Christmas is a time of indulgence for many. Wherever you turn there seems to be offers of mince pies, chocolates and many other treats. Whilst this is fine every now and again, if you can base your child’s diet around 3 healthy meals a day with plenty of vegetables and fruit then a few extra treats won’t have too much of an impact.

Keep them hydrated. With the excitement of present opening and game playing kids can forget to drink and may actually confuse thirst with hunger. So make sure they’re drinking plenty of water. To get some extra nutrients into them make a delicious ‘Foodie Tots Super Smoothie’. In a Nutribullet or blender whizz up half a banana, a cup of frozen berries, a handful of spinach leaves and pinch of cinnamon, topped up with water; delicious!

It might be cold outside but don’t forget the importance of exercise for children and adults. There are lots of ways to get active with the kids such as walking, running and biking, and taking them outside on a sunny winter day means you’ll all benefit from a dose of vitamin D from the sunshine; very important for strong healthy bones and strengthening their immune systems.

And if you have a picky eater amongst your family make Christmas an opportunity to explore and taste all the different seasonal vegetables and fruit; boiled Brussels sprouts not their favourite? Make food fun; why not get them to try dinosaur crunching them raw and see who can make the loudest crunch and biggest teeth marks?

Wishing you a very Merry Christmas and a Healthy and Happy New Year!

Here is a roundup of our top tips for dealing with fussy eaters:​
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• Keep offering different foods, even if they don’t eat them – it can take 15-20 exposures to a food before they will decide they like it. If the food is not routinely offered to your child they won’t ever have the chance to reach the point of liking it.
• Don’t use pudding as a reward – however temping it may be, using pudding as a reward or denying it as punishment for poor eating makes the food they don’t want to try less appealing. This gives the message that eating is a chore they need to endure in order to get to the best bit; the pudding
• Don’t hide vegetables – making a sauce with blended “hidden” vegetables is very tempting if it means your child will eat it. However, this is rarely a long term solution and doesn’t teach your child about what vegetables are, what they look like, what colour they are etc. They need to learn what each vegetable tastes like individually to really get to like them. Why not take them on a trip to the supermarket to get them to choose something they’d like to try…
• Lead by example – if you’re not eating plenty of different vegetables and fruit how can we expect our children to do the same? They need to see you eating and enjoying them, similarly if they see you eating junk food how can we expect them not to want to do the same?
• Praise but don’t over praise – in our Foodie Tots classes we encourage parents to give their child praise when they try something and we dish it out too! But we also don’t want them to think that eating is a difficult chore which requires lots of reward. So when they do it, acknowledge with a well done and move on to the next try.

 
For more help with your child’s eating, book your free Foodie Tots class: http://www.foodietots.co.uk/book-a-free-trial.html 

Is your child low in zinc? Do they have white spots on their nails? This is usually a sign that their levels have become pretty low. Zinc is required for growth with deficiency fairly common in childhood, particularly after a growth spurt! Low zinc levels are also linked with ADHD.

As our immune systems also need sufficient amounts of zinc to be strong against the inevitable winter bugs, eczema or asthma, here are a few foods good for boosting zinc intake in our children's diet:

Red Lentils - add a handful to shepherd's pie or a soup
Oats - porridge great for winter morning or flapjacks
Eggs - scrambled egg and beans a quick easy lunch
Beans - As above or low sugar baked beans on toast
Spinach - Use for pesto blended with olive oil and parmesan
Pine Nuts - great portable snack or added to risotto or pasta
Pumpkin seeds - offer as a snack or add to flapjacks
Meats - slow cooked meats or in casseroles are easier for children to chew!
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If you are having trouble getting your toddler to eat more healthy food, come along for a trial at one of our classes: http://www.foodietots.co.uk/book-a-free-trial.html

Fussy eaters are very common, so if you are dealing with one every mealtime, you are not alone!

However, how long this 'phase' goes on for or how deeply it becomes intrenched as a behaviour is often down to how we react or handle the situation. I dealt with a fussy eater and know the frustration, worry, even desperation one can feel at times, but in hindsight and following my research on the topic, I probably didn't handle my son's increasing fussiness in the best way when it first began.

