When I was growing up, one of the many mantras in our house was “This is not a restaurant, you’ll eat what I fix for dinner or go to bed hungry.” That meant from the time I went off the bottle until I moved to college I ate what was served for dinner. I had meatloaf, tuna casserole, spaghetti, hamburgers, or anything else my mom decided to fix that night, like it or not. We never had any kid food, you know, the food that is served to the kids but not the adults. Grilled cheese, hot dogs and chicken nuggets are staples in the American child’s diet, while mom and dad prepare something more age appropriate for themselves.
Although, when did food become age appropriate? That’s exactly what author Nancy Tringali Piho is asking and arguing in her newly released book My Two-Year-Old Eats Octopus: Raising Children who Love to Eat Everything.
I positively loved this book, and as an expectant mom, thought it should become a must-read for every expecting parent. The book introduced ideas that I hadn’t yet thought of, made me think about issues that I hadn’t paid too much attention to, and even justified some of the expectations I have for feeding my child-to-be.
I was taken aback when I first saw the commercial on television. “Cereal now boosts your immunity!” crowed the little elves commonly known as Snap, Crackle and Pop. I looked more closely at the package when I visited the grocery store that evening. (Yes, I visit the grocery – at least once every couple of days. I can’t keep food in this house to save my life. Kids and their insane desire to eat ten times a day.)
Cocoa Krispies were labeled, until last week, with a splashy logo touting a 25% daily value of antioxidants and nutrients – Vitamins A, B, C and E. To this mom, it seemed to capitalize on the H1N1/Swine Flu hype that has been ongoing. How will we protect our children? What can we do to keep them safe?
Hint: the answer is definitely not “Feed them Cocoa Krispies.”
Tune-in tomorrow, Tuesday, November 10, to Sesame Street to catch first lady Michelle Obama participating in the show’s 40th anniversary season premiere. 
Michelle Obama will be featured in a segment with four young children and introduce the idea of vegetable gardening. She’ll show them, and Big Bird, how planting seeds in the ground will yield fresh, healthy vegetables like carrots, cucumbers, tomatoes and lettuce.
Last week Michelle Obama announced childhood obesity as one of the issues she would focus on, and Sesame Street is a fitting place to share that message, encouraging young children to eat a balanced diet that includes many vegetables.
You’ve seen the cookbooks and heard the buzz. “It’s a great way to sneak vegetables into your kid’s daily diets and bypass their picky palates!” scream the reviews. I’m talking, of course, about the practice of adding veggie purees to foods that you wouldn’t ordinarily suspect – beets in brownies or spinach in chocolate chip cookies, for example.
No, I’m not kidding. Spinach is a fine food and a great addition to an entire roster of dishes – but not, in my mind, a yummy addition to my beloved chocolate chip cookies. Which are just fine on their own.
I think that vegetables are a tricky subject for many kids. Vegetables have strong flavors, and many children are averse to them, but in my mind sneaking them into other, less nefarious foods is the wrong tact to take. Don’t get me wrong – I frequently add shredded carrots to my bolognese sauce, for extra flavor, and have been known to add cauliflower chunks to my homemade macaroni and cheese – but my kids know that I’ve done so.
Kids are just getting back into the school groove and you may have noticed that you have started to slack on your intentions to send your child off to school with a healthy and nutritious lunch every day. Maybe the chips were on sale or it was faster to hand your kids lunch money instead of a sack lunch.
So before your well-intentioned efforts of healthy school lunches resemble more and more like your New Year’s resolutions in mid-February, the School Nutrition Association has declared the week of October 12-16 as National School Lunch Week. The organization is dedicated to supporting schools in creating healthy, nutritious and affordable school lunches.
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