The Perks of Quinoa (Keen-wah)

WRITTEN BY NEW YORK BABY SHOW ON MARCH 25TH, 2013.

For those of you in the media who will be attending the show, we wanted to provide the NurturMe Press Kit_2013 for your convenience. Enjoy!

…and for the rest of you, stay tuned. More to come. Very soon.

My experience breastfeeding my son had its shares of ups and downs. We made it 9 straight months, with me working a full time job that had me traveling (without him) at least once a month within the U.S., and a couple of times internationally over the duration. But of all my experiences during this 9 months, one will always be the story I dine out on, the story I tell girlfriends over too much (aka “just enough”) wine, and the story that I still can hardly believe happened myself.

When my son was born, I already knew I would have to go on a week-long business trip to Nepal before he was five months old. No possibility of freezing and saving milk (I was going somewhere quite rural), and no local clinics that would take donated milk (there are too many health concerns and not a lot of capacity to screen and sanitize donated milk). I wasn’t ready to let this trip end my breastfeeding time, so I had only one option: pump and dump, 6 times a day, for seven days.  While working 14-hour days that did not include a desk, an office, or a private room – let alone an electrical outlet.

At the same time, I was determined to leave behind a full week’s worth of frozen breastmilk. Somehow it hadn’t occurred to me that a few bottles of formula (or a few dozen) would not irreparably damage my son, so I set myself the goal of freezing – wait for it – 350 ounces of breastmilk in less than 5 months. Now, if you haven’t had your first baby yet, this number might be meaningless to you. If you have had, and breastfed, a baby, this number might kind of gross you out. 350 ounces is a LOT of milk. My calculation was that by this age, he’d be on 5-6 feedings a day, at 8 ounces each (he was a milk monster). 8 ounces*6 feedings*7 days = 336. Add in a buffer for husband-spillled-milk, and there you have it.

And by God, I did it. And I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone. I nearly lost my mind.

But that is not even the best/craziest part of the story – not by a long shot.

So, in a nutshell, here are the lessons I learned on my pump-and-dump trip to Nepal:

1. Altitude will mess up your milk for a bit. On my first leg to Bangkok, I guess because of the altitude, for an entire 10 minutes, holed up in the airplane bathroom, not a single drop of breastmilk emerged. I was sure – because I had no idea how losing one’s breastmilk works – that I had lost my milk forever.
2. Don’t try to steal someone else’s child. I was seated next to new parents traveling with their 4-month-old son. I sobbed quietly and secretly plotted how to get them to let me hold him and smell the top of his head. (I didn’t execute this plan.)
3. The first time you dump milk will hurt. I’ll never forget dumping 10 ounces of fresh milk down an airplane bathroom sink. By the end of the week, I was dumping that stuff with all the emotional attachment of pouring a can of flat soda down the drain, but the first few times were almost unbearable.
4. Ambien + pumping = weird. I don’t really remember all of the pumping I did on the four flights it took me to get to my destination.
5. You might get paranoid. I remember pumping in a bathroom stall in the Bangkok airport, wondering frantically if the sound of the pump might sound to someone like I was preparing some kind of explosive device.
6. Good friends and co-workers make all the difference. I landed in Kathmandu after 24 hours of travel and realized I’d have to pump in the middle of the domestic terminal before our final flight to our destination. My boss (a woman) went into the “bathroom”, came out horrified at its state, and said to me, “We’re doing this right here.” She then wrapped me in my shawl and stood guard while I pumped in the dead center of a very crowded, open room.
7. Pumping in an exotic place is still just pumping. Take, for example, pumping in the back of a moving Land Rover (filled with colleagues) en route to the birthplace of the Buddha.
8. You might be too tired and busy the whole time to even enjoy the “get out of jail free” card of getting to drink alcohol guilt-free.
9. Distraction devices are key. I borrowed my boss’ noise-cancelling headphones and iPod to block out reality when, because of a delay in a tiny regional airport (due to the imminent arrival of the Queen of Bhutan, no less), I had to pump, standing in a corner, balancing the pump on one knee, in the women’s restroom which had zero stalls or private areas.
10. You might get competitive. I made my husband report to me daily, via email, how many ounces of my frozen breastmilk my son had consumed, then trying to “beat” my son with my daily production. Just so I could dump it all.
11. You will eventually lose all sense of decorum. I pumped in the middle of the Qatar airport terminal on the way home, wrapped in that ever-present shawl, because I had lost all sense of modesty and was too exhausted to care. (Believe it or not, with a big enough shawl, really and truly the average person would have no way of knowing anything was going on.)
12. Pack the following: more batteries than you know what to do with, several packs of wet wipes for when there’s no water, a photo of your child, a very large shawl, and a back-up copy of your dignity, which you are likely to lose at some point in this process.

