How to create happy and wholesome children

  We parents want the best for their children.
The best start in life, a good home, good education, nice clothes, educational toys, good quality toys, nice trips, good fun, family time, quality life. Above all, we want our children to be healthy.
Let me ask you a question. What is health?
How do we describe a healthy child?
Happy, content, not a crying baby, no major diseases, in more detail, with all systems and organs functioning normally; regular heart, digestive system, etc...What about children with irregularities, then? Some children born with something missing...? They can still be healthy.
There is not such thing as 100% healthy! It is just our striving for balance; healthy is what we are aiming for, it is more a journey towards health...
We do this in different ways; all the things we do for our children, making sure they are clean, safe, warm and happy, giving them the best we can of all the things we think he/she needs... and, of course, good food. So we want a healthy diet for healthy children.
How do we do this? We need to think of diet now as nutrition is the hot topic. It is a fact: we are what we eat! Let us remember that health is balance.  We need to find a recipe for a balance ‘cake’ and when we serve this special cake is should be made of: love, the biggest slice perhaps, one slice nurture, another slice is joy, happiness, peace, good environment ( green spaces, fresh air, etc...a clean home ), routine ( rhythm, repetition), spirituality ( reverence, respect, etc...) we could add as many slices and spices too! Risk and danger (in a safe and contained environment), challenge, element of surprise (like a Christmas morning!), we could think of many more...
So health is balance; a balanced mind, body and spirit.
These are the things we can do to make sure our children have the basics for good health:

A Healthy Home Life

"All you need is Love!!" Love and attention are a wonderful way to boost immunity. Children that grow up in a loving environment feel more secure and happy.
Make sure you hold, hug, rock, massage, nurse, touch and kiss your children regularly. Studies show that laughter and positive thinking help to strengthen immunity too. The more children laugh and enjoy life, the better their immune function.
Stressful situations and unhappiness deplete the immune system and lower a child's resistance to disease. Breastfeeding, daily baths and massage can help to reduce stress and promote positive feelings in your baby.

Daily Routine

Create a stable home environment with daily routines. These include regular meals, baths, naps and bed times. Eating meals together is extremely important and will help your child to feel secure, safe and part of the family.

 Rythym is so important for a child’s health ( and ours too). The feeling of safety and being secure within family life, our daily routines and just knowing what happens next- remembering - simple gestures, the order of how we do things (and our unique special meaning); the way we set the table and put some flowers on the table before we serve the meal, taking time to appreciate food, each other.

Routine is repetition but is what our young children need: this is ultimately what makes a child feel safe and understand the context and the sequence of events, remembering is learning. (We know how many times we need to repeat a word, action or book for a child enjoys repetition more than anything!)
Reverence and appreciation for life, and all we have, each other, the meals, the clothes, the toys and our house, etc...
In the daily routine we can include time together, time working, time playing, artistic time, etc...
Cooking and preparing a meal is not just fun and learning, or helping, for a small child might be playing, of course, and more often more clearing up and cleaning for mum or dad, that is part of the fun, as you know kids love sweeping, brushing, wet play in general!
Exploring textures, tasting, measuring, is all part of learning process but most important is the notion that work has consequences: making means picking, taking, washing, chopping, mixing, stirring, cooking, and seeing the final product. That makes the child believe that he is the creator of what is in front of him at the table, he is part of that food.
The meal didn’t just appear like magic! It’s real!

Sleep

Make sure your child has enough sleep and goes to bed at a reasonable hour. Your child's body regenerates, repairs and renews itself while sleeping. In addition, it is important to include "quiet time" as part of your child's day when they can unwind and learn the value of being calm. Let your child listen to peaceful music, which is stress relieving and further helps him to feel relaxed and happy.
Sleep and rest is a must for regenerating the body and keeping it functioning smoothly. We are going back to the breathing in and breathing out idea, periods of energetic activities and more quiet activities for a healthy rhythm.

