healthy kids

Being sick during the holidays is the worst! Back when I was a single lady, oh so many years ago, I almost never got sick. (I also had a waist and nice things in my house, but that’s a story for another time.) Now that I have three kids under eight, it’s a lot harder to stay healthy! I’d have to make my kids wash their hands every 10 minutes if I really wanted to keep our house germ-free. One of them always has their hands down their pants, scratching their tushies, and then they inevitably touch everything.

UGH! Now that I’ve gotten you completely disgusted, special apologies to you mamas of infants who aren’t mini germ factories yet, let’s talk about how to keep our kids and ourselves healthy this winter.

TEN TIPS FOR A HEALTHIER HOLIDAY SEASON

1. Wash Hands Each Time You Come Home. Most kids learn to wash their hands after going to the bathroom and before they eat, but this is another good routine for them to learn. When you return home from holiday shopping, school parties, or any other event out of your house: wash those hands! When I started making my kids do this it really cut down on the sick days in our house.
2. When You Wash, Do It Right. I’m going to get on my soapbox here for a minute because I feel like this is the cause of so much illness, especially at schools.  To properly de-germ your hands, you need to wash with soap for at least a FULL 20 seconds, rinse and dry. My kids love to just run their hands under the water and then claim that they’ve washed. They might as well not be washing at all because they’re just wasting water! Rant over.

1. Eat the Rainbow at Every Meal. Make sure kids are getting at least one serving of colorful, vitamin-filled fruits and veggies every time they sit down to eat. Keep experimenting with new types they haven’t tried before until you find something they like. My son never liked the usual banana, apple, or baby carrot but loves mango, blackberries and kale.
2. Stay Hydrated. To make this more fun, take your child to pick out their own special water bottle. If they don’t enjoy drinking water, let them choose something to help flavor it like lemon or mint. For older toddlers and children, check out this app, Plant Nanny. You get to create a plant that grows as you log the water that you’re drinking.
3. Use Your Germ Catcher. As soon as a child is old enough to understand you, teach them to use their elbow as their “germ catcher” when they need to sneeze or cough.
4. Discourage Sharing Cups and Utensils. This is a tough one because it feels like we’re sending our young children mixed messages. Aren’t we always encouraging them to share their things with their siblings and friends? It’s important to explain to them that our mouths can contain viruses and bacteria that, while not harmful to us, can make our friends and family sick. That is something they do not want to share.
5. Vitamin D for Everyone!  It’s a crucial ingredient for our immune systems, and we often don’t get enough of it during the winter months. Try these chewables for kids 2 and up or these drops for babies.
6. Try Elderberry Syrup. My MIL swears by those zinc tablets to stop or minimize a cold. Well, a spoonful of this does the same thing for kids. It’s pretty cheap on Amazon and you can keep a bottle in your fridge for up to a year. Reach for it whenever you sense sickness coming on.
7. Sleep, Sleep, Sleep. Kids are less likely to get sick when they’re well-rested. Encourage deep sleep by trying this tip from Becca Campbell at Little Z’s Sleep Consulting: Add magnesium-rich Epsom salts to your child’s bath. Magnesium has been proven to reduce anxiety symptoms and calm the nervous system, promoting sound sleep. You can also add a few drop of lavender essential oil to make an even more relaxing bath.
8. Help Kids Destress. It’s been proven that stress can weaken your immune system. It’s never to early to teach children to relax with deep breathing exercises and meditation. My kids love Head Space and Insight Timer’s guided meditations that are tailored to them.
   

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Aww, that’s sweet, Ryan, but let’s prevent that shit instead!

Wishing you and yours a happy and HEALTHY holiday!

♥ Erin

I posted last week about sitting down with my kids to brainstorm healthy lunch and snack ideas for back to school. I’ve had trouble in the past with packing lunches that come back basically untouched, and snacks that are just basic carbs like goldfish or pirate’s booty with no real nutritional value of any kind. This year I wanted the kids to have healthier choices, while still giving them a say in what they eat. I was pleasantly surprised by what they came up with.

