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Can you really have healthy kids, in this day and age?

YES!!!!! My own two children (that's them, on the right) rarely have more than one day off from school due to sickness, in a year.

But if you feed your kids the Standard Australian Diet (SAD) - the kind of eating pattern summed up in the Food Pyramid you see on cereal boxes and in school classrooms - you can GUARANTEE that your children will be sick, both now and in the future.

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My two treasures, Imogen and Mitchell

Kids who eat the SAD - a dietary pattern loaded with refined grains and cereals, dairy products and meat,with regular intake of sweets and oils and only token amounts of fresh fruits and vegetables - are not just more prone to colds, asthma, eczema and middle ear infections...

What we feed our kids in their growing years has a greater impact on their risk of adult cancers and heart disease, than what they will eat for the rest of their lives!

The evidence from research on eating patterns and health is overwhelming and conclusive:  
Children who eat the most unrefined plant foods, have the lowest risk of cancer and heart disease when they grow up.  
Children who eat the most animal products have the highest risk of developing breast and prostate cancer when they grow up. 
Children who eat sweets and chocolate every day are more likely to have a criminal conviction for violence by the age of 34*.  

* Brit J Psych (2009) 195: 366-367.
 

"But my child won't eat vegetables!"

You're not alone if you have this problem! But believe me, there are strategies that really WORK to get kids eating healthy foods, without meal-time battles, tears or bribery. As a mother of 2 children who LOVE fruits and vegetables, I have tonnes of tips to share with you!

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  Tamar helps a 6-year-old with

  shame about bedwetting

"I want to share with you another anecdote. When I had my friend's kids staying with us overnight, I asked my daughter if she wanted to sleep with Tappy Dolly [her home-made 'EFT buddy'].

My friend's two daughters heard me and the older one who's 6 asked, "Who's Tappy Dolly?". So I explained about tapping and talked about when we do it. I asked her if there is anything that she feels embarrassed or bad about. She said that when she stopped wearing pull-ups at night she kept wetting her bed every night again and again and felt so bad about it. (She still has bed wetting problems.) So I showed her how we tap, and I did it on Tappy Dolly and she did it to herself.

The younger sister, who's two and a half, was watching us, and then she started tapping on herself! She walked out of the room still tapping, and my husband later told me that he saw her tapping the whole way down the hallway into the other room. It was so cute!"

See a photo of Tappy Dolly!

Read my articles about healthy plant-based eating for children; and how to prevent and recover from asthma using superior nutrition and practical stress management strategies.

TappyBear makes EFT fun and natural for children. My own two children LOVE Tappy, and my daughter's pre-school classroom now has its very own TappyBear to help the children handle their difficult feelings. I teach my child clients how to use TappyBear, and also show parents how to use Tappy with their own kids.