My friend Allie writes the blog No Time for Flash Cards, and in general I would agree. Although we don’t often turn to crafts (like Allie does), we prefer learning by reading books, spending time outdoors, and going to museums rather than by memorization and repetition.  So when Julian’s French teacher said that he needed to work on building his vocabulary and suggested flash cards, I cringed. But we gave it a try and it did help him learn some new words. He enjoyed it, and used the cards both with us at home and with older children at school, but I never got excited about the idea.

I’ve written before about raising bilingual kids. Our children are learning English and German at home and English, French and Spanish at school. Both my partner and I speak English, French and German. We want our kids to learn other languages and to have fun doing it. Since we arrived in Berlin, both of them have been struggling with their German a bit. That has led to them not talking to others or trying to talk to others and lacking the vocabulary to do so. I also know that once school starts up again in the fall, the French flash cards issue will come up again and I wasn’t thrilled with the flash cards we had been able to purchase in Canada.

So I was intrigued when I came across a box of flash cards at the bookstore in Berlin called Einfach Alles: Die Welt in Bildern by Rotraut Susanne Berner. It includes 150 flash cards and each card contains:

• an illustration on the front

• the word in 6 languages (German, English, French, Spanish, Turkish and Chinese) as well as a word-related phrase or saying in German on the back

The set of cards comes in a sturdy and attractive box. It also includes a set of instructions with ideas for games you can play with the cards (opposites, charades, word games and more). There are also several blank cards where you can draw your own picture and then write the words on the back.

As if that isn’t impressive enough, I was even more impressed when we cracked the box open and I saw the quality of the cards and of the illustrations.  As an example, this is the card for WOMAN and yes, there is a corresponding one for MAN too (can you tell this isn’t an American kids product?).

As I said above, the illustrations really are excellent. They range from simple line drawings in one colour to elaborate landscapes. Some of them are quite literal, some are more abstract, and some of them make the kids laugh out loud. It includes nouns (e.g. elephant, snow man, bathtub) as well as feelings and emotions (e.g. fear, love, sadness) and actions (e.g. kidding around). Some of them create opportunities to talk about the things that are on the cards, especially when they are new words or new concepts for the kids.

My kids favourites are things like:

• the BOTTOM (a small child sticking it’s bum out)
• the RAGE (a red faced fist clenched figure)
• the NAUSEA (which is an illustration of a man sitting in bed vomiting into a bowl)
• the HOLE (which is a blank card with a small hole in the middle of it)
• …and of course the naked people (Mommy and Daddy in the shower, they call them)

I’ve thrown in a few images of some of the other cards here to give you an idea of the types of illustrations found in the set. My mother will be really impressed to know that one of them passes as Grannie (let it be known loud and clear that the elderly woman pictured on the card looks nothing like my mother), but I’m happy with them saying “Grannie” for the sake of a giggle and in the hopes that they don’t yell and point “Hey, look at that old lady” at the top of their lungs in public again (especially since they now have the vocabulary to do so in German). The picture of the pregnant woman, showing the position of the baby, is just wonderful.

I get numerous requests daily to do flash cards, even before getting out of their pajamas in the morning, and who can resist a face like this?

This is not a typical book for me to review, so I won’t follow my typical book review format. LIFE with Mother, by the editors of LIFE books, is a beautiful compilation of photographs of mothers and their children, accompanied by quotes about mothering.

The almost 100 page collection includes:

• regular people and famous people
• old photographs and contemporary photographs
• American photographs and photographs from countries and cultures around the world
• photographs from all stages of motherhood from pregnancy all the way to an elderly woman walking with her even more elderly mother
• joy and pain
• everyday scenes and extraordinary circumstances

The book was recently updated from a previous version and this new 2009 version even includes a photo of Michelle Obama with Sasha as the final photograph.

There are beautiful pictures of families in bed together snuggling and reading. Wonderful images of mothers and their children at play. Many heartwarming moments captured on film. One of my favourites  photographs is the one of a Kurdish mother in Israel breastfeeding her baby by Paul Schutzer. The expression on her face and the way she holds her breast make for a stunning photograph. One of my favourite quotes is: “Chance made you my daughter; love made you my friend.”

