Baby food: Should that really be a thing?

Yesterday University of Calgary researchers shared the results of their analysis of packaged foods targeted to babies and toddlers.

Their staggering findings? That 53 per cent of products geared towards the tiniest consumers derive more than 20 percent of calories from sugar, an amount considered excessive by any dietary standard.

There was no evidence these products for kids had any nutritional superiority that makes them especially appropriate for children. Or that even begins to outweigh the amount of additional sugar or sodium they contain compared to similar products geared to a general audience.

And there's the rub, really.

The entire notion of baby and toddler foods is flawed.

"I hate the way there is a divide between adult food and kid/baby food," says Emma Waverman, a mom, blogger, foodie and co-author of Whining and Dining. "Babies don't have to have food that is made only for them. Food is food."

Registered Nutritionist Lianne Phillipson-Webb agrees. "Give babies real food not 'kid' food," says the author of Sprout Right: Nutrition from Tummy to Toddler.

Capitalizing on a time-pressed population that tends to place too much faith in the makers of packaged goods, brands like Gerber and Heinz have been able to branch out from traditional baby cereals and purees with little packaged pastas for toddlers.

Basic purees are handy, of course, but they shouldn't contain anything apart from the fruit or vegetable and water. You can make your own, but that doesn't come naturally for everyone and it's not my intent to make parents feel guilty for not grinding all of their baby food. Instead, I'm suggesting new parents keep it simple and stick with whole foods wherever possible.

Here are some alternatives to packaged baby products:

1) Forgo store-bought teething biscuits. Most packaged teething cookies are full of sugar and salt. Naturally, parents want to know any teething product they give baby is hard enough to gnaw on without large chunks coming loose, posing a choking hazard. Use regular rice cakes instead, or day-old bagels. If you're feeling ambitious, try a batch of homemade teething biscuits. Alternatively, Healthy Times Teething Biscuits have a relatively simple ingredient list.

2) Don't be fooled by products called "graduates" when baby is ready to move beyond purees. Simply steam vegetables until they're soft (you can use the microwave) and offer in tiny, finger-sized pieces. You don't need to find special foods for your one-year-old. Mash or grind up some of what you're having for dinner (once you know baby has tried each of these items individually, of course, to rule out allergic reaction).

3) Get to know the banana. It's high in potassium and it's sweet. Freeze banana fingers dipped in regular vanilla yogurt as a teething treat, or serve them mashed on the end of a spoon or in little bits babies can grab once the pincer reflex is in place.

4) Make tiny pasta. There's no need to buy packaged servings of pasta in sauce when the regular pasta aisle offers so many options and there's little more to do than boil it. Look for stelline, a tiny star-shaped pasta, or narrow tubes called (surprise!) tubetti.

5) Use whole foods for finger foods. Phillipson-Web recommends frozen organic wild blueberries, which are tinier than conventionally-produced blueberries and that basically turn to mush on the high-chair tray (Grab the camera! This makes for a pretty cute purple face). She also suggests small pieces of ripe, skinless pear or apple, and finger-sized bits of fruits such as melon, plum, peach, mango and papaya. Dried fruits are very high in iron, she says, so try little pieces of dried apricot, apple and raisins. Watch closely while baby gets to know these foods, but know that the gums are more powerful than you might imagine.

6) Reconsider the Cheerio. The timeless classic is low in sugar, simple and fun for babies to grasp.

These are just a few suggestions. Have more? Please add them in the comment section.

Thanks for tips @jennhoegg @emmawaverman @sproutright @maryvallis @MamaAsh77 @blakeeligh @alexmlynek.

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Baby snacks chock full of sugar: study

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Oh, baby, the Germans see World Cup as chance to boost the birth rate

Fertility forum offers eggs and sperm from beautiful people

Cute kid quote: G20 edition

Cameron, 7, upset that his father had to work on G20 weekend:

"I wish there was no such thing as G20. I wish we could just skip to H and skip to 21."

Cute kid quote of the week

My second child, Alister, is a bit of a reluctant potty trainer.

We had it easy with Cameron because the daycare he went to had a great thing going on in the senior toddler room. It was the job of those kids to learn to use the potty and everyone would trot off to the washroom together. A very firm teacher who would call a parent meeting and not hesitate to up the ante with a Smartie or two if there was any regression in toileting - coupled with the group think they had going on in that room -  and Cam was fully trained by two-and-three-quarters.

At the same age, Alister hauls his own bag of pull-ups to his room and changes them himself ("My diaper's really wet! Lighting McQueen!!!!!").

Help.

