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He’s credited with coining the term “attachment parenting.”
He’s the guy who answers parents’ questions about
raising children at Parenting and BabyTalk magazines.
He’s got eight kids of his own.
What more could you ask of a child care expert?
Stonyfield Farm is pleased to partner with Dr. William Sears, nationally known pediatrician, sought-after parenting expert and unabashed Stonyfield Farm yogurt fan.
In the coming months, Dr. Sears, known as “America’s Pediatrician,” will be talking about nutrition and babies, toddlers, and growing kids---all here on our website.
WE COULD USE YOUR HELP!
Send us your questions for Dr. Sears.
We'll make sure your question and his answer appears at
Stonyfield.com soon.
Please send your question by Monday,
October 5!
You may use the comment feature below to submit your questions,
or write to us directly at:
chalvorson@stonyfield.com
[Your comment/question will not appear immediately. We check for spam first.]
In today’s world of managed care and busy lives, Dr. Sears still tries to reach out to parents on a personal level, even if that personal level is a visit to his website. "I'd like parents to think of me as their live-in pediatrician, easily accessible online for the most common problems they face."
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In a recent survey by a market research firm, parents are getting the blame for the rise in childhood obesity, specifically the abscence of regular meals in the home. More than 77 percent of adults surveyed said parents were to blame. However, 93 percent said junk food does play a major role.
Researchers recognized that commuting and lack of time contribute to unhealthy meals at home and on the road.
If one looks at your average "children's menu" item, researchers found that 47 percent of the foods offered were fried, and topping the list was chicken fingers. The other usual options were grilled cheese sandwiches, burgers, macaroni and cheese, and hot dogs.
According to an analyst with the market research firm conducting the study: "There is a great chance for fast food and casual dining restaurants to lead by example when it comes to menus for kids," said Archibald. "Healthy offerings in this category pale in comparison to those on the adult menu."
Meanwhile, the underlying message of this report seems to be: Families should eat healthy, well-balanced meals at home whenever possible.
Is this possible in your home? We'd love to hear your comments. Use the comment box below.
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When it comes to writing a diagnosis in the file, doctors apparently aren't putting "obesity" in the medical charts of children. In a study that spanned 1997 through 2000, obesity was recorded in medical charts in less than 1 percent of the children studied, even though we know about 13 to 15 percent of children were actually obese during that time. Researchers, who wrote up their findings in the journal Pediatrics, say that doctors are missing an opportunity, because having a diagnosis of obesity can mean patients are more open to counseling on diet and exercise. It could be a missed opportunity, especially in light of another recent report that shows it only takes a little bit of counseling to get kids to change eating behaviors. According to Health Day News, when the whole family was involved in getting nutritional counseling sessions (geared toward children at-risk for heart disease), after five counseling sessions, children were eating less fat and less salt, as recommended. The implication there is, "If you say it, kids will listen. So, just say it!"
We wonder, however, if doctors don't take up the issue of obesity in the children that they see for fear of offending somebody? What do you think? Write us using the comment feature below.
Love this blog? We have three more. Check them out at Stonyfield Farm blogs.
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Elementary school kids in Pennsylvania will be bringing home more than report cards in a few weeks. They'll also be showing their parents their BMI, or Body Mass Index, as the result of a new state requirement that students in grades K through 4 have their height and weight noted in annual growth screenings. Ultimately, after 2 years, every public school student up to Grade 12 will get their BMI measured. Parents receive an explanatory note and are encouraged to discuss their child's weight with their doctors. Pennsylvania joins four other states that already collect BMI data--Arkansas, California, Florida and Missouri.
Is this a good idea? Would you endorse this requirement in your own school district? Send us your thoughts using the comment feature below.
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We're wondering if these are catching on--Breakfast Breaks are kind of a happy meal being offered to your schools to offer to your kids. They feature a single serving of cereal, 100 percent juice, some other "grain serving" and the hope that it will be served along with milk for a complete breakfast. While we applaud this effort to get more kids to eat breakfast and to make it easier for schools to offer breakfasts in this way...we gotta say...we cringe at the packaging and wonder what the total nutritional content of these things really is. Has anybody done the numbers? Have you tried these?
