Cat's Resource List on Nutrition for Young Children
INTRODUCTION:
I chose the topic "food for infants" because I encountered a wide range of opinions as to what and when infants should begin solid foods and/or table foods when my son was an infant. There was the groovy mother opinion: "my baby will touch nothing but breastmilk until he is 12 months old!". Then there was the sleep-through-the-night theory: "just give that baby some rice cereal and he will sleep 12 hours straight!". Then too, somehow I had got on mailing lists for advertisements that announced a support-Carnation-products theory at every developmental phase: "your four month old baby is now ready for 'next steps' formula and 'first steps' cereal!". I was of the 'relax and let him tell me what kind of foods he wants and when he wants it" school myself. No, I wasn't expecting to hear a little voice say 'I would like some of that yummy vegetarian lasagna now, Mommy!'. But I did intend to wait and see him reach for foods and/or actually eat something (as opposed to rubbing it in his hair) as my cue to provide him with more solid food encounters. And that's pretty much what I did. As he got older, I encountered the Mothering Magazine theory of feeding a young child little bits of every kind of exotic table food (in little bites, of course) so that his tastebuds would become accustomed to sophisticated flavors. But then there was my neighbor, too, advocating the 'boy food' theory of toddler eating: "they're just going to want to eat hot dogs and processed cheese in a few years anyway--may as well begin now!" I've created this resource list to accompany my journey as I continue to find my way through the child nutrition maze.
REFERENCE BOOK:
Sadler, Michelle (ed) Encyclopedia of human nutrition. 3 vol. San Diego : Academic Press, 1999.
This three volume encyclopedia offers current,
research based information on all aspects of human nutrition. Articles are four to
ten pages in length, and each article is accompanied by a bibliography. I looked in
the index under "child nutrtion" and found a reference to a few pages about
"food preferences in children". Those two pages were part of a much longer
article on Food Choice, which covered the psychological, cultural, and
physiological factors involved in how human beings form and maintain their eating habits.
BOOKS:
Pipes, Peggy L. (ed) Nutrition in infancy and childhood St. Louis : Mosby, 1993.
This is actually at text book (at the COCC
Library we attempt to not purchase text books but this one must have slipped through).
Chapters trace nutrient needs of children from infancy through
adolescence. Each chapter is followed by a list of references and additional
resources. There's an interesting chapter on vegetarian diets for children and
another on developing food preferences in young children.
Parízková, Jana. Nutrition, physical activity, and health in early life. Boca Raton : CRC Press, 1996.
Nutrition, physical activity and health in early life provides a rigorous analysis of nutrition and activity in early childhood. The author is senior scientist and professor at the Charles University in Czech Republic. Intended for professionals and/or scholars, each chapter delves into the chemistry of nutrition and body composition at various stages of childhood. Each chapter is supported by a lengthy bibliography.
PERIODICAL ARTICLES:
Leung, Win. "The toddler who does not eat." American Family Physician, June 1994 v49 n8 p1789.
Believe it or not, one tablespoon of each food
group is all a toddler really needs to eat per meal. What an eye
opener! this article will calm many an anxious parent when it comes to toddler
eating habits. American Family Physician is a professional journal for
physicians. Both authors are professors of pediatrics at renowned medical
schools. The article is supplemented with a lengthy list of references.
Hea-Ran L. Ashraf et al. "Use of tofu in preschool meals." Journal of
the American Dietetic Association, August 1990 v90 n8 p1114.
I chose this article because I am interested in exploring vegetarian options for my child while he is still relatively un-opinionated about the food he eats. In this article, the authors explain that a pre-school kitchen experimented with substituting tofu for beef in typical kid-friendly recipes such as lasangna, spanish rice, and quiche. Overall, tofu was found to increase the nutrition of the dishes (lower fat and salt and higher protein) while being happily eaten by most of the children involved in the experiment. This journal is a professional publication for dietetic professionals and the article was supplemented by several footnotes.
WEB PAGES:
Granny's Kitchen http://www.grannyskitchen.com/explore.htm
I located this page while performing a search on the topic "easy recipes". While this search is not directly related to child nutrition, I nevertheless felt that if I could reduce my stress around meal planning and preparation, I'd be helping my spouse and child to more happily eat their dinner, and thereby increase their consumption of nutrious foods! "Granny's Kitchen" does offer a link to Fast and Easy Recipes, which includes sections offering easy salad, casserole, bread and main-dish recipes.
Small Household Vegetarian Recipes http://www.boutell.com/vegetarian/
Well, I was a vegetarian, before I met
my meat-adoring spouse! Again, this site is not directly related to child nutrition,
but vegetarian recipes can offer a healthy altnernative to standard fare. Small
Household's recipe for pumpkin pie, for example, uses silken tofu (there's that tofu
again) as a replacement for cream and eggs. That has got to be more
nutritious--for both children and adults--than the usual stuff.