 How to include all kids on Halloween.Do you have a kid with food allergies? If you’d like to include all kids - including those with food allergies or those who have medical issues that prevent them from eating candy - in Halloween, then consider being part of the Teal Pumpkin Project! This important project encourages families to display a teal pumpkin and have non-food options available for kids who can’t have standard candies. You can even add your house to the map HERE so trick-or-treaters know where to find safe treats. We know that it’s tricky maneuvering the food allergy world. In fact, both Judy and myself have food allergies, and I (Megan) grew up with a severe anaphylactic allergy in my immediate family. It’s hard. If you have an allergic kiddo, try to focus on language about “keeping you safe” when discussing allergies. Phrases like, “All bodies react differently to foods. Some people can eat all foods, but some people can’t. Your body doesn’t like xyz, so in order to keep you safe we have to have other options.” Make sure to have alternative treats for your kiddo to enjoy too. There are some great common allergen-free candies at Target, where you can also find a teal pumpkin most years (and it's reusable)! You can also have alternative options to candy all together. Some ideas include:
If you're interested in joining the Teal Pumpkin Project, here's how to participate:
  A great snack for kids and adults to enjoy.It may be October, but it’s still hot in much of the world and smoothies are A-OK year round! We love featuring these each year because they’re tasty and appropriate for many allergy families too! (We aren’t dairy-free but know many of our followers are for various reasons!) We found these fun glass Halloween milk bottles at Target again this year in the dollar spot! Worried about glass? Tuck the milk bottle in a sock before serving! It’s great to get toddlers used to handling glass (with assistance) so they can safely drink from it as they get older. Each recipe makes about 2 cups of smoothie, but the glass bottles fit about 3/4 cup liquid each. Make them with your kids this month for a fun Halloween-themed drink that's tasty and satisfying! Scary Berry Ingredients:
Sweet Pumpkin Spice Ingredients:
Green Goblin Ingredients:
For all recipes - throw all ingredients (liquid first) in a high powered blender like Vitamix. Blend until smooth and serve. Enjoy!   Delicious, festive pumpkin cookies!I have always loved to bake. I started making cookies for friends and family in high school, and along the way I discovered this super simple combo: 1 can of pumpkin, 1 box of cake mix, 1 bag chocolate chips. Fortunately, I eventually learned about cake mixes with some pretty simple ingredients and not a lot of dyes or additives, and Immaculate Baking became my go-to cake mix for this recipe (not sponsored). This is a cookie. It has sugar. It’s OK to have some - check out our post on sugar if you want more info. I like that Immaculate Baking mixes have sugar, flour, baking powder etc - the simple stuff! You could also use any store brand yellow or white cake mix. Or if you’re all fancy, I’m sure you could make the dry mix from scratch, but that makes it way less simple! You can also make this recipe with spice cake mix, but I"m personally not a fan of cinnamon/pumpkin mixed with chocolate. Others are! The best part about this recipe is that if made with Enjoy Life Foods chocolate chips, it’s dairy- and soy-free, as well as egg free if you use an allergy-friendly cake mix! It’s a cookie everyone can enjoy that doesn’t taste like a “modified” cookie. I have also tried gluten-free mixes with success for those who need it! Here are the specifics:
Serve with milk/milk alternative of choice for dunking!   A festive and delicious recipe full of nutrients.Even if it's still hot where you live and enjoying fall foods hasn't quite hit yet, keep in mind that pumpkin is a crazy good source of beta carotene, which is a powerful antioxidant and supporter of eye health! Just one tablespoon of pureed pumpkin can exceed your child's needs for vitamin A (as beta carotene) for the day. This simple, freezable recipe is adapted from Wellness Mama and is seriously tasty! Here's what you need:
Brown beef in a large pot. When beef is almost completely cooked, add the onions and cook until soft. Add the pureed pumpkin, diced tomatoes, tomato sauce, stock, beans and spices. Simmer for 10 minutes until heated through. Top with cheese, sour cream/yogurt or avocado slices. Feel amazingly festive and satisfied (even if you could still cook an egg on the sidewalk).   Add some fun to your kid's afternoon snack.Any snack on a stick can help kids become more interested in eating - think about how much fun it is to eat food in this way! Make our peanut butter yogurt dip (see below for allergen modifications) and pair it with pretzel stick, plus strawberries on a skewer. Safety tip: use kitchen scissors to cut the sharp end off the skewer, and don’t serve this to a young toddler who may poke themselves! Always supervise eating, especially with new tools. Megan's DEVOURED this snack. It was the perfect sweet, salty and crunchy combo that was also full of fiber, protein and fat (the three key nutrients for keeping our bodies full and our blood sugar more regulated). To make the yogurt dip, combine:
