Nutritional Advice for a Toddler

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God bless,

M.
www.GoodHealthMadeSimple.com

Hi D.,
Wow - lots of good info! What a great Aunt you are! :)
I am a pediatric occupational therapist, as well as a wellness consultant focusing on nutrition. I could write all day about the questions you have asked! There are several different reasons for drooling and and other oral-motor delays. It's hard for me to give ideas on-line without seeing her in person. But in regards to nutrition - I agree Nordic Naturals Omega 3/DHA is wonderful and so important. I would also recommend adding a whole food nutritional product called Juice Plus to her diet. (Dr. Sears also recommends this to his patients). It is 17 fruits, vegetables, and grains in a capsule, gummy, or chewable. If she can't manage a gummy or chewable it is easy to open a capsule and add to food. Juice Plus provides an amazing nutritional foundation for her which has been proven to improve immune responses, increase antioxidant levels, and improve overall health. There are so many benefits to having such a variety of fruits and veggies everyday!

I also love these books that were mentioned: Super Baby Food (Ruth Yaron) and the Healthiest Kid in the Neighborhood (by Dr. Sears).

She is still eligible for ECI services (until she is 3) - contact your county for additional information. If you are interested in private therapy or a consult to set-up a home program of oral-motor exercises and routines, as well as meal/food ideas, I would be more than happy to set up an appointment! Let me know if you have any questions about OT services or about Juice Plus, as I am also a representative for the products.

Best of luck!
Krystal
Little Hands OT Services
www.HamreHealth.com

Its not a food but supplement, try Nordic Naturals DHA for children it comes in a strawberry flovored liquid and a chewable caplet. It is sold at most health food stores and Whole Foods.

Also, Order the CHEWY TUBE and have your Occupational therapist (or you) work with it with your niece. It is a jaw and mouth therapy tool. Order the Red tube and the Yellow. Use the red first then graduate to the yellow. you can also use it vice/versa depending on the need. I think the web site is www.chewytubes.com but google it if its not.

My son was born with a cleft lip and palate and is now 3.5 and he also has a profound speech delay and is in the PPCD program and until the age of 3 was in ECI these programs provide speech and occupational therapy and your niece would qualify.

ECI is only for ages 3 and under but PPCD is a free public program through the public schools and provides services for ages 3 and up.

Good luck-
A. J
www.texascleftconnections.org

Good answers already. I think probiotics (Culturelle brand is one recommended by (the) Dr. Sears) are a good add to anyone's diet. And like someone said, the DHA. I personally choose to use straight, highly purified Cod LIver Oil (for DHA and NATURAL vitamin A) as recommended by my doctor. The best I have found (considering manufacturing process, natural vitamins added back in instead of synthetic, and vitamin quantity) is http://www.drrons.com/cod-liver-oil.htm

Here are some articles that might be of interest...

Cod Liver Oil
http://www.newmediaexplorer.org/chris/2004/01/13/cod_live...

http://www.westonaprice.org/basicnutrition/cod-liver-oil-...

http://www.westonaprice.org/modernfood/codliver-manufactu...

http://www.westonaprice.org/basicnutrition/clarifications...

Alleged health effects of probiotics
Intestinal effects
! Relieve effects, promote recovery from diarrhea
(rotavirus, travelers’ and antibiotic-induced)
! Produce lactase, alleviate symptoms of lactose
intolerance and malabsorption
! Relieve constipation
! Treat colitis
Immune system effects
! Enhance specific and nonspecific immune response
! Inhibit pathogen growth and translocation
! Stimulate gastrointestinal immunity
! Reduce chance of infection from common
pathogens (Salmonella, Shigella)
Other effects
! Reduce risk of certain cancers (colon, bladder)
! Detoxify carcinogens
! Suppress tumors
! Lower serum cholesterol concentrations
! Reduce blood pressure in hypertensives
! Treat food allergies
! Synthesize nutrients (folic acid, niacin, riboflavin,
vitamins B6 & B12)
! Increase nutrient bioavailability
! Improve urogenital health
! Optimize effects of vaccines (e.g. rotavirus vaccine,
typhoid fever vaccine)

www.world.wholefoodfarmacy.com Also I have a 30 year old who has seizures from the DPT immunization. I have lots of info about drooling. you can call me. K. ###-###-####

Hi D.,

What a caring and consientious Aunt you are! You are wonderful to care so much about her health!