I bought one copy for me and one copy for a friend. I love to sit and leaf through it myself or with my kids, especially on days when I feel my mothering needs some inspiration.

Buy LIFE with Mother on Amazon.com or on Amazon.ca.

About a year ago, a reader asked me if I would be willing to share a list of my favourite parenting books. I said “sure” and that is when I started working on page called My Parenting Library. Last night I finally found the time to finish an initial version of it.

My Parenting Library

You can click on the link above this paragraph or find it anytime through the navigation above my header (just click on “Library”). The library includes the following types of books:

• General Parenting Books
• Discipline and Relationship Building Books
• Sleep Books
• Pregnancy and Birth Books
• Breastfeeding, Nutrition and Health Books
• Essays and Writings on Parenting that Inspire
• Other Useful Parenting Books

If you do decide to buy any of those books or if you are making any other purchases from Amazon, I would appreciate you supporting me by clicking through from the links on my blog to Amazon.com (for residents of the US) or Amazon.ca (for residents of Canada).

Photo credit: babblingdweeb on flickr

With fear and interest I picked up a copy of this book on a lovely visit to Chapters in Toronto with my friends Sam from babyREADY and Lindsay from Kickypants.

Overview

The byline for the book Slow Death by Rubber Duck is “how the toxic chemistry of everyday life affects our health“. The book systematically introduces, discusses and analyzes the impact of  a variety of chemicals that are far too common in our lives, including:

• phthalates
• Teflon (PFCs or perfluourinated compounds)
• polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs)  or flame retardants
• mercury
• triclosan (“antibacterial”)
• pesticides
• bisphenol A (BPA)

Each chapter includes a combination of stories about the everyday use of these products, scientific data and studies on actual environmental and human impacts, and first-hand tests that were carried out by the researchers to see if/how they could increase and decrease their own levels of these chemicals doing everyday things using everyday products.

What I Liked About this Book

The book provides a really great mix of sources on the impact of each of the chemicals that is discussed. It includes examples of the way that we are confronted with theses chemicals every day. It provides stories about the methods that industry uses to try to convince people of the safety of these chemicals or to hide the dangers of them. It references studies and cases where these chemicals have presented a real danger to human health. It gives first hand evidence from the authors experimenting on themselves of how the regular use of everyday products that contain these chemicals can lead to alarming levels of these products in our systems. This unique mixture of different sources and different approaches makes for a very compelling argument.

What I Didn’t Like About This Book

It scared me to death!

But beyond that, I wished that there had been more data from people other than the two authors. I wish that they had recruited more volunteers and done the experiments on more people to get a larger sample. I would have liked to have seen more information from the other people whose blood they tested (they tested the blood of people including many Canadian politicians).

I also wish the section on solutions had been more detailed. However, they do provide numerous additional resources that people can go to in order to get that information.

Recommendation

Buy this, borrow this, or take it out of the library. This is a must read eye opener. As Sophie Gregoire-Trudeau is quoted saying on the back of the book: “What could be more alarming than the toxic chemicals absorbed by our bodies every day? Our willful ignorance on the matter. Slow Death by Rubber Duck is a call to action for both governments and all Canadian citizens, but especially for us mothers, who are necessary for real social change“.

Buy the book from Amazon.com or from Amazon.ca.

I hope to write more about this book, what I learned, what I’m changing and how it is scaring me in the weeks to come.

Note: I know a lot of people in the United States want to get a hold of a copy of this book and have been having trouble doing so. You can try to get one from a third-party seller by clicking this link to the book’s Amazon.com page. I paid CDN $32.00  plus taxes in store, so if you find the book for between US$30 and US$40  that is probably a fair price. Another place you can try is on the buy the book page on the Slow Death By Rubber Duck website. It provides a few other options for getting the book, which appear to only be available to Canadians, but perhaps they will add American options over time.

As many of you know, the contest for my Carnival of Play is the opportunity to win one of three copies of this book. On this final day of the Carnival, I have just finished reading it and am ready to post my review.

