Family Meal

Children learn a lot from their parents. They tend to pick up their parent's exercise habits. They tend to copy their parent's food choices in the long run. But they also learn a lot from us about how eating should happen. Do we sit down together and eat? Do we eat on the run, in the car or in front of the television? Do we answer our phones or check emails during dinner? There is a lot of evidence suggesting that children who sit down to eat with their families on a regular basis actually stay healthier.

Our eating behaviors teach our children more than just which foods are healthier for their bodies. When we sit together, to share a meal, our children can learn valuable communication skills like, how to listen to other people and to share their ideas in an effective way.

Throughout the history, mealtimes have also been an important way for families to pass on traditions and stories from one generation to the next. For older children, the dinner table can be a safe place to talk about anything that's worrying them, and to get advice from the people they trust most. Besides all of this, dinner time can be so much fun.

But in the meantime, here are some tips to get you started. Firstly, have everything you need at the table ready at the start of the meal. Then, have a story ready about your own day. Tell them something that happened to you, and how you reacted, and ask them what they think. This helps them to share their own experiences, if they ever want to, at the table. Finally, if you have enough food to share, try inviting some friends to the meal. Having friends of any age at the table helps make dinner fun and can teach your children that meals are a good time to relax and enjoy good food in good company.

It may not be realistic for some families to sit down to a meal everyday. But in general, the more often we can sit down with our children to eat, the better it will be for their health. There is pretty good evidence that
children who regularly eat with their families do better at school and have better health outcomes than those who don't. And of course there are many ways for us to spend quality time with our children, but eating
together can protect the whole family's health and add so much value to our lives.

Hunger and Glycemic Index

Lets see what is glycemic index and how it works in our body.

Have you ever wondered why you can eat a bag of candy and feel hungry just 30 minutes later? It has to do with something called the glycemic index of the food or the combinations of food that you choose to eat. So let's compare two snacks.

First, let's look at a candy bar. Then, the alternative snack, a bowl of brown rice with some stir-fried broccoli on top. The candy bar is high in simple sugars like sucrose and glucose which are carbohydrates that your body can quickly break down and absorb. This means that your blood sugar after you ate the candy bar raises very quickly, which means that the food has a relatively high glycemic index. When the blood sugar goes up like this, the body senses it and starts releasing the proportional amount of a hormone called insulin, that works to lower blood sugar and bring it back down to its normal level. So when blood glucose, or blood sugar, shoots up, insulin will also shoot up, but there'll be a bit of a time lag. And because of that time lag, there's going to be a period of time where the blood sugar dips lower than it should, and this is the time you feel hungry.

Now, if on the other hand, you choose the broccoli and brown rice as your snack, your body would have to work harder to breakdown the carbohydrates in that food. So, right after you had the bowl of broccoli and
brown rice, your blood sugar is going to go up more slowly than it did when you ate the candy bar. This also means that your insulin levels aren't going to shoot like they did when you ate the candy bar. They're going to be released in proportion to the amount of sugar entering your blood and the speed at which it enters into the blood. Blood sugar will go down but it probably won't go under the normal range of blood sugar. The result is that you're going to end up with a more stable blood sugar over a longer period of time.

So, choose foods with a low glycemic index whenever possible. Things like chicken and brown rice even
whole grained bread with cheese are good combinations. If you combine your carbohydrates with a bit of fiber, protein, or healthy fats, it will slow down the release of sugar into your blood.

Home Remedies to soothe our child's cold:

Cold usually lasts for one week to ten days. While none of these home remedies will cure your child's illness but they can help them to feel better.

Lots of rest: 

Child needs lot of energy to fight against an infection. So only when your child is under rest, he is healing. Bed is not necessarily the best place to take rest. If your child finds hard to take rest, allow them to sit and watch their favorite videos, rhymes, etc.

Turmeric milk:

Turmeric has natural antibiotic properties. Mixing a little amount of turmeric with a warm milk is considered as a best remedy for cold and cough due to its antiviral and antibacterial properties. It gives instant relief to sore throat, cough and cold.

Steamy air:

Breathing moist air helps to loosen the mucus in the nasal passages. Give your child warm bath in a steamy bathroom. If it is not a convenient time for bath, simply turn on the hot water shower, close the bathroom door, and sit in the steamy room with your child for about 15 mins.

Keep your child hydrated:

Drinking water at regular intervals will help your child to fight against the infection. Other fluids in the form of a warm soup or a fresh juice are also beneficial for replenishing the body's lost energy.


These are some of the home remedies to soothe our child's cold. Usually i used to try these things  for my son instead of giving medicines. :)