Growth Percentiles vs. Z-Scores: What Do They Mean?
Explore your child's growth metrics with percentiles and z-scores. While percentiles gauge standing among peers, z-scores offer nuanced deviations from the mean, aiding in diagnoses. Assess your child's well-being holistically by examining development, mental health, learning ability, and social interactions.
“I’m Worried about my Child’s Diet:” Addressing the Fear of Imbalanced Nutrition for Recently Weaned Children
You’re newly weaned! How exciting! But now your child has gone from receiving a balanced diet of a completely perfect nutritional formula to….yogurt, plain pasta, and an occasional strawberry. You may be wondering Is that ok? Is my child safe? If you are experiencing concerns over variety in your child’s diet, keep reading for some things to keep in mind.
Catch-up Growth: Why it’s a Guide, and Not a Prescription
A term that most parents have never even heard, but parents of preemies and babies born smaller than their peers probably feel like they hear every appointment is “catch-up growth”. So what is catch-up growth? And more importantly, what isn’t it? Read along as we discuss these terms more in depth.
Growth Isn’t Linear
Many parents have questions about when to weigh their children while they’re weaning and after they’ve weaned. And while we’ve talked about when to expect weight gain in another post, it’s important for parents to understand why we don’t recommend weighing your child weekly or even monthly, weaning or otherwise. Keep reading to find out.
June Healthy Highlights #3: Strawberry S’mores
Juicy red strawberries are a fiber-rich fruit loaded with vitamin C and other antioxidants. Did you know that eating 8 strawberries has more vitamin C than an orange? Put those antioxidants to good use and make an ooey gooey fun summertime treat: strawberry s’mores.
June Healthy Highlights #2: Strawberry-Lemon Refrigerator Jam
Sweet and juicy strawberries are a quintessential summer fruit. These berries are extremely perishable, lasting only a few days unless refrigerated. Following proper storage techniques can help strawberries retain their freshness and quality. Here are some berry-savvy tips for handling and storing strawberries, including a recipe for lemon strawberry jam.
June Healthy Highlights #1: Strawberry Lemonade Slush & Strawberry Shake
When the arrival of summer brings a fresh crop of berries at its peak! Join us as we celebrate strawberries this month with recipes for a strawberry lemonade slush and a simple strawberry shake. We hope you enjoy these refreshing beverages while making lasting summer memories.
Medical Treatment for Constipation
There is nothing that stops eating in its tracks faster than constipation. Constipation affects about 30% of all children and accounts for approximately 5% of pediatrician visits. Still, constipation is common in people of all ages, meaning you and your child are not alone in dealing with this!
May Healthy Highlights #1: Fruits and Veggies
Fruits and/or vegetables should be served with every meal, targeting 5 or more servings per day. Fruits and vegetables not only add color to your plate, but they are full of vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, dietary fiber, and water. Each blog post this month will feature 3 ways to enjoy more produce in your diet. Our first three featured suggestions: smoothies, baking, and side dishes.
February Healthy Highlights #1: Chocolate Lovers Delight
Calling all chocolate lovers for this month’s feature celebrating all things chocolate. One easy and delicious way to incorporate a small serving of dark chocolate into your diet is with this simple Dark Chocolate Raspberry Smoothie Bowl recipe.
10 Ways to Stimulate Fluid Intake and Promote Drinking
During and after a tube wean, some children gravitate more towards eating than drinking causing parent’s concern that their child isn’t consuming adequate fluid for hydration. While we can’t “make” or “get” the child to drink more, we can alter the way in which their beverages are served, how they look, and how they taste to make them delicious and visually appealing. Here are 10 tips to promote drinking.
Hydration: More than Just Water
Every day, we need to consume enough water to replace what the body loses from breathing, perspiring, urinating, and stooling. One common misconception is that the only way to replace these losses, is by drinking water. But that is not the case! There are lots of ways to hydrate the body.
5 Tips for Managing Food Allergies
A diagnosis of food allergy instills fear in every parent. Even being a dietitian, this diagnosis was no easier for me to hear after my son had an anaphylactic reaction upon his first exposure to a peanut.
Cow Milk or Plant Milk: What’s in Your Cart?
Grocers now stock a myriad of milk options. And as a parent, it can be difficult to wade through the piles of information to understand which option is the best for your family.
Cow Milk or Plant Milk: What’s in Your Cup?
When children are ready to wean from breast milk or formula, parents often question what type of milk to offer. Is plant milk better than cow milk or is cow milk better than plant milk?
What’s YOUR Curve
Yes, we all want to see kids growing and thriving. Yes, we know that relatively consistent growth is necessary to support development, neurological flourishing, and your child’s full potential. But, we don’t really know what that “growth” looks like for any one, individual kid. Just like adults vary in sizes, so do kids!
When Picky Eating Becomes Problem Eating
The truth is that picky eating is normal for young children, so let’s take a look at what “typical” picky eating looks like in order to better understand when it is becoming problematic – and what to do if it is.
Should I Switch My Child to a Blended Diet before We Wean?
The do’s and don’ts of pre-weaning can be difficult to assess and navigate. In particular, many families wonder about their child’s tolerance of tube feeds and how they might adjust in order to make the experience more comfortable and conducive to oral intake. Blended diets, in particular, spark curiosity, so let’s take a look at how they might factor into your child’s pre-weaning stage.
Portion Sizes for Children: How Much is Enough?
It can be difficult to know exactly how much food your child should eat. So today, I wanted to offer some insight into what and how much to offer your child so that he might re-establish healthy “full” and “hungry” cues.
Hunger and Satiety Regulation: Part Two
Hunger and satiety regulation not only impacts feeding behaviors, but it can tell us if a child is getting enough nourishment to sustain sufficient growth.