Browsing Articles Written by

Jill Amery

Jill Amery is a mom of 2 small boys and the Publisher of UrbanMommies, a stylish digital lifestyle magazine filled with fitness, style, health, recipes and savvy mom advice to help you through pregnancy, birth, and raising your kids.

Around Town – What to DO with TWO

LIVE, play By August 22, 2011 Tags: , , No Comments

My twins were born in the midst of RSV season and because they were little and a bit premature, our pediatrician strongly suggested that we lay low until our two month vaccines. Added on to my three months of bedrest, this amounted to five months stuck in the house. When we finally got the ok to head out, I was thrilled. My mind raced with all the possibilities, but I quickly realized that the logistics of heading out with two babies are a bit overwhelming. In addition, every program for moms and babies that I read about, seemed specifically suited to having one baby.

If these are your first babies, you, too, may have fanticized about all the fun things that you would one day do with baby. Don’t fear, there are still many programs that can be adapted to twins and as twins are becoming more and more common, chances are these programs have accommodated twins before. Your best bet is to do some research, talk to other twin moms, talk to the people that put on the programs and try to arrange a free trial session (many programs offer a free first visit) so you can ensure that the logistics of participating with twins are manageable. Also watch that you are not being short changed because you have twins. For example, my local community centre had a music class for moms & babies. When I called about enrolling my twins, they told me that I would have to pay for two babies. After looking through the program calendar, I realized that there was a similar program for mom, baby and an older sibling. This program was cheaper than paying full price twice for the mom & baby music group I had inquired about. I called back and pointed out that they offered a discounted sibling rate for an older sibling and so it was only fair that my twins also receive this same group price. They agreed.

Here are some ideas for getting out with your twins. Most of these programs (unless otherwise noted) can be participated in (with a little juggling and a sense of humour) by yourself with two babies:

  • Mom & Baby Group – many communities have a free local mom & baby group where you can meet with other new mothers in an informal setting. Other moms are often more than willing to give you an extra hand if both babies need tended to at the same time.
  • Gymboree – Our local Gymboree class had accommodated twins before and the nice part was that we only had to pay for one baby. An exersaucer was set up for the other baby to sit behind my shoulder during circle time. Our Gymboree suggests participating with one baby for two weeks in a row and then switching and participating with the other baby for the next two weeks. This allows each baby to experience repetition of the program – an important part of the Gymboree curriculum. Call ahead to book a trial visit and let them know that you are bringing twins.
  • Salsa Dancing – This class worked well when the babies were about three months old and would still sit fairly contently in their infant carriers. I would feed the drowsier baby and put her facing the class in her infant carrier. Something about the salsa music seemed to lull them to sleep. I would then participate with the other baby in the baby bjorn. Instructors who don’t have a baby of their own, will probably offer to dance with one of yours.
  • Stroller Walking Clubs – These are often put on by professional baby program companies or local community centres – ours grew out of our Mom & Baby Group. A nice chance to walk and chat with other local moms.
  • Go to the Movies– Many theatres now have baby friendly movies. These movies are shown during the day, with reduced volume and are specifically meant for families with babies. They provide change tables and places to park your stroller. It is probably easiest if you can bring along another set of hands the first time.
  • Your local library – Most libraries have free baby programs where you can listen to stories, sing songs and meet with other moms and babies in an informal setting. These are fairly easy to participate in by yourself with two babies.
  • Community Centres – Programs at the Community Centre are meant to serve the community. They should be happy to accommodate a local mother with twins. If the program requires parent participation, often the program leader will happily use one of your children for demonstration purposes, thereby allowing both babies to get the full benefit of the program.
  • Mom & Baby Yoga – These programs are often offered by your local community centre or by professional yoga studios. This is another program where the class leader will usually be willing to take one of your babies for demonstration purposes. This program is easier to participate in with younger babies that aren’t yet mobile.
  • Baby Sign Language Courses -Our local classes are offered on a “per family” basis so no need to pay extra for twins.
  • Swimming – OK, there are some programs where you just can’t avoid the need for two sets of hands. Swimming is one of them. Luckily our local pool offered baby classes in the evening and on weekends so we were able to bring Dad or Grandma along.
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The Porsche P'4911 Baby Stroller

GEAR, style By August 22, 2011 Tags: , , , , , 1 Comment

We know that we suggested the Cayenne as an excellent push present, and this Porsche P’4911 would certainly make the perfect baby shower gift.  Designed by Dawid Dawod, it’s every baby’s dream (or Dads or Moms but we can project, right?).  Carbon fiber, aluminum, leather, and ball-bearing wheels make this vehicle one of Porsche’s best.