I wish I could take a week off and hang around with a pants-less Alister in the back yard, but I don't think that's going to happen. He does want to be like his big brother, though, so I've been reminding him that "there's no diapers in soccer" and that to go school like his big brother, he'll need to use the potty. He's very interested in school, and particularly in wearing a "packpack" to said school.

When I reminded him about the school thing the other night at bedtime, he said, very sweetly: "Okay, I'm ready to be bigger enough. I go to school tonight."

Time crunched. What are you going to do about it?

Earlier this week I shared that I'd hit a bit of a parenting wall. Experiencing the "giving fatigue" that so many of us face, I was feeling tired and in need of a little immediate gratification to balance all the one-way street work of raising a family.

As a newly-single parent, some of this stems from not having another adult with whom to share the day. But some of it is just middle-of-the-road parental burn-out.

It was interesting timing given that the very next day The Canadian Index of Wellbeing released findings that 20 per cent of Canadians experience a high level of what they call "time crunch" compared to just 16 per cent in1992. The effects of this time poverty are particularly acute for women, the study found, with 23 per cent of women feeling time pressure compared to 17 per cent of men.

I've got a lot more to say about the causes of our clock-based angst, and will share more on this later. But I hope that, if nothing else, readers took away from the survey results some comfort that they're not alone. There is no failure on your part to weave time-management magic out of your Filofax or Google calendar. There simply aren't enough hours in the day. The only answer is to make choices. Sometimes you can get to all your kids' many extra-curricular activities or all of your PTA meetings. Sometimes you've got to play hooky and lock yourself in the bathroom with a cup of tea (or possibly something stronger).

So on Monday I vowed that I'd do something restorative each day this week. Here's how it's gone so far.

Monday I left the office on time, made something quick for the kids to eat for dinner and practised a bit of benign neglect as they worked out their Lego squabbles on their own (this despite hearing things like "Listen up, cry-eypants," coming from the basement). Later I handed off the kids and found solace with two close friends over a sushi roll and cocktail. Just having someone else make me some dinner lifted me out of a pretty deep funk.

Tuesday I took a walk at lunchtime, failed to get my kids' birthday party invitations because I got distracted by pretty things at the mall and went to BootyCampFitness.

Wednesday I asked my co-parent for an extra day of childcare and hit a movie screening and a media party. Even danced a bit and got a henna tattoo. Silly huh? My kids were kind of impressed.

Thursday. I guess that's today. Well, after work, I'll be getting acupuncture for my chronic shoulder knots (sound familiar?) and then, after dinner with the kids, head to bootcamp again.

I'm grateful that I have someone else to share the load, even if he's not really mine anymore. I know not everyone else has that, certainly not most single mothers. Whatever your circumstances, I hope you can do something to treat yourself well this week, too. Sometimes it just starts with an internal cry of "uncle!" for us to make the psychic leap that things are too much.

It's no admission of defeat. Instead, it's a springboard to a happier existence. And that can only mean happier kids.

Wordless Wednesday: Aqsa Parvez

Why full-day kindergarten is a good idea

Today Ontario's ministry of education announced that more than 800 schools will have full-day kindergarten by the fall of 2011.

In phase two of the province's new early-learning initiative, more than 200 additional schools will offer the program, on top of the 600 to provide full-day kindergarten this coming school year.

You can find a complete list of the new schools to offer the program in 2011 here.

I've been answering questions on twitter today about why I think this program is great. I'll outline a few of them briefly here:

1) Quality education before the primary grades is a great equalizer. It helps put kids whose parents can't afford top-quality daycare, preschool programs or attentive nannies on the same playing field with those whose can. And it helps level things out between kids raised by single parents juggling two jobs with those from families that can afford to keep one parent at home.

Charles Pascal, co-author of the report upon which the program is modeled, points out that one third of children enter Grade 1 without the necessary skills. Assuring that all children have the same access to a stimulating and nurturing environment for two years before their primary years is the best way to address this.

2) It helps lower the burden of childcare costs on families. Yes, we choose to have children, but our economic system doesn't do much to assist with the cost of raising a flock of future tax payers. Progressive governments do more to support growing families than ours does (Sweden? The Netherlands? Quebec?!), and without their economies crumbling. Some will argue that many single-income households simply go without fancy clothes and vacations to afford to keep one parent at home. But when you're a single parent with only the choice to work or go on welfare, that's simply unfathomable. And even for those who live well, well above the threshold of working poverty, it's not easy to raise a family on one income in a city with an average house price of $446,593. Particularly one where infant child care can run up to $1800 a month, and childcare for the hours outside a "half-day" kindergarten can easily reach $1,000 a month.)

