Child recently ran this great post on how to live a non-toxic life without spending a fortune, so I know it’s something that we are all trying to work out.  I’ve conjured up some very creative ideas in my insistence that my family not be exposed to environmental toxins yet still lead a great life in a fabulous city.  If you have any tips to add, have any questions or just have a comment, please don’t hesitate to leave me a note below.  Enjoy! x

GROCERIES

These tips will work everywhere from the farmer’s market to a big chain like Whole Foods.

Helpful Tips:

Join an online savings club like livingsocial or Groupon.

Cut coupons from your regular grocery store.

Subscribe to your local organic store, or join their food club.

Best yet, join your local food co-op.  They require you to work in the store (usually only for an hour a month) and for that you get hugely discounted organic, fair trade food.  This could well be the place for the cheapest, yet best food anywhere.

Visit your local farmer’s market.

Check out the specials and base your week’s menu planning around these deals.  Suffice to say menu planning is critical if you are looking to rein in the costs.

Buy organic in bulk.  So much cheaper than buying branded, packaged goods. From rice to beans to nuts and dried fruit, you will not believe your eyes. One pound of organic rolled oats will cost less than $2.  Holy smorgasbord!

Buy whole organic whole grains, fruit, vegetables, condiments etc and make meals from scratch. Processed food is more expensive so embrace your inner domestic goddess and get jiggy in that kitchen!

Have a great repertoire of nutritious, delicious recipes on hand.  Unless you are very experienced in the kitchen, the family meal is not the time to play Iron Chef.  One of my favorite new books is Laurie David’s “Family Dinner”.  This just rocks the house down.

Make extras and freeze.  My freezer is my number 2 culinary weapon in my fight against expensive meals, right after my stove.

Rock a rolling pin and a hammer.  It might sound mad, but I can stretch a pack of organic chicken legs by taking a hammer and a big knife and reducing each leg to 4 or 5 pieces.  That way one leg can feed several kids.  Organic chicken breasts and thighs get walloped by the rolling pin (place beneath some wax paper else flying chicken meat will end up your nose) which instantly enlarges them to 3 times their previous size.  One piece can often be used in the recipe and the rest frozen. Priceless. I also get to work out my arms and any residual annoyance on those chicken breasts so I get peace of mind too!

I don’t grow my own produce but that’s because I’m navigating small windowsills in a Brooklyn apartment.  If you have access to a patch of land, go get those fingers dirty.  (Make sure to get your local city government to let you know if lead is an issue for soil in your area.)

Shop online.  Amazon and other online retailers often have great deals and I pay a little each year for free two-day delivery, which works out much cheaper than the cost of a subway ticket or parking space.

I always get my children to help prepare a meal.  Need to get those husks off your (organic) corn? Weighing beans on a scale?  There’s so much your child can actually do in the kitchen!  Stirring a pot (under your keen supervision) is amazingly empowering for any child-the proximity to the stove and doing something grown up impresses even the most nonchalant of kids.

Things to AVOID:

Buying any thing tinned.  The vast majority of tins sold around the world are lined with BPA (Eden Foods and Wild Planet have a selection BPA free cans.) NEVER BUY TINNED TOMATOES! They are acidic so they leach even more BPA than regular goods.  If you must buy processed tomatoes, you need to get them in a jar or carton (although there’s no guarantee that the tomatoes used here haven’t come from a tin in the first place.)  I buy my ‘matos organic fresh and make my tomato-based sauces and soups from scratch.

Buying anything processed that’s within a day of its sell-by date or buying fresh produce about to thrown out.  Those 12 peaches for a $1 might look like a great value until they spend an afternoon in a hot car/bus/subway train going home and start supporting the league of mold by the next day.

Buying conventional corn/soy/pineapple ANYTHING.  The vast majority (as in over 90% of these crops in the US are genetically modified.)  Don’t be fooled.

Buying conventional red meat or dairy.  Full of all sorts of nasties – this is a great area to use your coupons.

Buying conventional tomatoes or any of the dirty dozen mostly sprayed produce.  According to the book “Tomatoland”, (and you must read it) tomatoes are sprayed with over 100 pesticides and the tomato industry in Florida is linked to human slavery.  I kid you not.  Note that tomatoes do not turn up on the Dirty Dozen, so use this tool with care.

