Tag Archives: Children’s Health

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Travel this summer | Top tip for travelling with your little ones this summer | Advice from Palmer’s leading Pediatrician

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Palmers have a great wide range of affordable creams and shower products for children and mothers-to-be.  One of our favourites is their Tummy Butter stretch mark prevention for pregnant women –  we like also the fact that Palmers products are free from parabens and phthalate.

With the summer time rapidly approaching and many mums looking forward to escaping the scorching temperatures, Palmers Mother & Baby brings you their top tips on how to stay cool, calm and collected no matter how stressful the situation may be.  From frantic packing to tantrums in the aisles, here’s some advice from Palmer’s leading Pediatrician Dr.Rajul Shailesh Matkar:

Plan for every eventuality. Always make sure you think of every possible scenario you may find yourself in and pack accordingly.

If you are flying with small children always take enough changes of clothes, nappies, bibs and milk to get you through the flight.  Our advice would be to always take one more of everything just to be on the safe side!  Also don’t be embarrassed to ask for help – that is what the stewards are there for.

Always carry medicine. As a parent you just never know when that pesky sore throat will hit or the latest tooth make an appearance, so always have essential medicinal items to hand.  From a thermometer and plasters, through to antiseptic cream and Calpol – don’t get caught short.

Hydration is key, even if you are heading to a cooler climate. Always make sure that you have water on hand and make a conscious effort to encourage your children to stay hydrated.

For those with younger children, lots of travelling, especially in the heat can often lead to nappy rash and sore bottoms. Try to let your children go nappy free when possible and ensure you use a nice, natural nappy cream to keep them bums moisturised and rash free.

Keep the germs at bay.  While I don’t recommend wrapping your children up in cotton wool, it is also advisable to take some precautions, especially when you are in a foreign country.  From hand wipes, gel sanitisers, through to liquid/tablet sanitising solutions, always have them with you just incase.

Keep them entertained!  As we know children get bored very easily and often need to be entertained.  Make sure you have lots of tricks up your sleeve to keep boredom at bay – as this is when the tantrums tend to strike.

For those of you travelling to warm climates, sun protection must be your number one priority.  You should always use water-proof sunscreens with factor 50+ protect and ensure you are putting on at least 30 minutes before the go into the sun and keep it topped up throughout the day.  Avoid the midday sun and ensure your children have hats that keep their necks covered and swim suits that protect their shoulders.

After the sun make sure you keep their skin moisturised to avoid damage to the sun or any irritations.

Never assume you’ll be able to find the things you need on your travels!  If you are fussy about the food, nappies and milk brands for your children then make sure you take the key items with you, incase the brands are not stocked locally.

Pack ahead – never leave this to the last minute even if you are only heading out for a day trip – trying to concentrate on packing everything you will need for your family can be challenging when left to the last minute!

Health & Wellness

The Dirtiest Fruits & Vegetables | The revised Dirty Dozen list 2014

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The EWG has now updated its list for 2014.  It creates a list every year by testing for the amount of pesticides that remain on a wide range of fruits and vegetables.  If you think that going 100% in your household is too expensive, you can just consider making changes with the top 12 dirtiest fruits and vegetables.

I really believe that it is so important not to flood our children’s systems with unnecessary chemicals  – especially the ones that are in our power as parents to avoid.  This frees up their little immune systems to heal and repair itself and to keep them as healthy as possible.

Topping the list yet again this year are the APPLES.  99 percent of them tested positive for at least 1 pesticide residue.  See the full list below – the higher up the list the higher the pesticide residue.  Click here to see the full list on the EWG Website.

Apples

Strawberries

Grapes

Celery

Peaches

Spinach

Sweet Bell Peppers

Nectarines (Imported)

Cucumbers

Cherry Tomatoes

Snap Peas (imported)

Potatoes

Health & Wellness

Kids menus | Why are children offered such poor quality meals?

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Why children are served bad food?  Protecting the next generation.

I find it odd with every health movie/article/story out there that children friendly arenas and restaurants are still serving children worse food than they would serve to an adult.  On a typical child’s menu there is pizza, chicken nuggets, macaroni and cheese.  Can anyone tell me a venue that provides children with healthy organic alternatives?  I would visit that place more often.

I think it is fine if a parent chooses to serve their children pizza, chicken nuggets and hula hoops from a tin.  Every parent should be allowed to make that choice.  I just think some children venues should also provide a healthier alternative too.  There are plenty of healthy foods that children can eat that isn’t just about salads and carrot sticks if a little thought is placed into it – there are more and more qualified nutritionists around who can create affordable meals that children might like that don’t cost the earth either.  There are also many catering companies that are serving up healthy meals to your doorstep so maybe the children venues and healthy catering companies should combine forces?

For example:

Shepherd’s pie can be served with organic minced meat, organic vegetables are disguised in it and potatoes mixed with mashed cauliflower.

Spaghetti bolognaise can be cooked all organic mince and minced vegetables and some spelt pasta.

Hamburgers can be organic ones that haven’t been hauled out of the freezer.

