Natural as Possible Mom

I am not what you would call an outdoor person and yet some of my most treasured memories took place outside. My sister and I spent all of our waking hours running around our street, biking, playing games, or hanging out at the playground around the corner. We used leaves, sticks, and flowers as props. [...]

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Today, three out of four kids ages 3 to 5 are in some form of childcare including daycare and preschool. Increasingly, teachers, parents, and childcare workers are focusing more on reading than on running. However, according to a new study published in Pediatrics, the official journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), running trumps [...]

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It costs more to eat well, according to a research study out of the University of Washington. Hoping to see what effect the new U.S. dietary guidelines would have on a family’s pocketbook, researchers –  including Pablo Monsivais, acting assistant professor at the University of Washington and part of the Nutrition and Obesity Policy Research [...]

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Plenty of people out in blogger land regularly bemoan the fact that “kid food,” for most people, is fried, fake, and/or filled with artificial colors or flavors. It’s my turn, I guess. We’ve got a big kid-centric event coming up. We’ve gone for the past five years, and it’s always lots of fun. Quite honestly, [...]

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I recently had the occasion to work with a large group of 6- and 7-year-olds. We were working on a craft. One of the little girls wanted to tell me a story. I will paraphrase it below: “You know how some kids get left back? Well, there’s this big, fat, smelly, stupid kid. His name [...]

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When I got pregnant with Big Girl I saw three medical professionals: my midwife, a psychologist, and a nutritionist. As I have mentioned before, I have struggled with food issues all my life and I wanted to make sure I was eating enough and not getting too crazy. The nutritionist spend about an hour or [...]

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PepsiCo on Tuesday announced a new global policy on sweetened sodas in school: They’ve taken a withdrawal. Starting in 2012, you won’t be able to find a can of Mountain Dew — or any of its full sugar sodas — in any K-12 school across the world. (PepsiCo already pulled the trigger on the policy [...]

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When my daughter was about 15-months-old I took her in for a well-check. “Whoa, she’s gained a lot this month,” my doctor told me. “What is she eating?” My answer was sort of complicated. Big Girl was a hungry kid and a good eater. This was a good thing, I thought, which is why I [...]

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This week the New York City health department launched what has become a popular YouTube clip. In it, a man gets ready to guzzle some soda. When he pours it into a glass, globs of fat drip out instead. He drinks it anyway, which makes for good video. The point, of course, is to gross [...]

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