Mykids-Health

Kids - Healthy Diets and Healthy Minds

No matter who the expert happens to be, the basic advice for children's weight management is the same - a healthy diet and exercise. To be sure, proper diet is a key component, but what many parents may not realize is just how a child's diet affects not just their body but also their mind. Studies have linked diets high in fat to diminished mental alertness, affecting aptitudes such as attention and memory. This may directly affect their ability to learn in school as well as their ability to function positively at home.

Foods high in sugar for instance, can give kids the type of energy boost which causes them acting erratically. So what do you suppose happens when they eat the cereals high in sugar for breakfast or eat the sugary desserts and juice packed in their lunch? Not to mention the snacks of cookies, chips and soda that they often eat. What affects will this type of diet have on their bodies and their brain functions? Parents should be paying closer attention to what their children are eating, as it can make all the difference between a healthy body and a healthy functioning brain.

Here are a few tips to help get your child fit - body and mind.

Always eat breakfast - According to the American Dietetic Association, kids who eat breakfast are more likely to meet their daily nutritional requirements, keep their weigh under control and have lower blood cholesterol levels.

Be selective in food choices - The good news is that often the same foods that offers benefits for the brain also benefits the body. Here's a quick list of healthy brain food that can help with weight management:
Oatmeal (absolutely one of the best selections!)
Bananas
Milk (try low fat varieties such as 2%)
Salmon
Tuna (mix with low fat mayonnaise)
Yogurt
Turkey
Oranges
Cantaloupe
Peas
Chicken (try grilled or baked)
Spinach
Other brain foods include: peanut butter, eggs, brown rice, lean beef, broccoli and eggs
Practice Portion Control - An overlooked step to a healthy mind and body is potion control. It's obvious what overeating can do to the body, but it also works adversely on the brain. Researchers (as reported in the journal Cell) have actually connected overeating to erratic brain functions. Although portion size is subjective, a good approach is to start by monitoring your family's eating habits (see next step).
Analyze the eating habits of your family - You may have overeaters and/or picky eaters which make meal planning difficult. Here are a few ideas:
Overeaters:
o Serve appropriate servings without second helpings
o Don't keep serving platters on the table - this may encourage more eating
o Have them drink a glass of water before the meal
o Pour snacks in a cereal bowl rather than eat directly from the bag
o Buy single serving snacks
Picky eaters:
o If you pack your child's lunch, ask them not to throw away anything. If they bring home their "garbage" in their lunchbox, you can get a clearer picture of what they are eating.
o Give them plenty of healthy snacks during the day and serve them smaller portions at dinner. Larger, formal meals may not be as appetizing to them.
o Try to give them more control over what they eat by letting them help plan their breakfast, lunch, snacks or dinner.
o Give them nutritional shakes (usually a big hit with kids of all ages)
Maintaining a good, healthy diet will get your kids off to a good start - but don't forget to exercise!

In addition to writing for her own website, Nina Guilbeau is the Siblings Editor for BellaOnline the Voice of Women (http://bellaonline.com/site/siblings) She is also a contributing writer for Suite101.com. Nina has just finished her first women's fiction entitled "Too Many Sisters", a finalist for the 2008 Royal Palm Literary Award. The book is now available on Amazon and http://NinaGuilbeau.com
Her new ebook "Birth Order and Parenting" will be available February 2009

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Why Games Are Good For Kids?

The same way we exercise our bodies it is good to exercise our minds. Kids are fortunate to have minds and bodies that are already in perfect working order. But, the children who exercise maintain their great health.

The same goes for their growing minds. Children can learn faster and remember more than adults and the kids who exercise their minds will have better brain power throughout their lives.
One of the best ways for kids to stretch their mental muscles is through playing games. Strategy games are great for reasoning skills and memorization. Also interacting with others, and learning good sportsmanship, is great for improving social skills. When I was young popular games were checkers, Stratego, and Monopoly.

Some of the newer games that can be great for kids are some of the most popular. For instance Bakugan. I am pretty sure the entire premise behind the game was commercial. It started with a popular anime show and then developed into toys and other products.

Never the less, this game has a lot of appeal to kids and will help develop, their mind power, and other skills. For instance the actual game itself is a strategy game. When matched against opponents, strategy has to be used to play the correct gate cards to get the highest score.
But it is also a game of skill. The balls have to be rolled just right in order to land on, and open on, the card you just played. This is actually harder than it looks and takes skill and practice.
The game also helps with social skills because when the kids play they are interacting with each other, and it is usually played for keeps so if your creature loses the match it now belongs to the winner.

