Recipe For Weight Gain: Strawberry Banana Smoothie

If your child needs more calories, your healthcare provider may suggest adding more high-protein and high-fat foods and beverages.

Smoothies can be a great way to add more calories and protein to your child’s diet.

They can be served as part of a meal – with buttered toast for breakfast, for example – or as a mid-day or evening snack.

Strawberry Banana Smoothie

Ingredients:

½ cup whole milk
½ cup plain whole milk yogurt
½ cup frozen strawberries
1 banana
1 tablespoon ground flaxseed

Instructions:

Mix all ingredients in blender and serve.

Recipe for Weight Gain: Tuna Salad with Walnuts and Raisins

For those kids who do have trouble gaining weight, eating foods that provide plenty of calories and protein can be important.

This recipe for tuna salad provides a dense source of calories by including tuna packed in oil (rather than water or brine), nuts, dried fruit and mayonnaise.

Served with crackers and fruit juice, this would be a great meal packed full of calories and protein!

Tuna Salad with Walnuts and Raisins

Serves 4

Ingredients:

– 6-ounce can tuna packed in oil
– 2 hard-boiled eggs
– ¼ cup onion, chopped
– 2 tablespoons sweet pickle relish
– 2 tablespoons yellow (or black) raisins
– 1/4 cup walnuts, lightly toasted
– 1/3 cup mayonnaise  (or more, if desired)

Instructions:

1. Open tuna and drain off oil.
2. Mix drained tuna with eggs, onion, relish, raisins, walnuts and mayonnaise.
3. Refrigerate until serving.

Fight Stress with Healthy Foods!

Unfortunately, many of us have a habit of turning to traditional, “comfort”, foods when we are stressed – pizza, pasta with creamy sauces, ice cream, candy bars…

They may help us to feel better in the short-term, but are likely to leave us feeling lethargic and even more stressed!

High-fat, high-sugar foods such as these can raise our cholesterol levels over time. Stress itself can also drive up our cholesterol and blood pressure.

So, if you turn to high-fat, high-sugar, “comfort”, foods, you have essentially dealt your heart-health and your stress level a one-two punch.

Fortunately, there are many delicious, healthy foods that can actually help to alleviate stress.

Choose the right carbs!

Carbohydrates help your brain to produce a calming hormone called serotonin. But take note – not all carbs are created equal!

Refined carbohydrates, such as those in white bread, white pasta, white rice, sugary drinks and desserts, are digested rapidly and cause spikes in our blood sugar.

This can cause us to feel a, “crash,” and end up having less energy and more stress.

Complex carbohydrates, found in whole grain breads, whole grain pasta, brown rice, beans and oatmeal, are digested more slowly and provide a more even energy source.

They also help our brains to produce serotonin, so they are a great choice for calming our bodies and reducing stress.

Meal Idea:  Veggie chili made with black beans and lots of veggies, served over brown rice.

Go Nuts!

When you are feeling low energy or stressed and need a snack, reach for the almonds (or pistachios, or walnuts!).

Our bodies’ stores of B vitamins go down when we are stressed. Nuts contain a lot of B vitamins and can help to build our stores of this essential vitamin back up again.

In addition, nuts such as pistachios contain a lot of potassium, which can lower your blood pressure.

Meal Idea:  Wholegrain pasta with walnut-parsley sauce

Load up on vitamin C!

When we are stressed, our bodies produce more stress hormones.

Eating foods high in vitamin C can help to lower stress hormone levels and bring us back into balance.

Next time you are feeling overwhelmed, reach for vitamin C-rich foods, including bell peppers, spinach, broccoli, berries, kiwifruit, tomatoes and papayas – all good choices to help bring your stress level down.

Meal Idea:  Spinach salad with salmon, red bell peppers and tomatoes

Magnesium-rich foods

Magnesium helps to decrease our stress hormone levels and blood pressure.

In addition, magnesium-rich foods can help by lowering the amount of a certain protein in our bodies that leads to stress and sometimes depression.

Most of us do not get enough magnesium in our diets.

Focus on magnesium-rich foods such as dark leafy greens (spinach, kale, swiss chard), beans (black beans, kidney beans), brown rice, nuts, seeds, avocado, whole grains and banana.

