School Lunches....Yummy and Delicious

In the countdown to school, our attention now turns to the daily task of what to serve our children for lunch keeping in mind that anything we make should enhance brain, memory, mood and attention - all critical to learning success... As parents, we set the standard... Food is not about filling our stomachs with whatever is at hand. It is about giving what our bodies need for optimum health and higher order thinking. What we like has nothing to do with eating. It is about what the body needs!

Every bite counts when feeding our children. Their appetites are small. With distractions and giggling in the lunchroom, we must ensure that our child eats well  and safely in as short a period of time as possible. Time and time again we are told to include raw fruits and vegetables- live enzymes-, in our diet to keep our bodies functioning at peak efficiency.

Simple, easy to make and yummy sandwiches in bite sized pieces can be made on weekends and frozen till the following week... As mentioned in Wonder(ful) Bread, sandwiches can be made to a high standard using everyday foods such as eggs, salmon, tuna and ham. Adding a healthy binding mixture –(mayonnaise, mustard, a drop of apple cider vinegar) to the drained meat-ham, salmon, or tuna- creates exciting new additions to your child’s lunch itinerary. Be mindful of lunch temperatures using a frozen pack or frozen sandwiches which will then thaw and be ready to eat.

Include herbs and spices designed to bring subtle flavour and health benefits when making sandwich fillings and other 'mixed' foods....Spices, such as turmeric(found in mustard), onion powder and herbs such as fresh dill, cilantro, parsley, green onions and/or chives, all help to provide a wealth of added health benefits to your child’s lunch.  For the adventurous child, adding dried chopped fruits such as: cranberries, raisins to the fillings can make the mundane, exciting.  

Use mayonnaise sparingly with the addition of mustard to the above spices and herbs. Keep added fats, whether it be margarine, butter or mayonnaise to an absolute minimum... All canned salmon, tuna, ham have salt added. Drain the product well. Rinse with a bit of water and drain again. Adding a bit of apple cider vinegar to the tin and draining one final time helps to remove more salt while leaving behind the healthful benefits of vinegar. Adding the mayonnaise mixture just to moisten helps to keep fat content low. (Remember, healthy breads also have incredible flavour and taste.)

The making of fruit compotes also provides yet another delicious level of nutrition, giving our children an extra boost of vitamins and minerals during their school day. Chopped fruit mixed with orange juice/lemon helps keep it fresh in the insulated lunch bag ready to eat.  

Chips, cookies or chocolate bars can be a shared, once in a while event.  Including them daily adds to the build up of deleterious substances in the body that a developing child simply does not need.  Allowing a once in a while sharing treat day helps to make lunch time at school a  fun experience for all.

It's Back to School (Again)!

As the summer winds down, our attention now turns to school and the buying frenzy that ensues with this annual event.  Last year’s inventory, it seems, is obsolete, not worthy of using, wearing or mentioning.  The closet is bare and all the personal devices we own are now obsolete.  Of course, this is not true.  Some clothing needs replacing, perhaps, and a new laptop is in order, maybe.

We live in a modern society driven by incessant advertising and a consumer mentality. No matter where we go, the media is  always there reminding us that who we are or what we have is simply not good enough.  Something newer, bolder and more up-to-date is waiting for us. We’ll be happier when we make the change.  The euphoria of the purchase is short lived, however. We finally realize that our life is still the same but now the money is gone for the needs of a family pet, household bill or groceries. We cannot afford it- now.  We just spent a lot of money on a few things that, at the time, seemed very important. 

We assess the inventory for the start of a new school year-for us and our children. Little boys, naturally, outgrow their clothing more quickly than little girls.  Clothing becomes discoloured, worn, in need of repair.  If we have spent $200 in a two hour spree on an incredible array of stuff for school, remember one thing, can we earn the same amount of money in the time we took to spend it? Naturally, the answer is no for many of us, myself included.  It is, therefore, incumbent upon us to be very careful to save in other places, cutting down on unnecessary spending in readiness for the next big spree.  We must not spend our future and our children’s future in order to satisfy a primal need now. Nothing, absolutely nothing, we could ever buy is worth placing ourselves in financial jeopardy - ever!