Which also throws in some healthy competition, plus the balls are also fun to collect. This game really offers the whole package of strategy, skill, competition, collecting, and using the imagination.

Games that help kids interact and learn strategy can only increase their mind power and social skills. Playing can make learning easy and games are the perfect resource.
Whatever activity your child enjoys, encouraging healthy, play will help them build strong minds and bodies, and give them a step up in life.

You can learn more about Bakugan [http://bakuganinstock.com/] and the new Battle Brawlers Video Game [http://bakuganinstock.com/bakugan-battle-brawlers-the-video-game] at my favorite Bakugan site.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Jan_Cummings

How to Teach Kids Healthy Habits Through the Use of Play

Children love to play, so use play in as much as you can to teach your children healthy habits. Play can get your child off the couch and or computer and doing a fun activity and burning calories. If your child plays sports everyday they can defeat childhood obesity. The easiest way to do this through sports. Whether your child is a boy or girl there are many choices. Basketball is great for cardiovascular fitness and overall health. Baseball and softball are fun to play and teach social skills and teamwork. Soccer is great to keep kids in shape and is often the activity children play the most. If we can make healthy activities play for children they will do them willingly and stay healthy. Team sports teach teamwork and are competitive which teach children to have fun and learn to go for their dreams. Children need to get outdoors and away from their video games and computers. Physical activity and playing sports makes kids healthy.
Outdoor activities do not have to be sports. They can be hiking, biking, jogging and even walking. Anything that raises the heart rate will increase children's health. This can increase strength and tone and help decrease childhood obesity, diabetes and hypertension in children.
Many communities have public parks and trails to take children to get their play on. Family outings can be an event your children look forward to every week. Plan these trips at least 2-3 times a week. Do events the while family can enjoy and do together such as jogging or a riding bikes.

Dinner preparation can be made into healthy play also. Let your child help you prepare healthy meals with you. You can turn it into play by making up games. Have the child mix up salads with you. Have them mix them with as many different colors as they can come up with. This will help them have fun playing while gaining the most diverse nutrition available with all the different colored vegetables. You can even have your children name the fruits and vegetables. That way they can make a game out of who will be coming to the salad bowl for instance. It sounds funny but when kids name their food they take a greater interest in it.
As you can see play can be used to teach your children healthy habits. Healthy play for children has three main aspects to it. There is outdoor activities, sports and most important of all nutrition.

Jay Holt is a graduate from the University of Florida's nutrition college. Jay is a health and fitness advocate and has combined his literary aspirations with his love of nutrition.
His ability to see the world through a child's eyes is unequaled. His new book "Tommy the Tommy the Tomato Teaches Nutrition" is highly recommended by parents and educators everywhere (and kid-approved).
For more information about the book Go To http://www.tommythetomato.com

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Benefits of Healthy Eating For Kids

Children's growth and development depend very much on the foods they are fed and the benefits of healthy eating for kids is detailed in this article to alert parents to the dangers of neglecting this aspect of the child's development. Balanced, nutritious meals are a must for every growing child because the benefits transcend into adulthood. Poor diet leads to obesity and a host of medical and psychological problems for the child.

For those of us not aware of it there is a good guide pyramid, which can help us better understand the different food groups. All of our food is divided into grains, vegetables, fruits, dairy products and meats, beans, poultry, fish and nuts. Your child gets a balanced diet when all the food groups are covered. There are some groups where the intake needs to be lesser than the others, such as the oils and meats.

The benefits of healthy eating for kids will not be felt if you blindly follow the food groups. For example an apple in its natural state will do more for your child's well being and overall good health than an apple pie with sugar would.

For children to develop healthy eating habits the parents will need to lead by example. It is always advisable to start a child out eating right from a very small age because this becomes habit forming. You should never put a child on a restrictive diet without the approval and supervision of a pediatrician. Overweight children go through quite a lot of trauma as a result of their size and all of this can be avoided if the parents take onus for ensuring that the children eat the right kinds of healthy nutritious foods they need.

Given below are some ideas on how to draw on the benefits of healthy eating for kids:
o You can guide your family's choices by doing the shopping right; never dictate it will not go down well. Make sure your home has plenty of healthy foods like fruit and vegetables, yoghurts and dips that you can turn into healthy meals and snacks for the family. Don't stock up on crisps and other junk food no matter how attractive the packaging and how easy it makes the shopping, to simply load up the trolley with a bunch of pre-packaged foods for kids.

o Make mealtimes a family affair with a lot of happy talk and exchange of ideas. This will help children to eat more slowly. Gobbling food will not help a child differentiate between a full and overfull stomach. When there is fun and laughter at the table you will find your children wanting to stay put and take the meal at a slow pace.

o Take your children with you when you go shopping and when you prepare meals as much as possible. Take the time to learn about their preferences and use the opportunities to teach them about the importance of nutrition and the benefits of healthy eating for kids.

o It is no secret that children enjoy snacking between meals and plenty of low fat milk and fruit should be the healthy alternatives. Try to avoid over eating at any cost. Always remember that what you don't have at home your children cannot eat - so throw out the junk food!