Meal Idea:  Wrap made with whole grain tortilla, beans, spinach and avocado

Enjoy your tea

Next time you are feeling anxious or stressed, make yourself a cup of tea! Both black teas and herbal teas help to lower stress hormone levels.

Since the caffeine in black tea may increase stress response, however, your best bet is to stick with green, herbal or decaffeinated black teas.

Not only does drinking tea lower stress levels, just holding a warm mug in your hands can be so soothing and relaxing!

And with so many varieties of herbal teas available – chamomile, lemon balm, peppermint, ginger and green teas, just to name a few – you are sure to find one that you like.

Meal Idea:  Whole-grain muffin made with bananas and yogurt, with a mug of chamomile tea

Don’t forget the chocolate!

If you are really feeling stressed and want a little treat, go for some dark chocolate.

Like tea, dark chocolate can lower stress hormone levels.

Dark chocolate has more beneficial nutrients (and less sugar) than milk chocolate, so choose chocolate that is at least 70 percent cocoa.

Since chocolate is a high-calorie food, you will want to watch that you don’t overdo it.

But a couple squares of dark chocolate each day could be a delicious way to lower your stress level.

Dessert Idea:  Strawberries dipped in dark chocolate

Next time you feel stressed or overwhelmed, do yourself and your family a favor by choosing these healthful, stress-reducing and delicious foods!

Struggling with GER? You Are Not Alone…

Gastroesophageal reflux occurs when foods or liquids in the stomach reverse direction and go back into the esophagus, throat or mouth.

If you think of the mouth to throat to stomach pathway as a road, there is a gate between the throat and the stomach to keep traffic moving in one direction toward the stomach.

This, “gate”, is called the esophageal sphincter.

If the gate swings open rather than staying closed, food, liquid and stomach acid can all pass back into the throat – going the, “wrong”, way on this one-way street.

In kids with neurological impairments, the gate (esophageal sphincter) may be more likely to let food or drinks pass through when it is not supposed to.

In addition, long periods of lying down, scoliosis, increased pressure in the stomach and seizures can also make GER more likely in these kids.

Repeated reflux can cause inflammation of the esophagus, and may eventually lead to ulcer formation or strictures (a narrowing of the esophagus that can lead to more difficulties swallowing).

Most of us experience reflux at one time or another.

If you have ever burped after eating and experienced a burning sensation in your throat, it was probably caused by GER.

Children may not always be able to put into words the symptoms that they are experiencing.

The unpleasant sensations associated with GER may cause them to avoid foods, leading to reduced food intake.

Frequent spitting up or vomiting can also contribute to nutrient and energy losses, leading to difficulties in gaining or maintaining weight.

Since children cannot always communicate their symptoms (such as that “burning” feeling), it is important for parents and carers to be on the lookout for symptoms of GER.

Symptoms can include:

– Frequent regurgitation with or without vomiting

– Weight loss or poor weight gain

– Frequent pneumonia

– Irritability in infants

– Wheezing or cough

– Complaints of stomach pain

– Refusing to eat.

If your child does experience GER, foods that are likely to cause irritation should be avoided.

These typically include chocolate, spicy foods and any foods or drinks containing caffeine. Large, high-fat meals may also cause symptoms, and should be avoided if they do.

If your child uses bottle or tube-feedings, thickened formula may help reduce reflux.

Using concentrated formulas that have more calories in a smaller amount of liquid can be a helpful way to make sure that your child is getting enough calories.

Check with your physician or dietitian if you suspect a change in formula might be helpful.

Here are more tips to help manage GER symptoms.

For babies:

Adding rice cereal to formula may be helpful; check with your physician or dietitian.

If using a bottle to feed, keep the nipple filled with milk so that your baby doesn’t swallow too much air.

Swallowing air can cause excess burping, which may be accompanied by reflux.

Burp your baby occasionally throughout bottle- or breast-feeding.

Burping is less likely to cause reflux when baby’s stomach is only partially (rather than completely) full.

For children:

Offer your child snacks and small meals throughout the day, rather than just a few large meals.