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As predicted, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed into law strict nutrition standards for the state's schools. The new standards will now take effect in 2007. The law will require new contracts with the likes of soda vendors. It limits drinks available in schools to milk, drinks with at least 50 percent fruit or vegetable juice, and drinking water without sweetener. While the new law is already in effect in California's elementary schools, this extends the bans to middle and high schools.
According to this Los Angeles Times report, the governor signed three bills at hte end of last week: One bill restricts fat and sugar content of foods sold on campus during school hours; one bans soda sales during school hours; and one outlines using $18.2 million from the governor's budget to add more fresh fruits and vegetables in school meals.
It's more than most states have done, but nobody's saying this package of legislation will solve the problem of chidlhood obesity among Californians. In the L.A. Times, the governor said:
"My administration is going to do even more to build a healthy California for everyone, including fighting diabetes and obesity in health screenings, and building more parks in urban areas so our kids have the opportunity to exercise and do sports every day."
Are you from California? We'd love to hear what you think about the governor's package of plans. Write us here using the comment feature below.
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Today we'd like to introduce you to Marisa Pizanno, who will be Guest Blogging from time to time for us here in Creating Healthy Kids. Marisa is now a Nutrition Tutor and most recently was a social studies teacher at Valley Middle School in the Oakland School District in New Jersey. Her job now is to counsel kids and their families on good nutrition. At the school, she began the Second Nature Club where student members learned about nutrition and healthy lifestyles.
As Nutrition Tutor, Marisa will continue trying to change the menu at schools and at home.
I hope administrators, teachers, parents, and kids learn how important good nutrition is so that they will want to make a change in the cafeteria food and in their own lives. I'm also hoping that through my nutritional tutoring program I can help many children to make better choices when it comes to their breakfast, lunch and snacks.
Valley Middle School, like many schools around the country, have been and will continue to offer more healthy choices to their students. We hope to hear Marisa's first-hand account of those efforts, and about her work with parents and students here in Creating Healthy Kids.
Got a question for Marisa? Use the comment feature below to send it in.
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Speaking at the launch of the healthy vending machines at Londonderry Middle School were, from left,
Justin O’Connor, 8th grade; Lindsay Conroy, 7th grade; and Samantha Morrill, 7th grade.
We've been putting our Stonyfield Farm healthy vending machines in schools for quite a while now, but it wasn't until this week that a school in our own backyard, here in Londonderry, New Hampshire, got one. The machines are part of our Menu for Change program and this month, four New Hampshire schools will be installing them. The machines contain healthy organic and natural snacks in an effort to fight the onslaught of unhealthy snack options available in so many of our nation's schools.
We're providing the machines free of charge (see Healthy Vending Application for more information) and, after we hold a taste-test and samplings, the products sold in the machines are customized to fit student tastes! They feature such things as Organic Valley milk and string cheese, Stacy's pita chips, Newman's Own Organics pretzels and, of course, our own organic Smoothies.
The healthy vending machines are now in eight states.
Each item selected for the machine has gone through three rigorous tests - meeting either local nutritional standards or, in their absence, California-SB 19 guidelines; being reasonable in cost; and passing student taste tests. The California standards require that school snacks have no more than 35 percent of calories from fat, have no more than 10 percent of calories from saturated fat and be no more than 35 percent sugar by weight. The snacks cost students between 50 cents and $1.50, thanks to product discounts from participating manufacturers and United Natural Foods, Inc. (UNFI), the distributor.
Got your own school vending machine story to tell? We'd love to hear from you. Write us here using the comment feature below, or send your stories directly to chalvorson@stonyfield.com
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Mike Downie, our Creating Healthy Kids correspondent from Black River Falls Middle School in Black River Falls, Wisconsin, reports today on what he sees out on the playing field. In addition to teaching, Mike is the chairman of the Legislative Committee for the Black River Falls Education Association and hopes to get the committee focused on school nutrition issues.
