If you’ve ever hosted Christmas dinner you know how stressful this can be between planning, shopping, prepping and cooking! Save time by planning your menu early and filling it with healthy delicious dishes that will have your guests wanting seconds. Check out the following tasty and nutrient packed recipes from Delish.com.
Delish.com: A Stress-Free Christmas: Easy Recipes for a Healthy Feast
Holiday dinners, parties and get-togethers full of delicious food, drink and sweets can often call for pants with an adjustable waist band! With a month full of temptations and indulgence it can be difficult to stay on track and many end up gaining weight. We want to help you to put a stop to this and to stay on track with the following article from WebMD that provides 10 tips to avoid holiday weight gain. So please enjoy the holiday season and all it has to offer… but try not to over-indulge.
The Holiday Season is quickly approaching and it’s time to get serious about your gift planning. Nothing makes a more thoughtful gift than something you’ve made yourself! The following from Eating Well provides over 40 delicious and delightful homemade gift ideas complete with recipes. Check them out and create something special for someone on your list today.
As the weather grows colder and we prepare for the winter ahead, nothing can warm you up like a hot cup of soup! While soups are available in cans at the store, most are high in sodium and thus it is best if you can make your own. The following from Real Simple Magazine provides 10 simple and delicious soup recipes filled with nutritional benefits. These are guaranteed to keep you warm on a cold day. Enjoy!
Julie Entwistle, MBA, BHSc (OT), BSc (Health / Gerontology)
As a mother of four kids, meal times can be stressful. While I raised in the era of “finish everything on your plate”, I realized early that this is not an approach that would work for my family. I think the first time I tried the “eat everything approach” it went something like this:
ME: “Abby, you can eat everything on your plate, or you can go to bed”.
ABBY: “Well, that’s a goodnight” as she pushed her plate away and went to bed at 5pm.
Okay, mission failed. But this and other experiments with Abby over time made me realize that she has some texture sensitivities and what I will call “visual food distortions” that absolutely impact her eating. She cannot manage the texture of most meat (unless greasy) and won’t eat anything that looks like a dog’s breakfast (most casseroles, soups and even lasagna included). She likes some pasta shapes but not others, and most days refuses her favorite omelette because it is…not cooked enough, cooked too much, too golden brown, not flipped properly…yes, some days I think Abby survives on air.
However, while I don’t have the time, patience, or cooking knowledge to cater to the specific food preferences of each of my children, I have developed ways to ensure they are getting their nutrition while making meals slightly different. For example, I can still make pasta, sandwiches, and even meat and vegetables while remembering that within these meals each child is more likely to eat what I have prepared if I make some concessions. Some don’t want sauce so I prepare an extra vegetable, some won’t have cheese so I put yogurt on the side, and some need gravy to manage the texture of their potatoes while others leave them plain. The point is that I know the importance of nutrition, and recognize that if I am willing to be flexible, creative, and marginally accommodating, meal time is more enjoyable for us all.
In keeping with the National Child Day on November 20, I wanted to focus on this important parenting topic of picky eating. With the help of pediatric Occupational Therapist Jana Maich, we wanted to provide education and tools for parents on this important topic as follows:
The act of eating is an important part of the daily routine for both children and adults. In addition to being critical for healthy growth and development, eating is also a social activity and often an important part of the family routine. While it is normal for kids to have certain food preferences and dislikes, having a child who is a picky eater can be very concerning for parents, especially when this “pickiness” leads to food refusal, tantrums, or other behaviours. For these families, preparing meals, enjoying dinner as a family, or going out to eat can be unenjoyable due to the very specific preferences of their picky eaters.
There are varying degrees of severity when it comes to picky eating, ranging from an avoidance of certain textures (e.g. not liking “mushy” foods like bananas) to refusal of entire food groups. In addition to working with a pediatrician and nutritionist, occupational therapists can help to address this common issue. In this blog post I will talk about some of the strategies occupational therapists use to help expand a child’s food repertoire and make mealtime enjoyable again.
First and foremost, remove the pressure! A child should never be forced to eat anything. Forcing a child to consume a certain food item reinforces a negative association with meal time and with food. All meal time experiences should be kept positive to allow for the development of a positive association with food. Keep meal time playful and fun with no coercion or pressure to consume anything. Role model exploration of new foods and talk about foods as you eat them (e.g. “wow this apple is so crunchy and sweet!”) A positive meal time environment creates the necessary foundation for food exploration.
Allow your child to explore new foods on his or her own terms. You know the expression “never play with your food?” Ignore it! Exploring the sensory properties of food is a critical component to becoming comfortable with eating. In fact, a children’s comfort with food follows a sequential progression of sensory acceptance. Broadly, this continuum goes as follows: accepting/tolerating the food on their plate, exploring the food with a utensil (e.g. touching with a fork but not with their hand), smelling the food, touching the food with their hand (or allowing you to touch them with the food), bringing the food to their lips, tasting the food, putting the new food item in their mouth (they may spit it out at this point… that is ok!), chewing the food, and finally swallowing a bite. It can take multiple exposures at each level before a child feels ready to move on to the next step. An occupational therapist can help determine where your child is on this sequence and develop fun, play-based activities to move your child along the continuum.
Set a consistent meal-time routine. A predictable routine prior to and during meals can help ease anxiety about mealtime and positively prepare your child for a meal. For example, set a timer prior to the meal where your child will wash their hands, help set the table, and sit down. Make the routine work for you and your family. Involve your child as much as possible in the preparation and serving of meals as this helps increase exposure and comfort with food.