Exercising and being active goes hand in glove with eating right so make use of this article to better understand the benefits of healthy eating for kids.

Galen spends 48 hours on the Internet every day as the Online Marketing Manager of Mediafreaks. He is currently driving the online marketing efforts of various free online adventure games and commercial projects produced by the award-winning 3D animation studio based in Singapore and China. Galen is also known fondly as 'The China Man' by his colleagues as he spent years in China running the Mediafreaks China office.

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How to Find Healthy Cake Recipes for Kids

Cake is one of the favorite food items. Kids are very much fond of cakes and desserts. But most of the cakes contain lot of calories and so they cannot be included in weight loss or healthy diets. However there are also some healthy cake recipes. Such healthy cakes contain fewer calories and so they are quite suitable for kids. You can prepare banana cake, apple, pumpkin, carrot, dried fruits cakes etc. These cakes are very much delicious and health friendly. Such cakes will also provide important nutrients like fiber and vitamins.

Most of us prepare cakes for our kids by using white sugar. White sugar will cause many adverse effects in kids and these include insulin rise, weight gaining, teeth killing etc. Calorie content is very high in white sugar. This refined sweetener is able to depress the immunity system of your kid. Over consumption of white sugar may cause infertility. So you have to use less white sugar in the cakes. Instead of sugar, you can use fruit juice and fruit as sweeteners. You can also substitute sugar components with fruit puree, flavored yogurt and nonfat sour cream.

You should take care to avoid soft margarines in your cakes. Hydrogenated vegetable oils are usually used for making soft margarines and so they are not good for health. Hydrogenated vegetable oils will increase the bad cholesterol level in the body which in turn leads to strokes and heart attacks. You can use either softened organic butter or soft spread made from sunflower or olive oils in your cakes. Traditional icing or frosting is high in calories and fats. For frosting recipes, you can use low fat cream. It is better to top the cake with toasted nuts. Before baking, you can coat the cake with desiccated coconut. You should take care to use organic ingredients like flour, milk, fruits, oats, butter and egg in the cakes for your kids.

Healthy nutrition is very much essential for kids. So parents must take great care while preparing desserts and cakes for their kids. You can find a lot of healthy cake recipes in the internet. Various sites will provide the recipes and information about healthy cake recipes and nutritional content in them. Diet books will also provide the information about various healthy recipes. A nutritionist or dietician will be able to suggest some healthy cake recipes for your kids. Your nutritionist will help you to prepare cakes without using harmful ingredients.

You can find a lot of cake recipes [http://kraftycakes.com/] on net. Click here to find some good cupcakes recipes [http://kraftycakes.com/].

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Rules for a Healthy Diet for Kids

Here are some suggestions that will hopefully help you with working out a healthy diet for your children.

1) Do not use food as a treat. If your children consider food to be a reward for good behavior, this can turn out to be a habit for their lifetime. You need to make sure that they see food as fuel and not a treat.

2) Try to keep sugar level in the diet at a minimum. Sugar not only rots teeth but can also cause your children to put on weight if they have too much of it. It can be difficult, but it is often better to give your children more of their main course than to offer cakes, snacks or desserts after their food. You can also encourage your children to eat more fruits or take in healthier snacks such as fruit bars and unsweetened yogurt.

3) Don't give in to advertisements. Lots of children tend to eat foods that is advertised or being promoted by the TV or their friends. It won't be easy to prevent them from craving for such demands, especially for the latest items. However, do it for your children's long term health benefit and do think about how it can affect their behavior if you give in to what they want all the time. It is OK to buy them the things they want occasionally, but make sure that they aren't consuming unhealthy foods all the time.

4) Be a good role model. If you are expecting your children to eat all their vegetables you will need to make sure that you eat them too. Children copy the behavior of the people around them and so they will need to see you eating well too.

5) Eat the "rainbow" foods. "Rainbow" foods are food that are served in a variety of different colors. Unhealthy food is fine every once in a while as long as there are good healthy foods eaten in between. So make sure to include a diet with plenty of fresh fruit and vegetables of different colors into your children's meals.

