Child’s Physical Development

Most of us can appreciate that the way we raise our children which will determine the rest of their lives.  What I have observed as of late has challenged my confidence in parents (me included) as to the ways the little ones are being raised.

As an Exercise Kinesiologist I get to understand and appreciate how the body functions, what a healthy posture is and how the body looks. It is directly correlated to the emotional, mental and spiritual aspects of us.  I am witnessing, in vast numbers, children who’s bodies are underdeveloped and in poor condition.

Children must have adequate exercise so the muscles can stabilize and strengthen the body so it has a chance for proper development to occur. Without enough exercise poor posture develops, emotional growth is stunted, mental imbalances manifest and connecting to self and life is diminished.

A child with poor posture can have tendencies to be overly unruly, learning difficulties, often sick and less able to perform physical activities. That is a very short list of the challenges that children face today when improper development of the musculoskeletal system exists.

With all the so called conveniences and toys of today like cars, TV, Video games, computers, remote controls of many descriptions, children do not really stand a chance of reaching their physical potential as societal behavior in general has learned how to be lazy.  This will eat them alive and by the time they are an adult. Aches and pains are more than likely will show up, emotional and mental unrest is inevitable and disease is on it’s way.  I bet we all know a few people like that?

It may sound a bit crazy to think that an out of shape body can make our lives so miserable.  It starts with the parents as always.  The children will learn and emulate the parents behavior.

About the Author: Wayne Daniels is a Holistic Health Practitioner with emphasis on Exercise Kinesiology. Located in Tustin, California. www.HolisticHealthFitness.net

Healthy Snacks

It is important for our children to get the most nutritious foods we can possibly find for their growth and development.  Some of you might already have your children begging for the snacks and sweets or even not eating their veggies. If you are one to not bring crazy snacks in your home, then perhaps your little one is seriously eating another jelly bean or bright colored Goldfish Crackers and you are feeling a passionate discussion will be occurring in the next moment. With health education and communication your child will understand why certain things aren’t worth consuming.

The Tot’s Cafe has a plethora of knowledge and health professionals to give you the best advice on child health.  We want you to know the impact of feeding your child the most common processed foods and unhealthy sugars.  There is much advice out there for us Mothers and our intention is to narrow it down for you.  In this blog we are not
going to get into detail with you as there will be plenty of information we will provide from different holistic health professionals that will benefit your child’s health.  Let’s keep our children away from the doctor’s office and keep them vibrant and happy.

Here are some simple, most common snacks to be concerned of that children are often seen consuming in the car or during play dates. We are sure a few others that will come to your mind that also belong on this list.

• Goldfish crackers or any Cracker: AKA artificial color (known to contribute to hyperactivity, ADD) and gluten (can be constipating and cause digestive disorders).
• Juices: Any carton-ed or boxed Apple Juice, Orange Juice, Cranberry Juice, etc.: AKA sugar, artificial color and some liquid that was once fruit juice and has since been processed and highly heated.  Now your child is just getting only sugar that is foreign to the body and now causing addictions and diseases.
• Chicken Nuggets: AKA chicken scraps that have been irradiated and will simply never grow and considered a fossil in the present. To add they have been fried in unhealthy genetically modified oils with gluten in it which this “chicken nugget” is now considered dead with NO nutritional value.
• Cookies: AKA sugar, gluten, chemical preservatives.
• Cereal: AKA gluten and high fructose corn syrup, known to contain mercury. It is also made of non-organic corn, a crop that is mostly GMO (genetically modified organism, which is foreign matter to the body which alters DNA to make people more prone to sickness and disease).

In a nutshell, the above items are not going to grow a brain or build strong bones. They essentially add no value to the growth and development of our youth and the worst part is they contain a variety of chemical toxins.

You all must be saying, What!?

Here is the cold plain truth.  These items above are keeping your child from obtaining vibrant health, creativity and strong bodies and are causing diseases. No kidding.  Yes, it is a bit deceiving the way most packaged food are attractively labeled.  Unfortunately the toxins in the ingredients are not clearly spelled out, nor is the negative impact of consuming these foods spelled out for us.  If ingredients were clearly stated, the lines at the drive through wouldn’t be so long and the “Happy Meal” (now that’s an oxymoron) would no longer exist.   Cookies and candy are very addictive for children and as parents, we all know that.  Yet we give in and think these are a treat for our children and really we are numbing and dumb-ing them.  It is up to us parents to be extra cautious of anything in a package or a carton.

Healthy Alternatives:

• Choose organic everything.
• Make juices from organic apples or oranges by juicing these fruits yourself.
• Provide easy to grab finger food fruit or veggie snacks, such as berries and sliced cucumbers.
• Grab snacks and desserts from the “Raw Food” sections of your local Health Food Store and Whole Foods.
• Skip the cardboard cereal and blend up a nutritious smoothie.

Your child will eat his veggies if that is what you enjoy. If your child isn’t eating his veggies, it’s because you aren’t, he is holding out for dessert or he knows there are boxes of cookies and crackers in the pantry or he was in the pantry before lunch.  Yes, it can been considered a sacrifice for some parents to not fill the cupboards with processed items, especially if they’ve been enjoyed for years. As you know, your child wants to eat what you eat. So, if you doubt the nutritional integrity of any product then it is best to not invite it into your pantry. You will be also doing yourself a favor by experiencing your own elevated health. Healthy, playful and food selective parents are what our children will continue to appreciate for the rest of their precious life.

Stay tuned for our upcoming children’s health blogs on:

• Gluten
• Processed Foods
• Corn Syrup

The Kid Krisis

The Tot’s Cafe loves Dr. Mercola as he has information that the doctors out there are not telling you.  We received this article from him as we are on his e-mailing list and felt it important to share this information with all our hip and educated Moms out there.

1 in 6 now “developmentally disabled”

If it seems like every kid on the block has something wrong with him, well, you’re not far off: New numbers from the CDC find that 10 million American children — a sixth of all kids in the country — now have some kind of “developmental disability.”
This is a category that’s supposed to include everything from hearing loss to cerebral palsy, but c’mon — you and I both know there’s no hearing loss epidemic.
Despite all those white headphones dangling out of every ear, hearing loss among kids is actually DOWN over the past decade.

No, the real reason for the 17 percent increase in developmental disabilities in just 12 years is due almost entirely to two conditions — and I’m sure you can guess the ones I’m talking about.

Here’s a hint: One’s a complete fabrication… the other is badly over diagnosed.

The fabrication, of course, is ADHD — the “disease” where kids who act up are rewarded with stimulant drugs.

These kids aren’t sick.

They might be inattentive, ill-mannered, hot-headed, hyper, violent, or lazy — but they’re not sick.

These kids need better food, less TV, and an occasional kick in the seat — and any parents willing to provide all three will see a miraculous ADHD “cure” right in front of their eyes.

Autism, on the other hand is very real — and while I have no doubt it’s on the rise, I don’t buy the CDC’s new numbers for a second: The agency now claims the condition is up 300 percent over the past decade.

There’s no bigger backer of the autism community than me, and I’ve got the battle scars to prove it.

But something needs to be said here, and I’m going to say it: The real reason for the dramatic rise in autism spectrum disorders is that they’ve expanded the “spectrum” so much that’s it more like a beach umbrella — and suddenly every child who picks his nose too much is under it.

Let’s stop trying to slap labels on every kid who’s a little bit different — especially when those labels lead to drug prescriptions — and just focus on the ones who really need help for a change.

Being a kid is hard enough as it is.

Copyright (c)2011 by NewMarket Health Publishing.
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