Overview

In his new book Play, Stuart Brown provides an overview of the importance of play in shaping our brains, opening our imaginations and invigorating our souls. The book has two main parts:

• Part 1: Why Play? This first section gives general background information on what play is, why humans (and animals) play, and how we are built for play. This section is primarily theoretical and includes a lot of examples and illustrations of concepts.

• Part 2: Living the Playful Life. This section is more practical and includes several chapters on the importance and role of play in different aspects of our lives, including childhood, work life, and relationships. It also talks about the dark side of play (things like addicitons, bullying, etc.) and concludes with suggestions on incorporating more play into your life.

What I Liked About This Book

The book is a great general overview of the significance of play in our lives. In particular, some of the parts I found interesting were:

• Parenthood is Child’s Play: There is one chapter that focuses entirely on play during childhood, from fetal movements all the way up to becoming an adult. This section includes research findings, stories (both positive and negative),  and examples of what play looks like at each stage of a child’s life.

• The Opposite of Play is Not Work: This great chapter talks about the fact that we can and should bring play into our work lives. Although not a parenting topic as such, I think this is useful for parents who might otherwise be drained at the end of a long and difficult work day. However, if they can find ways to make work more enjoyable, then they may have more energy and a more positive outlook when they do get home to their kids. This also talks about the tangible benefits of creativity and innovation in the workplace, which links back to my post on Creative Play as an Academic Pursuit.

• Suggestions for Getting Play Back into Your Life: This is raised in the chapter on the play and work as well as in the final chapter (and sprinkled throughout). I know I can use some more play in my life, so I think I’ll read through these suggestions a few times and see what I can incorporate.

What I Didn’t Like About This Book

The book is well written and easy to read, so there isn’t a lot to not like about it. However, there are a few things I think worth noting. First, since this is a parenting blog I want to note that this is not entirely a parenting book. It does include a chapter on play in children’s lives and a lot of the information in other chapters is also relevant to the importance of play in child development, but it is much broader than just parenting. If you want a book devoted just to play as a parenting tool, this one will fall short. Second, the first half of the book talked too much about play in the animal kingdom for me. There were some interesting stories, but I was interested in learning primarily about play in humans and to me this took up too much space. Finally, I like references. I don’t doubt that this is well researched, but compared with similar books that I have read, what was missing were the footnotes. Sometimes I want to read more about something that was raised or at least see where the information came from. But there weren’t any footnotes to guide me to the source studies.

Recommendation

If you want an easy read, interesting stories, and great examples about the importance of play in all aspects of our lives, then this book is for you.

Buy Play on Amazon.com

Three lucky carnival participants will be receiving a copy of the book! I’ll draw the names on Wednesday, April 22 and notify people via e-mail before announcing the winners on the site. Note: In addition to the 3 copies donated to the contest, I also received a free copy to review.

I promised a few book reviews as part of my Carnival of Play. This is one I’ve been wanting to review for a long time.

Overview

Playful Parenting by Lawrence J. Cohen explains to parents that play is a child’s way of communicating and understanding their environment. Children use play to explore the world, communicate deep feelings, get close to people that they care about, work through stressful situations, and blow off steam. This book helps parents to harness the power of play, join kids in their world, and use it as a powerful parenting tool for dealing with everything from discipline to sibling rivalry to building confidence and overcoming fears.

What I Like About the Book

I really enjoyed almost all aspects of this book. Larry Cohen’s style is very engaging. He uses a lot of stories and examples to present his ideas, but also references research (footnoted studies) where appropriate. Some things in particular that really spoke to me include:

• Using play to get kids to cooperate. Instead of having a huge battle over things you need them to do that they don’t want to do, find a way to turn it into a game.
• Using play to connect with kids. Once they wean from the breast and grow out of the sling especially, we need to use play to keep a strong connection. I wrote more about this in Beyond the Baby B’s: Attachment Through Play.
• Information on the differences between boys and girls. Larry mentions that the differences between boys and girls are not that significant, but that they way society deals with boys and girls exacerbate them. Girls generally find it easier to connect with people but will need help with empowerment. Boys will have more trouble connecting, but are pushed to be powerful. The book gives parents ideas for undoing some of the gender brainwashing of society by using play to help empower girls and get boys to connect.
• His views on cry it out and self-soothing. He mentions several times in the book that he is against the CIO method and recommends that parents don’t send their kids to their rooms to cry alone or leave them alone to cry themselves to sleep. He says he is starting to see eight, nine and ten year olds in his practice whose parents left to them to cry it out as babies and that they are having trouble sleeping through the night now because of fears, nightmares and worries stemming from feelings that they shut away for years rather than dealing with them.
• Good judgment, not obedience. He talks about the importance of giving children the tools to make sound judgments and choices, rather than teaching them to obey. He says:

Children develop into thoughtful, considerate, honest, and kind adults because of love and affection, because of high moral standards, and because of a close relationship with someone who models those values. I have never seen anyone punished into being good. Bribes don’t work either. Promises, threats, rewards and punishments have been called “the most primitive way of dealingwith human beings”.

• How to help struggling parents. He has some great ideas for how to approach a parent that is having trouble with their kids and maybe using undesirable or abusive practices. He suggests a playful and non-threatening approach and gives some great examples.

What I Don’t Like About the Book

There isn’t much that I didn’t like about this book. If I had one suggestion for making it better, it would be to have a quick summary of the key points or strategies in each chapter. The stories are great, but if I’m going back afterwards looking for reminders, I don’t want to have to read the whole thing again to pull out those great nuggets and ideas.

Recommendation

Every parent should read this book. Maybe if you are naturally a complete goofball and play is your first instinct for interacting with your kids, you might not need it. But in all other cases, I think that parents can get great ideas from this book on how to get their kids to cooperate, how to connect with their kids, and now to help them grow into a confidence and secure human being.

• Buy Playful Parenting on Amazon.com

Want more Playful Parenting?

• Playful Parenting Web Site
• Interview with Larry Cohen on Blog Talk Radio
• Something to bump up against – Guest Post by Larry Cohen on API Speaks

A few times as I’ve wandered through the bookstore with my kids, I’ve been hit in the face with the shelf full of Bible stories and children’s bibles. I’ve glossed over references to God and Jesus in supposed mainstream kids books. Sure, there are lots of nice stories out there that have no reference to religion and we have bookcases full of those at home. We also have a few religious stories (like Noah’s Ark) that we read and use for what they are: stories, nice stories, interesting stories.

But when it comes to the questions about where we come from, how we got here, and what all of this means, there aren’t a lot of obvious choices for the atheist, agnostic or humanist family. So I was thrilled to learn about Charlie’s Playhouse, a company that makes toys and games for kids that are inspired by Charles Darwin.

Their products include a Giant Timeline Floor Mat where kids can learn all about the evolution of life on earth by looking at pictures and reading about 67 creatures that have existed over the 600 million years of life on earth. The floor mat is nice and sturdy and rolls out over 18 feet. My kids love unfolding it in the hallway and running up and down an exploring the various creatures. We recently went to a reptile show at a local event and when my kids got home the first thing they wanted to do was to open the timeline and find the creatures that looked like the ones that they saw at the show. It was fabulous watching them connect these animals that live today with their ancestors on the mat and learning about the evolution of different species while they were at it. There is also smaller version of the timeline that can be hung up as a poster.

Charlie’s Playhouse also has a set of Ancient Creature Cards. Each card has information about a creature including illustration, fun facts, size comparison figure, and more. My son loves looking through the deck, checking out the pictures, and finding ones that are still alive (some are extinct and some are living).

My son is 4 years old and obsessed with dinosaurs. That obsession, as well as the natural curiosity that develops at around that age about who we are and where we came from, made for ideal timing to introduce toys and games like this. It is fun and interesting, while at the same time giving us tools to help introduce our kids to science and make sense of the world.

To read more about Charlie’s Playhouse you can also read the guest blog post by owner Kate Miller, Inside Charlie’s Playhouse, over at one of my favourite blogs, The Meming of Life.

Disclosure: I was provided with a free copy of the floor mat and creature cards in exchange for doing a review. I always provide my own true opinion of products that I review and will not hesitate to name the positive and negative features of products.