Lastly, avoid going shopping hungry.  Always have a pack of rice cakes or some other healthy snack in your bag.  If you are going with children, which I suggest you do (children should know where their food comes from), make sure you feed them before and have water and a healthy snack on hand.

Penelope:

Penelope Jagessar Chaffer is a BAFTA-nominated, award winning documentary filmmaker behind Toxic Baby™, a writer and a children’s environmental health advocate.  She is a Healthy Child Parent Ambassador and 2010 Mom on a Mission winner.   The scrumptious baby in the pictures is Oceana, Penelope’s beautiful baby girl.

It’s that time of year again!

Our children are heading back to school. We Moms often have some mixed feelings around this. Most of our YinOva Moms tell me they feel a bit wistful that summer is over whilst at the same time breathing a giant sigh of relief as everyone gets back into routine. At this time of year patients usually tell me that they want to get off on the right foot and ask advice about putting some healthy habits in place. So here’s some back to school advice gleaned from our YinOva Moms (both staff and patients) as we wish you all a healthy transition into fall.

Get a healthy start

We’re all familiar with the morning rush but making time for a proper breakfast is an essential start to the day. It’ll help your children arrive at school alert and able to concentrate.

Unfortunately many quick and easy breakfasts are full of sugar and empty calories. As a general rule it’s best for children to start the day with some protein such as eggs, nut butter, milk or yogurt and some high fiber carbohydrates such as grains, wholegrain tortillas, whole wheat bread or healthy cereals. You can round this our with some fruit – bananas go particularly well with nut butter and whole wheat bread for example.

Check out this blog from our archive which has plenty of healthy and kid-friendly breakfast ideas.

Nutritious Packed Lunches

We’ve talked about packed lunches before on the YinOva Blog so for some good ideas and helpful advice check out this blog from our archive.

If you’re having trouble planning your child’s lunches ask them for some input. Sit down with your kids and talk to them about which foods are healthy and which foods won’t help their body as much. Get their agreement about which foods to eat regularly, which to only eat occasionally and which to avoid altogether. Then make a list of things they want to eat. Help them understand balance by getting them to pick proteins they like as well as grains and fruit and vegetables and get their ideas about how to combine these.

As important as what you put in a healthy lunchbox is what you leave out, so give the following a miss:-

• High fructose corn syrup
• Fruit juice from concentrate
• Artificial sweeteners
• Partially-hydrogenated oils
• Trans-fats
• Nitrites
• White or bleached flour products

Some ideas from our own YinOva acupuncturists include:-

• Leftover grains (eg Brown Rice) with leftover steamed veggies and low sodium tomato sauce
• Hummus or other bean dip with whole grain crackers and veggies to dip into it and a banana for desert.
• Greek yogurt with veggie chips to dip into it and a small bag of trail mix.
• A whole grain, rice, or corn pita, no nitrate lunch meat, lettuce, sliced tomato and hummus.
• Wholewheat pasta salad with tuna and veggies and some veganaise and apple sauce on the side.
• A whole grain, rice, or corn tortilla with mashed avocado, beans and rice.
• Rice crackers with nut butter and a bag of cut veggies and some seedless grapes.

We’d love to hear your own ideas for packed lunches so please share in the comments.

Exercise

When I was young we did PE every day but these days many schools have had to cut their PE programs and academic pressure means that children get less exercise than they used to. Children’s lives have also become more sedentary with TV and computer games replacing outdoor play. Staying fit is important for mental health and concentration as well as physical health and well being. Make sure your kids get some kind of exercise everyday, either by encouraging them to participate in organized sports or by letting them ride their bikes or run around in the park.

Herbs and Supplements

Being in a stuffy classroom with lots of other kids means that our children are particularly susceptible to colds and flu. Support their immune systems by adopting some of the healthy habits above and also by making sure that they take some useful supplements. This blog from our archive looks at how some of the supplements and herbs we stock here at the YinOva Center can be used to support your kids.

My own personal Mom trick is to give them a probiotic which will not only support good digestion by promoting beneficial intestinal flora but has been shown to boost the immune system and help them fight infectious diseases.

Acupuncture

Acupuncture is a great way to address many childhood ailments and disorders. Check out this blog article by a YinOva Mom who came to our center for acupuncture and Chinese herbs which successfully treated her child’s eczema.  We use acupuncture to treat kids for weak immunity, repeated ear infections, digestive problems, asthma and behavioral problems.

