What to do when your picky eater goes on a food jag

Does it feel like your toddler will only eat a select list of foods? It’s called a food jag and here’s what you can do to help.

Stoned Wheat Thins. Tuna. Orange juice. For several months, that was just about all four-year-old Chris was willing to eat.

Once in a while, his mother, Lisa Tanner,* managed to coax him into eating a piece of fruit or a vegetable, but most of the time, he refused everything that wasn’t part of his preferred diet.

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It’s called a “food jag” when a child decides to limit her diet to a couple of favourite foods. Registered dietitian Theodosia Phillips of Saskatoon says a couple of factors make food jags common among preschoolers.

1) A reluctance to try new foods: In some kids this can lead to a reliance on just a few familiar and comforting items.

2) Dramatically slower growth in children over two (compared with infants): This allows them to limit their intake.

Phillips’ basic advice for worried parents of food-jagging kids is, “Don’t panic. It’s very rare that a child would go on a food jag that would cause any health problems.”

In fact, says Phillips, children are often eating more than you realize. “For example, if a preschooler ate one piece of French toast made with one egg, he’d already have eaten half of his daily requirement for protein and one-third of his grain requirement.”

Most food jags end on their own after a few weeks, but Phillips says you can help things along with these steps:

Don’t be a short-order cook. “Kids need to learn to eat the foods the rest of the family is eating,” Phillips says. She recommends continuing to offer a variety of foods, and not just the child’s favourites, without pressuring her to eat. If she eats nothing at all during that meal, don’t fret. “Occasional skipped meals are not a concern if your child is growing well,” she adds.

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Involve your child in food choices and prep. Ask him to pick a vegetable or two at the grocery store and help with the preparation — even if it’s just washing some fruits and veggies in the sink. Give him cookie cutters to cut sandwiches in different shapes, or ask if he’d like his carrots cut in circles, ovals or sticks.

Don’t fill her up with drinks. “Sometimes parents try to remedy a food jag by offering the child a lot of milk or juice because they then feel reassured that at least the child is getting something,” Phillips says. “But excess fluids can actually make food jags worse because the child’s tummy is too full to feel hungry.” Juice should be kept to no more than half a cup per day, and milk to no more than two cups per day.

Add new foods to old favorites. Does your child want a peanut butter sandwich every single day? Try adding banana or apple slices, raisins or grated carrot to the sandwich, or serve it with sliced cucumbers and cut-up grapes on the plate. Maybe your child likes only chicken nuggets dipped in barbecue sauce. Add some other dippers for her to try — pieces of whole-grain toast and cooked cauliflower florets, for example. Start with a small amount of the new food and work your way up, suggests Phillips.

Lisa Tanner was concerned enough about her son Chris’s very narrow food choices that she took him to the family doctor for a complete checkup. She was surprised and relieved to find he was perfectly healthy and even had higher iron levels than his brother (who ate practically everything he was offered).

“I stopped worrying so much,” says Tanner, “and sure enough, not long after that, he started eating more foods and the food jag was over.”

 

Toddler sharing

Research proves that giving something away can actually make toddlers happier.

ByWendy Haaf// Originally published in Today's Parent 

Toddlers aren’t known for their ability to share happily. This is why the findings from a 2012 Canadian study of toddler generosity are so surprising. Prompted by earlier research suggesting that giving makes adults happier than receiving, researchers at two BC universities set up an experiment to try and tease out whether the same is true for toddlers. As it turns out, the answer is yes.

“Research has shown that adults are happier when they spend money on other people, as opposed to themselves,” explains Lara Aknin, an assistant professor of psychology at Simon Fraser University and a co-author of the study. “We were curious — is this an innate feature of humanity, or is it something we learn as we get older? Because anybody who’s been to kindergarten has learned it’s good to share, we thought we’d look at kids before they go through the school system.”

The scientists set up a little game with 20 toddlers, aged 22 to 24 months. An experimenter gave each child a cup containing several treats, such as fish-shaped crackers. After a few minutes, the toddler was asked to give one of his or her own treats to a monkey puppet, which they responded to enthusiastically. A moment later, the experimenter provided an extra treat from a separate stash and asked the child to give it to the puppet. Researchers then rated each child’s responses, based on how much he or she smiled while both receiving and sharing the treats. The bottom line? “Not only were the children happier giving than receiving, but they were happiest when they got to give their own treats away,” Aknin observes. What’s more, while kids were only asked to part with a single treat from their private stockpiles, many spontaneously offered up more than one.

