You’re trying to keep your kids healthy this flu season by stuffing them with nutrient-rich meals.

But what to do with veggie-phobic tots? Convince them to take on what writer and mom Charlotte Hume calls
the World’s First Great Big Vegetable Challenge.

Charlotte convinced her 7-year-old son Freddie to take a vegetable journey of a lifetime, getting him to eat through the ABCs of veggies, trying each vegetable from asparagus to zucchini in alphabetical order.

Freddie had to try at least two recipes with each. His mom found recipes that she thought would appeal to her finicky eater’s appetite. The challenge resulted in Charlotte’s extremely helpful blog full of kid-friendly veggie recipes. Think
zucchini turkey burgers and a canneloni recipe with butternut squash.

Join the Great Big Veg Challenge here.

A thank-you to Urban Baby Daily Picks for letting us know about such a useful kid-friendly recipe blog.

Meal planning just got a million percent easier. And cheaper.

Until we can all afford our own personal chefs, the next best thing is easily Relish!, a truly cool meal-planning service for busy parents.

This ingenious, easy to use (really), mom-run website helps you prepare healthy, creative meals every week that rock, from what we’ve seen. You pick from a ton of excellent tested recipes, a very cleverly organized grocery list is automatically created, then all you do is hit the store for five days worth of home-cooked meals–not one of which takes more than 30 minutes to prepare.

You’ll find a whole lot to choose from including freezer meals, vegetarian menus, picnic and camping menus, and tons of kids faves that don’t include the word “nugget.”

For subscriptions as low as $5 a month, you’ll end up with five complete dinners for a family of four running you less than $85. Between the money savings and the angst savings, we say you’re coming out way ahead.
(Pssst…living gluten-free? Check out their sister site, Gfree! Gfreecuisine.com)

This week, a lucky SouthernMamas reader will win a $100 Gift card from Crate and Barrel and a free 1-year gift subscription to Relish! If you sign up for Relish! and win the subscription, you will be credited.

Here are the giveaway rules:
# To enter to win, tell us your name and favorite summertime dish or food by commenting below this post.
# Entry period closes 9 pm Thurs. June 11. We’ll pick a name at random and announce the winner here Fri. June 12.
# You have to be a SouthernMamas subscriber to participate. Subscribing is free. Click here to do so. We’d also love for you to become a SouthernMamas fan on Facebook (we’re just a few fans away from a tally of 500!!)

SouthernMamas.com readers, admit it. You’re in a chicken nugget rut.

Plus, food prices are rising. You need some serious help making a weekly menu planner, so you’re not just mindlessly grabbing some pricey meal off the grocery shelves.

Enter the superhero, Relish!, our newest sponsor. Relish! gives you the plan, complete with an itemized grocery list, to get healthy, fresh dinners on the table. Relish! is teeming with kid-friendly options that go beyond chicken nuggets.

Relish menu planning service was founded by two moms who know how important a good meal plan is. For a minimal monthly subscription, you get access to nutritious recipes and their related grocery lists.

Each week you choose five entrees you’d like to make for the week. You receive a comprehensive grocery list that results in substantial savings – five dinners and sides cost less than $85 per week.

Relish! is also launching a gluten-free site in September.

Click here for more info on Relish!

Valentine’s Day must be tough on kids with food allergies.

If your child can’t partake in the treats because of allergies to nuts, egg or dairy, check out Divvies, which makes allergen-free cupcakes, cookies, popcorn, candy and more.

Divvies’ nut, egg and dairy-free cupcakes – one dozen for $24 – can be shipped complete with allergen-free icing and sprinkles. The cupcakes are made in the New York-based company’s dedicated facility where no peanuts, tree nuts, eggs or milk enter the doors.

Lori and Mike Sandler opened the bakery for people with food allergies after growing tired of telling their son Benjamin, who has several life-threatening food allergies, “No, you can’t have that.”