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Jill and Tenille’s Healthy Test Kitchen Smoothie Experiment

EAT, snacks By August 18, 2011 Tags: , , , , , , No Comments

When in Chicago at McDonald’s head office, we met with Chef Dan and were given quite a lesson in how menu items are developed.  Remember that TV show ‘Just Like Mom’ (damn sexist title) where kids made different foods with a variety of crazy ingredients?  Same goes here.  Tenille (from Feisty, Frugal and Fabulous) and I had bunches of fresh fruits, veggies, yoghurt, juices and grains and were charged with creating a smoothie.  Being the health-consious gourmands that we are, we decided to camoflauge beets and spinach with yummy dark purple fruit.  Move over Jessica Seinfeld.  Here’s the lowdown:

½ cup frozen peaches
½ cup blueberries
½ cup blackberries
½ cup cooked and peeled beets
handful of spinach
handful of fresh mint
3 T. wheat bran
pinch cinnamon
1 cup ice cubes
1 cup plain yoghurt

Blend until smooth and brush your teeth afterwards, as there will be a dark purple tinge.

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McDonald’s All-Access Mom Q and A

EAT, family meals By August 18, 2011 Tags: , , , 5 Comments

As promised, UrbanMommies has been taking each and every one of your questions to the appropriate people at McDonald’s.  (So keep tweeting, facebooking and emailing us).  We will hold off on specific chicken, beef and potato-related questions until we see the various farms and plants. Even though I look like a dolt asking some of the queries (you’ll figure out which….) I still pipe up, and seem to provide the McDonald’s staff with either amusement or horror that some rumours still exist.  Here are the first few answers…

1.  Q: Does McDonald’s cook their fries with beef products?

A: In Canada they stopped using beef tallow 5 years ago. Now the fries are 100% animal fat free. In the US there are still traces of a flavour derived from animal fat in a quick par fry process before they are frozen. This is why the US can’t declare them totally animal free.

2.  Q: How much sugar is in the buns and French fries to make them so yummy (and addictive!)?

A: There is no sugar at all in the fries, though at some times of the year they do have to spray dextrose on the outside of them in order to keep the colour consistent. There is so much natural sugar in a potato they actually try to take it out. Blanching helps. If there is too much sugar, the outsides will caramelize in spots.

3. Q: How much of your ‘beef’ comes from land that was formerly Brazillian rainforest?

A: They have really strict regulations for their meat suppliers and no beef comes from rainforest land. I just asked. All beef and most chicken sold in Canada come from Canadian sources.

4. Q: What part of the chicken does a McNugget come from?

A: Nuggets are only breast meat (I actually asked if there were chicken lips and toenails). I think Chef Dan was mortified.

5.  Q: Are there standardized international cleaning practices in washrooms?

A: The standard for washroom cleaning is to ensure it is clean at all times.  Washrooms should be checked and spot cleaned every 15 minutes during peak customer times and every 30 minutes at non-peak times.

Throughout the day, the toilets will be cleaned and sanitized; walls, partitions, sinks, dispensers and vents etc. will also be cleaned and the floors damp mopped a  minimum of 5 times.

A thorough cleaning and sanitizing of all areas will be done at least once per day usually at the close of the restaurant.

6.  Q: How many McDonald’s products contain MSG?

A: MSG was a widely used flavour enhancer several years ago.  However, the growing scientific evidence of consumer sensitivity resulted in McDonald’s removing all added MSG in its menu items several years ago.  Today, MSG is on a list of ingredients that should not be used when formulating products for McDonald’s.
It should be noted however, that other ingredients high in glutamic acid (such as hydrolyzed plant/vegetable protein, yeast extract, soy extract, etc.) may cause similar reactions to those sensitive to MSG.  All these types of ingredients are shown in the Food Facts ingredient information found on the McDonalds.ca website.

7.  Do they have caffeine-free tea?

A:  Yes.  McDonald’s Canada uses Higgins and Burke tea, and the herbal varieties are not caffeinated.  Their green tea is also Higgins and Burke, and like most Green teas, contains caffeine.

8.  Q:  Are mealworms and beef plasma used as a bonding agent in the beef? Q: Are the apples in the apple pies actually turnips? Q: Do they put potatoes in the milkshakes to thicken them? Q: Do your buns contain styrofoam? Q: Do they use beef plasma as filler?

A: No to all of the above.  Thank goodness.  Styrofoam?

