Teaching our kids to love nutritious, healthy food and to prepare it for themselves is one of the best gifts a parent can give. Mixing flour, sugar and eggs and watching the concoction transform into cookies through the oven window can give kids an amazing sense of accomplishment that opening a box of Oreos can’t beat.

Today’s Questions & Parents feature, Q&P for short, is with Suzanne Fromm, a mom of three from Goldens Bridge who knows the pleasures that baking can bring to a family. For years, family and friends raved about her hand-rolled rugelach. She makes it with all-natural ingredients like fruit preserves, peanut butter and walnuts. Three years ago, she started her own rugelach business, Suzanne’s Sweets. Her children, Zachary, 16, Joshua, 14, and Carly, 11, were Suzanne’s first taste-testers and still associate the smell of cinnamon with the days when their mom was baking endless batches at home. As Suzanne said, “If I picked them up at school and they didn’t know I baked, they could tell anyway because they would always say I smelled of fresh ruggies!” Today, she’s sharing her secrets for instilling a love of good food and cooking in kids.

Q: As a baker and mom, how have you shared your talents in the kitchen with your children?

P: From a very early age, I shared my love of cooking and baking with my children. I have always cooked and baked fresh foods, never store bought. I have always made the preparation and actual cooking and baking a fun and enjoyable task and let my children know that nothing is difficult.

Q: How old does a child have to be to help with baking? What’s a good first food to make together?

P: Old enough to hold a spoon or able to dump a cup of flour or sugar in a bowl. A first food to make together is rolled-out cookies. The cutter is put in the spot and the child presses down. Scrambled eggs are good, too. The child cracks the egg in the bowl and helps mix the eggs. My children learned to cook breakfast very early on, probably in first or second grade. Now with teenagers, our house is known for huge breakfasts during the week or on weekends, which the kids all cook. Their friends love to come over for omelets, bagels, bacon, sausage, pancakes, French toast, etc.

Q: How have you encouraged your children to learn about baking and cooking?

P: The Food Network is always on in our kitchen, and they have grown to love watching many of the programs. I also have a tremendous collection of cookbooks and magazines that I keep in my kitchen. Whenever anyone says they are bored with what I am cooking I always encourage them to start looking for a new recipe that appeals to them in the books, magazines or online.

Q: What’s your favorite treat to bake with your kids? How do they divvy up the duties? And who gets to lick the spoon?

P: Cupcakes, apple cake or birthday cakes. My daughter (the youngest) now makes the cupcakes on her own. Of course, she won’t share the spoon with anyone, but she will share the cupcakes. Whoever asked for the cupcakes or apple cake gets to lick out the bowl! And … whoever has the birthday gets to lick the bowl too.

Q: Does everyone in your house bake? Are any of your kids rebels who like to eat Twinkies?

P: All three of my kids do like to cook and bake! The only outside treat they will indulge in are cookies at Stew Leonards!

Q: How have your children been involved with your baking business? (Here’s a picture of Suzanne’s rugelach at right.)

P: The kids have been great. They do all of my prep work for shipping: putting boxes together, inserting peanuts, placing order and gift cards, closing up boxes and putting the shipping labels on. Of course, they are the biggest taste testers! Honestly, at this point I can barely put a rugelach in my mouth. But, of course, I taste them every now and then. And yes, they are always thinking up new ideas for the special flavor of the month.

Q: What lessons have your kids gleaned from learning to bake that apply outside the kitchen?

P: The most important lesson I have taught them is to enjoy food, cooking and baking. All three are wonderful eaters and really enjoy and know good food! I am proud of this.

Q: What advice do you have for moms and dads to get their kids interested in eating healthy and preparing their own foods from scratch?

P: Start them early eating what you eat. If they have a bad bout of “not liking or wantingâ€? what you serve, remember that you are the parent and set rules. If you succumb to their craziness they will rule you. Make them a part of the process of preparing the meal and give them a job that’s age appropriate. They will be able to do more than you think.

Thanks very much to Suzanne for sharing her knowledge by doing a Q&P! Check back next Friday for another Q&P. If you know any parents who you think would be great to feature, please comment here on the blog or send me an e-mail at jalterio@lohud.com.

For a child, a bike means wind in the hair, the joyous ring, ring, ring of the bell on the handlebars and freedom — even if it’s only to the end of the block and back. For parents, it’s more complicated. We need to choose safe bikes that are the right size for our children and, most important, insist that they wear their helmets.

Today’s Questions & Parents feature, Q&P for short, is with Ilene and Eric Marcos, who offer their tips for helping children have a safe and fun biking experience. The Purdys’ residents are parents of a 9-year-old boy named Tyler and owners of Bicycle World, a bike shop on E. Main Street in downtown Mount Kisco.

