Over the next month, my kids will eat more cookies than the rest of the year, popping them in their mouth right before lunch and dinner, maybe even breakfast too. They will lick the spoon as they frost cookies and ingest more frosting than goes on a handful of cookies as their little Picasso hands create edible artwork with holiday jingles playing in the background. They will attend gatherings with family and friends with foods higher in sugar and fat content than I would like to report — but its reality. They will feel full faster and won’t finish their fruits and vegetables — at least in the summer I can count on them devouring a tray of watermelon for balance.
Well-intended family members will pile their plates with all of their favorites as a way of expressing their love and affording me the honor of offering fruits and veggies throughout the day.
Over the holidays, my kids will forget to drink enough fluids as they chase their cousins around, which will only increase their losses and need for replacement. I, like many other parents, will try to ensure my kids eat a few sensible meals in between and attempt to achieve some kind of balance while also accepting this is temporary. With visions of sugar plums dancing in my own mind, I know they will be kids at the holidays. I certainly don’t want to be deemed a scrooge and I don’t want my kids to remember the holidays as restrictive so I have decided to embrace the holidays for what they are — a delightful, often magical, change from our routine.
I focus on maintaining our sleep routines with a few exceptions. I advocate for events outdoors to increase our time in nature and ensure adequate exercises. And then I let the extra cookies and candy canes for breakfast slide.
It causes me less stress, unnecessary conflict, and allows us all to enjoy the holidays. I have even seen many dietitians on my social media feeds recently promote the idea of letting kids enjoy the holidays and worrying less about ensuring balance — instead making the focus connecting with friends and family. Thinking about the positive role family traditions and social connections have on kids, I happen to agree.
But no one ever really feels well after overindulging either — myself and my kids included. A whole day can be too much, especially when it’s several days in a row as the holiday season often brings.
So, what is my secret? Well, if you have followed my blog and social media for the past few months, you have probably noticed we make a lot of smoothies in our house. We love them! In fact, my four year old has had so much experience making them with me that he can now pull out all of the ingredients himself. As I supervise, he tosses them all in, pushes a button, and whips us up one of his special recipes. As many of my mom’s recipes call for a little bit of this and a little bit of that, we follow the same guidance with our smoothies. We don’t have any formal recipe and we don’t measure — we just add a little bit of this and a little bit of that. And voila! We have a drink packed full of fiber and other nutrients so easy even my four year old can make it.
Throughout the holiday season, we make more smoothies than usual and my kids slurp them up. I sit back and watch the extra cookies and other delicious foods come in knowing my kids have enjoyed a glass full of fruits and veggies.
Smoothies have long been a favorite of mine. I made them for myself, I often recommended them to patients when I was practicing pediatrics, and I now make them for my own children. Smoothies are great for kids who are working on accepting of a wide variety of foods and are an excellent way to increase fruits and veggies throughout the day, especially on the run. I also found they were particularly helpful in maintaining a sense of balance when changes in our routine popped up.
Starting a new school year, going on vacation, and celebrating holidays can cause significant changes in our diets which can lead to problems, especially for our gut. So in an effort to avoid problems, I started increasing how often I offered smoothies during those changes in routine. They are also great when my kids are sick, soothing sore throats and ensuring they get fruits and veggies. If you add yogurt, they get some protein too!
I tried recipes before but at times they were too complex and often included ingredients I didn’t have on hand. I needed simple ingredients that could I could easily keep on hand and when we ran out, I could add to our grocery list without having to pull up a recipe each week. So our smoothies are simple. I keep frozen fruit on hand, often berries, yogurt, and when I remember, I grab some spinach.
Not all kids are as accepting of smoothies but I have some tricks I found to be helpful with my own kids. These are some of strategies that I have used to increase their acceptance and offer them blended creations that they actually enjoy!