Introduce changes slowly. Start with your child’s preferred foods and gradually make changes to those. For example, if your child likes pizza try adding a small amount of a vegetable to the sauce. When considering what new food items to try, think about keeping the properties of the new food similar to a preferred food. For example, if your child loves peas, try green beans as they are similar in colour and texture. If presenting something new, don’t overwhelm your child with a large portion of a new or non-preferred food – ensure to always have a preferred food on the plate with the new, non-preferred food to make it less overwhelming. Remember – even if your child doesn’t eat it, the fact that it is on the plate counts as EXPOSURE and is a step in the right direction. If tolerated by your child, try and present a new food with a preferred food at all meals to increase exposure and encourage exploration of new foods.
Most importantly, check your expectations. Expanding a child’s food repertoire is a slow process, as the thought of new foods can actually be very overwhelming and scary for some children. Take it day by day, keep it positive, and take pride in small victories while making sure your child feels proud too!
We hope you find this post helpful! For more insightful parenting tips check out some of our past articles on Children’s Health.
While November brings cooler weather and shorter days, the healthy harvest is still plenty! In November we can enjoy delicious healthy locally grown foods like brussel sprouts and winter squash that are full of nutritious benefits. Check out the following from Best Health Magazine which discusses the healthiest and tastiest foods to eat this November.
Parties, costumes and of course candy: for kids, and kids at heart, Halloween is always fun! But among the pile of candy is a hidden pile of sugar that is detrimental to their health. Now that the fun is over, how do you as a parent limit the amount they consume? Check out these great tips from Kidshealth.org on ways to reduce candy consumption.
KidsHealth.Org: 15 Ways To Use Leftover Halloween Candy
Halloween is this Friday and pumpkins are a plenty. But pumpkins are for more than just carving—they also have many delicious and nutritious benefits. The following from Chatelaine discusses the many health benefits of pumpkins, including recipes. So when you’re carving your jack-o-lantern creations, remember to save the insides and create some healthy treats!
Chatelaine: Six health reasons to eat more pumpkin and pumpkin seeds
A 2005 survey by Statistics Canada showed that approximately 12% of Canadians work in an environment that requires rotating shifts. It is well known that working shifts is difficult on the body`s natural rhythms including both sleep cycles and nutrition balance. This can have long term negative health impacts if not managed properly. In keeping in line with Healthy Workplace Month in Canada, the following resource from the Dietitians of Canada provides the top 10 nutrition tips to help you stay healthy if your job includes shift work.
Julie Entwistle, MBA, BHSc (OT), BSc (Health / Gerontology)
Remember: Occupational Therapists define the word “occupation” as the way people “occupy” their time. So, for us, this term actually includes all roles involved in living (again, therapy for living, who knew?). In keeping with my theme for October, in celebration of OT month, I will continue to explore the journey of “occupation” from morning to night, highlighting how OT’s help when things breakdown along the continuum that is living.
So, we have slept, are out of bed, groomed and dressed. Now what? Typically we head to the kitchen to grab something to eat. Admittedly, I am a terrible cook. And on top of this I am leery of ready-made foods, and think the microwave is the root of all cancer. So, let’s just say I struggle with everything that is meal preparation. Many of my clients struggle with this also, but for much more legitimate reasons…
For most of us, breakfast is typically simple. Cereal, toast, maybe eggs, pancakes, granola or fruit. Lunch slightly more complicated, and dinner is an effort. So what if you have a brain injury and have difficulty planning meals? Or, you cannot drive, or can no longer access public transit so you have problems getting items at the store? Maybe you are on a strict budget and can only get food from a food bank. Perhaps you have food in the house, but your appetite is supressed from medication, depression, or some other physiological or mental illness. The dishes might be too heavy to lift if you have upper extremity problems, or you have one hand you can’t use at all which makes cutting, peeling, and carrying heavy pots very difficult. If you have a special diet, or cannot consume foods by mouth, meals take on another form – pureed, soft, smoothies, Ensure, or even through a feeding tube. If the meal is made, perhaps you just can’t carry it to the table as you use a wheelchair, or cane, and the last time you tried the meal ended up on the floor. If you have tremors, shakes or dizziness, walking carrying anything is a challenge. Once you are at the table with your food, an upper extremity or visual problem might make it hard to get the food onto the fork, spoon, or into your mouth. Chewing could be another problem if you have oral-motor difficulties. Then you have to swallow and choking or aspiration are possible.
Occupational therapy treats all that. We provide strategies and supports to enable shopping, and aids that might help get the groceries into the car, into the house, and into the cupboard, fridge or freezer. Or to improve memory we can help to set up systems that enable people to shop efficiently and effectively, including meal planning, creation of lists, mapping out products in isles, and providing strategies on ways to prevent visual and auditory overload common to most stores. When cooking, occupational therapists look at safety around appliances, provide strategies to reduce bending, standing, or reaching, or even aids to reduce bilateral (two-handed) tasks if necessary. If there are dietary concerns, occupational therapy can provide aids and education, and can work with a speech therapist or dietitian to make people are able to manage nutritional needs. If there are negative eating behaviors, we can treat that through cognitive and behavioral therapy, tracking, and helping people access other resources and programs. For consuming food, there are several devices that we can use to address a visual-perceptual neglect, a dominant hand impairment, and train people how to eat with a prosthetic. We can make customized utensils and splints to bridge the gap between a hand and mouth if the two can’t connect.
Spoken quite simply – occupation is everything that is eating: from planning what to eat, getting the food from the store to the house, preparing this safely, and making sure the food meets the mouth, or the stomach. If these things are a challenge for you, occupational therapists treat that.