By Lynn N. Capri

Playing Dress Up with Grandma

Grandmas, tie on your aprons, there’s no time like now to teach little girls how to stay clean and stylish. Miss Priss & Co., the one stop shop for adorable children’s gifts and accessories, has just released their Personalized Girls’ Aprons with Pretty Appliqués. Little girls can get into a lot of messes between cooking, coloring, gardening, and crafting, which is why this fashionable apron is the perfect solution for keeping clothes clean. She’ll love putting on an apron made just for her! Miss Priss & Co. uses only the most darling of designer fabrics, ribbons, and bows to create fun and girly patterns and monograms that will make her stand out and feel like a princess. Aprons are currently available in four different colors, but keep your eye out at www.missprissstyle.com for more coming soon!

How to Identify Healthy Snacks for Kids

Beloved food writer Michael Pollan recommends steering clear of foods that advertise their green attributes on their label. According to his line of reasoning, why give a child a fruit roll-up when you can give him or her a piece of fruit? Only processed foods need to advertise what’s natural about them, whereas an apple speaks for itself, providing wholesome nutrition without the need for marketing hype.

But most of us depend on the occasional packaged or processed food, so choosing between the lesser of two evils sometimes has to be the way to go. If a product lists natural ingredients on its label ~ anything from real fruits, vegetables and nuts to cereals, grains and other healthy foods you can recognize without a food dictionary on hand—it’s probably better than a food reliant on artificial flavors and sweeteners.

“One way for your kids to enjoy healthy snacks is to get them started on naturally sweet foods,” says Christine Steendahl of Kid Approved Meals, which sells menus and shopping lists to parents looking for guidance in meal preparation. “Since most kids crave sweets…naturally sweet foods such as fruits are perfect,” she says. Real bananas, oranges, apples, cherries, strawberries and other fruits are popular with most kids. “You can mix in yogurt or even make a fruit smoothie with some milk and a drop of chocolate or other natural flavors,” Steendahl suggests.

“One thing to recognize about children is that if they try enough types of natural and healthy snacks, they will find one that they enjoy,” says Steendahl. “The problem is that many times parents give up trying to find the snacks that their kids like and settle for popular junk foods instead.” She stresses the importance of teaching kids which snacks to eat and which to avoid early in life so that they can sidestep obesity problems altogether. Nuts and dry cereals, for example, are good alternatives to chips and other junk food.

According to CA-based pediatrician and author William Sears, who markets his own line of healthy kids snacks called Lunchbox Essentials, parents should make sure that any snack foods they give their family members provide both fiber and protein, which give the feeling of fullness, and taste good as well. He adds that parents should learn to read labels so they can tell which products contain hydrogenated oils, artificial colors, preservatives and high-fructose corn syrup ~ all of which should be avoided.

As a last resort for especially finicky kids, parents can find packaged snacks that might look like junk food but are actually healthy and nutritious, including certain brands of fruit roll-ups and granola bars. Look in the snack aisle of your local natural foods market for such items, and don’t be afraid to ask store personnel for recommendations. It’s important to take your child’s nutrition seriously. Whether he or she ever realizes it, you are setting patterns that will enable them to live healthier and longer lives.

Thanks to: www.michaelpollan.com; www.kidapprovedmeals.com; www.drsearshealthykids.com.

Thinking Green These Days? We’ve Got You Covered!

It’s easy to go green with Nico & Zoe Toys! Since their beginning in 2006, Nico and Zoe have been striving to find fun, engaging toys while supporting those companies that have always been able to ensure safe and environmental friendly practices. Check out their complete line of green, uncommon and artisan made ~ made in the US and abroad ~ at www.nicoandzoe.com. A few of our favorites? Plan Toys just put out its Eco House, complete with solar panels, a living roof, rain barrel, and turning wind turbine. Soy Rock Crayons are made from renewable soybeans grown in the USA and are colored with natural mineral powders, making color time bright and safe. Everyone needs a snuggly, and miYim’s got it with Storybook Victoria Bunny, a super soft pink, all certified organic bunny. Lastly, we’ve got the best baby teething rattles around, you’ll feel great about giving them to your little one. Using local hardwoods, dried in an energy-conserving solar kiln and left unpainted, Mossy Creek is as green as it gets!

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 6th, 2010 at 11:28 am and is filed under Vol. 16. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.