Please keep sending along your questions.  As you can see from what we’ve gotten so far – nothing is ridiculous to ask!  In all, I am learning a ton about ingredients and food preparation, and can’t wait to get to the New Brunswick McCain facility.  The full post from the first trip is here.

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McDonalds All-Access Moms: Balanced Impressions from Inside the Arches

EAT, family meals By August 18, 2011 Tags: , , 2 Comments

Dichotomy.  Ying and yang.  That’s all I can think.  The All-Access Moms program is exciting but controversial.  One glance at Twitter and that becomes apparent.  But McDonald’s opening up their doors and business to prying eyes and questions must be nerve-wracking for them too.  I have witnessed so many things already, and now ask readers to hear me out.  There will be negatives and positives.  Please try to hear each.  We have not been hired to convince anybody that the whole menu at McDonald’s is healthy.  We’re not here to tell you to eat there daily.  We’re being shown the behind-the-scenes stuff to really see the operations and what goes into the food.  And we’re not being edited.  As promised, I will address each of your questions on UrbanMommies.com as I find the answers – the first few Q and A are located here.

The first trip was intense. A few comments and impressions: I was pretty surprised that they use ingredients like Becel, Higgins & Burke teas and other brands I have around my own kitchen.  I can’t believe that Ronald McDonald houses are full 365 nights a year.  The senior people have been there for years (And they’re skinny and totally proud to be working for McDonald’s.)  Some of the reaction to the program has been disparaging. I (and the other 2 English bloggers) have been slandered on Twitter for participating.  We were dubbed ‘rainforest killers’, deemed to be ‘pimping our kids for profit’, and it was decided that we are ‘going to hell’.  Ironically, the controversy and lack of intelligent discussion has made me pay even more attention to what I am learning.  Juxtaposed against the genuine openness of the McDonald’s staff, I must admit that I’m listening hard.

Here’s my first trip..

Day One:  Corporate Headquarters and restaurant tour in Toronto. After meeting with the senior executives of McDonald’s Canada, we toured a restaurant and saw the processes behind the counter.  Here’s the good and bad.  Good: freshness of food, efficiency of production, and the treatment of staff were amazing.  Food safety was extraordinary.  The cleaning schedule for the play area was impressive, as was the fact that the cleaning solutions are child and earth-friendly.  Bad: they need to compost and recycle more.  Sometimes food safety and efficiency took precedence over environmental issues.  (Such as dumping a stale salad in the garbage instead of putting the lettuce in a compost and recycling the container.)  Also bad: the highchairs.  They are wiped down, but never get ‘Mom-clean’.  At the Innovation Center we suggested they invent a new highchair design that can be more easily sanitized.

Day Two: Chicago.  Test Kitchen with Executive Chef Dan Coudreaut and then Hamburger University.  We made smoothies (recipe on UrbanMommies) which are currently available in the US and are offered at select restaurants in Canada. Smoothies will be offered in most Canadian restaurants later this year or early 2012. Dan and his team consider every ingredient when creating menu items.  No food is off-limits and they try things in creative combinations.  I asked about adding quinoa and different grains, and they had already experimented with many of the ingredients I was suggesting.  I was interested in the varying foods offered in different countries.  There are even kosher options in Jerusalem.

It was apparent that McDonald’s is a business and is run as such.  I thought the questions posed to Dan were pretty heated, and was really impressed with how they were handled.  The bottom line is that it is a business, and if the business felt that people really wanted whole wheat buns and veggie burgers, they would change the menu.  But the majority of the 28.5 million people who eat at McDonald’s in North America every day don’t want that.  In tests in Seattle and Boston, veggie burgers didn’t sell.  The customer is the focus, and there are constant trials and tests in the restaurants to determine what the customer wants.

It was announced in the US that the Happy Meal is being made healthier.  Changes will also be made to the Happy Meal program in Canada, but with Canada at a slightly different stage in menu evolution, the changes will not be the same as the US.  Canada had already introduced 1% milk in 2004, apple slices in 2006 and reduced-sodium grilled chicken snack wrap as a Happy Meal option in 2010.  The new Canadian Happy Meal platform will see the automatic inclusion of a 50g serving of yogurt along with a reduced portion of fries.  As before, apple slices can be substituted for the fries.    This brought us into long chats about happy meal ‘issues’.  I don’t buy happy meals often, as there are healthier choices on the menu. Parents have the money and make the decisions on what their children eat.

Hamburger University was cool.  I love that the credits people earn there can be applied to college programs and people earn degrees.

