2009 January Archive at Healthy Tot

Every winter my daughter starts scratching, dry winter skin is back. Her skin gets so dry, especially on her back. At 3 she’ll ask me to scratch her back for her, “a little up, a little to the edge”. I hate to do it because, while I know it feels good for a moment its is making it more sore in the end. While I don’t use much on her throughout the year, every winter I have turned to my two favorites to help combat the itching- California Baby Calendula Cream and Weleda Calendula Cream. This winter, I found we were out of California Baby and had a little Weleda left, and everywhere I went (3 different stores) they were out! I ended up having order more online. I guess everyone is battling with dry skin right now!

The first winter it happened, she was a newborn, and her cheeks were chapped and her back had little spots of dry skin. I asked her doctor and he said just use Aquaphor. That got us thru the first winter but I wasn’t so sure about putting a petroleum product all over her skin. The next year I bought Weleda Calendula Cream, and it seemed to help quite a bit but it was a little greasy. I went back to Whole Foods and tried California Baby Calendula Cream. (I had been using a calendula gel for years for cuts, sunburns and scrapes on myself, found it worked really well in healing, so I was attracted to the products with that in it). It was great, I applied it before bed and there was a huge difference overnight and on two days it was gone.

While I use California Baby all over her back, I put the Weleda cream on really bad spots, elbows and knees. I find a little every other day keeps her skin without any dry spots. Both products unfortunately register with some low to moderate hazard at Skin Deep, but they work well and until there is a safer one that works just as well or better, I’ll have to stick with them.

You might have always had a picky eater on your hands, or maybe its a new thing for your normally eat-everything toddler. Either way it can be frustrating to ask what your little one what she wants to eat and the response is same thing they had for breakfast and lunch or turn their nose at everything you suggest or worse- you make. A few months ago we started to see this, my daughter had been a very diverse eater- from a great array of veggies and fruits right down to a big variety of ethnic foods. But we are witnessing a pull back- an apprehension to try new foods as well as a rejection of some old favorites. So we’ve been employing some new tricks and recipes, mostly good old fashion smoke and mirrors, to hopefully keep variety in her diet. I think back to the kids I baby-sat for in high school that ate hot dogs every night and am going to fight that kind of scenario all the way.

One good book I found a help is The Toddler Café by Jennifer Carden. Her approach, “fast, healthy and fun…” and the book is full of recipes that reflect that mantra. It is not so much like The Sneaky Chef, (another good one) which adds more nutritious ingredients to recipes, but more so a think out side of the box look at feeding a picky toddler. The recipes are simple, but apply fun and involvement as part of the toddler eating experience. There are recipe notes about where to get something or how to store or freeze, recipe variations (incase your kido is really against some implemented ingredient!) and tips on how to get them involved or to eat it. Ever thought about a grilled cheese made in a waffle iron? That is likely to impress a tough customer toddler. Sticky rice balls with carrots and beets mixed in- they will at least be curious (hopefully enough to sample). There are many more like this.

Prior to finding this book we were using some of these fun-type approaches that worked great. Cutting sandwiches in triangles or with cookie cutters, presenting a smorgasbord of dipping foods with hummus (toddlers love to dip), fruit dipped in yogurt, arranging food in different and unexpected ways. Think basic but fun. But if you’re stumped like many others, you and your toddler might find Jennifer Carden’s creative ideas inspiring enough to eat!

See a sample of what’s inside the book!