Mom’s who are new to acupuncture worry that their kids will be upset by the needles but this is rarely the case. This video shows me treating some of our YinOva kids and should reassure you that fer from being scary, acupuncture can be fun.

Recently the FDA reiterated its warning that children under six shouldn’t be given cough syrup which begs the question what’s a Mom to do? Some of our patients have emailed us to ask if we have any suggestions for alternatives to cough syrup in light of FDA findings that they can have serious side effects for children.

Here at the YinOva Center we stock a natural herbal cough medicine called Pinellia and Fritellaria Syrup which many of our patients find a safe alternative to pharmaceutical cough medicines, which contain the cough suppressant dextromethorphan. It is this ingredient that has proved so problematic when given to young children.

The most simple remedy, however, may be an old fashioned one. Honey.  Long used by our grandmother’s generation to sooth a sore throat, honey is also an effective cough suppressant. In a study at Penn State University, doctors showed that honey was significantly superior to dextromethorphan  when used to treat nighttime coughs and resultant lack of sleep for children ages 2 and up.

However, due to the risk of infant botulism, a rare but serious form of food poisoning, parents should never give honey to their child  if they are younger than 1. It’s also worth bearing in mind that coughing isn’t always a bad thing because it helps your child clear mucus from their lungs.

So our YinOva advice to parents is to give up to 2 tsp of honey to children age 1 and above at night to prevent them coughing and help them sleep and that during the day, if your child is otherwise healthy, don’t suppress their cough so that they have the opportunity to clear their airways.

See also this related blog article on the healing power of manuka honey from New Zealand

Today’s blog is written by YinOva Massage Therapist Nicole Kruck. Nicole is a New York State Licensed Massage Therapist. She is Certified in Women’s Health and Reproductive Care with a specialties in Fertility Enhancement, Maya Abdominal Massage and infant massage. Nicole says – My practice specializes in women’s reproductive health. In many cases I work with a client for Fertility Enhancement on to Pre & Postnatal massage so it’s natural for me to add  Infant Massage to the services I offer my patients. For me the best part is passing on a skill – I don’t massage the babies I teach the parents how to massage to their own babies. What fun!

Working with my prenatal clients, I show them how to massage their babies while in the womb to help elevate physical symptoms during pregnancy and delivery. Massage in utero, along with many health benefits, can really encourage bonding between mother and child. Bonding is so important to child’s development and beginning touch early in life helps parents communicate with their baby. Infant massage is a preventive program that promotes loving touch right from the start. It is a perfect way for both parents to feel more close and comfortable with their baby. Our skin is the largest sensory organ of the body. Some of the benefits of infant massage

• Increases our ability to bond & interact
• Stimulates physical & emotional growth
• Creates relaxation & relief
• Reduces emotional & physical stress
• Increases food absorption

Dr. Sharon Heller, PhD is a developmental psychologist. In her book The Vital Touch: How Intimate Contact With Your Baby Leads To Happier, Healthier Development, she writes that Americans have become container crazy. From car seat to stroller, bouncy seat to high chair to crib. We are one of the few countries that deprives our infants of sensory and emotional stimulation because of our reliance on containers. This can create fussy babies starved of positive  physical touch.

In her book she draws from an inspiring array of cultural and anthropological sources. This book explores the psychological, physiological and sensory benefits of touch. And how we can provide soothing and nurturing environments for our children to thrive in. Did you know a baby can recognize their mothers voice within 3 days? And although they can not make out the specifics of our faces they are very aware of and drawn to the shapes of our faces. Newborns see best 8-10 inches away so it is very important to hold babies close. When carriers are over-used babies do not develop a normal range of vision and normal development. Close contact is how infants learn to recognize your scent and touch which helps to calm their nervous system. A study of mothers in Japan found that they have an extraordinary ability to read their child’s needs before they even seemed to express it. When studied they found that these mothers practiced something called “SKINSHIP”. In this practice the baby is kept up against the body all day in constant physical contact. These babies did not cry, were not fussy, had no digestion or elimination problems and grew at healthy rates. This is attributed to the mothers knowing their infants subtle cues before their babies even had a chance to express them. These mothers didn’t even need diapers! This close contact supports the baby’s ability to self regulate so they do not overwhelm their systems (nervous system, respiratory, cardiac musco-skeletal system). When asked how they knew all this they just replied that they thought ALL Parents knew how to take care of their babies needs as easily as they did.