Alert: Your child might die earlier than they should. Horrible fact, but 100% true. The Center for Disease Control has pointed out that our youngest generation is the first in decades that is facing a life expectancy shorter than yours. Obesity and weight issues have been cited as the reason why. Over the past 15 years, we have seen the obesity rate in young children double. And its more than tripled in teenagers. Physical Education is being cut in literally every part of the world and youth sports have become an ultra competitive affair that yield next to no health benefits whatsoever. We are most certainly facing a crisis. Parents don't know what to feed their kids anymore. How can they?

There is so much misinformation and over-hyped gimmicks on the market that confusion and indecision have become completely normal.

What about exercise?

If your children aren't getting it in school, they aren't getting it through sports and they generally don't like to exercise anyways, what should a parent do?

Here's the reality...
We need to make a change and we need to make it fast.

This program is aptly been called the 'Final Solution' to the youth obesity crisis, and you're about to find out why.

Want to learn more and truly save your kid from health problems? Visit this website below:
http://obesitydenial.wordpress.com/2012/12/27/youth-fitness-solution/
Start creating a healthy lifestyle for your precious children today!Here's that link one more time -
http://obesitydenial.wordpress.com/2012/12/27/youth-fitness-solution/

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Kids' Health and Fitness Is Important

Parents have a lot of responsibilities to their children. They have to provide food, shelter, clothing and love. In addition, they have to teach manners, how to tie shoes and how to use the potty. While parents do have a lot on their plates, they can't forget the importance of teaching their kids health and fitness.

It's very important that children learn at a young age about healthy eating and exercise. If they learn to love fruits and vegetables and enjoy being active as children, it will really help them the rest of their lives.

It can be easy for parents to get caught up in other things that they don't think about health and fitness. With work, errands, cooking, cleaning and just taking care of a child's need, it can seem that there is no time to devote to exercise or think about what kids are eating. After all, it's quicker to give your kids a processed snack or pick up fast food than it is to prepare a healthy snack or lunch.

Parents can use many excuses for not doing the right things. They're too busy, too tired, or they just don't know what to do or how to change. You can always find an excuse for not doing something. At some point, you just have to come to the realization that it's important and you have to find a way to make it happen.

Childhood obesity is a major problem and it's because too many parents make excuses. They don't take responsibility for their child's health. The easy route is to let your kids watch as much TV as they want. But the best thing for them is to make them turn of the TV and do something active. The same is often true for food.

First, parents should start educating themselves about health and fitness. Purchase more fruits, vegetables, nuts, and seeds and stop buying a lot of processed snacks. Take 30 minutes out of your day to participate in some fun kids exercises with your children. If you do it with them, they are more likely to join in.

Teaching your kids about health and fitness is a conscious choice. It takes effort, but in the end it is well worth it. Show your kids that being healthy will help them feel better and live a long, happy life. As a parent, that is one of the greatest gifts you can give them.

Remember that the reason to learn about health and fitness for kids is to give you skills and knowledge necessary to help your children become the healthiest people they can be.

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Kids' Health - What Causes Seizures in Children?

In the country, seizures affect 1 in every 250 children. Depending on the age of the child, these attacks can manifest in different ways. Some of them are very subtle such as when the child stares blankly at a fixed place, or when a big jolt happens that involve the entire body. Some of these manifestations can also be very vigorous, and they may involve repetitive shaking of the whole body. These manifestations can be short-lived, but they can also last more than 5 minutes.

1. Fever

Seizures are a relatively common problem in children especially those between the ages of 1 and 6. These attacks last around 5 minutes, and their manifestations include shaking of the hands, arms, and legs. Doctors say that this is but a normal effect of the fever, so it's not something that you should be worried about.

But even though this is the case, there are some types of seizures that need medical attention, so always be watchful of the signs and symptoms. For instance, if the seizure is not accompanied by a fever, or if it comes with a fever that involves only one part of the body, you must take your child to a nearby hospital immediately.

2. Severe infection

In general, anything that has an impact on the brain can cause seizure. So aside from fever, one of the leading causes of seizures is meningitis or infection of the brain. In meningitis, there is a buildup of toxins produced by bacteria, so the brain gets swollen. In addition to infection, a child can also get attacks because of head injuries and accidents.

3. Dehydration

If a child gets dehydrated, blood going to the brain is cut off, thereby leading to seizures. Also, dehydration can also trigger fever, which can result to attacks.

4. Brain tumor

When children experience attacks, one of the things that medical professionals look into is the possibility of a brain tumor. While we wish they never happen, there is definitely a possibility that they can happen.

What can you do as a parent to help prevent seizures in your children?