Enjoy Nature

Give your child plenty of fresh air. Go for walks in the woods, country or parks. Let your child run, jump, dance and climb. Don't coddle your child. If they want to run without a hat or gloves, let them do so. Allow them to run barefoot on the grass and climb trees. Nature is an excellent immune stimulator and being exposed in a happy, healthy way does wonders to all aspects of your child's life.

At a Glance Ways to Strengthen your Child's Immunity
Breastfeed your baby
Offer a wide variety of organic, natural foods
Create a non-toxic home environment
Avoid unnecessary vaccines and antibiotics
Give your child lots of love and affection
Create routines in daily life
Eat together as a family
Make sure your child has enough sleep
Spend time outdoors in nature

 Wholesome food

I can think of 3 basic principles that guide me towards a whole foods diet that restores my body’s natural, self healing abilities:

1.    Eat in harmony with nature ( this means eating local and seasonal food)

2.   Balance nature’s forces in cooking

3.   Use food to create desired effects

To do this we need to understand the principles behind Macrobiotics. The way of eating in order to achieve balance as much as possible is easy as our bodies have a natural urge for balance. This is why we get ill. When we do something to upset this natural balance our body screams for help and tells us through the various symptoms that we all recognize, but quite often ignore!

The forces of nature are expansive and contractive, cooling and warming. The energy of food is special fuel and if we know what to eat and how to prepare and cook we can control the effects and have results.  The food we eat contributes to our mood and feelings and our physical state (too tense, angry, fatigued, or not grounded- forgetful, relaxed...)

Macrobiotics is ultimately common sense and logical deductions. On a hot summer’s day we like to cool down with carrot juice and salad. Would we want the same food on a snowy day in January?

We need to be able to see the bigger picture. We need to use food for prevention. This is why macrobiotics is not really just a diet but a healthy lifestyle.

Whole foods encourage our bodies cells to cleanse and release stored up toxins in the blood. A balanced diet helps us maintain the sodium/potassium and acid/alkali balance of our blood; helps the hormones and our nervous system and gives us the right energy. We need to be balanced and healthy before we think of conceiving and during pregnancy and as parents we need to think what we give to our children. Breastfeeding mums need to be aware of effects of extreme foods such as caffeine, spices, alcohol in the blood...and dads need to stay healthy to be strong. Ultimately we all want to live a long healthy life and be there for our children. Let us start with ourselves, as we lead by example.

What we have in our kitchen cupboards and what we bring to our table is what the children eat.

Let us make sure that we eliminate processed foods, foods containing salt, sugar, refined foods and strong spices.

My diet consists of mainly grains, whole grains, rice, oats, barley, mainly, occasionally, bulgar wheat, spelt, wheat, cous cous, quinoa and amaranth. I have pulses almost daily,  butter beans, borlotti beans, and similar, lentils, chick peas, etc.. vegetable proteins, such as tofu; greens, like kale, broccoli, cabbage, seaweeds, vegetables ( mainly carrots, swedes, parsnips, squashes like courgettes and pumpkins, turnips, onions and leeks), I have nuts and seeds daily and rice milk.

My daughter who is not vegetarian will have organic wild fish and occasionally white lean meat. She is 10 years old. When she was a baby I raised her sugar free and meat free, also avoiding dairy as much as possible until she was roughly 3 years old.

I have witnessed and observed many children raised with a Macrobiotic diet and I must say I have always noticed how calm they look; these children always seem content, relaxed, creative and happy.

Cooking for a family is a learned skill! I have been to Michio Kushi’s talks, spent three years on a Natural Cookery Course in Devon, went to regular cookery classes at various macrobiotic chefs workshops...

My knowledge is a gift for me and my family, I can create balance on a dish! It is amazing to be able to understand the energetic of cooking: for example, vegetables can be blanched, pickled, boiled, steamed, sautéed, baked...etc...each style of cooking will give a different energy to it and to the person eating it. This is why recipes evolved.

I give talks and run workshops locally in Greenwich area and I am very happy to do cookery demonstrations to young parents wanting to understand more about Macrobiotics.