Nutrition Hotlist

K. Marshall

 

www.dole5aday.com  The fruits and veggies on this site sing and dance to help convince kids to eat 5 a day. It has sections for parents, teachers, and of course, kids. The site is full of games, recipes, activities, and a reference section. There is also an interactive link where kids can create their own recipes.

 

www.healthychoices.com  The Healthy Choices for Kids nutrition education program was created by the growers of Washington state apples. The curriculum has very detailed lessons for five different levels. There are four different units that cover eating a wide variety of foods, choosing a healthy and active lifestyle, eating plenty of fruits, vegetables, and grains, and choosing healthy snacks.

 

www.kidshealth.org  is from the medical experts of the Nemours Foundation. It provides doctor approved information about children from birth to adolescence. The site is broken up into three sections: one for parents, one for kids, and one for teens. The site is very organized and easy to navigate. They have great sections to help kids and teens deal with problems relevant to their age. They answer questions as silly as “What’s a fart” to the more serious such as “Someone in my friend’s family died, what should I do”.

 

www.beansprout.com  This site has one section for Pediatric Professionals and another for parents. Beansprout is a marketing company so I’m sure the site will have quite a bit of bias. The site does seem have to have a lot of good information on everything from safety and product recalls to articles on great activities for kids. Most of the links are short articles and it doesn’t look like there is much that is interactive. This is a great site to get information on kids 0 to probably 5 or 6.

 

http://kids-world.colgate.com/app/Kids-World/US/HomePage.cvsp  The kids oral health section is full of games for kids to play. They are divided into age categories, with some for 4-6 year olds and others for 7-9. The games are fun, but not very educational in terms or dental health. There is a cute brushing chart that you can print out. You can also send to get an email from the “colgate” tooth fairy. This is a good site to keep teeth on the mind. It’s too bad it is such an advertisement. I did look at Crest’s website to be fair and it had a very boring kids’ section.

 

http://www.add.org/content/kids1.htm  This site has information for kids with ADD or ADHD in kid friendly language. The information is good at this site, but the layout is very textbook and would not be appealing to kids. The kids area is a page within www.add.org, which is a large site full of information and resources.

 

http://www.bam.gov/fit4life/cards.htm  The BAM (body and mind) is run by the CDC. This is an interactive kid friendly site that also has a teacher’s corner. The site is geared toward the 9-13 year old and a lot of the focus is on stress and physical fitness. The teacher’s corner has a few websites. It also has a site map that looks useful. You can see descriptions of everything on the site all at once instead of clicking back and forth.

 

http://www.girlpower.gov  This site is run by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. This sites looks like it is geared toward girls from 9-13. It has pages on nutrition, fitness, and other issues that help girls deal with self esteem issues. The site suggests girls at age 9 have strong attitudes towards their health and the site tries to encourage the good attitudes. The site also has a grown up section and a research section.

 

http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/public/sleep/starslp/index.htm  The Star Sleeper page is part of a campaign by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. The site is meant to educate parents, kids, teachers, and healthcare providers about the benefits of nighttime sleep. The site is well laid out Garfield is the spokesperson for the campaign so it is catchy. The teacher’s section has some lesson plans, including a good one comparing human and animal sleep. A hand out for parents is also available to print out.

 

http://edtech.tph.wku.edu/~ppetty/violence.htm  This site lists many of the stresses children face. Each topic has bibliographies of children's books, links to Internet sites, and professional resources for working with children. For example, the violence topic lists three picture books, 25 professional resources, and 15 websites. It is nice to have a lot of resources compiled in one place. I could see myself referring to this site often, especially for the picture books.