If you’re one of the increasing number of parents who has a child with food allergies, check out the Web site AllergyKids.com.

It was started by Colorado mother-of-four Robyn O’Brien, featured on CNN, CBS and in print interviews including this Jan. 9 New York Times profile. O’Brien, whose daughter has a severe food allergy, believes food additives, genetic modification, hormones and herbicides in foods have all contributed to the increase in food allergies, autism and other disorders in children.

The NYT article says “Ms. O’Brien encourages people to do what she did: throw out as much nonorganic processed food as you can afford to. Avoid anything genetically modified, artificially created or raised with hormones. Don’t eat food with ingredients you can’t pronounce.”

Experts dismiss such claims. But if you’re interested in learning more, O’Brien’s story is one of several in a new book, “Healthy Child, Healthy World” (Dutton, March 2008), whose contributors include doctors, parents and celebrities like Gwyneth Paltrow and Erin Brockovich. Click here to visit the Healthy Child, Healthy World Web site.

“‘Endocrine disruptor’ won’t be on labels” (USAToday)

“Everywhere chemicals in plastics alarm parents” (USAToday)

“Does breastfeeding make breasts sag? (WebMD)

“No Peanuts and Cracker Jack: Kids with food allergies get a rare chance to see a ballgame” (Washington Post)

There’s so much news about children’s health issues, we’re scrambling to keep up.

Here’s one we have to let you know about now, just in time for trick-or-treating. If you’re tempted to roll your eyes at the next mom who starts a neighborhood-wide Snickers ban by asking parents to not give her child candy with peanuts, you might want to curb your cynicism. (That would be our first reaction here at SouthernMamas, too) But this interesting column in USA Today explains why that isn’t a good idea.

Full disclosure: the grandmother and mom quoted are good friends with my mom and sister. While their taste in friends is debatable, their point is a good one: some food allergies can kill, hence the hyper-vigilance on part of parents.

The cover story of the current issue of Newsweek also focuses on the rise of food allergies. One of the more curious theories for the increase that the article cites: the “hygiene hypothesis.” We’re too clean. Medical progress – antibiotics and vaccines – have eliminated some of the foreign invaders our immune system was designed to battle. There’s even distributing research suggesting that kids born by C-section, which have risen 40 percent in the last decade, could be at higher risk for allergies. Their bodies are never exposed to the healthy bacteria in their mothers’ birth canals.

My first instinct is to ditch the Clorox and go on a house-cleaning fast. If only it were that simple.

“Bumbo baby seats recalled because of head injuries” (Reuters)

“Five Ways To Cope With Your Child’s Food Allergies” (MSNBC)

“Freezing Eggs: A Delicate Way to Turn Back the Clock” (Star Tribune)

“Umbilical Cord Donation Helps Stem Cell Research” (Atlanta Journal & Constitution)

“Jacket Lets Parents Keep Track of Kids” (Associated Press)

“‘Choice’ explores reproductive decisions and their ramifications” (San Francisco Chronicle)

The number of children with food allergies is on the rise, doubling between 1997 and 2002, according to the Department of Pediatrics at Mount Sinai School of Medicine.

One of the scariest is peanut allergies . There’s no cure and the only treatment is to avoid all products that contain the peanut allergen. All it takes is one mistaken bite for a child with severe peanut allergies go into anaphylaxis, a life-threatening emergency situation requiring immediate attention.

Peanut allergies account for 80 percent of fatal or near-fatal allergic reactions each year.

Labeling your child’s food gear and travel items is a good way to remind caretakers of your child’s allergy. Mabel’s Labels provides such food allergy labels that you can design yourself. Click here for more information. The non-sticky labels are billed as being resistant to dishwashers, microwaves, UV-rays and kids. Of course, the company also makes labels in a fun font for less serious reasons, like clothing labels for summer camp, labels for sippy cups and baby bottles.

For more information on food allergies, click here. To find out about training schools and camps to be food allergy smart, click here.