Archive for the ‘Current affairs’ Category


School dinners


Friday, June 15th, 2012

Media, formal and social, is all in a lather today over a blog (called http://neverseconds.blogspot.co.uk/ ) by a 9 year old girl who has been taking pictures of her school dinners and rating them. Irrespective of the sheer ingenuity of this child, and how much her dad may have been involved, it’s the fact a child has been so moved by her school dinners that she’s been blogging about it.

My daughter started school last September and the school dinners have already been a bit of an issue. She is a fussy eater to be fair, but really some of the food served up at her school I certainly wouldn’t touch.  Yes they do seem to be more nutritionally balanced with some healthier options than when I was at primary school, some 25-30 years ago, but I was still surprised to discover thing like cake on the menu for pudding 4 out of 5 days a week. They also still serve pizza with chips and copious amounts of bread and butter. In fact, in one meal my daughter reported she ate pitta bread, bread and butter, pizza and chips followed by ice -cream. So for children who have this kind of stuff at home as well the outlook for their health and waistlines just isn’t great. I know it must be hard to provide healthy food for such little money, but there are loads of alternatives to different types of sponge cake and there doesn’t need to be chips with every meal surely? Pizza is carbs and protein all in one. Aside from the unhealthy nature of the food, it’s just a bit “yucky” (that’s the most polite term I’ve heard it described as). I remember pleading with my mum for packed lunches, which I wasn’t allowed until I could make my own (cue the violins). My daughter has already started pleading with me for the same. I just prefer it that she has a proper meal in the middle of the day, plus she’s in a school that provides free school meals so feel with should really make the most of anything we get back from the council.

I’m wondering if pupil power is the way forward now? Jamie Olive tried and failed, I’m sure there have been any number of complaints by parents over the years about school meals, so maybe it is now up to the kids? Maybe there should be a site that’s about rating your school meals so the schools with the worst can be named and shamed? I do believe on the Neverseconds other children have been posting pictures of their own school meals, so perhaps this is a start of something. I do love this story (so much better than the usual political and depressing news we’re subjected to most days), and I wonder if the school will improve their meals because of it?!

For great packed lunch ideas click here

Tags: ,
Posted in Current affairs, School dinners | No Comments »

A bit of an apprentice crush


Wednesday, July 13th, 2011

I’m a BBC Apprentice addict – every year I start watching the series and think “I probably won’t watch it all” and every year I get sucked in. This year might have been the first year I didn’t watch quite so avidly, because quite frankly, it’s been a little boring. There’s no one to really dislike, or laugh at, or cringe at… However, I have found myself developing a bit of a crush on the dashing young (well younger than me) inventor, Tom Pellereau. He’s just such a gentleman, he doesn’t like putting the boot in to anyone, and he’s a little eccentric, quite intelligent and he blushes. Or is this all part of the grand plan? Is he just a great actor? What can’t be acted is that he’s invented, or co-invented, some pretty nifty products. We at Baby Meals particularly like the Babisil, Silbottle – a BPA free, anti-colic bottle with a clever collapsible inner tube (check it out here). AND he co-designed these BPA free Mu feeding products which are super cool and we might just have to purchase one for the youngest, and messiest member of the Baby Meals family.

So if the lovely Tom doesn’t win the apprentice, we think he’s pretty damn cool and definitely Lord Sugars loss.

Tags:
Posted in Current affairs | No Comments »

Got milk? Milk and female iodine deficiency


Thursday, June 2nd, 2011

We associate milk with providing us with the all important nutrient calcium. However it also supplies us with another essential mineral, particularly for girls, iodine. A little like folic acid, it’s during pregnancy that it’s most important, essential for the neurological development of the foetus. It’s been discovered recently that due to the low consumption of milk, teenage girls are highly deficient in iodine, putting their future foetus’s at risk. The results of the recent study (by the Royal Free Hampstead NHS Trust) show that we could be faced with up to 100,000 babies a year being intellectually handicapped due to iodine deficiency.  That’s a third of the babies born a year.

This is a really worrying figure, and it seems rather surprising and shocking for medical professionals who had thought that iodine levels in the UK population were adequate. In fact, 70% of teenage school girls are showing a mild deficiency.