Limit fried and fatty foods, chocolate, soda or other caffeinated drinks, citrus fruits and juice, tomato products, and peppermint.

If your child has any inflammation of his/her esophagus, acidic foods such as citrus and tomato products can cause further irritation and pain.

Offer the evening meal at least 3 hours before bedtime.

Encourage your child to stay upright, rather than lying down, for at least 30 minutes after eating.

On The Go? Healthy Snacks To Keep You Going Strong!

With so much to squeeze in every day, sometimes our plans to eat healthfully fall by the wayside and instead we just grab whatever is convenient.

Unfortunately, choosing convenience foods often means choosing high-salt, high-fat, refined-carbohydrate options (think chips, candy bars, cookies, sugary drinks, etc.) that may give us short-term energy but result in a sugar “crash” later on.

A little bit of planning, however, can go a long way in helping us to fuel ourselves and our families right for all the adventures to come!

In my opinion, probably the number one thing that people can do to help themselves eat more healthfully is to create a healthy food environment.

By that, I mean surrounding yourself and your family with good options, so that you can’t help but make a healthy choice!

When you are on the run, this means not only having healthy foods available at home, but also in your car, your purse, your backpack, etc.

That way, when you get hungry, or your kids need a snack, you have a healthy option right there ready to go.

A good rule for snacks is to include mostly carbohydrate, and a little bit of protein.

Healthy carbohydrate snack ideas include fruits, whole grain crackers, and low-fat dairy foods like milk and yogurt.

Carbohydrates are the primary fuel for our brains and our muscles, so including these at every meal and snack helps to keep us going strong.

The best snack-type protein choices are nuts and seeds, and low-fat dairy. Including some protein at snacks helps us feel more satisfied and full, so that we can get through until the next meal!

So, what snacks should you pack?

Basically, you want to pack your own, “convenience”, foods – that are easy to carry and eat, and don’t require refrigeration.

Fruits are the ideal single-serving, healthy, “convenience”, food!

When you are heading out for the day, stock your car or purse with a couple of bananas, apples, mandarin oranges, pears, peaches, plums, or even kiwi fruit (you can eat the skin and all!).

Fruits are not only delicious and sweet, they are packed with healthy vitamins, minerals and fibre.

If you can’t bring fresh fruit, keep some single-serving containers of unsweetened applesauce or unsweetened squeeze pouches of fruit purees on hand.

Dried fruits like raisins, dried apricots or dried plums are also a great choice, but remember that they have a lot of calories packed in a small serving.

If you do choose dried fruits, opt for the ones that are not coated in sugar.

That way you’ll get more of the good stuff (fibre and vitamins) without excess calories.

Pair your fruit with some protein from nuts or seeds, and you’ll have the perfect on-the-go snack.

Keep a little bag of almonds or walnuts in your purse or car.

Pumpkin seeds and roasted soy nuts are also delicious, healthy snacks, and you can find them in regular or spicy varieties.

You can even buy single-serving packets of almond butter or peanut butter, which would pair perfectly with your whole grain crackers.

Granola bars and other bars combine carbs and protein in one convenient snack; just be sure to watch the sugar level to get some good energy while avoiding a sugar crash.

Look for bars that have less than about 10 grams of sugar in each bar. The healthiest choices for snack bars are ones made with mostly nuts and dried fruit.

Unless you are a serious athlete, avoid the sports bars that are packed with a lot of mysterious-sounding ingredients, often along with tons of calories and more protein than you need.

Even with the best intentions, sometimes we end up on a day out running errands with the kiddos, they start clamoring for food, and we don’t have anything with us!

If you do need to run into a convenience store, you can usually find some healthier options, including many of those mentioned above.

String cheese is also a great go-to snack, and most kids love it. With calcium, protein and carbohydrates, it is a great option. (And it’s not just for kids – try it yourself!)

And don’t forget low-fat milk, even chocolate milk – also packed with good nutrition, and most kids won’t turn down chocolate milk!

Next time you are heading out the door, take a minute to think about whether you or your family are likely to be needing a snack before you return, and stock your purse, backpack, or car with the right fuel to stay on track!