Fish cakes with peas or mashed cauliflower

Freshly made fish pie and peas

Tempura prawns with soba and udon noodles

Perhaps your children wouldn’t eat any of the above but I would choose it for my children if it were on the menu and I bet there are a million mothers who would do the same – when I visit the locally produced organic shops I see the demand for better food. There are plenty of mothers shopping the best for their children – that is why more and more organic products and supermarkets are coming to the market.  The DEMAND is out there.  I know some nutritionists would still pick holes with my menu above but isn’t it better than hormone-filled chicken and beef?  I believe in one-step at a time.

At the majority of children’s events I attend, I have noticed other mums removing the hormone-filled chicken nuggets from their children’s paper plates discretely and choosing the ‘better’ alternative of ‘deep fried fish fingers’.  I see parents fighting with their children not to drink the chemically created juice that has about 7 lumps of sugar, colouring and additives added to it and trying to persuade them water is best.  On the way home in the car, parents are yelling at their kids not to open all the sweets in the goody bag.  Yes, I am one of those mums.  There are days when I lack the energy to fight and I will give my children what is available.  I just wish there was more choice for children on menus everywhere in the world.

As parents, if we demand better menus for our kids, then surely we are protecting our children.  Restaurants and other children venues would be forced to provide better options.  I really salute Jamie Oliver who really had tried to help the next generation learn more about health in the UK.  We mustn’t stop.

I close my eyes sometimes.  I know I cannot control it all.  I just wish that people would serve quality food to the next generation.  Is it really such a big ask?  I want to tell these businesses, especially those places that classify themselves as five star, that parents would pay for that premium to ensure that their children eat well.  Perhaps if they know they can make money out of healthy children they will make more effort.

Health & Wellness

6 basics for my children’s SUPERFOOD kitchen

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Here are my top 6 basics for my children’s SUPERFOOD kitchen

I try to give my family an 80% – 20% organic superfoods versus non-organic because realistically there are moments that we cannot always be too obsessive. There will always be playdates and restaurants that don’t always cater to our nutritional beliefs and it is important to be balanced as a parent.

By having an 80% superfood and organic diet, I feel that I can contribute to my children’s immunity, long-term health, to help them to concentrate better at school and to ultimately give them the best start in life.

I really believe that a healthy diet can heal your body naturally. I also understand and do not dismiss modern medicines that also have their place when it comes to health and healing, but the foods that we eat really can make a difference to the health of each cell in our bodies.  In this day and age, we should consider going back to basics.  We should use foods that nature provides that has been grown organically and to add to our diets the wide variety of spices and herbs that have been used over 2,000 years and counting, as a health prevention and not to rely 100% on chemicals solutions to fix us when we haven’t take care of our bodies in the first place.

However, I do also believe in being realistic.  I would not recommend making drastic changes in the kitchen but to take one of the suggestions below at a time and to implement them at your family’s pace.  It should be a permanent lifestyle change, and if it means taking baby-steps so be it.  Changes that are gradual will make a longer term impact and that is really the goal.

I hope to be able to share some of the investigations I have learned over the years about superfoods and why I believe so much in this approach.  One of the purposes of this website is to talk and share about all the amazing foods that we can add to our family’s diet so if you have any thoughts do share them with us.

Quinoa – sometimes instead of rice we use quinoa, and at home the children only have quinoa bread.  It is a superfood used by the Incas up in the Andes.  Unlike wheat or rice, quinoa is a complete protein – containing all eight of the essential amino acids that is extremely beneficial to the children’s little bodies.

We avoid cow’s products where possible because everyone knows about the hormones and the antibiototics that now pollute the milk.  My children only have organic goats milk and occasionally when I have time we will make our own almond milk.  The only exception that I make with cow’s diary is Italian Parmesan.  They are half Italian  – spelt pasta with sprinklings of Parmesan is one of their favourites.

Organic Tamari – this is an alternative to soy sauce as my children as also half Singapore Chinese so it is a flavour we can’t always avoid in our cooking.  The taste of tamari is similar to soy sauce and we haven’t missed the real thing ever since we switched.   We try to avoid most soy products at home especially if they are from the US.

Organic meats – like cow’s milk, most animals are pumped with growth hormones and other unknown chemicals, and we try to avoid these meats when we can.  At home, we only serve organic meats, which can be anexpensive investment, in cities such as Dubai but for us, this is a worthwhile expense when it comes to the health of the family.

Avoiding the dirty dozen vegetables – it is true that nutritionally there is no nutritional difference between an organic and non-organic.  What I try to avoid is the chemicals that are in the non-organic foods that can affect our children’s growing system.  See our article on the DIRTY DOZEN coming soon.

Sugar – whilst I cannot always avoid sugar I try to teach my children that there is a time and place for it.  Sugar is highly-addictive and it is really bad for their little bodies.  The less they have, the less they will crave it.  It is up to us as parents to train our children’s palettes towards more healthy foods.  There is much scientific evidence and press articles out these days educating parents about the dangers of sugar and it is worth investigating to make your own mind up.