Allergy Families: use Kite Hill almond yogurt or coconut yogurt instead of dairy yogurt, sunflower seed butter or almond butter instead of peanut butter, and gluten-free pretzels instead of wheat pretzels. Strawberry allergy? Serve with blueberries and bananas instead   Different types of pasta offer different flavors, textures and nutrition.So many kids love pasta - we call them "noo-noos" in our house. What's not to love? They're easy and fun to eat and are topped with delicious sauces. I’m especially a fan of all the new alternative pastas like Banza is made from chickpeas and has a ton of filling protein and fiber. One 2-oz portion (which is a pretty decent size) has 14 grams of protein, just 4 grams short of their total daily need. We serve it so many ways - here's a few ideas:
Remember, kids learn to eat what is served to them, so mix it up! Offer different types of pastas with different presentations and different sauces. Sticking to the same dishes increases their likelihood of picky eating...try to get creative when you can!   Need a dairy-free option?Calling all dairy-free peeps (and even those who love dairy)! Have you tried nutritional yeast? This deactivated yeast has a nutty or cheesy flavor and is highly nutritive (hence its name). One tablespoon contains 3 grams of protein, 180% of your adult daily value for thiamine, 140% of your daily value for vitamin B6 and 160% of your daily value for niacin, all important B vitamins. Dairy-free peeps like that it resembles cheese in flavor. It can be found at most health food stores and grocery stores. Here are some fun ways to use it:
  You're going to want to try this one!Y’all went nuts on Instagram for our Lentil Pasta Tuna Noodle Casserole, so we’re finally posting the full recipe! This recipe is awesome because it feeds a lot of people and stores in the fridge/freezer well. It's also gluten-free for those who need it. This casserole tastes best when reheated in the toaster oven, conventional oven or on the stove. It’s crazy high in fiber and protein plus has anti-inflammatory CLA (a type of fat), some omega-3s (more if you use salmon), and lots of calcium and iron! Plus, it’s CHEAP for how many it serves. My kids shovel this in, and it’s a nice comfort food on a cold winter night. I cook by taste, so follow your instincts on this one! Add more or less cheese, paprika, etc. depending on your family’s preferences. Enjoy!
Preheat oven to 375F. Cook pasta per directions on the box and drain. Place pasta in a large bowl and combine all remaining ingredients, leaving 1 cup of shredded cheese for the top. Press into 9x13 casserole dish. Sprinkle with cheese. Cook for 25-35 minutes or until cheese starts to brown and bubble. Let it cool, then eat and enjoy!   Image via @bapronbaby @beckytran Is breakfast a challenge in your home? Check out our free printable with 5 ideas you may not have tried yet, including modifications for kid with allergies! Click on the link below to download the PDF file, and don't forget to pin the image above! Check out our Yogurt Buying Guide here. The full Inspiralized Beet and Oat Banana Muffin recipe can be found here. 
    Head to the end of this post to download our Yogurt Buying Guide Quick Reference sheet and our full four-page Yogurt Breakdown table that compares dozens of dairy-based and non-dairy yogurts by store availability, price, and nutritional content. Confused by yogurt?You're not alone. One of the most popular questions in our free Facebook Group and on our Instagram account is "What kind of yogurt should I buy for my baby or child?" If you go to almost any US grocery store you could spend hours in the yogurt aisle comparing different brands, yogurt styles (Greek versus traditional versus European?), flavors and container sizes. Oh, and some of them are much more expensive than others. We're here to help clear up some confusion. In general, we recommend looking for two key qualities when buying yogurt for babies and young children:
This post will focus only on unsweetened yogurt, as that's what we first recommend. After the Nutrition Facts panel label change requirements occur this summer we hope to release a sweetened yogurt post as well, as we know many of our clients like to use sweetened yogurt too. First, let's talk about some common issues and misconceptions surrounding yogurt. #1. Why yogurt?As a dietitian I like yogurt for many reasons. It's one of the few cultured, or probiotic-filled foods that many kids regularly eat, and it is a palatable and easy way for kiddos to get calcium, protein, and calories into their diet. Yogurt has been associated with a variety of health benefits, including improvement to digestion and immune system and prevention of bone loss. Physicians regularly recommend probiotics for digestive conditions like diarrhea, constipation, and GI infections, as well as during and after antibiotic use or during yeast infections. We recommend yogurt for babies 6+ months in our BLW online course and older children in our toddler online course. Yogurt is made when bacteria cultures are applied to milk or a milk alternative. These beneficial bacteria convert the milk into lactic acid, which changes the consistency and thickness of the milk. Most yogurts are made from cow's milk, but we have also found yogurt options from sheep/goat's milk and yogurts made from non-dairy sources. Our Yogurt Breakdown at the end of this post will help you find specific brands and stores who carry them. Even if your kiddo doesn't tolerate fluid cow's milk, she may be able to eat yogurt made from cow's milk. Otherwise, goat's or sheep's milk may be an option, as may non-dairy yogurts. The beneficial bacteria and fermentation process can greatly aid in tolerance of yogurt versus straight cow's milk. I see this all the time with clients young and old - many can't drink fluid cow's milk but do just fine with yogurt. #2. Live and active cultures...?The most beneficial yogurt is made from live and active bacteria cultures and is not heat treated after the fermentation process (the milk is, however, pasteurized before fermentation to remove potential pathogenic bacteria). To help consumers find which yogurts contain these live and active cultures, the National Yogurt Association has created a Live and Active Cultures seal.  However, this labeling program is voluntary, and many yogurts contain live and active cultures (with the required 100 million cultures per gram required for the seal) without participating in this labeling program. Above all else, look at the ingredient list for presence of these bacteria and words like "contains live and active cultures." Read more about this labeling program here. #3. Why is yogurt so high in sugar?Note: before discussing sugar, I want to caveat one thing - we are all about balance and realism around food here at Feeding Littles. We don't think sugar is inherently "evil" and feel that there's some room for it in the diet. Worrying too much about sugar may actually increase your tot's likelihood to obsess over it and binge on it when it's finally available. However, since some kiddos start with unsweetened yogurt as babies and get used to that taste, there's no harm in continuing to offer unsweetened or minimally sweetened yogurts (aka sweetened at home with fruit puree, maple syrup, honey {for kids over 1}, etc.), as these can be very tasty and satisfying to many children. We recommend unsweetened yogurt from the start for this reason. Parents are oftentimes very confused by how much "sugar" is in yogurt. In fact, all dairy products - and breast milk - contain sugar in the form of lactose and other saccharides, or carbohydrates. (Words ending in "-ose" like lactose, sucrose and fructose indicate that the molecule is a type of sugar.) These sugars are inherent in milk products. Even lactose-free yogurt, where the lactose is specifically removed, contains other inherent sugars/carbohydrates. All animal milk-based yogurt will contain sugar - lactose and other saccharides - even if they're unsweetened. Thus, unless you're getting unsweetened yogurt made from coconut or almond (which many times don't contain much protein either, with a few exceptions), you will see "sugar" labeled on the Nutrition Facts panel. To further complicate the issue, if the yogurt contains added fruit (which has fructose), the sugar value on the label will be even higher. However, this sugar is from fruit, not added table sugar or other sweetener. Until the labeling laws change in summer 2018 to include an "Added Sugars" line on the Nutrition Facts panel, it is hard to tell how much sugar is added to sweetened yogurts without comparing sweetened and unsweetened yogurts of the same brand/type/serving size and seeing the difference between sugar values. For example, if a whole milk strawberry yogurt from X brand has 20 g sugar per serving and the plain whole milk yogurt from the same brand has 12 g sugar, there are 8 g sugar added to the sweetened version. This would be equivalent to 2 teaspoons added sugar. Below, the left Nutrition Facts panel is a vanilla and the right is plain, both Stonyfield Whole Milk Greek yogurts. Notice that the vanilla has 18 g sugar while the plain has 6 g. The difference is 12 grams, or 3 teaspoons added sugar.