Toddlers have very little control over any aspect of their life, but whether they choose to open their mouth and eat what you have lovingly created for them or not, is very much in their control. Often a picky eater is also a strong-willed child, and they are enjoying the power it gives them! So your pleading to eat or irritation that they're not, in their eyes, is getting a lot of attention. 

My top tip, and I know it's not an easy thing to do, is to give them the impression it doesn't matter whether they eat it or not. It will likely take some time but done consistently, eventually the power struggle stops.

We will be expanding on this and lots more practical tips in our Dealing with Fussy Eaters Workshop for Parents coming soon, £10 for the 90 minute session.
To register your interest, fill in your details below.

By Clare Jeffries (runs our Cobham class)

Children love Halloween, but for some parents the mountain of sweet treats their kids receive can be a bit of a worry. So without being complete party poopers how can we help our children have a slightly healthier Halloween?  Here are some tips from Nutritional Advisor Julia Young:
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• If you’re hosting a party it’s a great opportunity to offer some healthy treats; turn tangerines into mini pumpkins and bananas into scary ghosts, here are some great recipe ideas:

              https://weelicious.com/2013/10/14/tangerine-pumpkins-banana-ghosts-fruity-halloween/

• Introduce some fun and healthy games; bobbing for apples and who can make the biggest crunch in their apple afterwards? Hang popcorn on a thread, and see if they can bite off a piece without using their hands  
• And if the kids are going trick or treating fill them up with a healthy hearty meal beforehand, they’ll eat fewer sweets afterwards
•  Keep your kids moving, lots of active games and dancing  
• Don’t deny them of treats but also remember moderation is key
•  And remember its only one day; they can go back to eating healthily again tomorrow! Enjoy!

By Julia Young (runs our Weybridge class)

Often when dealing with a fussy eater, it’s our natural tendency to jump straight to our desired end result - and we wave a fork or spoons filled with said new food and try to tempt our little ones to pop the food straight into their mouths or TV to distract them!

The problem with this is, children have a natural tendency to be suspicious of new foods, thought to be an evolutionary trait to help protect us when growing from eating something that may be poisonous! For other children it will be more about gaining some control. So maybe it's no wonder their mouths clamp shut and there is nothing we can say to make that mouth open!

But, exploring a new food in a playful setting, similar to Foodie Tots classes, can be a powerful exercise for a nervous or picky eater. Here are our top five fun ideas for exploring food at home before even thinking of serving it on a plate.

1.  Why not get a selection of fruit and veg and ask your child to guess whether they have seeds inside or not? You can create quite a bit of anticipation before chopping up the fruit/vegetable together - smell it, shake it, squeeze it - all great activities to familiarise your child with the fruit/veg and getting them hands on with no pressure to eat!

2. Paint with food - definitely not for the faint-hearted and those that don't like mess, but very rewarding.  Explore different coloured fruit and veggies. Blended raspberries make great red paint!

3. Take a trip to the fruit and veg aisle of your local supermarket or farmers market with your child to let them pick out a fruit or vegetable they like the look of.

4. Get them involved in food preparation, often when children help to cook the food themselves they are more willing to try it. Mushrooms are nice and easy for slicing without a sharp knife.

​5. Casually ask your child to give you a hand with dinner and ‘pick up these chopped vegetables and put them in this saucepan please'. Often children don’t like ‘wet’ foods, but this encourages them to over-ride this whilst focussed on completing the job.

For more ideas and games consider a term of our classes, which has the added bonus of peer pressure, we often find once one child starts exploring the more unsure ones follow! 

Book a trial class here
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Just like breakfast (see our earlier blog here), to keep our growing little ones going until home time, lunch should be a mix of complex carbohydrate, protein and fruit and or vegetables.  Although its tempting to pop a sweet treat in too, its best to keep these for the many parties or play-dates that will include these less healthy options, rather than have them expect it every day!
 
