Dare to Dream with Moana and Disney on Ice!

Disney on Ice is back in St. Louis with another fantastic show and St. Louis Dad has an exclusive ticket code just for my readers! Our St. Louis Dad family loves watching the Disney on Ice shows. The choreography is top notch and the show is a delight to kids and adults of all ages. This time around Moana joins the Disney on Ice stage with several other Disney princesses!

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In her Disney On Ice debut, see how far Moana goes on a quest with demigod Maui to save her island and find her own identity. Anna’s devotion to her sister Elsa sets her on a journey to stop an eternal winter. Rapunzel goes to great lengths to realize her dream. Fearless Belle befriends the enchanted castle staff and uncovers the Beast’s gentleness. With help from her friends, Cinderella is determined to make her wish come true. Along with Mickey and friends, discover your inner hero at Disney On Ice presents Dare To Dream!

Celebrate what’s possible as five Disney heroines spark the courage inside us all at Disney On Ice presents Dare To Dream!

SHOW DATES

SHOW TIMES

Sep 21, 2018

07:00PM

Sep 22, 2018

11:00AM , 03:00PM , 07:00PM

Sep 23, 2018

11:00AM , 03:00PM

PRICING

Tickets start at $15!

Use promo code GDAD for discounted tickets! http://bit.ly/2JtRXdI
*Discounted tickets are valid ONLY for Saturday, Sept. 22 at 7pm and Sunday, Sept. 23 at 3pm.

JOIN THE CONVERSATION!
Share your magical moments #DisneyOnIce

St. Louis Dad was provided complimentary tickets in exchange for promoting Disney on Ice.

3 Dietary Suggestions for Controlling Your Child’s Weight

With an obesity epidemic rocking the developed nations of the world, and with children being less physically active now than ever before in history, there are some good reasons for any responsible parent to feel concerned about the health of their children in the contemporary cultural climate.

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As obesity — particularly among children — is correlated with various undesirable health issues, not to mention the psychological and lifestyle impacts that are part and parcel of being overweight, it’s very important to take a proactive hand in keeping your kids’ weight within a healthy range.

But if extreme crash dieting and over-training in the gym for the sake of weight loss are bad for adults (and they absolutely are) they have the ability to ruin the health and development of children completely.

Instead of resorting to such drastic measures, the key is to abide by sensible dietary principles that are associated with maintaining a healthy weight.

Here are some simple dietary recommendations for keeping your child at a healthy weight.

Eliminate any processed foods

The gurus and proponents of the myriad different leading diet trends don’t agree on much, but they do all pretty much agree on this one point, along with scientific health researchers:

Processed foods are bad for you.

Whether it’s the amount of processed sugar found in certain foods, or the form that sugar takes (high fructose corn syrup, in particular, is known to be particularly harmful and correlated with obesity), or the presence of trans fats, or potentially inflammatory vegetable oils, or any number of other additives — the more processed a food has been, the less you should be giving it to your children.

Processed food doesn’t just mean takeaway pizza and fizzy drinks, either. It also means store-bought fruit juice, bread bought in a plastic bag instead of from a baker (have a look at the ingredients lists on most of these, you’ll be shocked), and anything which you haven’t prepared at home.

Serve up plenty of fibre

Various research has found correlations between higher fibre intake and reduced risk of obesity, while other research has found evidence that a high fibre diet is associated with a reduced risk of heart disease, as well as potential increases in satiety.

High fibre foods include traditional whole grains, but also fibrous vegetables such as leeks. Just be sure your child isn’t getting their fibre from highly-processed, sugary breakfast cereals.

High fibre diets have also been associated with healthier gut bacteria, which is a great benefit in and of itself.

Include probiotic foods

Probiotic foods are those foods which increase the amount and variety and “good bacteria” occupying your gut.

A healthy gut microbiome has been associated with a reduced risk of obesity, with experiments on twins showing that gut microbiome could be the factor causing one twin to gain fat, while the other remained lean, on the same diet.

A healthy gut microbiome is also associated with better health and mood overall.

Probiotic foods are, as a rule, fermented foods. Kefir, kombucha, sauerkraut, blue cheese. If your child can’t stomach these, a high-powered probiotic supplement can work wonders too.

This post is a collaborative effort by St. Louis Dad.