3) "Half-day" kindergarten is not a half-day. It's 2.5 hours. That's not even a terribly long playdate. The logistics of providing childcare for the hours outside of the morning or afternoon program are a nightmare. Who with a job outside of the home can easily dash to the school at 11:30 a.m.? Or to daycare at lunchtime and then to school in the afternoon? There is limited selection among daycares that provide transportation to and from school, and sometimes that leads to "choosing" sub-par, unlicensed care. Busing these tiny kids to and from their daycares is also not an easy thing to carry out, or a fantastically good idea (what if you lose a few?). And where alternating full days are offered instead of half days, it's not only difficult to find childcare that will take your child Tuesday and Thursday of one week and Monday, Wednesday, Friday of the next, but it can be discombobulating for the small child who wakes up each morning and asks where they're going that day.

There's lots more to discuss about the merits of full-day learning. You can read more on our Early Learning page.

The Water is Wide

I know things aren't going well when I start singing Irish ballads. There's nothing about "The Water is Wide" or "Danny Boy" that's particularly spirit lifting.

No, these songs are for mournfully staring across expanses of ocean or their metaphorical equivalent.

But while I try to use this blog not just to inform on parenting issues but to celebrate the efforts we make and encourage others to raise a glass in their own honour, I haven't been doing that myself. Or maybe I've celebrated other people at the expense of my own sleep and sanity. Or listened to the stories of others before listening to myself. Or just plain old taken on too much, like so many busy parents do.

At the risk of absolutely beating the H2O metaphor to death, my well is low. Really low.

If it was any of my friends making this confession, I'd organize some sort of pedicure intervention or night about town. But as is the habit of so many caregivers, we listen to ourselves last. Ignore our own signals and trudge on with the busy work.

So this is me solemnly swearing to do something restorative for myself each day this week. Starting with leaving the office on time today.

I hope you can do the same.

Cute kid quote of the week

You know how sometimes your kids crack you up simply by knowing what something is? Their sophistication sort of catches us by surprise in these instances, and while the line itself not be as funny as your two-year-old calling it an "eyebrown," it's still pretty amusing.

That was the case when I was chatting with Cameron, six-and-three-quarters, about what to get his dad for Father's Day:

Cam: "I think we should get him a Bluetooth."

Me, trying not to spit out tea: "A Bluetooth?"

Cam: "Ya, it's a kind of headset you use for talking on the phone in the car. I think Dad would like it."

Me: "Yes, I've heard of it."

Cute kid quote of the week

Alister, two-and-thee-quarters: Where's your dad?

Me: Oh, honey, my dad died, remember? Well, I guess you were only one.

Alister: Where's your dad?

Me: He's in heaven, sweetie. Grandpa Weikle died.

Alister: (PAUSE) You can borrow my dad.

How old is too old to be a FATHER?

Monday's news that Celine Dion is expecting twins came shortly on the heals of the announcement that John Travolta's wife Kelly Preston is pregnant.

On Monday night, Global News announced a poll asking viewers at what age they think a woman is too old to become a mother.

Conspicuously absent from this discussion, it seems, is the age of the fathers-to-be. Celine's husband, Rene Angelil, is 68, to Dion's 42 years. John Travolta is 56 and Preston is 47. (Travolta and Preston suffered a terrible loss last year when their 16-year-old son died. No one could fault them for wanting to be parents once more.)

I'm just tired of the focus on maternal age. While men have famously fathered children late in life - Pablo Picasso at age 68, Pierre Trudeau at 72 - there is evidence that men's biological clocks tick, too.

While they don't go through an endocrinological menopause the way women do, men have a decline in fertility starting at age 35, according to the Mayo Clinic. While research on male infertility is far behind that of female fertility, there is - at very least - some evidence to support that a link between aging sperm and some congenital conditions, such as Dwarfism. Testicular size, sperm count and motility decrease with age.

But this isn't really about ability to get a healthy bun in the oven, whatever route is taken. It's about ability to provide for and be there for the child beyond his fifth birthday. Of course there's never any guarantee that any of us will be around for another day with our children [INSERT TIRED CLICHE ABOUT GETTING HIT BY A BUS HERE]. But when you become a new dad in your late 60s, that's pretty much a lock on "not going to be at the wedding."

In my terribly unscientific but earnestly undertaken parentcentral.ca poll, 48 per cent pegged 50 as too old to become a father, followed by 60 at 38 percent.

Men and women alike are becoming parents later in life. With the cost of raising a family, the years invested to launch a career, or the sometimes winding road to finding the right partner, it's clear that isn't going to change soon.

But maybe we could give women and their ovaries a little less of a rough ride along the way and throw a few more infertility assumption in the direction of dear old, old dad?

Just saying.