[blindkid] Learning About Healthy Foods [Was] RE: Options for a healthy lunch

[Shellie Kalinsky]

Allison-
I agree w/ you. The tech readers and apps are inconsistent and it can be very cumbersome for kids to get the info on packaging.  My daughter is a freshman at our local community college and is a pre-school major.  She just completed a course called "Safety, Health and Nutrition For the Young Child".  In that course she had to use a lot of online resources like myplate.org and international food and nutrition sites.  She learned a lot and was able to teach me a lot about where to find balanced meals/snack plans for kids.  It seemed most useful when she used apps and trackers where she could input her food intake & exercise habits and then the tracker would calculate everything and report it to her.  Myplate.org has a Supertracker section where you can input all this info.  It was difficult for her to navigate alone though.  But with classmate assistance and a few bits of help from me she was able to use it.  The entire family can use it and then you can discuss together.  Hope this info helps other families find new ways to discuss healthy habits. 

Shellie 

Sent from my iPhone

> On May 7, 2015, at 2:59 PM, Allison Hilliker via blindkid <blindkid at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> 
> Hi all,
> 
> A blindness related reframe for this topic... 
> 
> What ways have other parents used to teach their blind/partially blind children about healthy foods? As a blind adult, I wish I had learned more about nutrition growing up. Some things I learned like other kids did, info about fruits/veggies etc., but other facts about every-day foods come from printed info that sighted people see.
> 
> It can be challenging to know for sure what is and is not healthy when you cannot easily read food packaging. There are several assistive tech options for reading food labels, but I've tried many of them and they're inconsistently helpful at best. For example, one may learn that yogurt is good for you, but if you read yogurt packaging, one learns that this is not always true depending on the brand. 
> 
> My tip to parents would be to share bits of info with your kids about what you've read from the food packages their eating from. Other kids can read these facts if they look, but our blind kids miss this info. And over a lifetime of missing nutrition info, it's harder to know what's what as an adult.  
> 
> What are others' experiences with this topic? I'm curious.
> 
> Best,
> Allison
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: blindkid [mailto:blindkid-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Carol Castellano via blindkid
> Sent: Thursday, May 07, 2015 10:43 AM
> To: Blind Kid Mailing List, (for parents of blind children)
> Cc: Carol Castellano
> Subject: Re: [blindkid] Options for a healthy lunch
> 
> Gentle reminder.  This list is to discuss blindness-related issues.
> Carol
> 
> At 12:53 PM 5/7/2015, you wrote:
>> Parents should advocate for their kids to have some time on the 
>> playground during the day.  Schools have been working to provide 
>> healthier options for their students at lunchtime.
>> 
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> 
> Carol Castellano
> Parents of Blind Children-NJ
> Director of Programs
> National Organization of Parents of Blind Children
> 973-377-0976
> carol_castellano at verizon.net
> www.blindchildren.org
> www.nopbc.org  
> 
> 
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