• Nasal congestion
• Runny nose with clear mucus
• Itchy nose
• Crease across the top of the nose from constant wiping
• Excessive sneezing
• Itchy, watery, red eyes
• Chronic cough
• Wheezing
• Snoring

Then you wonder, “Is it a cold or allergies?” How do you know?  The best indicators are the duration and the repetitive nature of the symptom(s).  A common cold will only last one to three weeks, then fade away.  Sinus infections can last longer, but those will progress to green nasal drainage, fever, and headache, obvious symptoms of infection.  Allergies, on the other hand, show several different patterns:

• Symptoms for three weeks or longer.  If symptoms last for more than three weeks and symptoms haven’t worsened into a sinus infection or begun to subside, then it’s probably allergies.
• Recurrent symptoms.  Allergies can occur for a day or two at a time, or can hit for a week or more, then fade away, only to recur again a week or two later.
• Sudden resolution of symptoms.  Colds will gradually linger and fade away over several days.  Allergies, on the other hand, can be full-blown one day, then completely gone the next.
• Predictable seasonal pattern.  Some allergies will occur for a month or more during a particular season, usually spring or fall.   It takes a year or two of observation to detect this pattern. If your child seems well all year, but suddenly develops allergy symptoms during a particular season (usually spring), or seems to have symptoms only on windy days, then she probably has allergies to particular pollens or plants that are prevalent during the season.  These can cause symptoms during the day or night.
• Recurrent infections.  Children who repeatedly get sick with coughs, colds, sinus infections, or ear infections may have an underlying allergic trigger.  Chronic allergic nasal congestion can be a breeding ground for bacteria and viruses.

35 million people experience seasonal allergies including infants and toddlers who are equally likely to experience seasonal allergies.

Dr. Sears Tip:  Quick diagnosis for allergies

One easy way to determine if your child’s symptoms are from allergies and not a cold is to give him an antihistamine medication.  If the symptoms improve for several hours, you know its allergies.  If they don’t, it is probably a cold.

Dr. Sears L.E.A.N. Training & Certification was written by William Sears M.D. and Exercise Physiologist, Sean Foy, MA, and teaches how to utilize Dr. Sears’ simple techniques that help adults, families, and expecting moms make having a healthy lifestyle fun, easy to understand, and sustainable. Programs include training on lifestyle choices, easy ways to move more, the power of the attitude, and whole food nutrition.

1. You know what’s in it.
2. You can custom-tailor the texture to your baby’s preference.
3. You can shape your baby’s tastes and help them learn what fresh foods taste like.

Tips on making your own baby food.

• Buy organic fruits and vegetables. Your baby deserves pesticide-free foods. Scrub fruits and vegetables extra well with a vegetable brush. Trim stringy parts and remove any part of the food that could cause choking, such as pits, peels, and seeds. Trim excess fat off poultry and meat.
• Steam vegetables. This softens them, makes them easier to puree, mash, strain, and chew, and preserves more of the vitamins and minerals than boiling.
• There’s no need to add salt or sugar. Try a bit of lemon juice as both a preservative and a natural flavor enhancer.
• Avoid deep-frying, which adds unhealthy fats to foods.
• Don’t feel you have to prepare separate meals for your baby. You can simply take portions of your adult food (before you add any strong seasonings)and puree or mash to a stage appropriate for your baby.
• Make several meals’ worth at a time and pour the freshly cooked and pureed food into an ice cube tray. Cover with cellophane wrap and freeze. Then, remover the frozen food cubes from the tray and store in air-tight freezer bags. Remove one serving-size cube at a time when needed.
• When baby graduates from cubed-size portions, tore the homemade food in recycled commercial baby food jars or small, plastic freezer containers.  Be sure not to fill the jars to the brim, as the food expands as it freezes.
• Label all your freezer packages with contents and date and rotate stock like the supermarket does – putting the most recently frozen foods behind the previously frozen ones. Homemade baby foods can be safely kept frozen for three months.
• For slow thawing, place a day’s worth of baby food in the refrigerator. It will thaw in about four hours. For fast thawing, use and electric warming dish or place a heat-safe dish over water in a small saucepan and heat gently. If you use a microwave to thaw or warm baby food, be sure to stir the food well to avoid hot pockets.
• No matter what method of heating and thawing you use, stir the food well and test it with your finger to be sure it’s not too hot.
• To avoid wasting your carefully prepared cuisine, dole our small portions. Gradually add more, using a clean spoon as needed.

