Scrummy yummy banana lollies

Banana Lollies

When its hot outside and the kids want a cooling treat try these fantastic healthy banana lollies. Bananas are a great form of sustainable slow release energy and are packed with essential vitamins and minerals. Your kids will love these treats and if your like me, you will be munching on them too!! These definately beat shop bought lollies and your children can get involved in making them, they are so easy!!

1 banana will make 2 lollies

You will need:

- 1 banana, peeled and cut in half
- 100g chocolate (plain, milk or white)
- 3 tbsps sprinkles
- 2 lolly sticks

How to make them:

1. Peel your banana and cut in half across the middle.
2. Put the chocolate in a microwave proof bowl and melt gently in the microwave for a couple of minutes or until completely liquid
3. Push the lolly sticks half way up the cut end of the banana halves
4. Dunk the end of the banana into the melted chocolate and then finally sprinkle with the sprinkles. Alternatively you can use dessicated coconut or finely chopped nuts
5. Place in a plastic tub and freeze overnight

......... ENJOY!!!

Diet Advice for our children

I read this and thought I would share this useful information!

By Dietitian, Juliette Kellow BSc RD

• Don’t force younger children to eat everything on their plate – kids quickly get tired of the same taste, which is why they often only eat half of their main course but still want a pudding – they’ve simply got bored with the taste of the main course.
  
• Avoid using food as a reward – it simply becomes more desirable. But that’s not all – other foods become less desirable, too. In other words, telling children they can have some sweets if they eat their veg simply makes the sweets more alluring and the veg less appealing!
  
• Get children involved at mealtimes – younger children in particular are far more likely to eat something they’ve made themselves so let them help you cook healthy meals such as fishcakes, homemade burgers, fruit muffins, wholemeal scones, smoothies and sandwiches. Meanwhile, encourage teenagers to eat with the family.
  
• Encourage children to eat regularly, especially breakfast – studies show that breakfast eaters tend to be slimmer than people who skip this meal.
  
• Don’t make your child’s weight and size an ‘issue’. To help your child lose weight focus on good nutrition, avoid using the ‘diet’ word, don’t weigh your child regularly and lead by example – if you eat sensibly and exercise frequently, your child will be more likely to do the same.
  
• Talk to your child about the benefits of eating well and looking after their body. Health is generally not a priority for children so focus on other issues that are important to them.
  
  For example, for teenage girls explain that a healthy diet will give them glowing skin, shiny hair and strong nails, give them more energy to go shopping with their friends and help them concentrate so they’ll perform better in their favourite subjects at school.
  
  For boys, explain that eating well will help to build and tone muscles, give them great skin and help them do well in their favourite sports.
   
• Find out what’s on the menu for school dinners and discuss with your child whether they’d prefer packed lunches. If they want school dinners, talk to them about the healthier options they could choose, for example, a jacket potato with cheese and salad rather than a hot dog and chips. If they’d prefer packed lunches, follow the tips for healthy packed lunches.
   
• Encourage the whole family to be more active and include plenty of fun activities, for example, playing football in the park, going ten pin bowling or going for a cycle.
  
  Use sports activities as an opportunity to spend some quality time with your children, too. For example, mums and daughters could go to dance or aerobics classes together, while dads and sons have a game of squash.
   
• Take a look at what the whole family are eating – kids rarely have bad eating habits on their own so if your child is gaining too much weight, it’s unlikely the rest of the family is having a healthy diet. If this is the case, encourage a healthy, balanced diet for everyone. This means…
  
  - Cutting down on sweets, cakes, biscuits and fizzy drink
  
  - Eating fewer fatty foods such as chips, burgers and fried food
  
  - Eating regularly, especially breakfast
  
  - Basing meals on starchy foods and choosing wholegrain varieties, when possible
  
  - Eating more fruit and vegetables
   
• If you’re concerned about your child’s weight see your GP for advice before starting any sort of diet. Bear in mind that the standard Body Mass Index (BMI) chart is unsuitable for growing children and so shouldn’t be used to assess a child’s weight.

Try a childrens centre near you!!!

This morning I took my one year old little girl, Florence to a childrens centre near to me. I have been a few times now and as a mother with not a great deal of disposable income I have found this centre invaluable to me. There is always something on everyday, some groups involve the children such as messy play, soft play, stay and play drop-ins, singing and stories and some are completely for the parents getting them doing courses (reading, writing and first aid) while your children are in the creche. The centre also offers an array of advice and groups for pregnant mums, young mums, single mums and breast feeding mums along with helping parents getting back into work. EVERYTHING IS FREE!! The groups are run by really friendly staff and long sessions will always provide a healthy snack of fruit and veg with crackers or bread sticks and a choice of water or milk.

The centre I attend is Butterflys children centre atWinhills Primary School in Eynesbury, but I have just recently attended The Eatons at Bushmead Primary School in Eaton Socon. Both have amazed me with the level of cleanliness, care and dedication the staff put into ensuring children and parents have support, safety and most importantly fun!! There are centres up and down the country which all incorporate the same type of set up in a bid to give children and parents a sfae environment to meet other people and encourage interaction with other children. Ask your GP, midwife or health visitior for your local childrens centre or look on the internet in a search engine.

My children tend to get easily bored at home with the same toys and same surroundings and this can lead to arguements and fights. So I have found it so useful to have a centre within walking distance of me that I can take them to, free of charge, and where they can run off energy, play with an array of different toys, do all sorts of fantastic paintings, glueing and mixing, meet other children and where us parents can relax a bit!!