Leaving my son so early, to go so far away, is not a feeling I will shake anytime soon (and he’s now 2!). The awkwardness and weirdness of pumping (and dumping) in so very many unusual places was not fun, and I spent the entire trip (which was otherwise very productive from a work perspective) stressed about when and where and how I would do my next pumping. I felt on a gut level that I should be home with my son, but at the same time, no one forced me to go on this trip. It was educational and productive and a huge professional opportunity for me. On balance, it was worth it, but it was one of the most physically, emotionally, and logistically difficult and weird things I’ve ever done.

So, next time you’re crouched in your company’s storage closet, pumping and praying that no one will walk in on you and that you’ll be done in time for your next meeting, just know that I feel you, sister. Whether it’s Kathmandu airport or the ladies’ room, pumping is hard and sometimes thankless and stressful work. However long you do it for, good on you. But please remember something I try to remind myself every day: your worth as a mother is not measured in ounces.

EcoMom.com offers products to new mothers that are innovative and friendly to the environment. If you are looking for the very best environmentally-conscious products for you or your child, visit EcoMom.com.

For those moms out there who are traditionalists when it come to baby food flavors, NurturMe makes baby food with flavors you will recognize. Not only are they nutritious, but they taste delicious. The Plump Peas flavor is made with organic dried peas that can be rehydrated simply by adding water. It comes in 8 lightweight pouches that are easy to carry anywhere for on-the-go meals.

The Hearty Sweet Potatoes are sure to be a smash with your little one. As with all NurturMe flavors, the Hearty Sweet potatoes are made from sweet potatoes that were grown on a certified-organic farm in the United States to provide the most quality nutrients for your growing baby.

The Scrumptious Squash is a flavor that is jam-packed with nutrients to help your baby grow. Since NurturMe baby food is made only from organic fruits and vegetables, your child will be eating the nutrients, colors, and flavors of natural sweet potatoes.

The Crisp Apples flavor will satisfy your baby’s sweet tooth, whether she has teeth or not. Made from real apples, this yummy flavor (like all other NurturMe flavors) was dried from real apples right after they were harvested. Because drying fruit does not damage the nutrients in fruits or vegetables, they are preserved to help fuel your baby healthily. Dried fruits and vegetables also retain the natural flavor and color of the original food better than other methods of preservation.

Crunchy Carrots, though not crunchy when they arrive on your baby’s plate, are made of fresh, crunchy carrots that were pulled from the ground and then dried shortly after. Because NurturMe uses a drying method to preserve fruits and veggies, there are absolutely zero preservatives in their products. This includes salts and sugars. Instead, your baby gets to taste fruits and vegetables in their natural state, free of any alterations.

As with the Sweet Bananas flavor, NurturMe baby food is completely organic, completely free of toxins, and completely cruelty-free. You can count on NurturMe to make amazing baby food that is healthy for your baby and for the environment.

This is the final post in a five-part series written by students in the University of Texas’ Nutrition Through the Life Cycle class. Current UT public health and nutrition student, Megan Dietz discusses what may affect your child’s food preferences and how you can ensure your picky eater receives proper nutrition during meals.