The best "brain" food supplement is of course a high quality, uncontaminated fish oil. Fish oil contains DHA and other essential omega-3 fatty acids, which are imperative for proper brain development and funtion. Kids who get adequate amounts clearly have higher IQ's. I use the Carlson's brand with my daughter. They have a plain fish oil and a cod liver oil with vitamin D. I use Cod liver oil in winter months (Oct-May) when sunlight exposure is limited and vitamin D production is down in the body. I switch back to the regular fish oil in summer (May-Oct) when we are outside and getting plenty of natural sunlight without sunscreen. We use sunscreen judiciously to prevent burn during the hottest times of the day, but make sure to have some safe unprotected sun exposure as well to insure vitamin D production, which is the safest way to get vitamin D so you don't overdose.

You can get these fish oils at many local health food stores (e.g. Roy's Natural Market at Preston and Royal, Royal Abrams Pharmacy at Royal and Abrams, Whole Foods). You can also perhaps get a better deal at www.mercola.com. He also has good articles on the benefits of fish oil, so you can educate your niece's mom, as well as general nutritional info.

Carlson's brand is one that I am comfortable does not contain harmful contaminants. This is a concern with fish oil, since the world fish population is entirely contaminated. Fish oil properties are also delicate and prone to deterioration, unless it is processed in a quality fashion. There are other brands out there, but I have confidence in Carlson's. Once you open it, it must be refrigerated to insure quality.

She may take the fish oil plain from a spoon, as it has a mild pleasant lemon flavor. Otherwise, perhaps you can mix it into apple sauce or mashed sweet potatoe or avacado. A breastfeeding mother should take a fish oil supplement to insure the baby gets sufficient amounts.

Other good resources:
William Sears' The Family Nutrition Book
Ruth Yaron's Super Baby Food

Good luck!

I can't recommend highly enough Dr. Smith at Advanced Clinical Nutrition if you want a good program for your niece. Go to her website at www.advancedclinicalnutrition.com and see what she has to offer. SERIOUSLY, give her a call!! Her office is on Kemp near Avenue K.

Hello, as far as nutrition, just feed her a good balance of foods and maybe some ensure or some extra nutritional drink. Lots of protien. I would play games with her, I don't know if you know what memory is but you take a deck of cards and lay them face down and turn up a card and you take turns turning up one card if it doesn't match turn them down and repeat until you find the matching cards (this is the best I can explain) but any version will be hellpful for she will start to remember where the other cards are. Also puzzles are ecxellent for mental dexterity. As far as speech, silly ryhmes and music. Have her go and just to be silly, make a song out of the vowel sounds and make silly sounds as a game.
This will be a great exercise and she will have fun being silly.