Growth charts are what your child’s healthcare provider uses to plot your child’s height and weight at annual checkups. Here are some important facts you should know about using and interpreting the charts.

• Growth charts are compiled from AVERAGE measurements of thousands of children of both genders, across all areas of the US, and including all racial backgrounds. Because of this diversity of sampling, the numbers may not accurately reflect your child’s optimal growth. Growth charts are simply screening tools, nothing more. They give a clue to a possible growth concern, not a diagnosis.
• Growth chart are divided into percentile lines. The term “percentile” means where your child fits into the group. For instance, the 50th percentile is an average, which means that out of a hundred children, fifty weigh more than you child and fifty weigh less. The 85th percentile means that 15% of kids weigh more than your child, and 85% weigh less.
• The higher the weight percentile, the more risky it is. A child at or above the 95th weight percentile would be considered at risk of being or becoming overfat, regardless of the height percentile.
• The greater the difference between the weight percentile and the height percentile, the greater your concern should be. For example, the child who plots in the 80th percentile for weight and the 50th percentile for height  would be more of a concern than a child who plots around the 50th percentile for both height and weight.
• The year-to-year trend is more useful than the actual numbers.

Juicing:

Juicing is a process which extracts water and nutrients from produce  and discards all the fiber.  Without all the fiber, your digestive system doesn’t have to work as hard to break down the food and absorb the nutrients. This is especially helpful if you have a sensitive digestive system or illness that inhibits your body from processing fiber. The fiber in produce helps slow down the digestive process and provides a steady release of nutrients into the blood stream. When you remove the fiber from the produce, the liquid juice is absorbed into your blood stream all at once causing a spike in blood sugar. Unstable blood sugar  levels can lead to mood swings, energy loss, memory problems and more! Fiber is also filling, and without fiber in the juice, you will be hungry again quickly.

Blending:

Blending is the process of finely chopping up the entire fruit or vegetable, skin and all, to produce a smooth consistency. Blending produce leaves all the fiber in the mixture, which helps create a slow, even release of nutrients into the blood stream and avoids blood sugar spikes. The fiber in smoothies also helps you feel full longer! By including the fiber in your smoothie, the volume will increase. You can pack more servings of fruits and veggies into a single serving of juice than you can into a smoothie.

A Combination….

When considering juicing vs blending, both options have their benefits and disadvantages and you may want to follow Dr. Sears smoothie recipe that actually combines both blending and juicing! Click here for Dr. Bill’s favorite brain-boosting smoothie recipe.

In Dr. Sears’ LEAN Start, LEAN Expectations and Prime-Time Health, we talk about the importance of avoiding process sugar whenever possible. This Is Sugar Toxic segment by 60 minutes only reinforces why we should avoid processed sugars.  While we do believe that high-fructose corn syrup has more negatives because the way the body processes it versus regular processed sugars, the point is still well made.

All of our educational programs focus on eating real food versus processed foods, especially processed sugar, whenever possible.  If you would like to take a Dr. Sears course to learn how to avoid dangerous foods and ingredients, please visit here.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B56Gpf1f5_A

• The carotene in carrots helps protect and improve your eye sight, and when you look at a carrot that has been sliced, it looks like the human eye.
• Just like your heart, a tomato has four internal chambers and tomatoes provide your heart with a vital nutrient called lycopine.
• Shelled walnuts look like a brain and contain the brain boosting food, Omega-3′s.
• Kidney beans look exactly like their body counterpart, the kidney and contain nutrients that help heal and maintain kidney function.
• Salky veggies like celery, bok choy, and rhubarb resemble the body’s skeletal bones. These veggies specifically help strengthen bones.
• Sweet Potatoes are shaped like the pancreas and contain nutrients that help balance the glycemic index of diabetics.
• Onions look like cells in your body and research has shown that onions can help eliminate waste materials from all of the body cells.

