National Nutrition Month

Some of you may know that I had a "former life" in which I was a full time pediatric dietitian. In my "former life," the month of March was always a big month. It is National Nutrition Month. So for all of us RDs out there it was our month. We always got to lots of promotion on good nutrition during this month. I miss my "former life" sometimes. I love nutrition and teaching it. It truly is a passion of mine. I am very blessed to still get to do it part time. Right now as I focus on being a mom, I get to have good nutrition for my family! Since the majority of my blog readers are moms, I thought I would share a few simple ways to make sure you are having healthy eating habits in your family. These are just some easy kid focused eating tips.

• Keep portions kid sized - Kids don't need to be eating adult sized portions. A good rule of thumb is 1 tablespoon per year of life. So if you have a 3 year old 3 tablespoons of each thing on the plate is a good place to start.
• Focus on fruits and vegetables - They are so important for so many reasons. If you kids are like my Ben, this can be a challenge. Make sure to have at least one fruit or vegetable at each meal that you know they will eat. Continue to offer new ones on a weekly basis. Kids have to see a food up to 20 times before they may accept it. So keep offering. It is also a good idea to try to "hide" veggies in foods if you can. One of my favorite books is "Deceptively Delicious" by Jessica Seinfeld.
• Limit sugary beverages - This is a big one. Most kids drink too many sugary drinks including juice. It is better to focus on water and milk. Limit juice to 4 oz each day.
• Stay on a schedule -Kids to best if they have an eating schedule. Shoot for 3 meals a day and 2-3 snacks at about the same time each day.
• Fix healthy snacks - Yogurt, dried fruit, veggies and dip, popcorn, baked crackers, cheese... There are some many good healthy things that make great snacks.
• Make low fat choices - Even with young kids it is important to help make low fat choices. Avoid fried foods as much as possible. If there is a low fat version go for that (ex - hot dogs). If you start early making healthy choices it will stick with them for life!
• Be active - Being active goes along with eating healthy. Kids need to be up moving around for 2-3 hours each day!!

I always tell my patients eating healthy is "not rocket science." Most of us already know what we need to do it is just doing it that is hard!

Hope the list was helpful! It was good for me to do a little "work." I have found some cool blogs on good nutrition for moms. One of my favorites is http://www.realmomnutrition.com/ It has lots of links to other sites.

Happy National Nutrition Month!!