Tanya Altmann

Best first foods for infants are avocado, pureed veggies, peanut-butter oatmeal and salmon, they all provide important nutrients that Healthy Babies need, help develop their taste buds to prefer healthy food and may decrease food allergies.

Choose a healthy first food such as pureed avocado, organic plain whole yogurt, pureed green veggies, let your infant lean in and open his mouth when he wants to eat. Don't force feed or play airplane games -- that doesn't help.

I think there is good research that shows that nutrition is critical for a child's brain and for concentration and learning at school. So whether breakfast is provided at home or at school, as a pediatrician, I do see a difference in kids that get good nutrition in the morning, such as protein, fresh fruit and enough calories, and how they function during the day at school, while adults may be able to focus and concentrate better with poorer nutrition, with kids, they cannot necessarily control that, and they might be more distracted and less able to sit and learn if their basic needs such as sleep and nutrition aren't getting met.

I think that school nutrition has improved dramatically over the past five years. The quality is so much better than what it was five and 10 years ago, for instance, there's more fresh fruits, more whole grains are used, less extra, unneeded sugar and calories.

I do visit a variety of schools in my area, and I find that the m... by Tanya Altmann

I do visit a variety of schools in my area, and I find that the meals look more appetizing to me.