Every parent wants their child to be both healthy and happy, but what can today’s parents do when these two needs conflict?  This is often the case with toddlers and young children deemed “picky eaters.”  For many parents who offer vegetables or fruit to their child, only to be met with a resounding “No!” it is often an arduous task to make sure their child is eating healthy while also eating happy.

A child turning up their noise at vegetables and other healthy foods is not to be taken lightly. Only 22 percent of children aged 2 to 5 meet government recommendations for vegetable consumption according to researchers at Ohio State University. Even for those who do eat their vegetables, fried potatoes constituted an average of 46 percent of the total vegetable intake for children ages 2 to 19.

A variety of fruits and veggies is necessary for healthy growth and development, and a deficiency can bring harmful results. Fruits and veggies provide many necessary vitamins and minerals not found in other food groups.  When fruits and veggies are lacking, the missing calories are often replaced with increased intake of fat, sugar, and excessive protein, which can lead to stunted growth and development, mental issues, and according to some studies, an increased risk of obesity, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, or even cancer.

So how can parents ensure that their little “picky eaters” are getting their 5 servings a day of fruit and veggies? Before you sit your child down with a plateful of their least favorite plant-based foods, it is important to realize that many factors go into determining what your child wants to eat. Environmental factors such as not seeing their parents eating and enjoying fruits and veggies, or a negative atmosphere caused by parental pressure to eat, can actually decrease a child’s willingness to partake in these foods.  Other innate factors, such as a tendency to avoid new foods and biological predispositions to dislike the bitter taste accompanying most vegetables also play a big role in affecting a child’s desired diet.

So what’s the remedy for this dietary dilemma? The folks at NurturMe have found the solution. Offering dried organic fruits and veggies in convenient, easy to carry pouches, these new food products give parents an easy way to ensure their children are getting the nutrition they need. NurturMe pouches can be used at many stages in your child’s development, from being added to breast milk starting at age six months, to providing an alternative to jarred baby foods as your baby grows, all through one product.

Most importantly for your older picky eater, NurturMe offers fun and easy recipes that incorporate dried veggies and fruit into the foods your child already loves.  As an ingredient in such whimsical recipes as “Scrumptious Squash Mac ‘n Cheese,” “Plump Peas Froggy Pasta,” and “Hearty Sweet Potato Pancakes,” NurturMe pouches provide a simple, tasty, and above all nutritious way to give your child the fruit and vegetables they need for healthy growth and development. By incorporating NurturMe into your repertoire of recipes, veggies and fruits no longer have to create a mealtime battle for you and your child. Instead, meals can be a fun way to make your little one’s diet both healthy and happy.

This is the forth post in a five-part series written by students in the University of Texas’ Nutrition Through the Life Cycle class. Mijee Park is currently a UT student entering the Professional Sequence of Nursing next Fall. Park’s article briefly explains toddler development and how NurturMe products can aid parents in turning food battles into food fiestas!

My niece is 3 years old. You know what that means – she wants to walk the walk, talk the talk, and most importantly eat on her terms.  During the toddler stage, children develop extensive motor skills such as walking and pincer grasping of objects.  They begin to create and expand phrases and sentences.  With all the new abilities they are steadily gaining, it is inevitable that they are on an adventure of constant exploration!

Let’s be honest, if you discovered new “powers” and new “talents,” you wouldn’t go prancing into your kitchen to simply sit at the table. Toddlers are the same. As they develop both physically and cognitively, their activity increases while their appetite decreases.  On top of that, they have already developed food preferences to their liking. So, exactly how do you get your toddler to eat what’s good for them?

