Healthy eating and appropriate for kids: Go Picnic Coupon and Review

The food industry is lacking in so many ways, but if I had to choose one area for them to tackle as soon as possible, it would definitely be providing healthier options for kids. Of course, I cook as healthy as possible for Lucas all the time, but it would be nice to have access to more "convenience" foods that are also healthy. I mean, lets face it, this is the 21st century. Gone are the days of spending the day in the kitchen cooking three square meals and two snacks a day. We have busy lifestyles and our kids even have busy lifestyles. It would make life a little easier for us moms if we had access to convenient on-the-go meals for kids that matched our busy lives. That's why when I ran across Go Picnic, I was really happy to see a company doing just that! Go Picnic sells nutritious high-quality shelf-stable meals for adults and for kids. The children's line is called MightyMunch and each meal is healthy, fun, and so delicious! About MightyMunch Meals (from the website): Each kids meal is balanced to limit overall fat, saturated fat and sugar content, and contains protein, grains & fruit as well as a sweet treat and a fun surprise. Natural ingredients are at the core of MightyMunch kids meals "“ our food contains no trans fats, high fructose corn syrup, MSG, artificial flavors or artificial colors. MightyMunch kids meals also have no peanut or tree nut ingredients. Each food item is individually packaged and needs no refrigeration or heating "“ that means you can eat MightyMunch kids meals anytime, anywhere! I received three meals to try out: ExploreMunch, GalaxyMunch, and SafariMunch. The meals come packaged in these cute boxes that have fun games and trivia on the inside. The meals themselves are so delicious! They only lasted a couple of days because what was supposed to be a "kids" meal ended up with all three of us (hubby, Lucas, and me) fighting over them! Lucas, the intended recipient, LOVED all three meals and that's saying a lot because he has been so picky lately. Each boxed meal comes with flatware, a wipe to clean your hands, and a temporary tatoo for the little ones. They are extremely convenient because they don't have to be refrigerated and are ready-to-eat. Most of all, I love knowing that they are healthy. You'll find foods like Calbee baked snap pea crisps, Mrs. May-s sunflower seed crunch, Surf Sweets natural gummy bears, Late July Organic Crackers, and more inside the boxes. The portions are just right and the foods have none of the bad stuff! Even parents of kids with food allergies will find MightyMunch meals convenient. None of the meals have peanut or tree nut ingredients, some are gluten and casein free, and there are even Kosher options as well! MightyMunch meals would be a great to use for lunches, picnics, sporting events, road trips, traveling, or when you're in a pinch and need a quick healthy option for your kids. Go Picnic has generously offered all Jolly Mom readers a 10% discount! Enter JOLLYMOM at checkout.

Must Daycare Provide Gluten-Free Food?

I was thinking back to the days when my daughter was in daycare 9 hours-a-day, 5 days-a-week. It was hard to leave her but she was in very good hands; especially when at 15-months-old she was diagnosed with celiac disease. Luckily we had a good relationship with our daycare provider. She was licensed and ran the business out of her home. Suddenly she was getting a quick lesson on celiac disease and gluten-free cooking. My experience in the home daycare setting was very positive. Emma-s daycare provider saw the health troubles she was going through before her diagnosis and was happy to help when we finally figured out what was wrong with her. Our family-s second experience with daycare was at a center starting about 5 years after Emma-s diagnosis. After staying home for a while with the kids, my job in television news was asking me to come back to work Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. I just needed one day of childcare. With our former childcare closed because of retirement, the easiest place for me to turn was a center. I could get the kids in fast and no worries about alternative plans for vacations or sick days. The one catch - they wouldn-t do "gluten-free". Well I wasn-t too worried about it in those days. It was only Fridays and Emma could bring her lunch. But my next question for the center manager was, "Then can I get a discount on my tuition since she-s not eating your food?" I was told no - "center policy". And this was the way it was"¦until I began staying home again in 2008. Emma was in third grade by then, and the only time she really had to worry about bringing lunch to daycare was in the summer. Even though the center always treated my kids great, I had always wondered if I was somehow getting the short end of the stick on this deal with Emma-s food. Prescribed diets in daycares "” legally speaking So with absolutely no ties to daycare anymore, I emailed the Minnesota Department of Human Services this week to find out more. I posed this question of whether I should have been reimbursed and what laws daycares must follow regarding a prescribed diet. Peggy Cunningham, Child Care Center Unit Manager with the state DHS responded to my questions. Bottom line - at least in Minnesota - the child care center must be sure your child gets the diet that is prescribed to your child. The part of Minnesota Rules, part 9503.0145, subpart 5 on prescribed diets reads: "The license holder must provide for a child-s dietary needs prescribed by the child-s source of medical care or require the parent to provide the prescribed diet items that are not part of the menu plan"¦" For your reference, child care centers are licensed under Minnesota Rules parts 9503.0005 to 9503.0170 and can be accessed through the Minnesota Revisor-s Office. So the center workers need to make the food or tell you you need to make it and send it along. The rule also reads, "All staff designated to provide care to the child must be informed of the diet order." Cunningham then summarized my questions and the state-s answers for me, "The rule does not have standards in place addressing tuition payments or a reduction in tuition under certain circumstances. Given the information you provided in your e-mail, it does not appear as though the center has violated the licensing rule." Does that seem like a fair system? Or do I just need to be happy they let my child eat her own food I sent with her? Sorry to sound defensive and sarcastic. But this does touch a nerve. Parents all over the country are sending their celiac children to daycare and these questions must be crossing their minds. I know there is a whole other question of do you really want the daycare workers touching your child-s gluten-free food anyway? Well I raise that point "” only to say that-s for another post at another time. The above rule is strictly Minnesota law; I am not sure how other states handle this one. I hope from this post it at least gives any new parents of a celiac child a place to begin in their quest for more information, either from their state or their daycare. Some daycares likely accommodate these special diets, like my first one did. And clearly others do not. Are other people getting gluten-free friendly childcare accommodations? If so, did you just get lucky and find the right center? What suggestions do you have for parents? Feel free to post in the comments below.