In Bogota, “Columbia Kangaroo Care” or (K-Care) was developed to help poor babies develop and thrive because often incubators for the preemie babies were not available. Using K-Care they found the babies grew faster, were more healthy, cried less, slept better, stayed much more alert, breathed better and went home faster than the similar babies that did not receive this same type of contact care. Sometimes one partner feels left out in the process of caring for their newborns. It can be challenging when you are not the one providing basic needs. Whether it is a feeding issue, an over-protective new mother or many times, just a lack of experience handling a baby, there can be a shyness with close physical contact.

Infant massage is a wonderful way to literally get “Hands On” experience. Parents end up doing a really great job with the massage and find they also reap the magnificent benefits of bonding with their child and gain new skills to support the comfort and care of their infant and family. Raising happy healthy children is what I imagine every parent wants most.

Learning Infant Massage and bonding with your child can only lead to a life time of health and happiness as well as a healthy and happy adult. What a good gift to pass on to your children and the world! To find out more about group classes or private session please contact the YinOva Front Desk on 212 533 2255. Infant Massage is a wonderful long lasting Gift to new parents and their baby and for that reason Gift Certificates are also available so you can spread the love.

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We treat a lot of teenagers at the YinOva Center and it makes me so happy that they feel comfortable coming in to see us and are able to use Chinese medicine as a way of taking care of themselves. As a mother I know, first hand, that teenage girls can be sensitive and vulnerable and that their busy schedules and complex social lives can weigh heavily upon their shoulders, making them feel depleted and imbalanced.  Our YinOva teenagers seek our help for a wide range of problems from anxiety to eating disorders and sports injuries to acne.

I remember only too well how self-conscious I was as a teenager and so it’s easy to understand why acne causes such misery. Fortunately help is at hand and we get very good results treating acne with Chinese herbs and acupuncture.

In Chinese medicine acne and other inflammatory skin conditions are seen as being caused by a combination of too much heat and dampness. People are said to need heat or yang for movement and to make transformations in the body but too much heat can lead to a variety of problems including acne.

So how do people get too hot? The cause can be internal or external.

An internal cause can be emotional pressure leading to constraint which in turn can lead to heat (a bit like a pressure cooker that gets tighter and tighter until steam comes out of the top). Teenagers are particularly prone to bottling up their emotions and becoming tight and stressed. Another internal cause can be an excess of some hormones which can be yang and therefore lead to expressions of heat. Another cause, unique to Chinese medicine, is a diagnosis of blood deficiency. This correlates to substandard nutrition in conventional medicine.  Many of the teenagers we see are not eating enough or are eating the wrong foods making them blood deficient. In Chinese medicine the blood is said to transport normal body waste and if it is deficient and thus not able to it’s job, swellings can appear on the skin.

External causes of heat include irritating chemicals on the skin, eating overstimulating foods and too much physical exertion.

So how do people get too damp? Again the cause can be internal or external.

Everybody needs moisture or yin in order to function. Dampness in Chinese medicine is a condition where the body does not metabolize fluids well leading to excessive fluids in the body’s tissues. Microorganisms such as bacteria thrive in these damp conditions leading to pustules and cystic acne. An internal cause would be a weak digestive system that is stressed by irregular eating habits and an external cause of damp may be fatty or greasy foods.

At the YinOva Center we help our patients with acne by using acupuncture to clear inflammation and using Chinese herbs to treat the dampness and heat. Job’s Tears Seeds (Yi Yi Ren), Poria Mushroom (Fu Ling) and Phellodendrin Bark (Huang Bai) clear dampness and Tree Peony Root Bark (Mu Dan Pi), Red Peony Root (Chi Shao), Goldenthread Root (Huang Lian) clear heat. Some of these herbs such as Phellodendrin Bark and Goldenthread root are also known for their anti-bacterial properties. Our acupuncturists combine these herbs with a formula to treat each patient’s specific underlying condition in order to treat their skin.

Results usually take 3 – 6 weeks and are quicker if the patient also makes dietary adjustments.