More secular fun, games, books, and parenting resources:

• Children’s Books About Evolution and Charles Darwin: A bibliography of kids books that teach about evolution and Darwin’s work.
• Parenting Beyond Belief and Raising Freethinkers (by Dale McGowan): Books for parents to help guide you through the process of raising ethical, caring, thinking kids without religion.
• The Meming of Life: Companion Blog to Parenting Beyond Belief.
• Charlie’s Playhouse Blog: Companion Blog to Charlie’s Playhouse Products

Part of the Carnival of Play at PhD in Parenting. Hope you’re having fun!

I own or have flipped through many books on toddler and preschooler nutrition and this one is my favourite by far, so I wanted to share it with my readers.

Overview

Whining and Dining: Mealtime Survival for Picky Eaters and the Families Who Love Them is a great nutrition and recipe book for helping picky kids eat better. 

It includes great information on why kids are picky, how to create a healthy relationship to food within the family, and get kids to be more willing to try new things. It has good basic information on the nutritional needs of children.

It has information on how to introduce first foods to children, including what to introduce when, how to introduce different textures, what you should wait to introduce, and so on.

The remainder of the book is recipes (more than 100 of them), for breakfast, lunch, snacks, family dinners, dessert,  and parties. It even has a section called the “picky eater hall of fame” that includes recipes for the pickiest of eaters. It finishes off with a picky pantry list – i.e. what you should have on hand at home to help you make these great meals and snacks.

What I Like About This Book

What I love the most about this book is that the food tastes great and it is nutritious! A lot of the recipes are enhanced with extra ingredients that make them more healthy (different types of fibre, fruits, vegetables, etc.) but they aren’t purposely “hiding” vegetables by making complex purees and deceiving your child. So many other kids recipe books that I have either aren’t that nutritious (lots of white flour, not many vegetables), the food isn’t that great, or you are spending hours making purees and hiding them in food (for minimal added nutritional value).

Some of our favourites from this book include:

• Our Favourite Dried Apricot Bars: These are fabulous! Nice and moist and packed with things like oatmeal, wheat germ, dried apricots and other healthy ingredients. Everyone in our family loves them and they disappear quickly!
• Roasted Chickpeas: These make a great appetizer or snack and are so simple to make.
• Just a Wee Bit Healthier Chocolate Chip Cookies: I made these with my son for the first time today (see picture). We used a mix of dark chocolate and white chocolate chips and they are yummy! This recipe also includes oatmeal and wheat germ.
• Beyond Boxed Macaroni and Cheese: This is hands-down the best mac & cheese I have ever had. It includes lots of milk, a bit of dijon mustard, tons of cheddar cheese and a crumbly topping. We sometimes add bacon and/or spinach to it for some extra flavour.
• Many great veggie sides: We love the garlic-roasted carrots, quick dark greens saute, fresh corn fritters (although I thought cheese would be a good addition to these next time), roasted root vegetables, curried lentils, and more!

There are excellent tips on introducing brown rice to your kids and other ways of shifting over to healthier choices from less healthy ones that your kids may have come to love.

What I Don’t Like About This Book

It didn’t solve all of our problems! No, seriously, I wasn’t really expecting it to. That said, dinnertime still is chaos at our house with a 4 year old and a 1 year old with vastly different tastes and eating habits. Other than not being a solution to everything, I don’t have many complaints about this book.

My only one would be saying that it is really best to wait until 6 months to introduce solids (which is right!), but well if you think your baby is ready anytime after 4 months might be okay (there are many reasons why it is best to wait until 6 months).

Recommendation

Buy this book! The recipes are great and even if your kids don’t like them (which I’m sure they will), you will love them and it will help get your family on track with more healthy eating and including more good ingredients in the food that you eat.

• Buy Whining & Dining on Amazon.com (for US readers)
• Buy Whining & Dining on Amazon.ca (for Canadian readers)

I should preface this by saying that I own and have read many of Elizabeth Pantley‘s other No-Cry books. As many of my readers know, I am supportive of a no-cry approach, so when I was given the opportunity to read and review the No-Cry Nap Solution on my blog, it seemed like a natural fit.