Some EARTH DAY Fun with Your Kids and PBS

The new PBS KIDS GO! video playerwill host an Earth Day channel with themed content from ARTHUR, DESIGN SQUAD, THE GREENS and MAYA & MIGUEL. This new online channel invites kids to learn about how their favorite character role models share the Earth, whenever they want. In addition to Web content from PBS KIDS GO! TV series, Web-exclusive sites such as EEKOWORLD -- an environment where kids create their own creatures and monitor them in the wild -- and THE GREENS -- a pbskidsgo.org series about the Green family and their exploration of sustainability, ecology and environmental care -- will further explore what it means to be green. On pbskids.org, you and your younger children can create an original Earth Day-centered tale at "Dot's Story Factory" and enjoy games and activities with environmental themes. Additionally, pbskids.org/video will feature themed videos from CURIOUS GEORGE, SID THE SCIENCE KID and more. Then get outside, enjoy and help the planet Earth!!! Episodes for April 22 include: PBS KIDS (check local listings for air times) CURIOUS GEORGE - NEW! Night of the Weiner Dog Poor Hundley! It's the first time he's been apart from the Doorman in over three years and George's room isn't exactly this dapper daschund's idea of "neat and orderly." Being a good host, George follows the Doorman's detailed instructions. George accurately measures Hundley's food, graciously lets him watch his favorite TV show, "Poodle Groomers," and even rearranges his living room to make Hundley feel more at home. Though Hundley's strict demands are not George's idea of a fun sleepover, George comes through for his friend by rescuing Hundley's squeaky mouse from the balcony. Now, at last, Hundley can fall asleep! Later that night, when George is having a nightmare, how can Hundley return the favor and help his friend? Animal Trackers It's Nature Week and George is taking pictures of wild animals and their tracks for the big exhibit. Bullfrogs, squirrels, raccoons and hawks are all nice, but George wants a picture of something really exciting and unusual. While George searches for the fawn Bill spotted, he finds an unusual set of tracks that look like a cross between a gigantic duck and a colossal snake. George decides there must be a duckbilled dinosaur on the loose, which would make for a perfect photo for Nature Week! George leaves a trail of fruits and vegetables to lure the dinosaur, but then he remembers that not all dinosaurs are friendly! George frantically rushes to warn everyone, when he bumps into the real culprit behind those tracks -- and it's very different than a dinosaur! SID THE SCIENCE KID The Dirt on Dirt In an Earth Day-themed episode, Sid wants to know what makes dirt so dirty? At school, Sid and his friends discover that dirt is really important to the Earth because it helps things grow, and it's also filled with tiny rocks, pieces of leaves, and even living things like bugs and worms! SUPER WHY! Tiddalick the Frog Whyatt's mom tells him that he's wasting water. This is a really big problem and he's not sure how to fix it. So the Super Readers dash into the Australian folk tale of Tiddalick the Frog and make the acquaintance of a funny amphibian whose puddle jumping is using up all the water and leaving his neighbors in the dust -- literally! As the Super Readers help Tiddalick and his dry friends, they learn how important water is to the planet along with a valuable lesson about conservation. CLIFFORD THE BIG RED DOG Doggie Garden It is Keep Birdwell Beautiful month and the kids are doing their part by planting a flower garden. Seeing this, the dogs decide to create a doggie flower garden of their own. But when Cleo hears that almost anything grows in Birdwell Island soil, she decides she'd much rather grow a garden full of dog toys! She soon learns, however, that working alone for a selfish end is not nearly as rewarding as working together for the whole community. Captain Birdwell's Treasure Clifford and his dog friends find the long-lost trunk of Captain Birdwell, filled with wonderful items brought to the Island by the explorer long ago. But through a misunderstanding, Jetta is given credit for the discovery. She knows that telling the truth is the right thing to do, but she can't resist the promise of a gold medal award. It doesn't take long for her to realize, however, that awards don't give much pleasure when they're not deserved. World Tree Cuisine It is time to celebrate the World Tree's birthday and Madge and Snook are planning a surprise party for the tree's residents. But when Burdette and Wartz overhear them say they are baking a cake, all of the animals start dropping hints to ensure that foods they eat are included in the cake. When everyone gathers for the celebration, they are excited to find individually flavored cupcakes! BARNEY & FRIENDS Rabbits BJ is pretending to be a great detective, but all great detectives need a mystery to solve! A case quickly comes his way when something nibbles on one of Baby Bop's healthy snacks. BJ, Barney, and Baby Bop uncover several clues along the way and soon realize the animal is someone's pet rabbit. Educational objective: To learn about rabbits. Ducks and Fish Barney sees Riff protecting a nest full of duck eggs. Together, they leave the eggs to look for food for when the ducklings hatch. When they return, Riff is pleasantly surprised to find the eggs have cracked open and the baby ducklings have hatched! Educational objective: To learn about ducks and fish. Music curriculum: musical instruments (guitar). PBS KIDS GO! (check local listings for air times) ARTHUR - NEW! The Blackout It's the hottest day in Elwood City, when a total blackout leaves its residents without any electricity. Will Arthur and DW survive without AC and TV? Luckily, the Molina family steps in to teach the Reads a lesson on how to keep cool and have fun as a community even under the toughest of weather conditions! Mei Lin Takes a Stand Binky's baby sister Mei Lin isn't keen on learning to walk and would rather stick to crawling. But then Baby Kate and Pal's flea friends, brothers Sale and Pepe, return to Elwood City and share a tale of a little princess in the land of "Hanzan-Niis" who learns to walk in order to save her beloved court jester. Will Mei Lin be inspired to take a stand or continue to stumble? CYBERCHASE - NEW! The X-Factor All is not well in Perfectamundo, a dome-enclosed cybersite, when orange spots are discovered building up on the dome's interior surface, blocking the site's precious sunlight. What source could be responsible for the spots multiplying so fast? Is it Hacker's new factory that pours out orange clouds through smoky stacks? It can't be that new Digifizz toy, with its tiny burst of colorful sparkles shooting into the air each time it gets used. With time running out, the CyberSquad must come to grips with the power of multiplication and use it to undo the site's pollution problem. MAYA & MIGUEL Every Day is Earth Day For a school Earth Day project, the kids decide to clean up an old lot and plant a community garden. But as the deadline approaches, a rainstorm hits, turning the patch of dirt into a muddy mess. How will Maya get her friends out of the muck this time?