Children often eat better without parents around and when eating with their peers, so use their lunchbox as an opportunity to offer something new or that they’re not always willing to eat at home, but limit it to one thing and the rest they like so they don’t go hungry!

Here are some ideas to help pack a nutritious lunchbox.

Pick one carbohydrate,  one protein and one fruit/vegetable any extra’s you think they need or will enjoy!
 
Carbohydrate
Wholemeal bread for sandwich
Cold cooked wholemeal  or brown rice pasta
Buckwheat crackers (Amisa), oat cakes (Nairns) or strips of pitta bread
Cold new potatoes or roasted sweet potato chunks

Other Carb Extras:

• Home made or Tyrrells Popcorn
• Slice of Home made banana loaf
• Goodies cereal bar

Protein
Cheese, smoked salmon, tuna, occasional ham, egg or chicken
Pot of cheese cubes, sliced chicken or hard boiled egg
Hummus, guacamole or cream cheese for dipping into or practice spreading
Slice of frittata or home-made quiche

Other Proteins extras:

• Cold veggie sausages e.g. Cauldrons
• Sunflower seeds or Pine nuts (actually a seed)
• Cauldron Falafel balls or Waitrose Sweet Potato Falafel

Fruit & vegetables
Carrot sticks or sliced pepper
Sliced cucumber and berries or a small banana
Little pot of berries, raisins, cranberries (Crazy Jacks) or a date
Vegetable sticks or banana, apple or pear

​Enjoy!

It is essential for kids to have a good food start to the day, especially in reception-aged children, when their more structured learning is mostly carried out in the morning. Without a slow energy release breakfast to nourish their brains, they may get too hungry or have inadequate fuel for the brain to concentrate and learn effectively.
 
A healthy balanced breakfast should include a mix of complex or unrefined carbohydrate (porridge, muesli, wholemeal bread or fruit) and some protein (eggs, baked beans, chopped nuts, seeds, full fat yoghurt or milk). 

Here are some great ideas for breakfast:
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• Porridge made with whole milk or almond milk with mashed or sliced banana or stir in Artic Power Berry Powder for pink porridge! Add a tablespoon of ground almonds or Linwoods flaxseed for extra nutrition!
• Fresh fruit (banana, melon, kiwi or berries) and natural yoghurt with a little honey or maple syrup and chopped hazelnuts sprinkled on top
• Wholemeal toast with baked beans or scrambled eggs, or even mashed avocado if your child is more adventurous.
• Or good old fashioned boiled egg and soldiers!

Best to avoid sugary refined and overly processed cereals, white bread or very sweet yoghurt, as this will give your child a ‘sugar rush’ first thing instead of a balanced supply of fuel to the brain, leaving them hungry after an hour or so when you are not there to give them something else. One bowl of sugar-frosted cornflakes or Cheerio’s can contain nearly 4 teaspoons of sugar!
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Foodie Tots is the result of a shared passion between Clare and Julia to help encourage and nurture a love of healthy food amongst young children.   And if you decide to come along to our Weybridge class then it will be Julia who runs the fun, interactive and exciting class.

So, here's a little more information about Julia, by Julia herself!

​I am a trainee Nutritional Therapist studying in the 2nd year of a 3 year diploma course in Nutritional Therapy at the Institute of Optimal Nutrition.

After a 10 year career working for Guardian News and Media and following the birth of my first child I decided on a change of direction. I have always had a passionate interest in health and nutrition and I found there was so much, often conflicting, information out there on the best way to feed children, so I decided to start studying the subject. In 2011 I studied Diet, Exercise and Nutrition for Children and qualified as a Diet and Nutrition Advisor with Stonebridge College.

Now a mum of two young boys, I find that motivating them to eat well and regularly enjoy fruit and vegetables is not always easy and I understand the difficulty in encouraging children to try something new.

Healthy, nutritious food is my passion and seeing children choose and enjoy food, whether through, selection, preparation, exploring or tasting gives me great satisfaction. I love working with children and to see a child who firmly believes they will not like a food try it and enjoy it is very rewarding.

I hope to see you at my class in Weybridge on a Tuesday!