Sixty-four seventh and eighth grade girls are on the volleyball team, 56 seventh and eighth grade girls and boys are on the football team, and 37 sixth, seventh and eighth grade girls and boys are on the cross country team. That’s one hundred fifty-seven students involved in school athletics. Not counting the students who are on traveling basketball teams or city soccer teams or who skate for hours after school.
The volleyball and football teams play against each other. This is the best method for these sports at this age. It guarantees that everyone will be able to play and actively participate.
The cross-country team races against other schools, but it is by nature a great sport since everyone runs every time. I may be a bit biased since this is my team! I tell them all the time that they are in a lifelong sport and that they should pursue lifelong fitness from this point on. Many really listen too, believe it or not.
It is a bit troubling, though, when one of my runners comes to me during practice after a relay race (where the kids had no idea they were working so hard!) pale and shaking telling me he did not feel to well. It was a hot day and I knew there was a good chance he had hardly had a drink of water the whole day. I sent him to the water bottle. He’s okay. No one told him water is a necessary part of the diet.
The team came in to the first practice awfully out of shape. I don’t expect them to be super runners, but since for many this is their second and third year with the team, I do expect them to be able to jog for 15 minutes without stopping. It will take a few days and they will be there.
For a school of 400, it really is great to see so many out for a sport in a single season. The difference may be the other end of the spectrum. Some kids really are struggling with weight and diet. These kids will not burn the school lunch at noon recess or after school. They seem to be on a downward spiral hoping someone will catch them. What we offer as a choice becomes crucial for these students.
And the ones who can finish a 5k in the middle to front of the pack, they are also in need of a healthy meal. I tell my runners all the time to stop drinking the soda and get rid of the chips. But, we are fighting a culture addicted to sugar. You should see what a piece of candy can produce! Class participation – I’m guilty of offering a sweet piece of hard candy to make that happen. It wouldn’t be so bad if it was the only sugar they ate for the week.
I’ve switched to points, which really has the same effect without the sugar buzz.
---Mike
Got a question or comment for Mike? Send it along using the comment box below and he'll try to answer. (There's a delay before your comment shows up, while we check for SPAM.)
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Quaker Oats, the makers of both oatmeal and the somewhat sugar-laden Cap'n Crunch, put the the two products up for a test to see if children performed better on tests after eating oen or the other. The results? The oatmeal seems to produce better thining all around.
The experiments involving 60 school children were performed by Tufts University psychologists and reported in the journal Physiology and Behavior, according to the Washington Post. One week, the students were fed oatmeal mixed with milk; the next week they got Cap'n Crunch with milk; and the following week they had no breakfast. After the morning meal (or not), they were asked to perform a series of classroom tests.
Eating breakfast was better than not eating breakfast, and eating oatmeal was better than eating Cap'n Crunch. Boys and girls ages 9 to 11 showed better spatial memory skills after the oatmeal, and girls (but not boys) had better short-term memory performance after the oatmeal.
Younger kids, those ages 6 to 8, seemed to listen better after their oatmeal breakfast than after Cap'n Crunch.
The theory is that the protein, fiber and complex carbohydrate make-up of the oatmeal allows for a slower and sustained energy to keep the brain fueled. Reseachers say the results show it's not only important that children eat breakfast before school, but what they eat is also important.
Want to start a healthy breakfast program? Check out our own Good2Go!
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None other than the federal government says that our schools are filled with junk food and its getting worse rather than better! You might think only high schools are riddled with junk food, but a new report out of the General Accounting Office (GAO) says junk food availability in middle schools has grown in the past five years, as mentioned in this Boston Globe article.
The result? Candy, soda, pizza, and other snacks compete with nutritious meals in 9 out of 10 schools in this country, the GAO says.
From 2003 to 2004, 83 percent of elementary schools, 97 percent of middle schools, and 99 percent of high schools offered "competitive foods".