Kids and “Bad” Food Anxiety?!

I found this recent New York Times article that piqued my interest, called, "What-s Eating Our Kids? Fears About "˜Bad- Foods." I want my kids someday (when I have them) to have a healthy relationship with food. I want them to know fruits and veggies and whole grains and low-fat dairy are yummy, but I also don-t want them to freak out if someone offers them an ice cream cone. I want them to be able to enjoy the special treat without another kid (or mother) commenting. I-m not a mom yet, but I still have an opinion on this: it-s one thing to encourage healthy eating habits (recently Michelle Obama-s been talking a lot about how her family find that balance between health and pleasure with respect to food), but it-s another thing to ban foods altogether "” which can lead to binge eating behavior later in life or an unhealthy relationship with food (like I-ve experienced). I laugh now, but in grade school, we had a great nutrition curriculum called Juno-s Journeys, which promoted healthy eating in a fun way, which I shared here when my blog began. Following Juno-s adventures in the forest, we learned that foods were categorized as by "Go," "Think," and "Stop" foods. Nothing was labeled "bad" or off-limits "” but we were able to identify that some foods are healthier than others and that "Stop" foods ought to be consumed infrequently, but not necessarily "never". It wasn-t intended to turn us into self-righteous "orthorexics," not that the term had likely been coined back then, anyway. The thing is, as an 9-year old then or 29-year old now, Juno-s messages still resonate. He kind of introduced me to clean eating, without knowing it! Anyway, I decided to look to my own upbringing for cues on what works and doesn-t work for my own future children. No foods were "off limits" in our house, but we also weren-t surrounded by junk food. It was a "treat," and not a frequent thing. I mean, I could have a cookie or two if I wanted it. But if we went back for more, my mom always asked us if we "needed it." Nine times out of ten, I realized I was satisfied with what I-d eaten. When it came to sweets, soda was a rarity in our house, for special occasions like parties. Dessert was usually fruit. And my mom only baked for our birthdays (because she knew if it was in the house, we-d eat it!). It-s nice to know that we ate pretty healthily growing up, and with balanced meals. Interestingly, my brother and sister are both "” and have always been "” slim. I was the only one with "food issues." I-m also the eldest "¦ and the perfectionist "¦ and the one with OCD tendencies and performance anxiety issues. But all that aside, if I had to guess, I-d say my preoccupation/obsession/issues with food didn-t begin until long after college, when I was living on my own. And as someone dealing with eating issues now "“ pre-pregnancy, pre-kids "” it-s my hope that between my husband and I, we can raise nutritionally-savvy (but not food-fearing) children. I don-t want them to see Mommy eating something different than Daddy or commenting that "it-s too fattening!" I want them to see me enjoying a slice of pizza just as much as I enjoy a Greek salad. I have to say, I love it that now, when my husband and I sit down to a meal together, we-re eating the same thing "¦ versus a couple years ago when I was still living in Lean Cuisine world and preparing us separate meals. Because that-s not how I wanted to live "¦ and not the model I wanted to set for my children. We make some concessions; he might like low-fat yogurt while I stick to fat-free, but that-s ok "¦ it-s still in essence "yogurt." And we can sit down and eat it together. Or go out to dinner and share dessert. Food can fuse a family; I really believe that. It-s sustenance that also creates a bond, spurs memories. And if it-s healthy and nutritious, all the better. But I have to say, a life without birthday cake would SUCK. And I want my kids to be able to have their cake and eat it too. You can bet they-ll be washing it down with 1% milk (or skim, it-s ever proven better for kiddos). How about you? If you have children, how have you handled their nutrition education/relationship with food? If you don-t have children, do you fear passing those anxieties on to them? How will you avoid doing it?

