Tag: Children nutrition
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Challenging your food rules
Everyone grows up with food rules. But some of them aren’t doing us any favours. Do you need to challenge any of your food rules? “You can’t give him ice cream in the morning!” He shot me an incredulous look. “Why not?” I replied with a shrug of my shoulders. I kept my cool on…
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What NOT to bring to Christmas dinner
Comments about what someone is eating, or their body size and shape, are sadly common over Christmas dinner, but never appropriate. “You actually want some? I didn’t think you’d eat anything so unhealthy!” “It’s so good to see you tucking in.” “Go on, have some more. You need fattening up.” These are all things that…
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No big deal
One of the most powerful reminders that diet culture has affected you, is witnessing an unaffected child select their food. “What do you want, darling? We could get popcorn, Malteasers, chippies… We could get it all! Anything you want, you choose.” I was so excited. This teacher-only day was a special day together for my…
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Chew your smoothies
“Don’t worry, you’ll be back to having your healthy smoothies in no time,” the midwife said to me. Say what now? I was pregnant with my first baby and throwing up several times a day. I had just told the midwife that sucking on Gingernut biscuits in the morning was helping a little bit. Apparently…
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In defence of milk
“Milk please,” my preschooler directed politely. “In my red cup, with a straw,” he added with a smile. I shook the bottle of organic, non-homogenized milk, so the cream would disperse from it’s lump at the top of the bottle, then I poured it into the specified red cup. He slurped it up happily, delighting…
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Baby’s first foods
I got a message a couple days ago from a friend, asking about first foods for baby. She’d gone online and, in her eloquent words, discovered that “There’s a lot of shit out there.” I couldn’t agree more. First thing’s first: when is baby ready for solids? You’ll hear six months thrown around a lot…
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To hide or not to hide: the vegetable question
My 3-year-old is currently going through a growth spurt. He is super tired, super hungry and super emotional all at once. I consider it training for when he’s a teenager. When I picked him up from preschool yesterday I read his little take-home slip of paper that lists what he ate that day. I was…
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The dinnertime battleground
My son was sitting at the table, ready for his dinner. We had a vase of flowers on the table that he had picked from the garden, and we had lit several candles. I placed his plate in front of him, smiling at my lovingly prepared wholesome meal that would meet all of his nutrition…
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My covert mission to McDonalds
It was about six o’clock in the evening when I parked my heavily branded work car several streets away from my destination… Was this too close? I looked around suspiciously, second-guessed myself, and drove another block away. It was a hot evening in one of those summers that lingers well into fall, but I forced…