Nutrition is crucial during the toddler stage because children are developing rapidly in all aspects of growth.  Some critical nutrients include iron, zinc, vitamin D, calcium, and vitamin E. To assist you over the tricky hurdle of insuring that your child gets all of the nutrients that they need, NurturMe has developed clever ways to combine their products with other foods to provide fun, nutritious meals. It’s a win-win situation! In addition to the recipes posted on NurturMe’s website, you can get creative with recipes of your own.  Whether it is a fun creative project for you and your toddler, or a quick, healthy snack, NurturMe’s products offer convenience and help you provide essential nutrition to your child.

Here’s one recipe to try out:

Fruity Icebergs

Ingredients include NurturMe apples or bananas, yogurt, an ice tray, and a blender.

• Combine yogurt and NurturMe Crisp Apples or Sweet Bananas in a blender and blend until well mixed.
• Pour the mixture into an ice tray, filling all of the slots.
• Place the ice tray in the freezer.
• When frozen, remove the yogurt/fruit “icebergs” and place them in cup of preferred 100% juice (ex: apple juice or orange juice).
• Serve!

Fruity Icebergs made with NurturMe Crisp Apples provides carbohydrates, potassium, and dietary fiber. Fruity Icebergs made with NurturMe Sweet Bananas is a source of carbohydrates, Vitamin B6, Vitamin C, potassium, and dietary fiber. This recipe serves as a great complement to a small snack or as an energy drink!

It’s widely understood that infants and toddlers have a high nutrient demand for healthy growth and development. These early years can set the trajectory for their overall health and well being for years to come, so it’s vital for them to get ample fruits, whole grains, protein, and vegetables.

Statistics show that many toddlers are not getting ample amounts of nutrient-dense vegetables in their diets.  In a 2008 study of infant and toddler intake of fruits and vegetables, an average of about 20% of toddlers weren’t consuming a single vegetable in a day. Of those that did, 40% of the consumed vegetables were white potatoes and 25% were French fries or other fried potatoes. A mere 7.8% of consumption was from dark green vegetables that provide many essential vitamins.

A huge problem with toddler nutrition is that toddlers often have very sensitive taste preferences, and they can be especially picky when it comes to eating vegetables.  So how should parents get these choosey little ones to consume vitamin-rich vegetables? Get creative!

Tactic 1: “The Sneak Attack”

An advantage parents have is that they prepare the food. During preparation, vegetables can easily be incorporated into kid-friendly foods. This can be done using any kind of vegetables. The key is camouflage. For example, adding pureed cauliflower and/or squash to macaroni and cheese.

NurturMe products make this easy. With options such as Hearty Sweet Potatoes, Plump Peas, Scrumptious Squash, and Crunchy Carrots, all in a convenient, dry powder-like form, incorporating healthy vegetables into your child’s meal is simple and fast. Disguising these ingredients in foods that kids like boosts their vegetable intake while avoiding the creation of a negative attitude towards food.

Tactic 2: Get kids involved

Both procurement and preparation of food can be exciting and fun for toddlers. Getting them involved with the process can make trying the final product a pleasant and desirable experience, as well as help them develop cognitive and physical skills. You can involve a child even further by working together to plant a small garden, and growing and eating your own vegetables. This activity can help encourage trying new vegetables and provides a fun new element to food in general.

Tactic 3: Timing

Parents should provide vegetable options when their tots are hungry. Children are more likely to eat vegetables when they are hungry than after they’ve had other options to choose from. Easy options are cold fresh veggies, provided with a low fat dip to mask any bitterness and to make eating the veggies more interesting and tasty.

Tactic 4: Perception is everything

Another way to make food fun and appealing to kids is to rename and reshape vegetables. Encourage children to make up wild “nicknames” for vegetables, and you can cut fresh vegetables into fun shapes.

Having an exciting presentation of the veggies can help too. This particular method is increasingly popular in Japan: Parents create a “bento” (packed lunch) for their child to take to school that contains food that is artfully arranged into shapes like animals, familiar objects, and cartoon characters. Kids love games and anything creative, so take advantage of their vivid imaginations.

