Kids Nutrition Education | Fitness and Youth Sports Conditioning | Nutrition Counseling and Weight Management for Kids/Teens

Infants, Toddlers & Children Ages 8 months - 8 years

 Palate Training

8 Months to 3 years of age

Type: Private mother & baby or toddler Nutrition Education & Counseling with a pediatric registered dietitian/ behavior &/or feeding therapist

Length: 45 minute sessions

Time: Weekday mornings, early afternoons & Saturdays. Hours arranged by appointment.

Our Palate-Training Program is designed to educate, help moms and caregivers prevent or resolve feeding and nutrition issues with their infant/toddler that may be a threat to their proper continued growth and development by omitting or over-feeding necessary nutrients leading to improper or excessive weight gain or decrease the chances of their baby & or toddler liking and continuing to consume healthy nutrient rich foods throughout the growing years into childhood and adolescence that is needed for proper growth & development.

Who Needs Palate-Training: Your pediatrician may refer you to a dietitian & or feeding therapist if he or she feels your child may have a particular nutrition-related issue that needs to be addressed or you may feel the need yourself as a parent. Infant-Toddler & child palate training will help any parent help their baby, toddler, or child who may be showing signs of, or currently exhibiting any or all of the following behaviors & actions on a daily or weekly basis with or without currently being diagnosed with developmental & or nutritional complications related to poor dietary intake, obesity, over or under nourishment, blood or blood lipid disorders, low muscle tone, mood &/or any emotional behavior disorders listed below:

  • Refusing any or all food groups, textures, milk &/or water.
  • Trouble bottle or breast weaning &/or initiating solid food.
  • Being fed or eating in front of the TV or other areas in the house not designated for eating.
  • Refuses fruits and or vegetables
  • Eats mostly sweets, junk, fast food items or foods with added sugar in or on it.
  • Eats or drinks during the middle of the night, wakes up for food or beverage.
  • Drinks a bottle past age 2.
  • Has a decrease in appetite despite normal meal times.
  • Omits any or all food groups.
  • Has any or multiple food allergies.
  • You are unable to identify hunger signals.
  • Your child &/or toddler constantly asks for food or seems to always be hungry.
  • Obsessive thoughts focused on food or constant talking about food especially not at or around meal times.
  • Confused food limits for you and your infant/child or toddler.
  • Parents acting as a gate-keeper or food police with your baby/child.Always asking for more food at every meal.
  • Grazes and eats food &/or liquids all day long, without consuming a full meal at mealtimes.
  • Experiences stress or anxiety with food or a change in attitude regarding food at mealtimes.
  • Give into poor &/or compromised food choices just to get your baby/child to eat something.
  • Eats more or less food than you as a parent feels is appropriate or enough.
  • Prefers & drinks all liquids over solid foods.
  • Spits food out or refuses food when parent or care-giver hides and mixes foods in with other foods.
  • Excessive amounts of times spent feeding your baby/toddler & or chasing them around the house to get food into him or her.
  • Consumes too much or too little food and beverages to the point where it is effecting their weight, growth, learning ability, concentration & emotional state of well-being.
  • Use food or beverages as a reward, calming or comfort aid.
  • Irritability, Hyper or hypo-activity behaviors.
  • Anxiety & stress at the kitchen or dining room table daily; crying at meal times, throwing food, ripping-off bibs & climbing out of chair, unable to sit still.
  • Stuck in a food jag eating the same thing at every meal or daily.
  • Prefers one type of food made & prepared one way only, never being introduced, graduating to or totally refusing age-appropriate food textures (pureed-chopped, diced, ground etc.,) and liquids.
  • Has an erratic eating time schedule; grazing, skipping, eating all the time or not eating at all.
  • Multiple care-givers feeding your baby, toddler or child.

Parents will learn through nutrition counseling, feeding & behavior therapy techniques how to introduce healthy age-appropriate foods, solids, textures, and liquids to change, instill and develop eating behaviors and food preferences that their baby /toddler will consume to prevent possible future "food for age" obstacles, nutritional complications, developmental disorders, nutrient deficiencies, food jags, demands, food manipulation, as well as sensory-texture refusal. In addition, Moms will learn how to establish and adjust healthy daily living, eating, and sleeping schedules. Babies, toddlers and Moms will have the opportunity to meal plan, change in-home behavior & feeding patterns, prepare, try & eat some foods and meals in our baby/toddler/child friendly food test kitchen.

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 Little Sprouts

Healthy Cooking and Functional Fitness Program

5 - 8 Years of Age

Type: Age-appropriate healthy cooking, nutrition education activities, storytime, functional and developmental fitness training.

Length: 10 or 12 week sessions. Meets 1x week for 1.5 hours Consists of 45 minutes of healthy cooking, nutrition education & 45 minutes of  a fun kids fitness workout with our youth fitness trainer.

Fall 2010:  12 week session.  Wednesdays 4:00-5:30pm.   September 22nd -December 15th.

See our schedule page for days & times

Little Sprouts Program Description: Good eating habits begin at an early age, and children are eager to learn! Children are taught by our pediatric dietitian, nutrition educator and early childhood education teacher/teacher assistant in a our kid-friendly kitchen & food science lab we teach students about "body-friendly," nutrient-rich foods that will help them go, grow and work well. Here they are given a hands-on interactive opportunity to explore, make, prepare, create, combine, cook, try and taste new and familiar healthy foods, meals or snacks while developing and understanding the many health benefits these foods have to offer. Nutrition science principles incorporate early math, science, language, and social skills techniques. children also participate in a "circus-style" obstacle course fitness workout out consisting of a number cardio-respiratory, muscular strength, flexibility,agility, balance & coordination developmental exercises. Some of the students favorites are the: "Flying Angels", "Houdini Handshakes" "Celery Slide", "Broccoli Bump", "Carrot Claps", "Lemon Laps", "Arm Crosses", "Seal Crawls", "Turtle & Crab Walks", "Push & Pull Stances" & Swimming Snakes" to name a few. In this combination program children build social skills, self-confidence & esteem, improve and further develop their own level of fitness skills, expand their palates and daily food repitoires by par-taking in easy basic food preparation, trying and tasting foods, getting used to and tolerating all types of food textures, solids and  flavors at different age stages. Students have fun tantalizing their taste buds while developing positive attitudes towards food and understanding some basic building blocks for having healthy bodies, eating & activity habits daily.

NUTRI- KICK   "All New This Fall"

5-8 Years of age 12 weeks  Mondays & Fridays September - December 2010.

Nutrition Eduction Workshop & Kids Self-Defense Martial Arts.

1.5 hour class meets 1x/week.

We are proud to have Tactile Defense Solution's Kids Self-Defense and Fillipino mixed martial arts programs coupled with our nutrition education workshops this Fall. What is T.S.D.? T.S.D. is a style of martial arts that puts you in a real life scenario. The difference between T.S.D. and other styles is that T.S.D. is "reality based." T.S.D works on techniques that can be used in an actual fight. Other styles, though looking flashy and stylish, are ineffective because they don't incorporate real life situations such as: Rain, Sun, Glare, Broken glass and concrete. This class is designed to help students learn basic and advanced self-defense techniques through vigorous training and practice. These high energy, calorie burning drills help build strength, speed, endurance, coordination, balance, focus and much more. Students will have fun learning how to defend themselves in an age-appropriate way along with learning basic nutrition principles that teach kids how to eat right and make healthier food choices on their own. This program is also offered for tweens ages 9-13 years.

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