As a teen in the late sixties, I fell in love with a pair of expensive leather patchwork shoes while ‘window’ shopping in downtown Toronto, during a break from class. Those shoes made an impression on me, instantly. But, I could not afford them.  I was a full time student and had worked during the summer saving most of the money for my  school expenses - Ryerson tuition, textbooks, subway fare, and other incidental costs.  Part time jobs were few to non- existent.  Living at home helped greatly to reduce the costs associated with a post secondary education.  Shoes were not a priority.  So I did the smart thing: I would visit these shoes at the store, akin to visiting animals at the zoo.  Eventually these ‘visits’ helped erase the image of those shoes from my mind.  It is amazing how a simple, disciplined act can change a habit that is habitual! ... The shoes were a want, not a need... Other things were a priority.  Shoes were not!

Not giving in to buying impulses saves us money, tenfold.  We begin to establish a pattern of looking, not buying, whenever we go shopping, gaining insights into our shopping behaviour and understanding the repetitive nature of the shopping experience... It never ends... Be ever so careful when you part with your hard earned money.  The marketing machine is relentless in protecting its bottom line.  Make sure you are doing the same.

Back to school can be an exciting time. It occurs every year for many of us, for a period of time.  Then reality sets in, changing some or all the rules of the game.  Be ready with a sound budget that allows for life’s surprises. If you missed out on a bargain, you were not meant to have it.  There is tomorrow.  You will be fine. The time spent not buying is a cathartic experience.  It reminds us that our closet is full and our personal devices, O.K. -  for now, anyway.     

 

The Life and Times of a Preemie

It was our preemie’s first day at home. He weighted in at five pounds two ounces, a healthy size considering where he had begun, on March 19. He'd arrived home, one month ahead of his original due date, a remarkable achievement considering he was born over three months early. I carried him to a large window, introducing him to the clouds in the big blue sky, his first official science lesson. It was a warm sunny day. I was in awe of this tiny person we had created and Sick Kids Hospital NICU had saved. ... Now he was ours, to have and to hold. It was now May 18, 1979.

My thoughts of the future began that day. The preterm milk had helped bring him home one month early, maybe saved his life. (Nearly 25% of preemies die because of the 'death' of their intestines brought about by their early birth.(  I had learned what I could about premature birth through books, asking questions. I was an 'intern' mother now. The internet was just an idea, then, making its way into our lives.  The computers in 1979 could fill a room. Today they fit on our laps. To verify my 1979 facts on premature births, I went online before writing this story. The earliest research I could find was dated 1980. How odd.  Had Sick Kids not conducted their research prior to 1980 and not mailed their findings in a pamphlet, for the public, I would never have learned about the significance of preterm human milk, fresh, whenever possible, for our son. ... (A note of thanks was sent to Sick Kids. I was so humbled by the ‘advice’ and so grateful for the sharing of this information. Research had made a significant difference in our son’s life.)

I was now on duty round-the-clock. Positive health outcomes did not always follow early births in 1979. Our son eventually began nursing by 3 three months of age with a lot of practice and  formula supplementation. ... Bath time became another opportunity to help our baby gain weight and strength by reconnecting with his prior fluid filled world, the womb. It had been a safe, tranquil haven, rife with nutrients that had been called ‘home’ for too short a period of time. The warm water of bath time helped to mimic the pristine world of the womb, the only world he had ever known up until the shock of his early birth. ... I would spend many hours holding him, talking to him and helping him interact with his new environment. ... Then he would sleep. ... Having two large dogs in the house became an interesting observation between man and beast. A blanket for the carpeted floor became  a part of his daily exercise ‘equipment’. It would be folded and put away for  his next 'journey into space'. (Contact with animal hair etc. was minimized as his immunity had been seriously compromised by his prematurity.)