1. First, you need the right tool!
I have a Vitamix and I love it! My husband and I invested in one several years ago and it is one of my most used appliances. I used to have issues adding greens but not anymore — it blend everything smoothly! I have heard other blenders are top performers as well and I included a few references below if you need help picking one out.
2. Invite your kids to help!
Depending on their ages, they might be able to help and also, depending on their ages, they may really want to! My oldest has graduated from wanting to help make smoothies but my four year old loves to! He enjoys selecting which frozen fruits he wants to add from the freezer, finds any other produce on the counter that looks good, grabs some yogurt, and as I supervise, we start adding. If we add spinach, we often add a little more fruit. And our yogurt of choice is often vanilla or whatever flavor is reaching its best by date. I have tried plain yogurt many times and my kids have never accepted it, so we just use vanilla in our house. At the very end, we add water instead of juice to avoid unnecessary calories.
I know my kids enjoy berry smoothies so I keep on hand what I know they will like and then once in a while, we try something new. Often I let them select something new to try as we shop. I have found a small amount of pineapple, banana, or oranges can go a long way in making a smoothie more palatable for kids.
3. Eat the rainbow and make those smoothies colorful!
As I mentioned above, I don’t have a recipe but we aim to make sure they come out colorful. We have made blue, purple, green, red, and pink smoothies! And I suppose if we ever left out some of the berries, we could probably make a yellow and orange one too! Once in a while, a batch turns a pinkish-brown color but usually, depending on the fruits you add, they are colorful, cheery, and bright!
4. Serve that smoothie with straw in a fun cup!
My kids have specific cups designated for smoothies. They are plastic with tops (for less spilling) and straws — my kids almost always drink their smoothies through a straw. Their milk they pour into a regular cup and they have water bottles for hydration throughout the day but their smoothies are poured into a fun character cup topped off with a silly, twirly or reusable silicone straw.
5. Enjoy them together!
When we aren’t drinking them before rushing out the door, I try to make them with my kids, pour each of us one, and then we sit down and do an activity together. It might be reading a few books, working on a puzzle, or playing a game but something where they can associate those smoothies with something positive — like time with me!
*Warning! There are three things you do need to know before moving forward.
1. Some of your creations will turn bright purple and your kids will spill smoothie. If spilling milk stresses you out, I suggest you work to decrease that reaction before offering smoothie! You can do it. I have retrained my brain to even tolerate the horror of spilled breastmilk. Your kids will spill, they will feel bad, and it is your reaction that will lead them to continue feeling bad or to recognize that accidents happen and help you clean it up.
I have had bright purple splattered on my white chairs and my off white kitchen walls. I wipe it up and move on. I’m the one who got white chairs and painted my kitchen off white with three young boys. They will spill, you were warned, so plan accordingly. And when you clean it up, look up, because somehow it also got on the ceiling.
2. Cleaning smoothie cups after you and your children are done, especially when they have strawberry seeds or spinach flakes on them, are very difficult to get clean. As soon as my kids are done, I toss the cups in the sink and soak them with warm, soapy water. I come back to them at the next meal and wash them by hand — they are one of the only things I don’t put in the dishwasher these days!
3. Remember, these are fluids. Plan potty breaks accordingly! They are not the snack you want to offer on at the start of a road trip unless you plan on stopping thirty minutes later.
I’m going to hand my kids a smoothie in the morning for breakfast or as a snack and then I’m going let them enjoy the warm cocoa and sugar cookies as they gather with friends and family the rest of the day. The lasagna, the cinnamon rolls, the breakfast sausage, eggs, and bacon, and the cheesecake — bring it all!
For more information:
https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/reviews/best-blender/
https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/reviews/best-blender-for-smoothies/
While I hope you enjoy reading my posts, kindly be advised that the words in this article are not medical advice and I cannot guarantee that they will work for you or your family. They are my reflections on parenting my three boys, based on my own personal background and experiences. Always reach out to your own health professionals for any questions or concerns. Please read my full disclosure at the bottom of this site for more information. Very sincerely, Mamma P.