Many other tactics exist. It doesn’t matter which ones parents use, as long as their toddlers are both consuming enough vegetables and maintaining a positive relationship with food.  Major physical growth and cognitive development take place during the early years of a child’s life; providing proper nutrition is vital to enabling kids to reach their full potential.

Chef Alex Forsythe started his culinary career in 1997 at the Culinary Institute of America, has attended the Cordon Blu in Paris, and the The Apricus in Tuscany…Currently, Chef Forsythe is re-creating the world famous Joy of Cooking author, Irma Rombauer’s 1939 cookbook, Streamlined Cooking.

Coco Frey is on a mission to help people understand how to “eat with an open mind,” by providing consumers real nutrition through real food for real lives. She specializes in nutrition education, natural food representation, speaking engagements, business to business consulting, healthy cooking, and media contributions…Www.eatthetruth.com is the business Coco founded in 2004. She is dedicated to sharing her knowledge with the general public and is truly passionate about her future endeavors as an educator, ambassador, and product endorser.

The Streamlined Hearty Sweet Potato Tarts

Ingredients:

4 pouches of NurturMe® Hearty Sweet Potato

1/3 cup Wholesome Sweeteners Vanilla Agave

1 teaspoon of pumpkin pie spice

1 cup warm water (Give or take)

40 Bite-sized Phyllo Cups

Method:

Pour the NurturMe® Hearty Sweet Potato pouches  into a bowl, add the water, and stir. Add in sweetener and spice.  Pour into preheated phyllo cups.  Dollop ¼ teaspoon of mascarpone on top of tarts with two spoons. Serve.

This recipe is a very easy way to incorporate the naturally sweet, low glycemic, vitamin A rich food, sweet potatoes.  It is very simple to make and appeases all parts of the palate. This could be an exciting passing dessert at a summer party or an excellent alternative to Thanksgiving’s Sweet potato pie.

Recipe developed by Chef Alex Forsythe of Streamlined Cuisine.

Photography courtesy of Evan Jones Media

This is the second post in a five-part series written by students in the University of Texas’ Nutrition Through the Life Cycle class. Denise Forsthuber is a second year International Relations and Global Studies major at UT. She is an avid traveler and interested in international diplomacy. Her article is about a revolutionary new use for NurturMe baby food.

Let’s face it: as college students “nutrition” isn’t always a part of our vocabulary, much less our diet.  I know people whose dinners consist of Ramen, Coke and Oreos, and that certainly isn’t the healthiest meal ever. I don’t always eat the most nutritious foods in the world either, but for the most part I do try. So when I heard of recipes for toddlers using NurturMe, the organic quick-dried baby food you just add to liquids to prepare, I was intrigued. It is marketed as baby food, but the company also advertises it as a nutritional booster for toddler’s foods. I could use some extra nutrition in my food, and the company’s suggestion got me thinking… Was NurturMe something I could incorporate into my own diet?

I figured it was. In reality, what was so different between a toddler and me? Other than a lot of age and schooling, somehow our diets remained pretty similar: simple. A toddler wouldn’t appreciate the full quality of Pizza alla napoletana.  To them it’s just a pizza, and on a practically nonexistent budget with a negative amount of free time, I can’t appreciate it either. So when I eat, I stick to no-hassle foods like sandwiches and macaroni and cheese like many busy families with picky eaters. The bread is whole grain, the turkey is low sodium, and the cheese on the sandwich is low fat, but the macaroni… not much I can do to make that healthy. Until now, that is, since I’ve found NurturMe.

Yes, NurturMe is designed for babies and toddlers, but there’s nothing wrong with eating like a toddler when it’s delicious. A packet of Scrumptious Squash mixed into my mac ‘n cheese, or Crunchy Carrots cooked into my chili not only have the ability to blend in and pretend like they’re not actually hiding in my food, but they magically make it more nutritious too. With one packet, I’ve added healthy carbohydrates, Vitamin C, Vitamin A, potassium, dietary fiber, and beneficial phytochemicals to my food while barely even trying.