Q: What is the best age to introduce a child to bicycling?

P: Around age 2 to 3 is ideal to introduce them to balance and pedaling. Also, parents should stress wearing a helmet at this early age.

Q: What questions should a parent ask when buying that first bicycle? Do you recommend a tricycle or a bicycle?

P: It’s best to start with a real 12-inch bicycle with training wheels for 2- to 4-year-olds. Bicycles are stable, have brakes and the distance from the saddle to the pedals is shorter on a bike than a trike. Children can usually pedal a bicycle before they can pedal a tricycle. Also, because real bikes have brakes, you won’t have to reteach your child to use the coaster brake. When you pedal a trike backward, the child goes backward, but when you pedal a bike backward, it activates the coaster brake. Also, make sure the bike is good quality, that the training wheels are strong metal with a crossbrace and that qualified mechanics have assembled it.



Q: What is important to know about choosing a helmet?

P: Helmets should pass all required safety tests by testing organizations, such as the American National Standards Institute (ANSI), the Snell Memorial Foundation (SNELL) and the Consumer Products Safety Commission (CPSC). In addition, helmets should be sized and fit by a professional. Helmets need to sit level on the head and the straps should be snug. Helmets are designed for one crash and should be replaced if they’ve had an impact. As a note, toy stores and department stores can sell helmets that have not passed all of the required safety tests. Bike stores will sell the helmets that pass those tests. Check inside the helmet for a sticker that says which tests have been passed. If a helmet has any, or all, of the testing organization stickers, it should be OK.



Q: How much safety gear do you recommend in addition to a helmet?

P: The helmet is the most important item, but possibly gloves in case of a crash. Some children may like to wear safety pads that they use in other sports, like in-line skating.

Q: Should a parent be the one to teach a child to ride a bike?

P: A parent is usually qualified to teach a child to ride on two wheels. There is a training bar that attaches to the bike, to help the adult’s back, if needed. Like anything, the best way to improve is practice. It’s an incredibly rewarding day for everyone involved when the child frees themselves of training wheels.

Q: When should children stop using training wheels?

P: The average age is about 6. Try to avoid forcing your child to learn this skill, but make time available to teach them. Children will usually tell you when they’re ready to try without training wheels.

Q: What factors, besides cost, should parents consider when they buy a bike for their child?

P: Proper fit is the most important factor. A knowledgeable bicycle store can help you determine the right size for your child that fits today and will give maximum growth for the future. Proper assembly is a must. Department store bikes are usually assembled by non-specialist personnel. Realize that bikes are vehicles, and not toys, and quality equipment is important. Mass merchants pay a lot to license the characters that appear on their bikes, at the cost of sturdy construction and good quality components.

Q: How much should a parent expect to pay for a kids’ bike?

P: Bikes with 12-inch wheels (2 to 4 years) start at $110; 16-inch wheels (4 to 6 years) start at $130; 20-inch wheels (6 to 8 years) range from $150-$220, depending on whether it’s a single speed or multi-gear bike; 24-inch wheels (8 to 12 years) start at $250.

Q: What advice do you have for parents who can’t afford to spend a lot of money on their child’s bicycle?

P: Some bicycle shops, including ours, offer reconditioned bicycles for families on a budget. These are bike-shop-quality bikes that have been reconditioned and are mechanically sound and warranteed for 30 days. These bikes have been used, and may show wear, but they function very well. They are priced similarly to department store bikes, but offer much higher quality. Pre-owned bikes generally sell for about half the price of a new bike.

Q: How often do you and your children go bicycling together? What are your favorite places to ride?

P: We ride in the warmer months on the weekends. Some of our favorite spots are the North County Trailway and dirt roads near our home.

Q: As a bike professional and parent, what advice do you have for other moms and dads about encouraging safe bicycling?

P: Kids learn by example: Wear a helmet, use proper signals and abide by all traffic laws. Have your bicycles tuned-up as needed (about once a year), and inflate your tires before you ride.

Thanks very much to Ilene and Eric for sharing their knowledge by doing a Q&P! Check back next Friday for another Q&P. If you know any parents who you think would be great to feature, please comment here on the blog or send me an e-mail at jalterio@lohud.com.

And, in case you missed them, here are links to our first two Q&P’s, with a Pleasantville mom who is a pediatric dentist and a Chappaqua mom who is trying to improve education about the environment.

Sunday is Earth Day, and a majority of moms surveyed by BabyCenter said they are taking steps to set an environmentally friendly example in the home by recycling, using energy efficient appliances and buying “green” products. About 56 percent of the moms polled said pregnancy and motherhood awakened their inner environmentalist.