Since the 1940s milk has been the primary source for iodine and due to farming methods giving milk a high iodine content, there’s never been a concern over iodine deficiency. However, the consumption of milk has been in decline since the 1980s, particularly in older age brackets, being viewed as something that just babies and young children drink.

The most vulnerable groups, pregnant and lactating women, are to be given supplements, but ideally, teenage girls particularly need to be encouraged to drink more milk and eat more dairy products. Milk needs to be made more appealing to older children if we’re going to prevent a 3rd of a generation of babies being faced with brain development problems.

Tags: , ,
Posted in Child health, Current affairs, Health news, Nutritional health | No Comments »

Healthy food for toddlers raises IQ


Tuesday, February 8th, 2011

We know that giving our children healthy food from an early age is vital for physical health but Research from Bristol University now shows that a healthy diet in the very early years can lead to a higher IQ later on.

At the ages of 3, 4, 7 and 8.5, the eating habits of 3966 children were recorded. It was found that those who had a diet of processed food, high in fat and sugar when they were 3, had a slightly lower IQ at the age of 8 than those who had healthier diets (high in veg and fruit) when they were 3. This was even after social class and parents level of education were taken into consideration. The research suggests that even at an early age, eating habits can have a long term impact, and not just on physical health and weight.

It’s common sense really – we know some nutrients are better for brain development, most of which are present in fruit, veg, grains and fish, and if a child rarely eats this type of food, when they’re at their most rapid growth, then it’s very possible they won’t reach their potential.

It makes me really sad that parents choose to ignore all the advice and evidence that’s out there about healthy eating, and still feed their children crap. And what’s depressing is that scientists, The British Dietetic Association, the government, can spend more and more money on this kind of research and it probably won’t change anything. The parents who care enough about their childrens health and future to make an effort to feed them well, don’t need this kind of research. So is there any point? Or course there needs to be more education about it but as the old saying goes “you can drag and bull to water but you can’t make it drink”. Or something like that.

Click here to read the full article

I quite liked the sound of the other research that came out recently – about chocolate containing a higher concentration of antioxidants than many fruit! Chocolate healthier than fruit? Fab – well, as long as  you eat that really bitter stuff with 90% cocoa solid content that is.

Tags:
Posted in Child health, Current affairs, Health news, Nutritional health | No Comments »

When to wean – the recent debate


Friday, January 14th, 2011

So today there have been reports about possible changes to the current guidelines on when to wean babies, especially if they’re breastfed. Forums have been all a flutter about it, broadcasters have been including the story in their hourly news bulletins, and every ones been generally getting a little hot under the collar. And really, what for?

Yet again a team of researchers have discovered another fine point about breastfeeding/weaning which slightly contradicts the current guidelines issued by WHO (World Helath Organisation). Most of us know that current guidelines state that we should breast feed our babies exclusively for 6 months before introducing solids, unless your baby is showing signs of needing more than just milk, in which case between 4 and 6 months is OK. The recent report suggests that breast fed babies could become deficient in iron if they only have breast milk up to 6 months. It’s strange that after 10 years of the current advice some research suddenly reveals that breast fed babies could be iron deficient. So in 10 years has there been an increase in anaemic 4-6 month old babies? I haven’t found any reports suggesting this. Hmmmm. The research also suggests that breast fed babies will more likely develop allergies if solid food isn’t introduced before 6 months – but this is in direct contrast to one of the reasons for waiting until 6 months, to reduce the risk of developing allergies. Now I’ve never really been so sure about the whole solids before 6 months increasing risks of allergies bit. Our parents were weaning us at 3 months and there are without a doubt more cases of food allergies in our childrens generation than in ours. So maybe this new report has a point about the whole allergy thing…But who knows? It’s all a little confusing, especially for first time weaners.

But really, what everyone is missing here, with the current advice/guidance and the new research, is that all of it is advice and GUIDANCE. At the end of the day all babies are different, living circumstances are different, you can’t just fit everyone into the same bracket. And what’s the point in confusing everyone and increasing stress levels of tired parents. Yes let us know what findings there are of this research or that, yes give us guidelines to help us make decisions, but let US, the PARENTS, decide what we think is best for our children, without feeling that we might be doing something wrong.