Todays blog was written by YinOva acupuncturist and herbalist, Marie Amato, who has a particular specialty when it comes to treating children.

You don’t have to wait for your child to catch his or her next cold to try out acupuncture. We recommend bringing kids in for seasonal tune-ups. The change of season is difficult for many children to transition through and it’s a common time when kids get sick or chronic ailments flare up. A visit to your friendly acupuncturist can help ease this transition and boost your child’s immune system. Our patients bring their children in to see us for help with a wide range of problems including repeated ear infections, digestive troubles, behavioral issues, asthma and allergies.

Children are really interesting to work with from an acupuncturists’ point of view. Our diagnostic skills are used first and foremost in discovering the best form of treatment. Practitioners must rely more heavily on observation, listening, and palpation. Discerning the child’s disposition is also a big part in considering the best course of action. Some kids run right into the office instantly making themselves at home while others hide behind their mothers, feeling very shy or even fearful. These differences among children are obviously going to influence how quickly we get started with the treatment and even how we proceed. It doesn’t do much good to have a screaming child vowing never to return just as long as we get to needle them!

Like the start of any good relationship, it takes a little finessing to get the ball rolling. The practitioner and child check each other out, exchange a smile or laugh. We may even sit on the floor and play with toys or draw a picture. Playtime is actually a valuable period during which we can gain additional information about the child just through observation. Once the child becomes more comfortable, the treatment can progress. Since kids aren’t the most reliable at recounting signs and symptoms, parents are also great sources of information.

You might be surprised at how many children are actually ok with having acupuncture. After a couple of treatments some even start directing where to “put the next flag” (kid-speak for pediatric needle insertion). There are, of course, children who don’t react well to the idea of acupuncture but that’s fine because we always have other tricks up our sleeves.

In fact, because kids are such little balls of energy they respond really well to cutaneous stimulation – so needling is not always a necessary part of treatment. In place of needling, we often use cutaneous electrical stimulation, or our “tickle machine.” This is a favored technique of our 6 and under demographic. Shoni shin is another common modality used in pediatrics. It’s a technique employing several tools used on the skin in a non-invasive way to manipulate the qi on the surface of the body. Most treatments consist of a combination of acupuncture, tui na (therapeutic massage), shoni shin, gua sha (scraping the surface of the skin) and cupping.

I’ve found cupping to be a big hit with toddlers, not to mention really effective in treating all sorts of respiratory disorders. I recently had a very active 16-month-old boy running around the office. He was laughing while looking at himself with cups suctioned to his back. At his next visit, he immediately took his shirt off and started patting his back asking for cups. He said he wanted me to make him look like a giraffe again (the cups leave little round marks on the back not unlike a giraffe’s spots). Kids can even have fun being treated!

Treating children is more like treating a moving target. They definitely keep you on your toes. Their little bodies change so quickly, they can be fine one minute and sick the next. Offering non-threatening acupuncture and its alternatives, often accompanied with Chinese medicine, gives our kid clients at the YinOva Center a head start on feeling and staying healthy … and, often, a chance to play!

Good Morning America on ABC recently reported on using acupuncture to treat children – you can read about it and watch an extract here.

To find out about herbal medicine for children click here.

For other articles about Chinese medicine and children click here.

Time Magazine has some great suggestions for iPhone apps for new Moms. You can check the article out here. I particularly like the Nursing Tracker and the aSleep Kids app that comes with lullabies, a timer and many mother’s favorite stand-bye – white noise. When Emma was small there was no such thing as iPhone apps that made white noise but I found that the noise from the vacuum cleaner would put her right out!

Today’s blog entry was written by YinOva Acupuncturist and mother-of-two, Margaret Sikowitz.

Can you recommend a pediatrician? It’s a question we get asked a lot at the Yinova Center. Different doctors suit different families so here are some thoughts that we hope will guide you as you make your choice.

Ask around.

The best place to start your search is by asking friends who live nearby. If you’re new to town, try looking on-line on neighborhood parenting sites.

Think practical.

Do the doctors you’re considering live nearby? And, do they accept your insurance? Though the insurance concern may not impact everyone facing this decision, location usually does. Though you may have heard raves about Dr. X, if they live out of easy reach, emergency visits may not be so easy to get too if subways or traffic are involved. And, if finances are of concern, there are enough doctors that you’d probably get along fine with, so consider starting out with one that you like who also accepts your current coverage.

