Creating a Sugar Addict

Can you rank the following 8 ounce servings of beverages, with "1" having the least amount of sugar and "6" having the most?

• Kool-aid
• soda
• chocolate milk
• apple juice
• white milk

I will give you the answers later. Which of these items will you allow your baby to consume within the first 12 months of life? 

click photo to see other child tooth decay

Sugary beverages, including formula,  will not only cause Baby Bottle Tooth Decay but can set your child up for obesity. How does tooth decay start? The germs in our mouths live in the white, sticky material called plaque. When the germs feed on the sugar in our food, they give off an acid. The acid will eventually cause cavities in the teeth. The more sugar your child eats, the more likely he or she is to have tooth decay. It's important that you limit the amount of sugar that you give your child.

You should never put anything in your baby's bottle besides formula, breast milk or water. And you should never, ever put your baby to bed with a bottle. Even formula, when left in the mouth as baby falls asleep, will cause tooth decay. 

Babies are not born with a desire for sugar. Children may begin to crave sugary foods after being exposed to them. 

Here is a math problem for you: 4 grams of carbohydrate = 1 teaspoon of sugar. You can use measuring spoons and sugar to visualize the amount of sugar consumed.

• If white milk has 22 grams of carbs, how many teaspoons of sugar?
• If Kool-Aid has 24 grams of carbs, how many teaspoons of sugar?
• If chocolate milk has 25 grams of carbs, how many teaspoons of sugar?
• If apple juice has 29.3 grams of carbs, how many teaspoons of sugar?
• If soda (only 8 ounces) has 30 grams of carbs, how many teaspoons of sugar?

By the way, the above beverages are listed in ranking order of least sugar to most sugar. 
Check out The 20 Worst Drinks in America 

View this video from The Real Bears.org to better understand the implications of giving sugar to your child. 

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We have been learning about the importance of Prenatal Nutrition. As a class, you brainstormed an alphabetical list of healthy foods, learned how to read food package labels, discovered how much a serving size really is and most importantly, how your food choices will affect your baby for the rest of his or her life.

I'd like for you to consider the differences and similarities between healthy vs junk food by completing the interactive venn diagram from ClassTools.net below. Not only should you think about what's inside the food but what about the outside? What is the difference in the appearance, serving size, texture, and smell of healthy food vs junk food. Is there a difference in how most healthy food is prepared vs how to prepare junk food?

Work on this as a class. When you are finished filling in your answers on the image below, please save a copy of this diagram before leaving this sight.See the bottom right corner for choices and click the circle icon to embed into a blog. Just copy the URL for your diagram and email the link to me.

If you want to post this on your own blog just copy the html then insert the code into a new post.

I will add your completed Venn Diagram at the bottom of this page for visitors to view.

Click here for larger version

Click here for larger version

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Why Do Babies Cry?

Just seeing this crying baby puts me in distress!

What do you think when you hear a baby crying in public?
What do you want to do?
Would you let your baby cry for long periods of time?
There was an interesting research article in the Wall Street Journal three weeks ago about Letting Babies Cry It Out. Please read this article.

We have heard many relatives assure us that "crying is okay, it is good for their lungs, makes them stronger". But it's really hard for parents and caretakers to let babies cry because of the physical impact it has on each one of us. When a baby cries the hairs on our arms or back of necks will actually rise. This causes us to instinctively want to sooth the baby to make ourselves feel better. But is crying normal? Should you stop a baby from crying? Is your baby in pain?  Check out the Purple Crying website to get a better understanding about crying babies.

I have taught our new GRADS parents about the Happiest Baby approach to calming a fussy baby.
Please skim over these frequently asked questions on Dr. Karp's website about using the Happiest Baby approach. Compare Karp's strategy with the suggestions in this slide show about calming fussy babies.


Please comment in the box below:

1. How do you feel when you hear your baby or any other cry?
2. What is your opinion about letting babies cry it out?
3. What new piece of information did you learn about Purple Crying?
4. Compare the Happiest Baby approach with the slide show for calming fussy babies.

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Food For Your Family

Which one of the following is caused by the chemical BPA found in plastic and aluminum cans containing food?

a. obesity in children
b. reproductive development
c. cardiovascular disease

To find the answer please read the following articles, Consuming Canned Soup and BPA In Food Packaging.

After comparing the two articles write a response in the comment box below that answers the following:

1. What is the answer to the question at the beginning of this post.
2. Where does BPA come from?
3. Name something you ate or drank today that was packaged in plastic or a can.
4. Does this research affect your own family?
5. Do you plan on doing anything to protect your child from consuming BPA?

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There is probably a lot you already know about pregnancy. Look at this list of pregnancy terms and pick out 5 words you've never heard of and 5 terms you know and understand. You can Google search the terms you're not sure about and be prepared to mention some of the terms in your next blog post.

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Stressed Out!

Have you ever stopped to think about how your reaction to stress is viewed through your child's eyes? If you are pregnant, how does your baby know when you are stress out?

Life is stressful and there is no way to avoid it! We have covered a great lesson about stress management this week. Here is the Stress Management Lesson Plan for teachers to view.

These are some of the things you learned:

• stress vocabulary
• levels of stress
• stages of coping with stressful situations
• your own stress score
• physical changes you notice from stress
• learning how to cope with daily stress

At the end of this unit your class will write the ABC's of Managing Stress. (Create your own title). We will upload your list onto The ABC's of Life website so other teen parents will be able to learn about stress.

Comment Assignment: Describe how this unit helped you and what are some coping skills you will use in your own life. 

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Welcome Back!

It's so nice to be back at school. I hope you had a good summer and you're ready to learn. I am looking forward to spending some quality time together this year.

I'd like you to take a minute to fill out this form: GRADS Student Information


Here is a list of the topics we can cover in class.

UNIT 1   RELATIONSHIPS

v    Personal Development

v    Friendship

v    Healthy Relationship

v    Marriage

v    Family Stress

v    Marriage Conflict

v    Legal Issues

v    Support Teen Parents

v    Sexual Decision Making

v    Family Unit

v    Self-Esteem

v    Coping With Stress

v    Life List

UNIT 2   COLLEGE & CAREER

v    Time Management

v    Personal Goals

v    Career Planning

v    Job search skills

v    Effective communication

v    Going to college

v    School success

UNIT 3   ECONOMIC INDEPENDENCE

v    Financial Goals

v    Problem solving

v    Independent living

v    Budgeting skills

v    Community Services

UNIT 4  Prenatal, newborn

v    Parenthood

v    Healthy Pregnancy

v    For Fathers

v    Prenatal Environment

v    Nutritional Needs

v    Labor & Delivery

v    Feeding Baby

v    Newborn

v    Safe Sleep

v    Crying

v    Infant Massage

v    Safety

v    First Aid

v    Medical Care

v    Immunizations

v    Fever

v    Child Care

v    Shaken Baby

UNIT 5  CHILD DEVELOPMENT

v    Nurturing

v    Feeding Children

v    Hygiene Needs

v    Child Development

v    Physical Development

v    Play & Toys

v    Reading & brain development

v    Guidance

v    Cooperative Parenting

Please write a comment below about what you would most like to learn about in GRADS this year?

Warm Regards,

Mrs. Hickman

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