Television & Your Child: How To Keep A Balance

We live in a digital world full of evolving smartphones and tablets that are continuously being upgraded and worshipped. Screen time and television are everywhere, no matter where you go and what you do as a parent, there is always a screen to be watched. Billboards are no longer just giant posters, they’re now interactive screens with digital displays fifty feet high. Restaurants offer tablets for children to play on while they wait for food. Children are some of the happiest customers around when it comes to television, especially when the children’s channels are on! Television has its merits; it can be educational and entertaining when the right show is on. The problem is where you need to decide how much television time is too much, and that right there is a very hard decision to make.

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In life, you need to have a piece of everything in moderation. It’s why dessert comes after a savoury meal and not before; you need to eat the good stuff before you eat the bad stuff. When it comes to television in your home, you as the parent have the power to decide when enough is enough. Televisions come with off buttons, so there’s nothing stopping you from switching it off if you believe that your children are spending too much time watching. If you’d rather not have silence and a blank screen in the room at all times, then think about how easy it would be to have an aquarium screensaver to look at instead? There are so many issues that are linked between children and television consumption, from brain development stalling to childhood obesity. As a parent, you’ll frantically research everything and anything and come up with your own informed decisions about what your children are exposed to, but many parents don’t put too much thought into how the television can affect their children, and this can pose rather a problem.

In the first twelve months of a child’s life, their brain develops and triples in mass. Before the age of two, children pick up languages and other gross and fine motor skills, and the consistent usage of television can effectively ‘dumb’ your children down. Children who spend less time on the screens and more time out in the world and using their senses are often the happiest and most well-adjusted children out there. If you still want to use the television, by all means you should. You just need to learn how you can use it correctly so that you don’t end up with small zombies in the lounge! Nature shows and interesting programmes in engineering that show you the way that things work are perfect for children. Educational show can help them to develop skills without them noticing. Similarly, cartoons are a wonderful thing to enjoy in moderation. TV can never replace the time that you spend together as a family, but it can act as a radio to sing to you while you play Jenga!

This post is a collaborative effort by St. Louis Dad.

Baby-Proofing Tips to Stop Ruining Your Tech

Being a dad can be a life changer in many different ways. And you learn a lot about yourself. And also how these tiny human minds work. You might find yourself wondering what on earth you are doing spending lots of money on new toys for the kids, when they find plenty of non-toy toys around the house that they find much more fascinating. If it blinks, beeps, has a bright screen, or is any way expensive, they will find it. And they will cause damage to it (because let’s not forget, they’re also interested in things that make a splash, so smartphone, meet the bath or the toilet bowl).

So if you’ve been scarred in the past from a non-toy toy situation, then here are some ways to help protect your gadgets and tech, going forward.

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Get Cases

When we’re teaching our children how to ride a bike or their scooter, we teach them to wear a helmet. So why don’t we equip our technology and gadgets with such a device? The good news is that it does exist, and you can protect your devices with such a thing. You can get cases that reduce the impact when dropped, cases that protect screens, and cases that are waterproof or shatterproof. So it is a no-brainer that you need one of these in your life. If you’re shopping around for device cases, then be sure to look out for the ones that state they have an Ingress Protection rating on them. According to www.dsmt.com, if the rating is over 67, then it means it is waterproof up to a meter deep, and can prevent dust from entering.

Check Reviews

When buying tech and gadgets in the home and you have little ones, then you need to know what you are letting yourself in for. Does it stand up to all that you need it to? Is it going to be able to cope with some dribble or spilt milk on the keyboard? Will it survive a gnawing during teething? So looking at a site like http://laptop.review/ could be helpful if you’re after a new bit of tech, especially a laptop, as you can check out how well they are rated for different things. Of course, keeping them at arm’s length from little ones is desirable, where possible!

Be Cable-Savvy

Picture the scene; a laptop charging quietly on top of a desk or table. Then your toddler walks up to it, and sees a cable that is totally in reach. They pull it, taking the laptop down with it. Not to mention loose charging cables left on the floor can be gnawed or chewed on if you are crawlers. So be savvy with how you store your cables. You could use storage clips to attach under your desk, as well as keeping cables in a drawer when they’re not being used for charging anything. It gives your gear a longer lease of life, and will reduce the temptation for little ones to cause damage, to the equipment or themselves.

This post is a collaborative effort by St. Louis Dad.