Everyone is busy getting their kids back to school.  What a perfect time to take a little break and bring the kids to a Family Night that will mix fruits and vegetables and lots of FUN.  Nourish Interactive has been working with Fresh Choice to reach out to kids and promote healthy eating.  With September being National Childhood Obesity Awareness month, it is a reminder to us how important healthy foods and daily activity is for kids.

We are happy to let our San Mateo, CA and nearby Peninsula cities know that the Fresh Choice Restaurant in San Mateo will host its First Family Night.  Nourish Interactive will be there with nutrition education games to make fruits and vegetables fun for kids.

Click to go to Facebook Event Page!

Take a night off from cooking and enjoy fresh seasonal fruits and vegetables from their local farm while the kids have some fun learning about healthy food choices.

Just a few of the FREE & FUN nutrition activities for kids:

• Take a picture with Chef Solus
• Play Nourish Interactive Games- winner of Parents’ Choice Seal and Children’s Library Association Award
• Play tic-tac-toe   The vegetables versus Chef Solus
• Coloring fruits and vegetables while kids learn where produce really comes from!
• Spin the wheel, land on a fruit or vegetable and win a prize!
• Healthy eating out tips for parents to take home.
• Each child will have their name entered into a contest and have a chance to win a Wii game system.

Play the Yummy Drops Fruit Game and automatically get a FREE Kids meal coupon for Fresh Choice Restaurant!

More information:

Family Night event at Fresh Choice Restaurant in San Mateo, CA

Fresh Choice and Nourish Interactive Partnership

Nourish Interactive partnered with Fresh Choice!

Sleep: the ultimate school supply

Start the school year off right by getting your kids back on a healthy sleep schedule! Have them go to bed at the same time each night and get a consistent amount of sleep.

Mondays are a great day to renew Family Health vows. Every Monday, you will find some healthy tip to help your family start the week off on a Healthy Note!

Thanks to Healthy Monday organization for sharing their Monday tips.

Related resources:

Getting into sleep routine for back to school- video by St Christopher’s Hospital

Back to school sleeping requirements and tips – from The Sleep Doctor

I want to thank all the wonderful people who supported us in the Michelle Obama “Apps for Healthy Kids” contest.

We won’t know until September (no specific date given) who were the winners of the contest.  But we were in the top five for popular vote and that says a great deal about the support we received from everyone.

But I wanted to give a special shout out to the Mommy Bloggers who really stepped up to support us!  Putting our banner on their page and sharing our website and contest with all their readers.

Please help us support them by visiting their sites.  To make it easy for you to find these great websites, we have created a  special page that lists their websites and the wonderful services they provide for other moms.

We are all mothers and it is great we can help support each other and the wonderful work that every one is doing.

Check out these mom-owned and run websites and blogs.  They have great healthy tips, recipes, products and services to help families.

List of Exclusive Mommy Bloggers Websites

There is lots of talk this month about the accuracy of BMI calculations and kids.

A new study published in Pediatrics is suggesting that measuring a child’s neck circumference could be a better tool for quickly assessing children’s potential weight status.   After evaluating 1102 children, this study indicated that neck circumference correlated with age, BMI and waist circumference.

• Optimal Neck Circumference cutoff indicative of high BMI in boys ranged from 28.5 to 39.0 cm.
• Corresponding values in girls ranged from 27.0 to 34.6 cm.

We will have to keep our eye on this potential tool.

BMI has always had the limitation of not being able to differentiate between fat and muscle.  Because children are growing and height can be different for the same age children, that has to be accounted for when determining BMI significance.  This is why, kids have their BMI calculated and placed on a growth chart so it determines how their BMI score compares with other children of their age and provides a percentile.  Kids with a BMI percentile of greater than 85% (meaning their weight on the growth chart is higher than 85% of the kids their age in America) are considered overweight.

But once again, this is a tool, a guide but not definitive.  I think it is good that researchers are still evaluating other possible tools that may be easier and more accurate in helping determining children at risk.

I think what is most important is

how healthy is your child’s diet

• are they getting enough fruits and vegetables and fiber to help them develop properly and build strong immune systems
• are they limiting or avoiding processed foods that can be loaded with chemicals that may affect their brain and personality
• are they active every day

Being healthy is not only dependent upon weight.

Read more information on BMI

Use our BMI percentile tool and calculate your child’s score

June 21 is National Summer Learning Day.  There are events occurring all over the United States to raise awareness about the importance of continuing education during summertime.

To find an event near you, go to the National Summer Learning Association, they have a map that you can click on to find a celebration near you.

Summer Learning Day is a nationwide advocacy celebration—a holiday to mark the importance of summer learning. It is a chance for summer learning programs to share with funders, families, teachers, principals, mayors, city councilmen, school boards, and others the contributions they make to the lives of children and families.

Did you know that numerous studies have shown that children experience “learning loss” when they do not participate in some type of educational activity during summer.  Most students will lose about two months of grade level equivalency in math skills.

There are many fun ways to have kids keep learning during summertime but is not the traditional in-class model that kids want a break from.  Online learning opportunities for kids are available and many of them for free.

We are happy to be one of those free sites that can keep your child learning in a fun way about nutrition.

As a summertime program, you can use our numerous online nutrition education games and lesson plans to teach kids as well as our growing printable worksheets and learning sheets.  We are here to support learning throughout the year in a fun and positive way.

Happy Summer Learning Day!

It’s Father’s Day this weekend and we have some new and very cute free cards and “Best Father of the Year” certificates for kids.  We managed to sneak in some healthy foods and messages in them.

Holidays are a really wonderful opportunity because kids are excited and they know it is a special day.  Kids want to be involved and here is a fun way to let them make some special gift of time coupons and customize cards for their special dad.