Speech therapy was begun by the age of 4, in readiness for kindergarten. Throughout this period, outdoor play with his two younger brothers helped our former preemie reach many of the speech and occupational milestones expected of him. Simple unadorned play was the order of the day.  With 3 boys, (all born 13 weeks, 4 weeks, 6 weeks too soon, respectively.) and arriving within a four year period, life was very busy. 

Our first born now had two built in ‘home grown’ speech therapists living with him plus two furry ones. They were all his peers. He would learn about the exciting world around him from them. Their daily lives were in constant motion, from morning till night, explaining, doing, running, laughing asking questions, while talking their way into each others' hearts and minds.  The best was yet to come.

Caring for a Premature Infant

Within hours of our son’s premature birth, my body began to change.  Its metamorphosis was a strong 'painful' reminder that the most important job in caring for our son was here. ... Though our son was being hospitalized in the world renown Sick Kids Hospital NICU, in Toronto, his feeding routine was now at the top of my to-do list, my top priority, my reason for being. It was March, 1979.

The miraculous liquid my body was now producing was more than just mother’s milk.  It was an elixir. In a pamphlet published by the Toronto’s Sick Children’s Hospital Foundation, in early 1979, and delivered  by mail to our home, I soon learned the startling contribution my milk, otherwise known as preterm milk, was making for our baby.  Since that time, I have learned more about the incredible significance of  pre-term as compared to its 'cousin',  term milk.  Scientists, in the 70's had discovered that pre-term milk contained higher levels of nitrogen, an element critical for the building blocks of human growth and development.  It was the custom made food for a preemie!  The best available. The brain would get a ‘head’ start because of this boost. Preterm milk was adapting to our son's health crisis. ...This incredible research stated that fresh milk was better than frozen since  an ingredient in human milk was rendered inactive when the milk was frozen. With science as my teacher, I began in earnest, collecting and storing my milk, every two –three hours, the life-saving liquid for our baby-some frozen out of necessity, but most not. My husband would deliver milk supplies-daily- to Sick Kids, a daily exhausting  two hour commute on top of other driving  and duties he had to do. When our baby returned to his birth hospital,-  a couple of weeks later, I visited him daily, regardless of how exhausted I was, to give him a fresh supply of milk and to hold him. Holding him, touching him also brought about physiological changes in our son’s tiny body thereby helping him gain precious weight. At his lowest point, he weighed just two pounds, 12 ounces.

The realization soon hit me that our son was a fetus, developing outside the womb, the human incubator that had nurtured him for so long and then without warning had expelled him, so precipitously. He had missed out on the third trimester when all systems –skeletal, musculature, nervous- begin their journey towards maturity, strength and function. The reality that our son could die, at any moment, began to dawn on us. Would we become parents someday?  His lungs were frail and underdeveloped, requiring a respirator. The doctors worried about scar tissue developing with prolonged use.  A tube leading to his stomach fed him the vital nutrients from all sources... At his gestational age, the sucking reflex was not developed... Oxygen levels were monitored daily... Too much of the life giving gas could blind him; too little could harm him, mentally.  His prognosis two days after his birth:  10% chance of survival, gave his parents pause. With a higher than normal birth weight of three pounds, two ounces, he had at least something in his favour.

Expressing milk manually was becoming ineffective, messy and time consuming. Without the ‘help’ of a baby to produce the much needed milk, in the quantities needed, renting a machine was the next logical step, expediting the task of  producing and collecting this custom made liquid. Soon after, I discovered there was yet another machine  we could rent that could aid in our son’s transition to nursing!  Bottle feeding was easy; breastfeeding was not!   His arrival home-two months later, one month ahead of his original due date, was a cause to celebrate. It was also my birthday, a fact that  I had forgotten.  How could I remember my birthday? It was our son's birth day that was foremost on our minds.

I was now his primary caregiver, not a visitor as I had been for the past two months. His first day at home was life changing. I had an inner calm that had not manifested itself these past two months as I brought him into the house. ... I would be O.K.  Really, I would. ... I was now officially a mom...