I won’t be changing our  pages on weaning as I don’t think we need to. Mums and dads should listen to their baby and follow their instincts and try not to get their knickers in a twist about every little report that comes out. If you want to give your baby little tastes of solid food before 6 months then go ahead, if you prefer to wait, then fine. Neither of these will harm your baby, as long as you feed them age appropriate food and nothing they can choke on! See our weaning chart for a guide on what to feed and when.

Tags:
Posted in Baby milestones, Current affairs, Health news | No Comments »

Swine flu – some tips to ease the worry


Saturday, January 8th, 2011

swine-flu-virus-bug(Skip to the end of the post for our tips for keeping your kids healthy and/or help them get better quickly)

In the last month there has been rising hysteria, again, about Swine flu. I totally bought into that hysteria (mostly created by the media) the first time round and I was wondering if my stress levels could take another round of worrying about it. I’ve been trying to remind myself that it’s generally a mild flu, just very contagious. That my kids are generally pretty healthy and I’m not pregnant, and my partner, with a dodgy kidney, has had the vaccine so I really don’t have anything to worry about – right? Pity my head isn’t the best at listening to rationale, especially when it comes to health issues. There’s that little voice that says “what about when it turns nasty…?”

As it happens, both my kids went down with flu on 1st January. They didn’t have runny noses or coughs (although they both have a slight cough now), just really high temperatures for about 3 days, shivering, aches and pains (judging by the squirming to get comfortable), loss of appetite and generally miserable. Obviously can’t be certain, but according to NHS direct very likely to have been swine flu. It was of course horrible seeing them so ill, and scary when your 18 month old won’t stop shaking with a 40 degree temperature at 2am. But they’re fine, and I am wondering why I worried myself quite so much. We have to remember that in healthy people, it’s a mild flu, and once you’ve had it, you probably won’t get it again.

I think one  of the reasons my kids shook it off relatively easily is because they’re pretty robust. When they were younger I really worried about how much they ate (which was a lot) and they were really chubby, and they’ve both got pretty good appetites now. But I feed them healthily, keep sweets etc to a minimum and I really believe that’s why they don’t get ill as often as other children, or as severely. I expect gene’s come into it to an extent, but this recent flu bug is, I’m sure, proof that trying to be as healthy as possibly food wise, really does pay off.

Soooo, if you’re worrying yourself sick about the youngest members of your family catching swine flu, and are trying to track down the vaccine privately with not much success, you can give your kids a bit of a boost to help fight it off if they come into contact with it by following some of the tips bellow:

  1. Boost with vitamin C – not just citrus fruits but also berries, broccoli, tomatoes, kiwi fruit, spinach and watermelon. If your kids won’t eat fruit try smoothies – even as ices they’re still good.
  2. Reduce their sugar intake – not only does it not have any nutritional benefits, it actually lowers the immune system leaving your children more open to infections.
  3. Add garlic to everything. It’s a natural force of nature and makes food taste delicious
  4. Probiotics to heal – especially if your child has to have anti-biotics
  5. Plenty of liquid – on a daily basis and especially important if they get a fever to keep de-hydration from occuring. Try honey and lemon drinks.
  6. Protein and zinc – the building blocks to cell development – vital for your childs immunity. Meat/fish, eggs, lentils and beans are good sources.
  7. Warming ginger – a clever spice which is great for treating many of the symptoms of flu. Coughs, blocked nose and even nausea. Best added to warm drinks for children.
  8. Three nutritious meals a day and healthy snacks (trying to ensure 5 portions of fruit and veg) – well fed children and happy and healthier children.
  9. Lots of good sleep, fresh air and exercise
  10. Keep their hands clean – 80% of diseases that make us ill are caught via touch.

And remember to speak to your doctor or NHS direct if you have any concerns about your childs condition or they just don’t seem to be getting better. Peace of mind is everything.