NurturMe is revolutionary because I no longer have to spend time washing, peeling, cutting, and cooking when I want some vegetables. Now, I can just rip open a packet and make myself something that’ll be ready in minutes without the guilt of knowing I could be eating something better. Not only do I still get to eat the easy, delicious, and now nutritious foods I enjoy, but with all the prep-time I’m saving, I’m sure my grades will improve too!

NurturMe can literally bring benefits to the table, so there’s no reason for anyone not to try it, even college kids. Without Mom around we can eat whatever we want, and since vegetables usually aren’t at the top of the list, we might not get all the nutrients we need. But simply adding NurturMe fruits and vegetables is fast, it’s easy, it doesn’t ruin the flavor of the food you’ve added it to, and it’s healthy. Though we’ve been taught that a good diet can have a huge impact on performance, it takes baby steps to build up healthy eating habits on our own. That’s why I think during this learning process, baby food for baby steps might not be a bad idea.

“Eww! Broccoli tastes nasty.”

Unfortunately, this is a sentiment shared by many toddlers.  Parents know that a toddler should be eating plenty of vegetables (according to MyPlate guidelines, 1/4 of their plate should be vegetables), but convincing your child to eat these foods can be a daunting task.  Although it may be difficult to change your toddler’s food preferences, it is possible to increase the vegetables in a child’s diet by following these 10 guidelines and by using NurturMe foods.

1. Introduce vegetables earlier.

Toddlers begin having strong food preferences at around 2 years of age. Introducing healthy vegetables into their diets before age two is a smart tactic to help your toddler become accustomed to the taste of vegetables. Then, as they grow older, they will already love or at least be accustomed to the taste. NurturMe baby food comes in 6 flavors that are suitable for children between 4 months and 4 years. Introducing NurturMe foods and appropriate vegetables early is a great way to accomplish this task.

2. Invent creative nicknames for vegetables.

Toddlers are often more willing to eat vegetables if you have creative names for them. Instead of broccoli, say baby trees; carrots can become orange swords.  Being playful and fun about vegetables encourages young children to eat them.

3. Cleverly mix in vegetables with foods they already love.

If your son or daughter already loves macaroni and cheese, incorporate some NurturMe Scrumptious Squash into the mix as you cook it. Your little one will love the taste and will unknowingly benefit from the additional vitamins and minerals provided by the squash. This tip can be used with many foods. Just add a package of a NurturMe vegetable that blends with the color of a food that your child already loves.

4. Eat vegetables with children.

Toddlers love to imitate those around them and love to please their parents with their actions. In addition to verbally encouraging your toddler to eat vegetables, eat vegetables with them. If a toddler sees you eating what you have prepared for them, they will want to eat the same thing.  Set a good example and provide positive reinforcements.

5. Let them prepare dishes with vegetables with you.

Toddlers will be more willing to eat a new meal if they helped in the preparation process. The dish won’t seem so foreign to them because they helped every step of the way.

6. Give them a variety of choices.

Vegetables have a variety of textures and flavors. Allowing your son or daughter to try several types of vegetables will increase the chance that they will like a few.

7. Cook the vegetables.

Cooking helps reduce the bitterness that toddlers often dislike about some raw vegetables. Cooking also makes vegetables softer and easier to eat.

8. Grow a garden.

Toddlers are more likely to want to eat a vegetable if it came out of their own backyard. Grow a garden and let your child be involved in the maintenance of the garden. Let them help you plant, water, and pick vegetables.

9. Praise your child for trying vegetables.

Encourage your child to try unfamiliar vegetables, and praise their “ bravery” when they do.  Avoid using punishment and taking away privileges if your toddler refuses to eat vegetables – some children are very taste-sensitive and simply can’t stand certain tastes.

10. Take your toddler to the grocery store with you.

Let your toddler choose from the variety of colors in the vegetable aisle. They are more likely to eat a vegetable that they were attracted to and allowed to choose.