Try a first date.

Often pediatricians allow soon-to-be parents to ‘meet and greet’. This initial consult (generally free of charge) allows you to see if you get along. And, this is usually a time when you can ask the doctor questions about topics that may be of special concern to you. If the doctor you’re considering doesn’t offer these consults, check with friends who currently use this doctor and ask if they wouldn’t mind having you tag along with them on their next visit.

Ask “What if….?”

Especially for first time parents, you want to know what the office procedure is for things like answering your calls and questions during the business day and, as important, after hours, on weekends and holidays. Similarly, what if you want to bring your baby in on short notice?

Jumping ship.

99% of the time you’ll find your gut gives you the best feedback and you’ll pick of doctor that you’re pleased with. If this isn’t the case, don’t hesitate to start searching anew to find one that you do like. When you find that person, take a copy of your baby’s medical record with you to the new doctor. You want to have a good rapport with a provider who is a good listener and who addresses your concerns with care.

Photograph
© Victorpr | Dreamstime.com

YinOva Acupuncturist Margaret Sikowitz blogs:

Almost a month into the new school year and already many kids have missed days due to colds, stomach bugs and sore throats. It definitely comes with the territory as their little immune systems fatigue easily. In my house we have a morning ritual that I believe keeps them going pretty strong.

We start our day with a morning ‘cocktail’ of Nanogreens (you may have seen this in our office, we’re huge fans). For the kids, I add a little juice or lemonade and they drink about 3-4 ounces (an almost full little juice glass). For further immune boosting they use probiotic straws to drink their pick-me-up, I’ve yet to meet a kid who didn’t like straws. These are great because they are lined with probiotic powder that has no taste and is ingested when liquid passes through the straw. Probiotics are healthy flora lining the gastrointestinal tract so they’re great at helping regulate kids’ digestion. And we in the world of Chinese medicine also view them as great agents at overall health maintenance since the G.I. system has a strong link to the respiratory system.

Now, in the interest of full disclosure, my very opinionated 6 year-old daughter just declared her need for a break from green juice. I granted it, keeping her on the straws (in a glass of water) and promised a new juice to add to her cocktail when we get back into it next week.

And at this morning’s class breakfast party, when each kid rifled through the box of donut holes with their sneeze-covered fingers (my daughter included) I did find myself wondering what her normally green-juice infused stomach might have been thinking. On that I can only speculate, but I know she was overjoyed.

Margaret Sikowitz M.Sc. L.Ac. © September 2008

Hi Everyone,

Its Margaret Sikowitz here, blogging while Jill is on vacation.

I can’t believe it’s the middle of August already. Like many of you I am enjoying a slightly more relaxed summer schedule but recent talk in the office turned to one of the aspects of back-to-school that fill many of us with foreboding, namely packing lunch. If your kid is old enough to be bringing lunch, she’s probably got a grasp of what’s considered healthy, and what’s considered a treat. However, if she’s like my daughter, she’d be happy with a cupcake and a piece of gum. So, after lots of trial and error, here’s what I’ve learned:

• Get them involved — Let them choose, they feel more independent and more likely to eat their lunch when they’ve picked it. However the key to this is to narrow the options. They pick…a protein, a fruit and/or veggie and a grain. Sandwiches are great for this in that you can combine the protein, veggie and grain into one.
• I have tons of little containers that I pack with sliced meats, nuts, hummus, cut up fruits/veggies, crackers, muffins, a thermos of pasta, soups, etc…
• While we don’t want to assign good and bad values to foods, healthy and less healthy are pretty clear. I’ve limited the less healthy choices to special days and field trips. I try not to include them daily.
• Water, every day… I usually skip juice, preferring real fruit instead, which is in keeping with the American Academy of Pediatrics recommendations (PDF).
• Reduce and reuse. We’ve all become more eco-conscious so re-usable lunch boxes and containers are the way to go. Here are some great options, including a bento-box style, ideal for a kid like mine who never quite embraced the sandwich, preferring a little of this and that for her lunch. Also check out Sigg water bottles, here.
• Let’s do lunch! Here’s something that took me a while to wrap my head around…School lunch is most kids’ first exposure to social eating, with friends outnumbering grown ups. They’re so excited about this new big-kid thing that they do more chatting than eating. Fear not, they won’t starve! Eventually they will get the hang of it. That said, anyone picking up my kids from school knows not to show up without a snack in hand.
• And finally….they are never too young to help with clean up. A sage gave me this gem, and I am happy to share it (actually, the sage is a full-time working out of the house mother of 3). When my daughter gets home from school she knows the drill. She takes her lunch box into the kitchen and empties the contents in to the sink. When she can reach more easily, she’ll be rinsing them, and putting them into the dishwasher.