You will also see sugar or other sweeteners on the ingredient list of sweetened yogurt. When in doubt, to avoid added sugar in yogurt, choose plain yogurts. Anything flavored will, for the most part, be sweetened, including vanilla and strawberry yogurts. Unsweetened yogurt will be more tart than sweetened yogurt, but you may be able to doctor it up with fruit, vanilla extract, cinnamon etc. for more flavor. For simplicity's sake, we've kept this entire post and downloadables included in this post all about unsweetened yogurt. Remember that unsweetened yogurt is appropriate for all ages and can be substituted for sour cream in many recipes, so it's a nice addition to your kitchen. You can always flavor it for yourself if your kiddo eats plain but you like sweetened/flavored. #4. But I thought low-fat dairy was better...The low-fat craze of the 90s has trained us to think that low-fat and fat-free foods are still ideal. However, science suggests otherwise. According to recent research, full-fat dairy is associated with better weight regulation, a lower risk of diabetes, healthier HDL cholesterol levels, GI health (due to a specific fatty acid called butyric acid), and overall lower sugar intake. Furthermore, data about dairy intake now suggests that full-fat dairy doesn't increase the risk of heart disease. To me it makes more sense to eat the food in its whole form, more closely to how it was created - fat and all. Many of my clients feel much more satisfied and less blood sugar "crash-y" after eating full fat yogurt and cheese. Just a few years ago it was nearly impossible to find whole milk yogurt at a grocery store, let alone whole milk plain yogurt. Fortunately manufacturers are noticing that consumers are no longer fearing fat and want more whole milk options, and as you can see from the Yogurt Breakdown below, there are now many, many types of whole fat unsweetened yogurt. Since we recommend whole milk yogurt for babies (6+ months), toddlers, children and adults barring specific health or medical issues, we have only included full-fat options in this guide. #5. To Greek or not to Greek?Greek yogurt is all the rage because of it's higher protein content and thick consistency. We love Greek yogurt for babies and toddlers because it sticks better to loaded NumNum GOOtensils or loaded spoons and is easier to pick up with their hands. The Greek yogurt we eat in the US is usually called "strained yogurt" in the rest of the world because it's yogurt that's strained an additional time to remove more whey, liquid and milk sugars. What's left is a thicker, higher-protein, lower naturally-occurring sugar yogurt. However, since the term "Greek yogurt" isn't regulated, some manufacturers skip this straining step and use thickeners like corn starch to make their yogurt seem like Greek yogurt. Read labels to watch for these thickeners. (Note: many non-dairy yogurts are made with thickeners to mimic the consistency of cow's milk yogurt because this consistency is hard to achieve with non-dairy milks.) In general, Greek yogurt will have more protein and less milk sugar and will have a thicker, creamier texture. However, it requires 4 oz of milk to create 1 oz of yogurt, and the creation of Greek yogurt results in excess whey as a byproduct (which can be hard to dispose of), so we recommend buying both Greek and "traditional" yogurt. You may have also seen Icelandic, European, French and Australian yogurt on the shelves. In general, the process to create this yogurt is the same - fermentation by bacteria, then straining. Usually they differ in how much they're strained and in their thickness/nutrient content. #6. Do I need to buy organic yogurt?There is a lot of debate surrounding organic and conventionally-raised animals, and thus any product made by them. The USDA requires that certified organic dairy comes from cows who have not been treated with antibiotics, have not been given growth or reproductive hormones, and have received at least 30% of their diet from pasture. The rest of their feed must be organic. Organic milk products may have more omega-3 fatty acids, but the science is still out as to whether organic is better. Many parents choose organic because of the potential risks currently unknown in consuming conventional milk products over many years/decades, and some parents choose organic because of environmental implications of conventional farming. However, organic products usually carry a much steeper price tag. In the end, the choice is yours. I buy organic yogurt when our budget permits and don't worry when it's not available or we can't afford it. #7. What about baby yogurt?You do not have to buy baby yogurt if you don't want to. Baby or toddler yogurt is usually whole milk sweetened yogurt in small containers - nothing special or baby-specific about it. It tends to be more expensive ounce per ounce than yogurt in larger containers. Some parents find it convenient if they themselves don't eat yogurt and want smaller containers to prevent food waste, but there's no need to buy baby yogurt if you don't want to. Our Yogurt Buying Quick ReferenceTo help cut down on confusion at the grocery store, we've created a one-page guide that may help you find some of our favorite products at your local store. This guide includes some of our favorite brands (dairy and non-dairy), the highest-protein and highest-calorie yogurts for kids that may need help in these areas, and some ways to flavor or enhance yogurt. Click the link below the image to download the file, or save it to your phone, pin it to Pinterest, and share! Please note: we are sharing yogurts we found at 5 different grocery stores in Arizona. Availability will vary based on your grocery store options. 
Yogurt BreakdownTo further help you find where to buy your favorite yogurts and how they break down by nutrition and price, check out our four-page Yogurt Breakdown by clicking the link below the photo. Pages 1 and 2 include cow's milk yogurt; page 3 is goat's milk and sheep's milk yogurt; and page 4 contains non-dairy yogurt. Note: our amazing intern Sarah went to five popular stores in Arizona. Availability will vary depending on your store options and location. Price reflects the price as of Spring 2018 and may vary as by location.  Click the link below to see the full four-page Yogurt Breakdown:
Special thanks to our intern Sarah Bushbaum who did all of the supermarket research for this post. She spent hours at 5 different grocery stores photographing and organizing yogurt nutritional information, and we are so grateful for her!  |
AuthorsMegan and Judy, co-owners of Feeding Littles, bring you helpful info on food, nutrition, picky eating, and feeding young children. Megan McNamee MPH, RDN is a Registered Dietitian Nutritionist based in Scottsdale, Arizona. Judy Delaware, OTR/L is an Occupational Therapist specializing in feeding therapy with children 3 and under in Boulder, Colorado. Megan and Judy are both moms of two and love helping families develop a healthy appetite for all foods!
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