First, let your child drink plenty of water. Get him into the habit of drinking at least 8 glasses of water everyday to keep him hydrated. You can also give him corticosteroids, or drugs meant to reduce the swelling of the brain. But aside from those, make sure that your child lives in a quiet and stress-free environment. Sometimes, extreme noise may trigger attacks.

To know more about causes of seizures in children, head over to http://www.causesofseizures.net/.

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Children's Health - Choosing Healthy Foods For Your Kids

Are you concerned about your child's eating habits? It can be challenging to feed toddlers a healthy diet every day, but I have a secret weapon. A homemade smoothie is an easy way to serve your child at least one serving of fruits, vegetables, and calcium every day. Follow these five simple guidelines to help your child eat a nutritious diet:

Five Effortless Nutrition Suggestions for More Nutritious Kids:

3+ portions of veggies, 2 portions of fruit, 3 portions of whole grain products, 3 food servings of calcium, 1/2 their entire body weight in grams of lean health proteins
One serving size of veggies is just one cup raw or 1/2 cup prepared. Even though it can often be difficult to get small children to eat raw vegetables, it's simple to include at least one portion of veggies in a delicious homemade smoothie. Spinach, mixed greens, and steamed baby carrots are specially effortless to conceal in mouth watering shakes. One of the best smoothie recipe with blended veggies is called Frog Juice, and my favorite recipe made with baby carrots is Bunny Juice. Your kids will happily eat their vegetables if you serve them inside a healthy smoothie!

It's substantially simpler and easier to persuade children to eat their fruits instead of vegetables. One helping of fresh fruit is one actual fruit (such as 1 apple or mango), or 3/4 cup of berries. Although fruits aren't necessary to make great drinks, smoothies taste better with a bit of sweet fruit added! Frozen bananas are very popular in smoothies, because they add cold and creamy texture to the drink. The preparation to add bananas into a juice smoothie is basically non-existent: just peel and throw in. Apples are another popular fresh fruits to add to smoothies. Apples are very nutritious and taste great.

Whole Grain Products have a greater nutritional value than processed, highly refined, white grains. Because children consume a relatively small amount of food day-to-day, it is imperative to ensure that they receive the maximum nutritional value for the amount of food that they eat. One serving of whole grains is equal to 1/2 cup cooked rice or pasta, 1 slice of whole grain bread, 1/2 cup dry oatmeal or 1 cup whole grain breakfast cereal (with less than 6 grams of sugar, and 3 or more grams of fiber per serving). You can easily add a serving of breakfast cereal to your child's drinks, or add dry oats if your vita mixer is effective enough. The whole grain cereal found in the baby section is one other option, though it will be challenging to find a baby cereal with at least 3 grams per serving of fibers.

Chances are your son or daughter will get nearly all of their daily calcium supplement by drinking milk, but calcium is also found in yogurt, cottage cheese, traditional cheeses, green veggies, legumes, and tofu, along with calcium-fortified food items including waffles and orange fruit juice. One serving of calcium is equal to 1 cup dairy, yogurt, or calcium-fortified juice, 1/2 to One cup beans or broccoli, or four ounces of tofu. You should seek out low-fat versions of dairy, yogurt, and cheese, which are healthier since they have less artery-clogging fat. Children over the age of 2 should always consume 1% milk, never the full fat variety. Smoothies made with low-fat milk, soymilk, citrus veggie juice, or even low-fat natural yogurt are specially scrumptious solutions to consume your calcium.

Lean proteins is another sticky point in children's diets. My own child weighs in at 36 pounds. It's ideal for her to consume one half of that in grams, 18 grams, of lean protein each and every day. Children can get protein from a assortment of sources: cooked chicken, poultry hamburgers, yogurt, lowfat milk, peanut butter, tofu, eggs, almonds, vegan burgers, lasagna, and string cheese are common proteins sources amongst this particular age bracket. You'll really need to look at nutrition facts for one's particular grams of proteins for each amount for each item. Try to consider that barbequed chicken along with turkey burgers are definitely the hefty hitters, averaging twenty-one gr of protein per helping that is the dimensions of ones palm. Natural yogurt, low-fat dairy, peanut butter, as well as tofu are usually fantastic sources of trim necessary protein that taste delightful in kid's shakes!

Now that we've reduced down every single nutrition rule you can see exactly how our nourishing smoothie tested recipes for children could go a considerable ways to ensure your child is ingesting great-tasting, healthful food each day. All the best!

Disclosure: I 'm not an expert in nutrition, only a mommy attempting to make certain my little princess dines on food that is as nutritious as possible. Speak with your doctor before switching your child's diet.

Would your child like to drink healthy smoothies? Click here for Heather Boger's favorite smoothie recipes for kids. Good luck!

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