Overview

The No-Cry Nap Solution offers parents information and techniques to ensure that their baby, toddler or preschooler naps well. The book teaches gentle, loving, tear-free techniques, developed by Elizabeth Pantley and tested by hundreds of families around the world.

It includes:

• Information on why naps are important and how much nap time is required at different ages.
• Information and tips for newborns to get off on the right foot
• Help making nap changes, such as:
  • Making short naps longer
  • What to do when your needs a nap, but won’t take one
  • How to shift from two naps to one and from one nap to no naps
  • Changing from in-arms sleep to in-bed sleep
  • Falling asleep without the breast, bottle or pacifier
  • Transitioning from motion sleep to stationary sleep
  • Helping your baby sleep on his back
  • Effective swaddling
  • Changing car naps to bed naps
  • Colic care
• Dealing with special situations, such as day care naps, standing up in the crib, waking up crying, vacation naps, twins/triplets or kids close in age, and special needs children.

What I Like About This Book

Like all of her other books, Elizabeth Pantley emphasizes approaches to sleep that do not involve letting your baby cry it out. So many parents are told that cry it out is the only thing that will work, so it is refreshing to see a book that offers other approaches. Also, these techniques have been tested  by hundreds of families, meaning that they are not just made up ideas about what might work or anecdotal evidence, but they are tested approaches.

I love the great information on what normal sleep is and how much sleep children require. I have used this information in Pantley’s other books countless times when trying to determine whether my child is getting enough sleep and if my child was fighting sleep trying to figure out if perhaps it was time to make a transition.The book has great information on how to determine the right time for the nap and why this is critical to successful napping. I think the information on nap cycles (i.e. the sleep cycles that babies go through during their nap) will be very helpful to parents that have short nappers and want to learn how to extend the nap.

I like the fact that the book does not judge or tell parents that one approach to sleep is better than another. It offers solutions for naps in cribs, beds, slings, swings, cars, and so on. It lets families choose solutions that are going to fit with their lifestyle and parenting approach. For example, I love the reminder that you do not have to make your baby fall asleep alone if you choose not to. She explains that “a large percentage of babies are parented to sleep for every nap and every nighttime sleep” and that “all of these children learn how to fall asleep on their own – over time.”

I really enjoyed the information on the Hush Hour, which is an alternative to naps for children that are outgrowing a nap or transitioning out of napping altogether. It provides an alternate approach to giving a child some down time, which is crucial even for non-nappers.

I liked the information on being thoughtful about creating patterns. Pantley explains that sleep associations and patterns can be powerful, which can be good and bad. Those consistent patterns and associations will help babies drift off to sleep when they are supposed to, but it can also tie you down. We know parents that could never go out in the evening with their kids because it would completely disrupt their sleep routine for a week afterward. With our kids, we created portable sleep associations (a sling, mom and/or dad, a lovey, etc.) which of course creates other dependencies but they were ones we were more willing to live with than being tied to our house every evening.

What I Don’t Like About This Book

On the whole, I really liked this book. But there are a few minor things that I didn’t like and that I would like to list here either as cautions to parents reading the book or as possible improvements to a future edition of the book.

• Unsafe co-sleeping pictures: Pantley is supportive of co-sleeping and has excellent information on her Web site on co-sleeping safety. However, the book includes several pictures of unsafe co-sleeping situations.  The one that shocked me the most was of a dad sleeping on his back on his couch, with his toddler lying on her stomach on top of him and his newborn lying on top of the toddler. Cute, but yikes!  I hate it when people (like the Ontario coroner) claim that co-sleeping is unsafe when only certain types of co-sleeping are unsafe. But if those that are supportive of co-sleeping can’t be clear about their message, then it is no wonder we can’t get those that are not supportive of it to come around.

• Using word “schedule” to describe a “routine”: Over and over again in the book, Pantley refers to your daily schedule. It is clear if you read carefully, that she is not talking about a strict schedule (a la Babywise), but rather a consistent routine that is based on your baby’s needs and that has some flexibility built into it. I don’t like the word “schedule” because it smacks of strictly parent-led approaches (e.g. to feeding) that can often result in mom having a low milk supply, which can then lead failure to thrive or a need to supplement with formula. In fact, a study on “schedulers” versus “huggers” found that twice as may schedulers had given up breastfeeding when the baby reached 3 months of age (85% vs. 37%). Parents need to learn to watch their babies for cues of hunger, tiredness, etc. and Pantley does explain this in her book, but I just think the word schedule (along with sample schedules with specific times in them) could be misleading to people giving the book a quick read.