Competitive, in this case, seems to mean that students spend their money on this stuff rather than on actual food.
Oh, the report goes on to point out that more and more schools are offering healthier snack items for students to buy, it's just that students are ignoring those options.
So--what's wrong with a ban?
Senator Tom Harkin requested that the GAO conduct this study. Read the full report, which came out yesterday, here.
Once upon a time, children went to school in the morning carrying a lunch or lunch money. At lunchtime, they ate the lunch they brought from home or they ate the one meal offered by the cafeteria that day. They went back to class, then they went home. Why do we need to have soda machines, snack shops, ala carte items, and deep-fried anything available to students during a typical school day? Where's the sense in this?
Anybody?
Use the comment box below to enter your own rant.
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There's still the Gatorade and Pop Tarts, but...
In what is being described as one of the most far-reaching pieces of state legislation of its kind in the country, the state of California is poised to enact two laws that limit the availability of junk food and soft drinks in schools, according to the L.A.Times. They say the legislation, passed on Tuesday and sent to Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, will be signed into law by the governor after 5 years of debating the proposal. The governor's passion for physical fitness is credited with helping to finally get the legislation out of the statehouse, according to its long-time advocate Sen. Martha Escutia, a Democrat. The governor is expected to sign both bills next week at a special summit.
The two bills deal with food and soft drinks, respectively. California elementary and middle schools already ban sodas, so this new legislation is aimed at high schools, prohibiting soda sales during school hours starting two years from now.
The L.A. Times article quoted one chief proponent: "This is a great day for California and children in public schools," said Harold Goldstein, executive director of the California Center for Public Health Advocacy, one of the legislation's most active supporters. "The Legislature made a bold and decisive move and sent a very clear message — the growing epidemic of childhood obesity will not be solved by empty calls for individual responsibility. Our schools are no longer going to be soda and junk food superstores."
Not everyone loved the bill. The Grocery Manufacturers of America accused legislators of "demonizing" soft drinks and other foods, when really it's lack of physical activity that's creating fat kids. They called, instead, for more gym classes and recess which, we admit, isn't a bad idea either. Why not do both, California?
Well, anyway, we tip our lids in the direction of the Golden State and look forward to many more states following their lead.
Do you live in California? We'd love to hear your up-close-and-personal accounts of school foods and what you think this legislation might mean for your state. Write us here using the comment box below.
(There's a delay while we check for SPAM.)
Or, if you'd like to be a Special Correspondent from California for Creating Healthy Kids, write to us directly: chalvorson@stonyfield.com, including "Guest Blogger" in the subject line. There's no pay and little glory, but we put your words here.
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Introducing Mike Downie, an 8th Grade Social Studies and Math teacher at the Black River Falls Middle School in Black River Falls, Wisconsin, where about 400 students attend in sixth-through-eighth grades. In addition to his teaching duties, Mike is the the chairman of the Legislative Committee for the Black River Falls Education Association. He says he hopes to get the committee focused on school nutrition issues as a goal and we hope to hear from him often here as he watches and participates in school food policy-making.
The first day of school has come and gone. It happens like a blur. Students came flying in and buzzing around looking for classrooms and friends. The energy in the hall is strong and positive. The first weeks of school are always great weeks like a honeymoon of sorts. Our challenge as teachers is to harness that positivism and stretch it out for 180 days.
Many students came in early for breakfast sitting down to a yogurt and a muffin. Each morning the menu offers a cereal, juice, milk, or toast choice to go along with the main breakfast menu. Not bad on the surface. A closer look at ingredients can foil the best of good intentions. There will be more to come regarding ingredients later.
Lunch for the eighth grade is delayed while the new sixth graders find their lunch numbers. Waiting for lunch is a painful proposition to group of 160 thirteen and fourteen year olds. The clock in my room needs a battery which saves them from watching the seconds tick by. And what waits for them in the lunchroom? The famous school pizza! Everyone loves the school pizza. You may remember it; it comes square with soft white crust and finely ground hamburger sitting under the melted cheese. It really is tasty. But, what about the ingredients? Will we be foiled again?
