This post was sponsored by Floating Hospital for Children as part of an Influencer Activation for Influence Central and all opinions expressed in my post are my own.
It’s comforting to know that there are great medical facilities in Boston including Floating Hospital for Children which is the full-service children’s hospital of Tufts Medical Center. It provides pediatric services in every medical and surgical specialty including cancer, heart disease and trauma, both inpatient and outpatient.
We used to live in Boston’s South End where Floating Hospital for Children is located. One nice thing about Floating Hospital for Children is its size. It’s smaller size makes for a more intimate environment that makes kids and parents alike feel comfortable. And their atmosphere supports young patients who prove every day that you don’t have to be big to be strong.
Floating Hospital for Children has unique programs like the WRITERS Program at Floating Hospital for Children at Tufts Medical Center. WRITERS (which stands for Write, Read, Illustrate, Talk, Expand, Revise, Share) is a bibliotherapy program for pediatric hematology/oncology patients that promotes stress relief and personal expression through writing. This program helps children become published authors like Sammi.
His book, How to Deal with Sickle Cell Anemia, is a collection of 20 tips from his personal experience on how to live life to the fullest with the disease. His tips range from, “it’s okay to feel scared” (#9) and “think of the things that make you happiest” (#11), to “dance” (#19) and “stay positive” (#20).
Floating Hospital for Children also has advice for issues parents face like talking to your kids about weight. With the number of obese children doubling in the past 30 years, it’s an important discussion to have, but a tricky subject to bring up.
Michael Leidig, MS, RD, LDN, CPT, Clinical Director of the Center for Youth Wellness at Floating Hospital for Children at Tufts Medical Center, says parents should be careful to strike the appropriate tone. He offers these tips to make it a little easier:
- For young children, focus on the family’s goal of making healthy choices and living a healthy lifestyle.
- Ask open-ended questions to older children about how they feel about their weight and how they look.
- Come up with a healthy food choice plan together, and don’t police the plan.
- Model healthy choices and daily exercise yourself.
- Limit screen time.
For my family, I sought the help of medical professionals when dealing with my kids’ eating issues. One of my daughters met with a nutritionist when she was young for being underweight, and as a teenager for the opposite problem. For girls especially, weight can be a tricky subject. The last thing you want to do as a parent is sabotage their self-confidence or make them question their body image.
Working with a nutritionist helps to break down healthy eating into goals with small manageable steps. It also provides the education piece that kids need to understand how to change their eating habits. They also have the right focus and language to talk to kids about weight with suggestions for changes that aren’t judgmental.
Making small changes but staying consistent is the key:
- For my kids, we focus on making healthy choices, especially after school when kids are hungry, or, in my case, hangry (hungry + angry). We opt for a mini-meal like a sandwich. Limiting liquids to just water or milk is an another way to reduce extra calories.
- Pairing carbohydrates with a protein is a simple rule of thumb. It helps in making food decisions but also helps to eliminate sugar highs and lows.
- Sleep is also important. My high school daughters can be sleep deprived because of their heavy load of homework and activities. Unfortunately, sleep deprivation contributes to obesity by increasing the stress hormone cortisol, which increases appetite.
- Exercise helps with managing stress and in reducing body fat. Small habits can make big changes. Take stairs — two at a time going up — instead of elevators. Add in extra steps by parking the furthest away in the parking lot instead of the closest. Add in cardio every day, even if it’s just for 5 to 10 minutes, but try to work up to 20 minutes.
How about you? How are you helping your kids make healthy food choices? Thanks for sharing!
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This post was sponsored by Floating Hospital for Children as part of an Influencer Activation for Influence Central and all opinions expressed in my post are my own.
BEST #OWNVOICES CHILDREN’S BOOKS: My Favorite Diversity Books for Kids Ages 1-12 is a book that I created to highlight books written by authors who share the same marginalized identity as the characters in their books.
We always try to eat lots of greens, veggies and fruits from our own garden. And add porriges and potato and some meat.
That sounds delicious Olga!