• Left out info on why not to do cry-it-out: The No Cry Sleep Solution has excellent information on why not to do cry-it-out. This isn’t included in this book, which I think is too bad.

Other Thoughts

Pantley offers an excellent list of things that could help to ease colic. One that she doesn’t mention is possible foods that the mother eats if breastfeeding. In general, breastfeeding mothers can eat anything, but some foods may irritate some babies and mothers should be mindful of this and may want to consider eliminating possible irritants if their baby does have colic.

Recommendation

I think this would be a great book for parents to buy before their baby arrives or when their baby is a newborn. As I read it, I felt like a lot of the nap problems that people have could have been prevented if they had understood more about sleep and done some things differently from the start.

That said, it is also useful if your baby is older and you are having nap problems, but it certainly is not (nor is it intended to be) a quick fix. It requires analyzing the problems and trying out possible solutions. It requires a gentle approach and plenty of patience.

I have a book on nutrition and weight loss that I have owned since I was a teenager. It was a refreshing change from all of the books and magazine articles that focused on losing “14 pounds in 14 days” and other similar gimmicks. This book is called Lose Weight Naturally – The No-Diet, No-Willpower Method of Successful Weight Loss by Mark Bricklin. The philosophy of the book is great and it also includes very detailed charts of the calories burned by different physical activities and the caloric and nutritional value of a variety of foods and drinks, which makes it a great reference tool.

There is one thing in particular about this book that I’ve always really loved. That is the N/C rating. N/C rating is short for Nutrient Value-Caloric Density Ratio and it measures the value of the calories that are contained in a food. Rather than just focusing on the number, it focuses on how much real nourishment you are getting for those calories, considering things like the levels of protein, calcium, iron, and other vitamins.

I often leaf through the alphabetical listing of foods with their calorie info and nutritional info to remind myself of which ones had an Excellent N/C rating so that I can remember to try to incorporate them into my shopping list and cooking. To save myself from having to scan through everything over and over again, I thought I might jot down some of the excellent (or superb and outstanding) ones here to use for my own reference and for yours too.

Excellent foods

• Apricots (raw and dried)
• Asparagus
• Beans, green
• Beans, lima
• Beans, mung (sprouted, raw)
• Beans, navy
• Beef, broiled sirloin or broiled round – lean only
• Beef and vegetable stew (home reciple, lean chuck)
• Bluefish
• Broccoli
• Brussel sprouts
• Cabbage
• Cantaloupe
• Carrots
• Cauliflower
• Celery
• Cottage cheese
• Cherries
• Chicken
• Chili con carne
• Cucumber (with skin)
• Eggplant
• Eggs
• Flounder
• Grapefruit
• Halibut
• Kale
• Lentils
• Lettuce
• Liver, beef
• Lobster
• Mushrooms
• Onions
• Oysters (raw)
• Peaches (fresh)
• Peas
• Pepper, green
• Plums
• Radishes
• Salmon
• Sauerkraut
• Soybeans
• Spaghetti (with meatballs, tomato sauce and parmesan cheese)
• Spinach
• Squash, summer
• Tofu
• Tomato
• Tuna, canned and drained of oil or canned in water
• Turkey
• Turnips
• Vegetable juice cocktail (but watch the salt!)
• Watercress
• Watermelon
• Wheat germ
• Yeast, brewer’s
• Yoghurt, plain made with partially skim milk

It should be noted that this book doesn’t include all foods in it. So just because something isn’t on this list, doesn’t mean that it isn’t potentially an excellent food. For example, green peppers are listed above, but red peppers weren’t in the book at all. Chances are red peppers would be rated as excellent too, but they just weren’t included.

Print this list! Take it grovery shopping and see what percentage of your purchases you can make just from this list. One hint…shop the edges of the store and don’t go into the aisles!