I like to think that I am an open minded mum and will allow my children to make a mess to a certain degree, but at the centres its fantastic because certain groups such as mucky pups allows your child to mix together rice, oil, baked beans, peas, custard and flour in a supervised environment dedicated to encouraging our children to experiement with different textures and foods and all in a controlled place where your home is not going to get clogged up with flour paste and sticky with sugar!! Other messy play involves shaving foam, sand, water and lots of gluing, sticking and painting, all the things that us parents would much prefer somewhere other than in our homes!! I think that it is necessary to allow our children some freedom when it comes to experimenting, I am a firm believer that it will enable them to make small decisions about themselves from a younger age.

So the group lasted 2 hours, half way through our children were rounded up for a snack and drink, all provided free. The choices were orange segments, tomatoes, cucumber, banana, grapes and bread sticks and the drink choices were water and milk. I overheard that a squash juice based drink is no longer allowed to be provided in the centres due to a new oral health study, which shows how dedicated they are to following national guidelines and encouraging children to make healthier choices. Previously each child was offered a biscuit as a snack but we can now see a huge change towards healthier options and a start towards making our children see healthier foods as part of life instead of a chore to eat in place of junk food full in sugar and fat. Each week the centre has a fruit or vegetable of the week, last week it was grapes and this week it is tomatoes. They have a great big picture up in the kitchen area (there is always a kitchen area in these centres) of the fruit/veg of the week detailing for parents their health benefits. The kitchen area is always available to the parents for snacks and drinks, all of a healthy nature and all completely free.

I know that our schools do come under alot of controversy surrounding meals and I believe that for the older children eating school meals this is still a major problem, but as a parent of younger children, it is our duty to ensure that they get the best nutrition from the beginning of their life and grasp an understanding of it being good for you. Our children centres are doing a fantastic job of promoting healthy eating, but also giving a service to parents and children that goes beyond helpful and should definately get more recognition for their endless hard work and committment to our children.

Picky eaters? 5 ways to help solve your meal time battles!

Children will always find something to turn their noses up at at meal time, and when you have just put time and effort into lovingly preparing a meal it can be somewhat disheartening. Dont give up hope, there will always be things that your child might not like and sometimes this will be a forever thing, but more often than not they will gradually become more confident in trying and even liking certain foods which at first glace they wouldnt touch! I have managed to get my 4 year old to eat almost every vegetable and to delight in eating it. My secret with him was to encourage super hero qualities with super healthy foods (he is particulary into superman, spiderman, ben 10 .... the list goes on ...). Of course he doesnt believe that he will turn into superman, but he has grasped an understanding of foods being nourishing to the body and a feeling of being strong and powerful.

"EAT YOUR BRUSSELS, GET BIG MUSCLES!!" a ditty made up by my son!

I believe its essential to eat with your children, if they can see you appreciate good food and to eat sensibly then you are more likely to rub this habit off on them. Dont make a big issue of new foods on their plate, just allow them to discover, feel and taste new foods in their own time without drawing attention to something which you are trying to get them to eat. Often 'force feeding' can have a very detrimental effect and can make them detract from trying things altogether. I know that often we sit at the table and expect our children to sit, eat and behave impecably, using a knife and fork and obeying all the etiquette rules in the book but the actual truth is that our children are exactly that, they are learning and discovering and when you are trying to encourage eating, making meal times very strict and proper will have a negative effect on their eating. Imagine if you were given an unknown food in front of you, alien to look at and strange in texture, you would want to bring the plate to your nose and smell it, touch it, poke it, pick it up even, smell it again and maybe squeeze it in your fingers all before you put it in your mouth!! Your children are learning from that point of view, in my opinion to totally disallow children to handle new foods could result in them not wanting to show any willingness to even try a mouse sized nibble!!

So in brief ....

Don't make a big deal about it. If you announce "We're going to try something new tonight," your child will just translate that as "This is going to be disgusting; prepare to hate it." Instead, just set the plate down and let your kid explore it for herself.

Make it fun. You've seen the cute pictures: pancakes topped with smiley fruit faces, grilled cheese served in cookie-cutter shapes. Taking the time now and then to make healthy foods kid-friendly -- even just adding ketchup or making up a clever name ("magic beans," "power peas") -- is always a winner. So is anything dunkable: Offer a little warmed, oozy peanut butter or yogurt to dip her fruit into, or some herb dressing to go with steamed vegetables.

Work with your child. Incorporate the healthy stuff into dishes you know your child likes. If she loves pizza, try adding pineapple. Got a muffin fan? Make a batch with blueberries or grated carrots. Chicken-nugget chomper? Bake them with whole-grain bread crumbs.

Talk it up. A kid couldn't care less about cholesterol or heart disease, but he will take notice if you tell him that doughnut won't give him enough energy to climb the jungle gym or keep up with his friend in the swimming pool.

Eat it yourself. If you won't touch anything green, why should they? But if they see you enjoying a big salad or a fish dish, they just may come around (well, eventually)!


Most of all dont give up, in my experience children go through stages of eating alot and then not hardly eating anything and we are there worrying that they are not getting the nutrition that they need and sometimes this can lead to you giving into their demands for unhealthy snacks just so as they eat something! Be patient, I like to think that children are born with their very own blue print when  it comes to eating, at a young age they are untouched by the negative images and delicate issues surrounding diet, exercise and food and more often than not do not need to express the need to comfort eat or emotionally heal by using food, so with this in mind they often go by their own bodies natural instincts of when and how much they need to eat and so dont worry as long as you offer them regular meals and healthy choices, you can rest assurred that most of the time they will eat to their energy levels and as long as you havent allowed too much snacking, your child should look more eager to eat what you place in front of them.

Lastly, do remember to allow treats as well but just dont make them the majority of your childs diet! Remember that your child has no power to dictate what they eat now and then this will impact on the choices that they make in the future! Being a parent has massive responsibilities!!