Good morning D. :)
My daughter is also 2 1/2 and currently enrolled in Ready Start ( formally ECI - Early Childhood Intervention ). she has motor , sensory and social issues. She was diagnosed with sensory integration disorder and autism. She is very behind in development but has came a long way . She was recently also placed on a gluten free diet - - well our household has so we can assure nothing is given to her that is not gluten free because I have a 9 yr old son that sneeks stuff to her from time to time. You mentioned advise on brain food - her allergist put her on Omega-3 / cod liver oil. The only place I have found it so far is Sprouts or Whole Foods. You can google Cod Liver Oil and it will explain what it is good for and what it prevents. The only side effect I have found in all the sites I checked was that they will burp a fishy smell until they get used to taking it. What we have done to help with her eating habit is to put her snacks or foods that are bite size in ice trays or a cup cake pan. That helps with her motor skills by reaching into the pan or ice tray to grab the snack. And when feeding like Nilla wafers or Teddy grams put them in the palm of your hand and make her grab the snack vs putting it in her mouth for her. I was very bad at this. She was like a little bird and I would just put the food in her mouth. I didnt realize that I was not helping her by just giving her what she wants and doing it for her too. And with like breakfast I would give her those little pancakes or cinnimon sticks with applesauce. Pancakes /cinnimon sticks would be helping her with motor by grabing the food from tray and applesauce is helping her scooping ability. I still to this day have to help her get the spoon to her mouth and back in the container by hand over hand involvement. My hand over hers and helping her scoop the food and put it in her mouth. Takes a lot of patience but when you see her actually achieve it - - I cry with excitment everytime. She is babbling and saying some words to where you can actually understand now which is amazing and very exciting. She tells her brother to get up every morning. That is about all she says at the moment but that is good enough for me , we will just keep trying. We also plant flowers together and I give her the scoop to dig. She has those leap frog refrigerator radio . It sings song , counts etc. She loves it. I catch her sometimes humming. So I go to the fridge with her and just sing our hearts out. I can totally understand what you and her mother is going through. Just keep your chin up , be positive with smiles on yalls faces and she will get her stregnth from you two :) My email address is ____@____.com if you need somebody to talk to or share our advice amongst one another. Have a great day.

I just want to acknowledge your love and willingness to help your niece, that is wonderful. I do not have the great advice that the other moms do. I just wanted to let you know I give my toddler son a nutritional supplement in powdered form. I thinks its so important to have as our foods contain less and less nutrients. It contains 23 essentail vitamins and minerals and is made by a company I trust to have the purest ingredients available. Since it is in powder form, I just mix it with juice, water, or oatmeal. Maybe that would be easy for your neice to eat and would help give her a nutritional foundation. Here is the link to the product. http://www.shaklee.net/recipeforhealth/product/20073

Well, I know that blueberries are good for the memory and that nuts ( I believe almonds are great) for chewing is great for strengthening the jaw muscles and if she doesn't swallow it gum is another.

Shaklee has the best quality out there...you can check them out online if you want. Their products go through hundreds of quality test and have scientific test 'proof' to back them up.
I am a distributor for Shaklee if you are interested, or I could sign you up as a member, which is only about 20.oo as a one time fee that they collect.
They also have great 'green' household cleaning products. Regular household cleaners have toxins that can do all sorts of damage to a person, just having them in your breathing space.
Hope this helps,
K.

Have you all talked with ECI? THis is Early Childhood Intervention. If you haven't, I would suggest calling them and setting up an appointment. A speech therapist can give you exercises to work on.

I would try bubbles that is suppose to be a really good thing. Try using straws, the speech therapist our foster child has said they are very important for developing different sounds and strengthening the the muscles in your cheeks.

We give our kids the gummie vitamins. I don't know about other type of supplements, you might try the health food store or books in the library. Have you tried any of the exercises that Brain Gym offers? I've been to a mini class with Brain Gym. They suggest doing lots of physical exercises and repetitive movements. They have research showing that it helps people with disabilities. It might be worth trying and checking it out for your child.

You might also try the ARC, they have support groups and classes/information that might benefit you.

Good Luck

the shaklee supplements that are brain food are Omega 3 and Lecithin. they are both capsules and you can put them in peanut butter or orange juice after you squeeze them. Good luck!
D. Shaklee Dist.

Hello D.,
Have you ever heard of the Mangosteen fruit? It is packed with nutrition and has been known to help people with all kinds of different health issues. Check out www.TasteOfGod.com this is a whole fruit puree with a lot of science behind it to back up what people are saying about it. You can look into the science by visiting www.pubmed.gov and typing in "Mangosteen" or "Xanthones" (xanthones are the super anti-oxidant that promote good health) May God bless you!

G.