Kids Allergies

A kids allergies can make parenting very difficult. Trust me, I know. My oldest child has had food allergies all his life. When he was a baby, diagnosing this was a nightmare. He spit up constantly and his skin was always dry and itchy. In desperation I went from breastfeeding to every type of formula on the market. None of them seemed to agree with him. When we started introducing solids - we had the same issues. Finally when he was eleven months old, we took him off all solids, put him on an amino acid formula, and started the process of introducing foods all over again. At that time food allergy awareness was not what it is today. And alternative food products were not readily available. Now just about every grocery store has a natural foods section that offers soy, wheat substitutes, and nut free options. We have truly come a long way. Understanding Kids Allergies to Food In very basic terms - a food allergy occurs when a person-s body thinks that a harmless food protein is actually a harmful substance. When a person eats something that they are allergic to, their immune system attacks that protein and over produces histamines to fight it off. This can cause a variety of symptoms from itchiness and hives, to stomach cramps, diarrhea, and nausea, to an anaphylactic reaction, to death - and everything in between. To me, the scariest thing about a food allergy is the unpredictability of the reaction. Obviously, avoiding the offending food is the best course of action. But sometimes foods aren-t clearly labeled. Other times - cross contamination is an issue. This is when the food that an allergic person is eating doesn-t actually contain the allergen but has come into contact with that substance. For example, a person with a wheat allergy may order a burger with no bun at a restaurant. Out of habit, the chef might prepare the burger on a bun and belatedly realize that the customer ordered no bun. Instead of preparing a whole new burger, he might just remove the bun - after all, he thinks, what is the big deal? The big deal is the allergic reaction that the customer will experience either in the restaurant or later when he returns home after the meal. Consult a Doctor If you even suspect that your child has a food allergy - it is important to consult your pediatrician and an allergist. At the very minimum you may need a prescription for epinephrine - a brand that many people are familiar with is the Epi Pen. This little device can save a life if administered in a timely fashion. And it goes without saying that an allergic child should have this with him at all times. A doctor will also help the family to come up with an emergency medical care plan, so they know exactly what to do in the event of a reaction. One resource that I continue to turn to for parenting advice regarding kids allergies is the Food Allergy & Anaphylaxis Network (at foodallergy.org) They offer a lot of good advice and allergy management tips.

5 food safety tips for kids who pack their own lunches Teach your kids these important food safety tips. This story was originally titled "5 Food Safety Tips for Kids Who Pack Their Own Lunches" in May 2007 issue. Subscribe to Canadian Living today and never miss an issue! 1. Wash your hands before you prepare or eat food. 2. Carry hot foods, such as chili, soup and stew, in insulated containers and keep them away from cold foods so they stay hot. 3. Toss a small ice pack or frozen juice box in with cold foods to keep them cold. 4. Ice packs won't stay cold all day, so throw out any perishable leftovers after lunch. 5. Buy reusable lunch bags and wash them regularly to prevent bacteria from growing on food residue. Avoid disposable plastic and paper bags if you can. If you can't, don't reuse them – they can harbour bacteria.