According to another of the study co-authors, Kiley Hamlin, an assistant professor of psychology at the University of British Columbia, kids begin sharing around one year of age in the “here-Mom-have-one-of-my-soggy-Cheerios” variety, and don’t graduate to the “you-can-play-with-my-toy-so-I-won’t-get-in-trouble” type until around five or so. “Kids like making other people happy,” Hamlin says. “That desire is seemingly always there.” But toddlers are still developing the skills needed to happily share a single toy (an understanding of time and turn-taking, for instance).

One way of dealing with a non-sharer is to nudge the process along with “when-then” statements, says Andrea Nair, a London, Ont., psychotherapist and parenting educator. Say, “When you share, then you can play.” The holidays in particular, when new toys are so exciting, can be hard. Practise taking turns before present-opening days. Always ham it up when you’re demonstrating sharing with your child, his or her siblings or other adults, and emphasize how happy you are when another person shares something with you. If your child balks at sharing, or snatches a toy from a sibling, explain that most kids get angry or sad when others don’t share. Food is also a great tool to teach sharing and problem-solving skills. Try saying, “Uh-oh! There’s only one cookie left. You want some and I want some. What are we going to do?”

There are kids who never master sharing, even when they’re old enough to know better, says Nair. “Kids who never learn to share likely aren’t required to,” she says.

But we can all take comfort in the news that this research shows even our littlest tykes aren’t nearly as naturally selfish as we may have assumed.

Book Smart

Feeling guilty that your kindergartener has so many toys and books? Don't. Results from a 20-year study out of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia showed that a childhood surrounded by books and educational toys has positive effects on a person's brain. The more mental stimulation a kid got from parents at age four through books and toys that teach them about numbers, letters and colors, the more developed the parts of their brain dedicated to cognition and language skills were years later.

TEN THINGS EVERY CHILD NEEDS

      

   TEN THINGS EVERY CHILD NEEDS

• Interaction
• Loving
• Touch
• Stable Relationship
• Safety and Health
• Self Esteem
• Quality Child Care
• Communication Play
• Music
• Reading

Toddler Development

Your child is officially up and walking, or perhaps running. Welcome to toddlerhood! There is no magic age when an infant enters toddlerhood. The word toddler is simply used to define a child who can now walk. In addition to walking (and running and climbing), toddlers are developing in numerous other ways.
You've heard of the "terrible twos?" Of course, there is also the "terrific twos."

Anyone who has spent some time with a toddler has probably experienced both.
What can you expect from your toddler? What are the typical developmental milestones?

Physical Development:

• Toddlers are active explorers working on defining and refining their motor skills. This includes the ability to walk, run, climb, walk up and down stairs, and throw and kick balls.

Emotional and Social Development:

• Toddlers begin to want to achieve tasks independently. This may result in the frequent use of such phrases as "I can do it" and "no."
• Toddlers begin to see and understand their role as people. They begin to define their place and role within their community. They like to help.
• Toddlers may have dramatic mood swings. Some of their outbursts are the result of their frustration to complete a task that they may not yet have the skill to complete successfully (i.e. putting on their shirt or shoes).

Cognitive Development:

• Toddlers are thinkers. They like to make decisions. It is best to provide choices (i.e. choosing between two snacks that you also agree would be appropriate).
• A toddler's language development occurs rapidly. Toddlers quickly move from using one word to communicating to create 3-to-4-word statements.
• Toddlers are able to follow simple directions.

How can you support their development?

• Create a routine in their life that they can depend on (i.e. in the morning, your child will quickly learn that breakfast comes first, followed by toileting or diapering and getting washed, followed by getting dressed).
• Create safe, child-friendly environments where toddlers have the ability to complete tasks independently (i.e. a sturdy step stool that will allow a child access to the sink where they can wash their hands).
• Offer choices that are appropriate and provide decision-making opportunities (i.e. would you like vanilla or strawberry yogurt?).

Toddlers…there are moments when they may be challenging, but most of the time they are terrific and a ton of fun.



This article come from http://www.everydayfamily.com.

Child development stages

A good entry for child development stages from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Child_development_stages. It informs parents know-how about how their children develop their abilities.

Alberta Child Care Subsidy

The Ministry of Human Services provides financial assistance to eligible lower-income families. The maximum subsidy rate can be found here. To apply, please visit this page. For more information, please go to child care subsidy.

The Alberta Child Care Accreditation Program

In Alberta, all licensed and approved child care programs must meet a minimum set of provincial standards. The Alberta Child Care Accreditation Program establishes standards for day care programs and approved family day homes that exceed the provincial standards. These higher standards have been developed by members of the child care sector together with Alberta Children and Youth Services. The Alberta Association for the Accreditation of Early Learning and Care Services works with accredited programs to make sure they follow these standards. This voluntary program is the only one of its kind in Canada.

For more information, please visit approved family day homes page on Alberta Human Services.