Enjoy the rest of the summer,

Margaret Sikowitz

Margaret Sikowitz © August 2008

Photograph
© Thomas Perkins | Dreamstime.com

My recent post about 5 Healthy Ways to Start Your Day sparked some conversations in our waiting room this week. As we shared our experiences and passed on tips, some Mom’s spoke about how they get their kids to start the day in a healthy way. My own daughter, Emma, is 17 now and my days of being able to influence her breakfast choices are long past. However I distinctly remember chopping kale into her breakfast oatmeal when she was smaller and what’s more I remember my own Mum doing the same thing. I guess Moms have been trying to sneak healthy food into their kids meals for ever. Recently, Jessica Seinfeld wrote a bestselling book on the subject which confirmed that another generation of Moms have discovered the same old tricks.

Research has shown that kids who eat breakfast do better in school and are also less likely to be overweight. Many of the Mum’s I talked to spoke about how hard it is to organize breakfast during the morning rush. So we pooled our knowledge and here from The YinOva Center waiting room are some suggestions from busy working Moms for healthy breakfast foods that kids will actually eat.

• Fruit and yogurt parfaits with granola
• Wholegrain pancakes either frozen, from a prepackaged mix or from scratch with one of the toppings listed below
• Breakfast burritos with wholegrain tortillas filled with eggs and veggies
• Oatmeal with nuts and dried fruit
• A yogurt, half a bagel with peanut butter and fruit juice
• A whole grain granola bar such as these from kashi with a glass of milk and a banana
• Healthy frozen waffles with fruit or one of the toppings listed below.
• French toast fingers made with whole grain bread and dipped into one of the toppings listed below
• A breakfast taco made with a tortilla, scrambled eggs, salsa and low fat cheddar cheese
• Scrambled eggs with veggies
• A sliced apple with nut butter and some wholegrain toast
• A banana with cereal that is high in fiber and low in sugar such as Weetabix Organic Crispy Flakes, Cascadian Farm Clifford Crunch, Barbara’s Puffins, Post Spoon Sized Shredded Wheat, Nature’s Path Heritage Granola, Kix, Wheaties, Kashi Organic Promise.
• Brown rice cakes with nut butter and fruit
• A fruit and yogurt smoothie. Frozen organic berries such as these make this particularly easy to whip up in a blender.
• The following are toppings for pancakes and waffles suggested by some of our patients – nut butter, unsweetened apple sauce, low fat yogurt, honey, low fat cream cheese, fruit syrup, agave nectar, sliced fruit.

Photograph
© Eastwest Imaging | Dreamstime.com

Parents often ask me to suggest some basic herbal formulas that they can safely give to their children to address minor ailments. All the formulas and supplements below can be kept in your medical chest and dispensed by you at your discretion. None of them are a replacement for the advice of your pediatrician and at The YinOva Center we encourage you to consult your child’s doctor about any ailment that is worrisome and to keep them informed about herbal preparations that you are using. We are always happy to talk to our patient’s doctors and explain what is in an herbal product.

Moreover you are always welcome to bring your child in to see us at The YinOva Center and we will design a specifically tailored formula for them and have it made by an herbal pharmacy. Specially made formulas are stronger and should only be dispensed by a board certified herbalist whereas the products below are sold over the counter at The YinOva Center and can be given at your discretion in the dose recommended on the label.

At The YinOva Center we are big fans of the Gentle Warrior’s range of pediatric herbal formulas. These are made in California by Kan Herbs. You can read more about Kan Herbs here.

We love this company and know that they take great care with these formulas and that the herbs are extensively tested for purity and quality.
We also appreciate that these products are designed with children in mind and have a lower alcohol content and some glycerin added so that they taste good. These are the formulas we give our own kids and I often suggest to YinOva Mom’s that they keep some at home to use at the first sign of an upset.