Tags:
Posted in Child health, Current affairs, Nutritional health, child safety | No Comments »

New Years resolutions


Thursday, December 30th, 2010

So come on then, how many new years resolutions do you make on the 1st January every year, and how many are broken by 1st February? These days it’s probably only one or two made and broken, but it is a known fact that any “resolution” made at the beginning of the year is rarely kept to. We need to be ready to give up something, or live in a different way (do more exercise, be less stressed etc), and not feel we have to do it at a set time – ie at the beginning of the new year. yes it’s a good incentive, but like giving up smoking, you can’t do it unless you really, really want to. And I know this because I can recall endless new years resolutions that I managed not to keep to.

Except one. Last year I made a new years resolution to cook a proper family lunch every Sunday that we were home. We’d were having snack like lunches and although we generally sat down all of us around a table for them – they weren’t exactly wholesome/healthy. And you know what, I’ve kept to it. It isn’t always a roast dinner. Sometimes it’s just sausages or fish pie. But it’s always freshly cooked with lots of veggies and usually a nice pudding. And it’s actually really easy to keep to – because it’s about family, and it’s enjoyable, and it’s lovely to see the happy faces at the end of it.

So along with taking up a gym membership, learning how to meditate and giving up chocolate, why not, if you don’t already do so, start cooking a proper family meal every Sunday lunch, even when it’s just you and the kids. It’s amazing how quickly it becomes part of the family routine and it will definitely outlive that gym membership.

Posted in Current affairs, family food | No Comments »

A tax on junk food?


Monday, November 15th, 2010

Denmark is one of the “slimmest” countries in Europe, where the UK is the fattest, and even though child obesity is now on the decline for the first time in 60 years, they’re still concerned enough that they have put a tax on junk food. Adult obesity is still on the increase but they just don’t want to become, well, Britain. It’s thought the tax on junk food would work in the same way as the tax on cigarettes, where by smoking and smoking related illnesses began to decrease almost immediately after the tax was bought in.

iStock_000007510097XSmallSo if all the most fatty and unhealthy food was taxed, and more expensive, than healthier food, would it really change peoples behaviour enough that the rising trend of obesity could be reversed?

In the UK, a third of children are overweight or obese and two thirds of adults – by 2050 it’s estimated obesity will cost the country £32 billion. It’s a serious epidemic, and it’s hitting our children the hardest, whether they’re living, and caring for obese parents with long term health problems, or are obese or overweight themselves and are suffering health problems, or self esteem problems caused by how they look and/or bullying. So why is our government not willing to put a tax on junk food? Yes they don’t want to be seen as telling people what to eat and drink, but it’s not as if they would be taking away peoples choices? It’s not the same as the smoking ban which basically tells people where they can and can’t smoke, all it does it make food that is bad for us, a little more expensive, and people would have to think twice about buying and eating it. And the tax will help cover the costs caused by obesity.

The fact is, junk food is by and large cheaper than healthy food (if you want instant sustenance), so surely if you want to get people to eat less junk food, making it more expensive makes perfect sense? And yet it’s very unlikely to happen in this country. It really baffles me.

By 2050 public health officials fear heart disease will be up by 10% and type 2 diabetes up by 70%. Scary figures. Perhaps taxing junk food would just be too little too late. Perhaps it wouldn’t stop people from buying and eating it. But surely doing something is better than nothing?

Tags: ,
Posted in Child health, Current affairs, Health news | No Comments »

The “cotton wool” generation


Monday, October 25th, 2010

I had an interesting few hours at the Earls Court Baby Show on Saturday and my, there are ALOT of baby products out there. With all the catalogues I get and amount of time I spend online looking at baby related sites I thought I had a good idea of what’s going on in the mother and baby market, but I still found the number of business’s offering parents and babies an endless supply of contraptions, clothes, creams, accessories and services, was quite mind blowing. And those are only the businesses willing to invest in a Baby Show plot. And there are some really wonderful and innovative products out there – and so many of them developed by mums/parents from their own experiences. Good on them. And it was nice to see how many chemical free and natural products there are as well, but I was a little disappointed that there were hardly any to do with nutritional/healthy feeding. In fact, only Sainsburys, HIPP organic and of course Annabel Karmel covered that aspect of child rearing. Plenty of interesting feeding utensils, however, which I’ll be reviewing over the coming weeks/months.