1. Make sure all the adults and other children in your household follow these same rules for time-out sessions, so the misbehaving child knows exactly how time-outs work.
2. Tell the child that because they acted out they must stay in their room with the door closed for 10 minutes of quiet time.
3.  Specify to your child exactly what it is they did that is unacceptable. This way they will know the exact behavior they did that put them into time-out.
4. If the door to your child’s room can be opened from the inside and they are likely to attempt to open it during a time out, try to arrange the door so it has to stay closed. This is important so they understand they must be isolated as a consequence of their bad behavior.
5. The first time you try these techniques, escort your child to their room. Don’t lose your temper or raise your voice at your child, but walk them to them room and simply give them a single-sentence explanation, like, “Because you said a bad word, you will sit quietly in your room for 10 minutes.”
6. If your child makes a scene during time-out and is throwing things, or crying and yelling, do not respond at all. It is expected that they will act this way the first few times they have time-outs. But it is important to ignore their outrage.
7. Do not set the timer for 10 minutes until your child is being quiet.
8. Once the 10 minutes is up, open the door and tell the child they are allowed to come out. Don’t bring up the explanation for the time-out again; act as if nothing happened. This will help them to move on and act normal again.
9. After about a week, a simple warning for having to take a time-out should be enough to keep the child from acting out. It may take a little longer for more difficult children, but stick with it and stay consistent.
10. Use the time-out as a warning. Give the child a single warning, and if they don’t stop the behavior, act calm and do the time-out immediately.

By following these steps, your child should come out of a time-out much more calm and composed!

Consider this yummy Valentine’s Day breakfast smoothie! It will give your kids some nutrients before they get all those sugary treats later in the day at school. It’s sure to be a love potion your kids will enjoy!

You’ll need:

• ½ cup frozen raspberries
• ½ cup frozen strawberries
• 1 small carton of yogurt
• 1 cup apple juice
• ½ cup ice cubes

Place the raspberries, strawberries and juice in the blender. Blend together for several seconds. For a more liquid-y smoothie, add a little more juice. For a thicker smoothie, add more fruit. Add in the ice cubes and blend well.

Another option for a Valentine’s snack is “fruit flowers.” Help your kids use their imaginations and make beautiful flowers by arranging sliced in a flower design and using sliced kiwi for the stems. You can also use other fruits like raspberries, peaches or blueberries! These fruity flowers are a fun way to enjoy a healthy treat this Valentine’s Day.

1. Avoid eating junk foods like candy, chips and pop. Instead eat healthy snacks like fruits, veggies and juice.
2.  Do not eat in front of the TV or have the TV on while you’re eating. It takes away your ability to savor and enjoy your food and spend time socializing with your children while eating.
3.  Have a variety of foods on your plate. This will teach your kids to eat new and different kinds of foods to get a variety of nutrients in their diet.
4.  Constantly sip on water throughout the day. This is important for staying hydrated and feeling full.
5.  If you avoid eating certain foods, explain your reasoning to your children. Tell them if you have an allergy, or if certain foods are not good for your health.
6.  Go grocery shopping together. Children can learn a lot by exploring the produce section and seeing the wide variety of nutritious foods out there.
7.  Eat slowly. Make eating a relaxing, enjoyable activity and take time to chew your food and enjoy each bite. When you constantly eat in a hurry, kids will pick up on those habits.
8.  When enjoying desserts and treats, emphasis portion control to your kids. Don’t banish sweets from your children completely, but teach them how to serve appropriate portion sizes when treating themselves to a sweet treat.
9.  Schedule regular eating times each day. If you tend to skip lunch, your child is likely to pick up that habit as well. Even with work, school and activities, make the time to have regular meals so your kids learn the importance of eating healthy throughout the day.
10.  Wash your hands before preparing or eating food. Encourage your children to do the same, and eventually it will become part of their normal routine.

By following these simple tips, your children will quickly pick up healthy eating habits thanks to your good examples!