Day Three: The Innovation Center.  This is where things got interesting.  The Innovation Center, originally opened in 1995 as a 5000 sq. ft facility, is now a 5x larger, fully equipped facility where new products, cooking methods, computer systems and processes can be tested.  Any restaurant in the world can be ‘replicated’ – from the positions of the counters to the location of computer monitors and cooking stations. There are 30 patents that have come out of the facility. Teams of employees act as customers or servers and there is even a drive-through window.  On some days food is produced and others it isn’t.  On days when food is produced, some of it is discarded and some is consumed.  (French fries and anything with mayonnaise are not safe to keep).  Cheeseburgers, nuggets and other sandwiches are frozen and sent to the food bank twice each week.  For some readers this waste will be controversial.  The Innovation Center exists in order to make the more than 30 thousand McDonald’s restaurants more efficient, and to sacrifice a few French fries in one location in order to save millions of potatoes from being thrown out around the world?  I think it’s worth it.  This is just my opinion and I know that others do not share my view.

Overall?  I am glad I am participating.  I knew it would be controversial but I am happy for the questions and discussion from the parenting community.  In the end, we are all responsible adults and have control over what enters our body and those of our children.  I’m really glad that when I choose to eat at McDonald’s, I will have a better understanding about what is going into it.  I think the corporation needs improvement in a few areas, but I was impressed at how open they were to our suggestions and questions.

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Consuming Fish During Pregnancy

Consuming Fish During Pregnancy

FAM, pregnancy By July 29, 2011 Tags: , , , , , 1 Comment

We all know that fish are a great source of Omega 3’s and fatty acids, but consuming fish during pregnancy isn’t always safe. Research has indicated that they are also a source of harmful toxins, such as pesticides and heavy metals such as mercury. These harmful chemicals tend to accumulate “higher up the food chain”, meaning that the bigger the fish the more contaminated it is likely to be.

Because of potential toxicity, fish consumption should be limited especially during pregnancy, lactation and in young children.  Health Canada advises that all Canadians should limit their consumption of fresh and frozen tuna, shark, swordfish, escolar, marlin and orange roughy due to their mercury levels.  Heavy metals such as mercury have a negative impact on the development of the fetal nervous system as it tends to accumulate in the brain.  This can lead to health problems such as decrease in I.Q., delays in walking and talking, lack of coordination, blindness and seizures.

Omega 3 fatty acids, more specifically – EPA and DHA – are very important in healthy fetal development.  Research indicates that they prevent premature births, are involved in healthy development of vision and the nervous system and increase intelligence.  Essential fatty acids also have potential benefits for the mom.  In studies they have shown to be important nutrients in the treatment of depression.

Non-fish sources of omega 3 fatty acids include walnuts and ground flaxseeds.  However, these food sources do not contain enough of the essential fatty acids and you should not rely on these sources alone for the omega 3 health benefits.  Taking a supplement of fish oil during pregnancy is the best option available to ensure that you and your baby’s health are protected and nurtured during pregnancy and beyond.  Fish oil provides the benefits of omega-3 fatty acids without the risk of toxicity.  However, beware of the type of fish oil you choose to take.  You should make sure that the company that produces the fish oil uses strict guidelines that ensure the fish oil is molecularly distilled to remove the heavy metals, pesticides and other chemicals that are commonly found in fish.

Dr.  Agnieszka Matusik, ND is a Naturopathic Physician practicing family medicine in Kerrisdale and Kitsilano communities of Vancouver.  For more information contact her at drmatusik@gmail.com.

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And So Begins The First All-Access Trip

EAT, family meals By July 24, 2011 Tags: , , , No Comments

After several child organizational challenges and lego mishaps at home, I headed to Toronto for the first McDonald’s All-Access Moms trip.  (We managed to find Luke Skywalker’s body, so I was free to travel without worry.)   It’s hard to pinpoint how I feel as I begin on this journey.  I’ve been busy with the press, and am so excited to dive into the program.  Questions are pouring in, and I’ve been gently schooled in societal issues all the way from farming protocols to the perils of eating too quickly. 

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McDonald’s All-Access Moms

EAT, family meals By July 20, 2011 Tags: , , , , 9 Comments

I first heard about CityLine’s McDonald’s All-Access Moms program and thought it would be intriguing to see the operations, food preparation and strategy of a huge corporation from behind the scenes.  It is a rare opportunity to be granted access to the inner workings of one of the world’s largest restaurants.  (And not only any restaurant – but one which arouses passionate opinions by so many people).  I applied and was honoured to be chosen.  With the decision to participate comes a huge responsibility to ask tough questions, consider philosophical positions and present all I learn in a professional manner.

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