What struck me the most, was the number of products on sale, which are very much part of the whole “wrapping your kids in as much cotton wool as possible” market. A baby grow which senses body temperature and changes colour while body temperature rises…. Is that really necessary? You can tell when your baby has a high temperature, even before reaching for one of the range of thermometers available to us. And a webcam to fix into baby’s nursery. What are you going to do, sit up all night watching your child sleep on your computer? And if it’s to check up on the nanny – if you’re that suspicious of her/him, then maybe they’re not the nanny for you?? And of course we don’t like our children getting ill but protecting them from every germ there is, is actually doing more harm than good. Little immune systems need germs to get stronger, to recognise foreign bodies and provide the correct reaction.

Of course we all want to protect our kids from every nasty out there. But if we spend their whole childhood doing that, what kind of teenager/adult will they become? Rebellious or too scared to even breathe? Every older man out there, helping children off climbing frames of bouncy castles, aren’t paedophiles. And yet there’s always one parent who’ll accuse some innocent of exactly that just because they wanted to help a child out. By buying endless “safety” products and not trusting any adult within an inch of our children,  who haven’t come with a personal recommendation, are we really protecting our children? Or are we ruining them with our own paranoia’s? And I can pretty much guarrentee that those parents doing a lot of the “cotton wool” wrapping now, won’t let their children climb trees when they’re older, but will allow all kinds of violent computer games, and unlimited internet surfing.

I read a fantastic article in The Times a couple of years ago about the perceived risks to our children and the actual risks, and of course can’t find it now but I think this is an abbreviated version and this article by the Mail is also quite good (for a change).

I’m not saying you shouldn’t baby proof your home – the worst things that happen to kids, generally happen in the home – but I think everything within reason, and teaching your child to stay away from certain things (and people) is better than just putting up barriers.

And really, you don’t need a baby grow that tells you your baby has a raised temperature.

Tags: , ,
Posted in Current affairs, child safety, parenting | No Comments »

10:10:10 Low Carbon Sunday Lunch


Friday, October 8th, 2010

Sunday is 10,/10/10 and part of the carbon cutting campaign 10:10, it’s been named the Global Day of Doing. This is the biggest ever globally coordinated day of action on climate change.  On this day, people across the world will be taking positvie steps to reduce their carbon footprint, from planting trees, cycling everywhere, to sitting down to a delicious, low carbon, family Sunday lunch.

We have some friends coming over and I’ve already started to think about what we will all eat that will be healthy, delicious, the kids will like and low carbon. Having a low carbon lunch doesn’t mean eating raw, self grown veggies in the dark (although if you’d like to do this and have the veggies, go for it!), it just means thinking about what your cooking, where it comes from, how you’re cooking it, and even how long it will last (the low carbon lunch will hopefully go on for at least a few more meals worth).

Meat is a high carbon food, the production of it being responsible for more greenhouse gases than transport. So perhaps Sunday would be a good time to experiment with some tasty vegetable dishes, or even some sustainably farmed fish. If Sunday lunch has to involve meat, try and buy locally sourced organic meat or better still chicken. Whatever you decide to cook try and source as much as possible from local farmers and providers. Also try and buy in season food (check out http://www.thefoody.com for what’s in season when).

Steaming vegetables is the healthiest and most energy efficient way to cook them, and in fact, doing it in a microwave is even more efficient. if you’re using the oven for roasting, try and fill up all the shelves. Roast veg instead of cooking on the hob.

And making food that can last a few more meals is another element of the low carbon lunch. And even better if you can get a load of baby meals out of it to be frozen for future use.

So for our lunch I’m thinking either organic roast chicken or chicken casserole, mashed potatoes (from our Abel and Cole box), slow roasted butternut squash and carrots, steamed spinach and broccoli and baked apples for pudding. Yum.

For Low carbon lunch tips and ideas, click here.

To read more about the Global Day of Doing, click here.

Tags: , , ,
Posted in Current affairs, TIps, green living, seasonal eating | No Comments »

« Older Entries

Recipe exchange

Add to the growing resource at Baby Meals and help other parents in their hour of need.

Blog

More information on the day to day troubles of weaning.
The Baby Meals blog

Feedback

Feedback is always welcome so please feel free to email in any thoughts at any time or get in touch via Twitter.

Forum

Opinions and advice.
The Baby Meals forum