Students are offered a choice of lunch meals. The garden bar is available with canned fruit, vegetables, and lettuce salad. A clear effort has been made to offer a healthier choice. You can see the menu at http://www.brf.org/nutrition/index.htm and notice that the garden bar is offered daily. This is great for our schools. But, can you rely on an eighth grader to make the healthy choice? Some do, many do not.
--Mike Downing
Got a question for Mike? You can use the comment feature below. (There's a delay as we check for spam.)
Why Mike?
Mike told us this story about his school and his interest in school food policy:
Two girls once asked me if they could eat their healthy lunch in my room because they felt funny eating it in front of the other students. This has stuck with me for two reasons. First the lunch they considered healthy was not a well rounded healthy lunch. It amounted to one or two types of fruit and nothing else. While this is a great snack, kids at this age need more than one fruit at lunch time. And secondly, why were they so embarrassed to eat their lunch in front of the other students? If the students were all given healthy lunches this would not be an issue and they would feel healthier throughout the day.
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We're looking for a few good bloggers for Creating Healthy Kids.
If your school is considering reforms in the eating habits of students, we'd love to hear from you.
Or, if you wish your school was doing something, we'd love to hear from you.
Please contact Chief Blogger Chris Halvorson directly at chalvorson@stonyfield.com and put "School blogger" in the subject line. To be considered, you'll need access to a computer with internet and email capabilities, and the passion, desire and ability to write! This could even be a class project. Teachers?
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Next week we'll begin getting "eyewitness" reports from people working in the trenches of school food--those trying to make a change in the menu--and from some students themselves. First, we'd like to introduce you to Mike Downie (he says, "Mike is fine") who is an 8th Grade Social Studies and Math teacher--so right away you can see he's a brave individual. His school is the Black River Falls Middle School in Black River Falls, Wisconsin, where about 400 students attend in sixth-through-eighth grades.
In addition to his teaching duties, Mike is the the chairman of the Legislative Committee for the Black River Falls Education Association. He says he hopes to get the committee focused on school nutrition issues as a goal. He writes:
I am very healthy in my eating habits at home, (this comes from my wife’s desire to eat healthy, but I have been completely supportive from the beginning) and I would like to see kids eat healthier in school. I am hoping to improve the menu...I am convinced that a healthy diet could do three important things: 1) it could eliminate many behavior issues, 2) it could help keep students alert mentally and physically, and 3) it could increase their learning potential.
Finally, when I saw Uncrustables as an actual main course for lunch, I resisted the temptation to fill my own body with all that sugar and transfat and decided that something has to change.
We're happy to have Mike on board talking with us here in Creating Healthy Kids as the new school year begins. Students returned to school yesterday in Wisconsin. Look for Mike's first Creating Healthy Kids entry here next Tuesday. Or, use our subscribe feature and never miss a beat. You'll get these entries direct to your email.
Want to become a Guest Blogger yourself? We're looking for teachers, students, administrators, school nurses, PTA members--anyone who is paying attention to the menu at their schools.
Please contact Chief Blogger Chris Halvorson directly at chalvorson@stonyfield.com and put "School blogger" in the subject line. To be considered, you'll need access to a computer with internet and email capabilities, and the passion, desire and ability to write! This could even be a class project. Teachers?
We can do no great things--
only small things
with great love.
--Mother Theresa
Here in Londonderry, New Hampshire, as everywhere in the United States today, we’re feeling a little helpless. How do we respond to the tragedy unfolding along our Gulf Coast? We’re doing what we can. Some of us brought in American Red Cross donations. Some of us are working a telethon later today. These are small things, but we do them with the sincere conviction that they will make a difference.
What small thing can you do today? Next week? Next month? Next year when the massive rebuilding must ensue?
For now, please visit these charities and learn about how you can contribute:
