Treats

I took my kids to the dentist to have their teeth cleaned, and Saxon had another cavity!

I was so sad.  Sad for me and sad for him.

I brush his teeth every single night.  Always.  We usually floss and rinse too, but we always brush.  When he got his first cavity a year ago, I really cracked down on the brushing routine.  I even brush and floss Dalton's baby teeth.

I asked the dentist what is going on...how else can we prevent cavities if what we're doing isn't helping.

He said that it's interesting because a big study was just done in New York about how preschoolers, now a days, are getting tons of cavities.  He said he is currently writing a paper on it.

So I asked the obvious questions.  "Well...why?"

He said that's what every parent wants to know..."why?"

He said it's more important than ever to brush, floss, rinse, and go to check-ups. 

Great.  We already do that.

Genetics can affect teeth.

Well...nothing we can do about that.

Also, diet can make a difference.

I'm really careful about what we eat.  I try to not be crazy about it, but I am always aware of how I feed my family.

Last...candy.

I told him that I don't give my kids very much candy.

He asked me to think about all of the other people who do give them candy.

If they are good in church...the teacher gives the a treat.

If they are good in preschool...they get a treat.

If they complete their homework...treat.

Relatives come into town...treat.

Babysitter...treats.

Anytime we need to bribe them to do something important...treat.

My preemptive attack against grocery store tantrums...treat.

Wow.

Even if I never gave them treats, they would still be getting tons of them!

Our dentist was saying that years ago, treats were rare.

They were for special occasions.

Now kids get a treat even at the bank drive through.

Well, obviously we need to be more careful about treats if we want to protect our kids teeth.  But what do I do?

It doesn't seem fair to tell Saxon that everyone else in church gets treats...but not him.

Or everyone else gets treats in school...but not him.

I did have a talk with him about keeping our teeth healthy and how too many sugar bugs can hurt our teeth, but it made him nervous about everything he eats.

I remember my Dad telling me about dog-training once.

(I know...totally not the same as raising children...but it reminded me of this)

My Dad never trains his dogs with treats.

He pets them and encourages them and praises them, but he doesn't feed them to get them to obey.  I asked him once, why not?  That's how they train dogs that are in movies.  He asked me what would happen if the dog wasn't hungry.  Then it wouldn't obey.

It just made me think of how often we teach our kids with treats.

So, we're making a huge cut-back-on-the-treats-goal in our house.

It's funny because I don't even buy treats or snacks...but I'm going to have to pay much more attention to what happens when we're out.

I think sugar-free-gum might be a nice compromise when I feel like they deserve a special treat.

Any other ideas?

Shamrock Shake

 I got the idea for this recipe from a health information newsletter that I get.  I changed it just a tiny bit and decided to try it out for my family.  We love going to Roxberry to get smoothies but it gets so expensive.  I've been trying to come up with good smoothies combinations that my kids will love, that will be healthy, and that will be affordable.


So, this is Green Smoothie #2:

1 ripe avocado

1 handful of baby spinach

1 scoop of yogurt

1 ripe banana

1/4 cup flax seeds

1 1/2 half cup orange juice

ice

 I made a huge batch because my kids told me that they wanted smoothies.

Well...Bridger told me that he wanted orange juice and I told him that I bought it for smoothies...at which point he reassured me that he really wanted a smoothie.

Bridger did not like it because he told me that it tasted like guacamole.

Saxon wouldn't try it because he was expecting an orange smoothie since I told them I was using orange juice.  He was sure that I had tricked him.

Dalton loved it though!

I really liked it too.  The avocado made it creamy like an ice cream shake.  Nate said he could definitely taste the avocado, but it didn't bother him.

I guess it was only a partial success since my kids wouldn't touch it :)

How to get kids to eat healthy

I try really hard make sure that my kids eat healthy.

I doesn't always work, but we make conscious effort.

Here are some ideas that work for us.

I know they won't work for every kid, (they don't always work for mine either) but it's worth a try get your used to healthy eating habits.

 (Dalton eating a bell pepper)

1.  Make sure to feed your kids a wide variety of food from the time they are little.  
From the time my kids can eat solid food, I feed them a wide variety of flavors.  I always try to incorporate international options into my menu.  We eat Brazilian beans and rice and talk about life in Brazil.  We Thai food, Indian food, Italian food, Mexican food, seafood, and lots of fresh fruits and veggies.  We usually feed the baby the same thing that we are eating and get him used to new flavors.  We love exotic fruits and fresh berries.

 (Saxon's lunch)

2.  Make healthy options the norm.
We have always had whole grain bread and we always try to avoid "instant" and processed foods.  Of course, we always make exceptions, but for the most part my kids are used to eating healthy.  They are never surprised to find raw fruits and veggies on their plate, and they don't even know what white bread is.

 (The apples that Bridger picked from the orchard)

3.  Grow your own.
There is something exciting about growing your own food.  We plant a garden every spring, and my kids have to walk down every day to help me take care of it.  Once everything starts to grow, I let them sample different flavors and textures straight from the garden.  Dalton loved to eat cherry tomatoes right out of the garden, Bridger always picked the cucumbers, and Saxon likes to pick different herbs and taste and smell them.  My kids seem to feel an ownership over the things that they grow and it makes them more willing to try. 
Even if you can't grow your own, try to go to local farms or farmer's markets.  Bridger and I went to a local orchard and picked our own apples.  We had to pay for them, but it was fairly cheap and worth it for the fun experience.

4.  Rename it.
Big food companies are famous for this!  My kids will eat anything as long as it has a Star Wars character on it.  I took my kids to get smoothies the other day and I picked a green smoothie for them called "Iron Strong."  They were skeptical that it was green and asked me what flavor it was.  I accidentally said "Iron Man" instead of "Iron Strong" and they were sold on it.  Now, when we make green smoothies at home, we make sure to call them "Iron Man Smoothies."
We also cut sandwiches and quesadillas with cookie cutters into fun shapes so that they can have star shaped sandwiches or pac-man shaped quesadillas.

5.  Make it sound like a treat.
Bridger loves broccoli.  When we go to the store, I tell him that if he's really good, I'll let him pick out a head of broccoli.  Then we make a special dinner with broccoli.  We try to find lots of reasons to reward Bridger with broccoli :)  Dalton loves broccoli, but not Saxon.  Saxon loves carrots.

 6.  Make it a game.
My boys favorite game is to pretend that the veggies instantly make them stronger.  They want Nate and I to watch as they chew, and as soon as they swallow, we pretend to be stunned by how big their muscles are!  Dalton likes the traditional "Here comes the airplane!" game.  Sometimes we race too.  The first one to finish their veggies wins!


7.  Let them help.
My kids all have their own aprons and cooking utensils and like to help.  When they help prepare a meal, they are more likely to try it.   Sometimes I will even let them go through a recipe book and choose.  Then they get to help make the meal.  It's a win-win situation for everyone because the kids learn something new, they get to spend one on one time with me, and they are more likely to eat healthy foods if they chose to.

8.  Disguise it.
I'm actually not very inventive with this one, but I there are several popular books out there with ideas about how to disguise healthy foods into your everyday meals.  A few of my favorites are adding shredded carrots or steamed spinach to meals.  They cook down really well and become soft and undetectable.  They also have mild flavors so they don't ruin a dish by including it.


9.  Dip it.
I really think my kids will eat anything as long as they can dip in in ranch.  I can give them a bowl of raw spinach to eat as long as it has ranch.  They will eat most raw veggies, or even veggie quesadillas.   They love dipping apples and celery in peanut butter and fruit in yogurt.


10. Choose the healthier option.
Almost everything has a healthier option.  If you need sour cream, choose light.  If you need cereal, choose low sugar with whole grain.  Don't be fooled though.  A lot of things make claims that are deceiving.  Read the labels.  For example, Bridger was begging for chips the other day.  I agreed, but wanted to pick the best option.  The low-fat version had 8 grams of fat per serving as opposed to the 14 in the full fat version.  However, the multi-grain version (that did not say low-fat) also had only 8 grams of fat.  So we picked mulitgrain because it had less fat and whole grains.  I know that chips aren't healthy, but we're talking about choosing the healthier option. 
I also try to cook from scratch a lot so that I know exactly what is going into our food.  It's a little scary to read the ingredients label and not recognize anything in it other than "spices" or "artificial flavors".  What is that anyway?

Most of all, have fun and experiment!!

Our quest to eat healthy has been really fun for our family.  We've tried new things and learned a lot.  Not everything always works.  Sometimes something works once and not the next time, or the other way around.  All kids are different so you need to find what works for your children and your family.