Disclaimer: A lot of simple lunch ideas like chicken nuggets. grilled cheese, sandwiches, pizza, basically any stereotypical kid food has been left out of this list because B doesn’t like them, and I’m not up for making two separate lunch plans.

Picture of butterfly snack, trail mix, dates and olives, chia pouch and eggs and tomatoes goes here

Snack Ideas

Clockwise from top left: Blackberry Chia Pouch, Seaweed Snacks, Pirate’s Booty and Banana Chip Butterfly, Black Olives and Dates and Homemade Trail Mix

1. 1. Butterfly Grapes and Goldfish-This was a special first day of school snack. I don’t usually do this Pinterest shit, but the kids had a a lot of fun decorating their clothes pins.
   2. Nut-free Trail Mix-Sesame sticks, Banana chips, Raisins, Pretzels and Dried raspberries
   3. Sliced Nectarines or Peaches
   4. Seaweed Snacks
   5. Hummus single packs with Carrots, Cucumbers or Pretzels-These packs are the perfect size for kids.
   6. Hard-boiled Eggs and Cherry tomatoes
   7. Olives and Dates-I never would of thought of this combo, but I found the idea here. Ben loves both of these things, and who doesn’t like a sweet/salty combo that also has healthy fats and vitamins instead of empty calories?
   8. Veggies and Dip-Check out these great containers for dips here.
   9. Banana Bread Energy Balls-Bananas, dates, flour, oats and chocolate chips are the only ingredients you need to make these tasty guys. Throw in your favorite protein powder to make these even more filling. I like this one.
   10. Cheese, Apple and Cherry Tomato Skewers-Remember to cut off the sharp edges
   11. Chia or Yogurt pouches-I personally love the Blackberry Bliss chia pouches and they have 2 g. of protein and 4 g. of fiber in each pouch. Score!
   12. Turkey jerky and Fruit snacks or Fruit leather

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Instead of packing snacks in sandwich bags, reduce your carbon footprint with these container ideas. I really wanted something like these, but when I couldn’t find them I got these and they’re great!

Lunch Ideas

From left to right: Marinated Chicken Strips, Apple, Cheese and Tomato skewers and Turkey Rollups

1. Turkey roll-ups-My kids have an aversion to bread, apparently. In the past, I’d send them in with a sandwich and they’d come back with the bread untouched. To cut our food waste, I decided to make these rollups instead. I lay them flat and spread mayo or mustard and then roll them into cigar shapes.
2. Cheese roll-ups-V loved the sound of these. You spread cream cheese on a whole wheat tortilla and add a piece of cheese and then roll it up. I’m going to try to add thinly sliced cucumber and tomato and hope she doesn’t notice. 😉
3. Cheese, apple and cherry tomato skewers-This is a snack item that works for lunch too.
4. Brown rice and black beans-This was B’s go-to lunch last year. We kept it nice and hot for him in his thermos. Add some salsa for extra flavor.
5. Grilled and marinated chicken strips-We bought a package of pre-cooked strips from Kroger and marinated them overnight in oil and vinegar. B gobbled them up, and asked to have them for lunch again the next day.
6. Bow-tie pasta salad-Add chick peas and pine nuts to make this more filling and any veggies your child will eat to make it vitamin-packed. We found the recipe here, along with a lot of our other lunch ideas.

Along with these main courses, I add one serving of fruit, one fun carb like goldfish or pretzels, and a carton of milk for V.

Once we made the list, I had the kids each pick two snacks choices and two lunches choices for the week. This way they won’t have to eat the same thing every day, but I know what I should have on hand instead of buying all of the things on the list.

For their lunches, we’ve been using these containers for the past two years and they’ve really held up!

I hope you can use some of these ideas to prepare your own healthy snacks and lunches this school year! Let me know your best snack and lunch ideas in the comments. Happy eating!

🙂 Erin