Friday, April 17, 2015

The Healthy Way to gain weight in Kid's and Babies


If this were an adult blog, typically we would be talking about how to lose weight.  Sometimes with children though,  they need to gain weight. One of the most common medical treatments is to supplement their diet with milk shakes or formula that has an oil supplementation.

A healthier way to gain weight is to stop the focus on calories and focus on healthy fats.  Meals that have a healthy dosage of fats can lead to slow and steady weight gain.   When selecting the fats to add in your  child’s foods,  make sure and select monounsaturated fats not the saturated kind.  Here are some suggestions:

1. Avocados – can be in guacamole and added to fruit smoothies.
2. Nuts - raw or roasted walnuts, macadamia nuts, cashew and pecan’s. – almonds can be a little hard to chew.
3. Seeds – pumpkin, sunflower, sesame, chia and hemp which can also be in butter form.
4. Olives – can be as an olive oil or whole olives. You may need to rinse them to reduce the sodium content that is used in curing olives.
5.  Coconut oil – used in smoothies or oatmeal.

For infants, breast milk or formula can have coconut oil added to it. Also helpful, some herbs to help stimulate their appetite.  We have suggestions for herbs that be used - just ask!

This was not a problem for our family or Zara but it has been in so many cases that I wanted to write about these home food based remedies for other mom’s.

Monday, April 13, 2015

Will, Trust and Guardianship for your Baby

Before the birth of  our daughter, we never cared what would happen to our stuff if we died suddenly.  Now that we have Zara, we realize the importance of making a plan for their/our future.  A common time to think about will’s and trusts is during life events, marriage, baby or big promotions that come with a lot more money.  I can tell you that I don’t want my Zara to end up in foster care till the courts can decide which family member or friend will raise her to adulthood.  

We decided to do a will/trust after Zara was born.  The beautiful thing about the document is it can use broad language like “our children are the beneficiaries of our estate” which  means that right now Zara may be the only child we have but as soon as we get pregnant that other child is already provided for in our will without making a trip to the estate planner’s office.  Here is what you need to decide prior to setting up your Will and Trust.

  1. Who is going to be the guardian of your Children if both you and your partner were to die or become incapacitated?
  2. Who is going to be the executor of your estate (who controls the money)?
  3. Who is going to handle the advanced directive (who makes medical decisions for you)?

Start thinking about who you trust before you go meet the attorney.  Attorney’s typically have a worksheet to fill out prior to your first meeting which will help you make those decisions. We did this for Zara so that I knew my brother and sister-in-law will raise and take care of her using the money from her inheritance and even though I hope nothing ever happens it is nice to be prepared.

Here are 2 estate planning attorney’s I like and trust:

Law offices of Jason L. Pintar 408-983-0500  

Law offices of Diane Brown 408-376-275540