Herbs for Respiratory Problems

Windbreaker – This formula is an appropriate treatment for a cold in its early stages. It can also be used to treat mild allergies.

Chest Relief – This formula is useful for a productive cough where your child is coughing up clear phlegm. It can be used in combination with our cough syrup

Pipe Cleaner – We use this formula for a cough with sticky, yellow, scanty phlegm. It can also be used to address chronic bronchitis or chronic asthma with the permission of your pediatrician.

Open Air – This formula is for chronic dry wheezing. We use it for children with asthma that is not particularly phlegmy. This product can be used conjunction with medication prescribed by a pediatrician.

Deep Breath – This is a good formula for chronic wheezing with phlegm and also for kids that get a lot of sinus infections. We use this for children with asthma where they produce a lot of phlegm. This product can be used in conjunction with medication prescribed by a pediatrician.

Herbs for Digestive Problems

Grow and Thrive – This formula can be used for poor appetite, weak digestion, colic and food sensitivities.

Tummy Tamer – This formula can be used for belching, flatulence, bloating and nausea

Easy Going – This formula is for constipation

Belly Binder – This formula is for diarrhea.

Herbs for Skin Problems

Fire Fighter – This formula can be used for red itchy rashes including hives, allergic dermatitis, eczema and acne

Herbs for Behavioral Problems

Quiet Calm – This formula can be used for irritability, hyperactivity, agitation, tantrums and insomnia

I cannot stress enough that all these formulas are relatively mild and certainly not as strong as a pharmaceutical that your doctor can prescribe. They are useful for dealing with minor ailments but if your child’s symptoms persist you should consult a doctor. Some of them can be used in conjunction with conventional medication and you should ask for our advice about this.

Nutritional Supplements

SuperNutes

This is our favorite multi-vitamin for children. Kids love the strawberry-kiwi flavor and parents love that it contains all the most important vitamin and mineral components needed for a growing child. We endorse this product and stock it at The YinOva Center because of the quality of its ingredients.

Natural D-Hist Jr

For children with allergies this product offers seasonal support in a fun lemon and lime flavor. It contains the following ingredients.

• Quercetin which is a powerful natural flavonoid, quercetin has been shown to inhibit mast cell degranulation and its unfortunate consequences.
• Stinging Nettles which have been shown to block important enzymes within the arachidonic acid cascade as well as having proven their effectiveness in a single ingredient clinical trial.
• Bromelain which is strong pineapple enzyme, bromelain has proven mucolytic properties. As such, bromelain supports normal mucosal tissue function and enhances the absorption of quercetin.
• N-Acetyl L-Cysteine (NAC) which is an amino acid that is also a natural mucolytic, NAC reduces the viscosity of mucus. Clinical studies have proven oral doses of NAC to be an excellent means to recharge cellular glutathione, a foundational antioxidant.

FloraBoost

A great probiotic especially formulated for kids with a taste that they enjoy. This should be taken to preserve digestive health if your child is taking antibiotics.

Natranix

A natural children’s cough formula that tastes great. It contains

• Thyme and Elderberry which are used to soothe the throat from the inflammation often associated with coughing.
• Anise which helps to loosen and expel phlegm.
• Sage which has been used for centuries in Europe as a gargle to sooth sore throats.

OmegaStix

Kids love these fruit flavored chewy sticks that contain a great tasting source of essential fatty acids which are important for your child’s growth. Omega-3 Fatty Acids are proven beneficial for healthy brain development in children, as well as supporting healthy heart, joints, skin, immune system and eyes.

OmegaStix contain EPA and DHA because researchers have learned that children supplemented with Omega-3 fatty acids (EPA & DHA) have numerous advantages in the following significant areas compared with those who did not take fish oils:

• Better Sleep Patterns
• Higher Cognitive Function
• Increased Concentration
• Improved Mood

To read a BBC article about one of these clinical trials click here

One concern about omega 3 supplements has been contamination because they are made from fish oils and some supplements have been found to have high levels of mercury. At The YinOva Center we use OmegaStix because they meet the strict CRN Monograph for product purity.

All these products are available at The YinOva Center. Please ask us for advice about which to choose. For more about out Pediatric Services click here.