Please feel free to pass this along and let’s get kids having fun while promoting healthy eating.

Happy Father’s Day to all the wonderful dads around the world!

More fun father’s day activities

Part 2:  Anne Kolker RD, NourishInteractive.com

Does low fruit and vegetable intake really matter when children are young? Chronic illness such as heart disease, stroke, and cancer are usually concerns for adults. However, life-long positive eating habits (such as eating low fat foods, consuming foods with high fiber, eating less processed foods) are habit-forming when started young. Furthermore, certain diseases such as diabetes and high cholesterol are starting to appear in children who are overweight. Finally, fruits and vegetables have so many naturally occurring vitamins, minerals, phytochemicals, and fiber that are good for your health.

Are our busy lifestyles to blame? Certainly, if you have kids you are getting in the car to go somewhere (to a restaurant, to soccer practice, etc.). Packaged food such as chips or power bars are very convenient and there is something about opening up a package that seems so easy compared to slicing up that lonely piece of fruit. It really is just a mindset though. Once you start packing up the fruits and veggies in Tupperware containers you will get in the habit. Plus, fruits and veggies are low in calories and fill you up.

We are constantly bombarded with food advertisements and not necessarily for healthy food such as fruits and vegetables[1]. In fact, children 2 to 11 years old are exposed to an average of 150 to 200 hours of commercial messages, or 20,000 commercials a year and the majority of these advertisement are for cereals, candies, or other sweets [2].

So, what is a parent to do? Role modeling is my motto. If you are eating your fruits and vegetables, your children will too. In 2002, researchers at Pennsylvania State University examined parental pressure (“finish your vegetables” or “do as I say”) vs. role modeling (“do as I do”) among 191 five year old girls. The results showed that a daughter’s fruit and vegetable intake was positively related to their parent’s reported fruit and vegetable intake[3].

Fun Resources for KIds – Increasing your child’s fruit and vegetable intake:

Fruit Food Groups Learning Sheet

Healthy Food Diaries and Goal Tracking Sheets for Kids

Printable – Fruits and Vegetables Coloring Sheet 1

Printable – Fruits and Vegetables Coloring Sheet 2

Matching Food Groups Game

Yummy Drops -Deliver Fresh Fruits Game

Build a Healthy Meal Game

[1] www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov

[2] www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov

[3] Journal of the American Dietetic Association Jan 2002); see http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0887/is_2_21/ai_83661583

Part 1  (Part 2 on Wednesday, June 9)

By Anne Kolker RD at NourishInteractive.com

As a dietitian and a mom of three young children, I naturally have a bowl of fruit on the kitchen table. You may think that this has always been the case. The truth is that it wasn’t. The practice of having fresh fruit sitting out didn’t occur to me until I had a friend from out of town visit me. This was during the time when I only had one young child and was studying nutrition. The light bulb went off. I realized fruit wasn’t a big part of our diet. I concentrated on vegetables and whole grains because ironically, I am allergic to many fruits.

Of course placing a bowl of apples, pears, and bananas in a colorful bowl from Crate and Barrel isn’t enough. True to what I have learned about children’s eating habits, slicing fruit and placing it at an easy-to-reach location right after school does the trick. Serving dips like ranch dressing or peanut butter with carrots for dinner also works. This holds true for adults too. Imagine being served fresh slices of peaches and plums right before the end of dinner. Sounds yummy doesn’t it? That’s right, you’ll actually eat it vs. just staring at a lonely whole peach sitting in front of you. Please, try this experiment at home!

Lonely fruit and vegetables seems to be a national phenomenon. According to the USDA, fewer than 15 percent of elementary students eat the recommended 5 or more servings of fruits and vegetables every day. Furthermore, average fruit and vegetable intake among 6-11 year olds is only 3.5 servings a day [1].

Resources for Increasing your child’s fruit and vegetable intake:

Meal Planner Nutrition Tool

Picky Eater Tips – How To Get Your Child To Eat Healthy Foods

More Fruits and Veggies Please Family Fun Agreement Sheet

More Fruits and Veggies Please Kids Tracking Form

Find a local farmer market

Free Printable – Find Fresh Seasonal Fruits and Vegetables

Fruits and Veggies For Kids Article

It’s just about summer time and many kids will be off to summer camp.  It is important that kids eat healthy year round so their bodies will continue to grow and develop properly.  Keeps kids on the right track with healthy summer snacks for summer camp

1. Frozen white or red grapes
2. Hummus with your child’s favorite dipping veggies
3. Fruit kabobs, let the kids help put them on the stick
4. Your child’s favorite fruit cut up with low fat cottage cheese
5. Unsalted walnuts over a cup of fruit
6. Peanut butter on rice cakes
7. Trail mix (made of fresh ingredients like nuts, seeds, raisins and craisins)
8. 2 cups of air-popped popcorn.
9. Low-fat plain yogurt topped with fresh berries
10. Baked tortilla chips or veggie chips with nonfat bean dip or salsa
11. Celery sticks with peanut butter
12. 1 cup of edamame
13. Apple slices and low fat string cheese
14. 1 small whole wheat pita stuffed with 2 turkey slices, spinach leaves and fat-free cheese
15. Baked sweet potato chips

Do you have healthy snacks food ideas that your kids enjoy? We’d love to hear about in the comment area below

Other Resources:

Summer Vacation – Healthy Snacks for Kids Tips

Healthy Summer Outdoor Eating

Make healthy headlines this week.

This week, have the kids help record your family’s healthy behaviors in a journal. Then look back next Monday on everything you’ve done and set goals for the following week.

Mondays are a great day to renew Family Health vows. Every Monday, you will find some healthy tip to help your family start the week off on a Healthy Note!

Thanks to Healthy Monday organization for sharing their Monday tips.

Setting goals as a family