Last year, an old friend from medical school joined with a second pediatrician to launch a friendly, informative blog for parents on the go called “Two Peds in a Pod.”  The founders of Two Peds in a Pod, Dr. Julie Kardos and Dr. Naline Lai, have serious concerns about the food-like products that are marketed to their young patients.  When we spoke recently, I mentioned that my adult patients frequently arrive with their children in tow, and that I often see the rounded bellies of those little ones shrink to normal size as their parents adopt my “four recommendations,” changing how they eat, shop, and feed their families.  When Dr. Julie heard that, she immediately invited me to write a guest post for Two Peds in a Pod!  “The adults you treat are the ones packing the lunches of the kids that I treat,” she said. 

When I asked which products bother her most, she mentioned a new snack designed [yes, designed is the right word] for babies and toddlers.  This package of junk food masquerading as healthy is made from sweet potato powder.  Its target audience is the young “graduates” of pureed baby food, ripe for their first “manufactured calorie” snacks.  I looked at on-line reviews of “Gerber-Graduates Sweet-Potato Puffs.”  Supposedly contributed by parents, they sounded to me like they were written by advertising professionals.  See what you think:

“Gerber Finger Foods Sweet Potato Veggie Puffs are a very good product from this trusted maker of baby foods.”  “Gerber Finger Foods Veggie Puffs are a very good product for introducing soon-to-be-toddlers to solid food.” “Melts in the mouth so you don’t have to worry about choking.” “No staining artificial colors and dyes.” “Great on-the-go, put-in-the-diaper-bag snack!!” “With Gerber Finger Foods, the worries melt away much like the food itself.“ “You just peel off the top and pour when you need some pieces of food, then replace the cap and wait for the next feeding opportunity.” [Are we at the zoo?] “Gerber sells this product in a cylindrical container that is a little narrower at the top to make it easy to grip.” [For parents or children?  Has this package been designed to hand to cranky children so they can finish the entire container’s supply?] “He would eat them all day long if I let him.” [This is not a benefit.  It means that the product is not nutritious enough to satisfy the child’s hunger.]

What else do I consider junk food?  Chips of all kinds, as well as those “100-calorie packs,” which are invariably filled with 100 calories of refined carbohydrate (white flour and sugar) in the form of crackers (®Ritz), cereal (®Chex), or cookies (®Chips Ahoy).

Beware not only of drinks that contain minimal amounts of juice, but of juice itself.  Even 100% fruit juice is simply a concentrated sugar-delivery system.  A much better approach is to teach children to drink water when they are thirsty, and to snack on fresh fruit when they are hungry.  Milk works, too, especially if you are both hungry and thirsty!

Now then, what should we be packing in our children’s lunch bags?  The key to retraining our children to eat real food is to restore historical patterns of food consumption.  My great-grandparents didn’t eat potato chips, corn chips, sun chips, or moon chips.  They ate a slice of whole-grain rye bread with a generous smear of butter or cream cheese.  They didn’t eat fruit roll-ups.  They ate apricots, peaches, plums, and grapes.  Fresh or dried.  Depending on where your family originated, you might have eaten a thick slice of Mexican white cheese (queso blanco), or a generous wedge of cheddar cheese, or brie.  Sunflower seeds, dried apples, roasted almonds.  Peanut butter or almond butter.  Small containers of yogurt.  Slices of cucumbers, pickles, or peppers.  All of these make good snacks or meals.  My mom is proud to have given me slices of Swiss cheese when I was a hungry toddler out for a stroll with my baby brother.  Maybe that’s how I ended up where I am today.

When my own children were toddlers, I gave them tiny cubes of frozen tofu to grasp and eat.  I packed school lunches with variations on the following theme:  1) a sandwich made with whole grain bread, 2) a container of fruit (usually apple slices, orange slices, kiwi slices, berries, or slices of pear), and 3) a small bag of homemade trail mix (usually peanuts + raisins).  The sandwich was usually turkey, mayo and lettuce; or sliced Jarlsberg cheese, sliced tomato, and cream cheese; or tuna; or peanut butter, sometimes with thin slices of banana.  On Fridays I often included a treat, like a few small chocolates. 

Homemade trail mix is one terrific snack.  It can be made with any combination of nuts, seeds, and/or dried fruit, plus bits of dark chocolate if desired.  Remember that dark chocolate is good for you.  Dried apple slices, apricots, kiwi or banana chips, raisins, and currants are nutritious and delicious, and so are pumpkin seeds and sunflower seeds, especially of course in homes with nut allergies.  Trail mix can be simple or involved.  Fill and secure baggies with ¼ cup servings, and refrigerate them in a closed container until it’s time to make more.  I would include grains, like rolled oats, only for children who remain active and slender.

If possible (and I do know it’s a big if), the best way to get kids interested in increasing the amount of real food they eat is to involve them in its preparation.  That might mean smearing their own peanut butter on celery sticks before popping them into the bag.  It might mean taking slices of the very veggies they helped carry at the weekly farmer’s market.  Kids are more likely to eat the berries in their lunch bag if they picked them themselves.  There’s a much greater chance they’ll eat kohlrabi if they helped you peel it, slice it, or squeeze a fresh lemon over it.  That’s the key to healthy eating.