That’s why today’s Questions & Parents feature, Q&P for short, is with a Chappaqua mom whose mission is improving environmental education in schools. Patti Bressman is on the board of the Children’s Environmental Literacy Foundation, a Chappaqua nonprofit that promotes sustainable living as a core curriculum subject for children in kindergarten through 12th grade. Patti is also mom to 17-year-old Max and twin 13-year-olds, Josh and Noah.

Q: How has becoming a parent shaped your views about the environment and recycling?

P: As a new parent, your initial inclination is to acquire lots of new “stuff,” from clothes to toys to strollers, high chairs and furniture. You don’t usually think about what materials go into the products, where the products were made or how they will it be disposed of. Very soon you’re replacing these short-term purchases with other new purchases as the child outgrows them, usually long before their useful lives are expended. As my awareness and understanding of the impact of such purchases has grown over the years, I’ve become a more environmentally and health-conscious consumer. (Do you really want endocrine disrupters and toxins in your children’s bath toys? Or your daughter’s makeup?) As I’ve come to learn that there is no “away” (that old dehumidifier doesn’t just disappear after the curbside pick-up), I’ve tried to become more sustainable with my purchasing and disposal habits. Part of this new behavior means making sure to buy items with the most recycled and non-toxic content and being sure to recycle, donate, hand-down and share wherever possible. Looking for locally grown and manufactured items is also part of this effort. Looking at the Earth as our home, not just the environment we exist in, helps us think about whether we really need to pile up all these items in the Earth’s “attics and basements.”

Q: Can you explain the sustainability education that the Children’s Environmental Literacy Foundation promotes?

P: Sustainability education integrates learning about the environment, the economy and social justice. It enables people to develop the knowledge, values and skills to participate in decisions about the way we do things individually and collectively, both locally and globally, that will improve the quality of life now without damaging the planet for the future.

Q: What is our role as parents in teaching children about the environment?

P: First of all, children see their parents own behavior as an example to follow. So being a good role model from an early age is most influential. Of course this is true for any parental behavior, but children who see their parents’ disregard for the environment are fighting an uphill battle from the start. Fostering children’s innate interest and curiosity about the natural world, which begins long before school age, is also important to encourage their connection to the world around them. Very young children can learn to understand nature’s systems and apply their innate systems thinking to the manufactured world. Imagine a world in which second-graders, who understand that in nature there is no waste, have an influence on product designers who are creating their toys.

Q: How do you teach children about the peril the Earth is in without frightening them? The idea of a hole in the ozone might sound scary to a child.

P: These scary messages are already everywhere in the media daily. By helping children better understand the perils as best they can for their age and giving them positive actions to help them feel part of the solution, we are empowering our children to be good citizens, good neighbors (both locally and globally), and good role models. Children can understand limitations at a very young age. If we teach them that the Earth is also governed by limitations, and that we all have to be responsible to heed these limitations, then we’re putting the subject before them in an age-appropriate, constructive manner.

Q: As a mom, how do you teach your children about your environmental values?

P: I try to introduce and discuss concepts such as reducing waste and recycling, resource limitations, energy conservation and alternative energy, and climate change wherever possible. Given my work, my children are probably very tired of hearing me talk about these subjects so much. But I do take pride in the fact that they will now point out to me some of the good choices that can easily (or not so easily) be made to improve the world and the crisis we are in. My children are all very interested in the sciences, so I will often use this interest to introduce environmental values through fun and topical venues. I try to look for shows, books, or news stories on related subjects that show positive measures and encouraging ways to make a difference. Finding inspirational biographies of scientists or inventors also is a fun way to breach the subject without being too obvious! I also charge my children 25 cents for each light bulb left on, and still make them get up to come turn it off. This may not seem like a lot, but with young kids, if they have to contribute a quarter three, four or fives times a day, then their pockets begin to relate with what the Earth is experiencing — a shortage in resources!

Q: What are some activities parents can do with their kids?

P: Parents might want to try building a solar powered model car to learn about alternative energy or taking a green building tour or visiting a falconry demonstration where they will learn about habitat protection and biodiversity. Parents of elementary school children can read and discuss books that help children see they are an integral part of the natural world. Middle and high school children can find more advanced, yet fun books on related topics. One easy-reading book that our organization, CELF, highly recommends to students in this age range is called “Stuff: The Secret Lives of Everyday Things,” by John C. Ryan and Alan Thein. Children (and adults) can read about the product lifecycle of their favorite items — sneakers, computers, etc. — while learning the economic, environmental and societal impacts of their purchases. And middle and high school students and their families are all invited to attend our “Students for a Sustainable Future EXPO” this Thursday, April 26, at Pace University in Pleasantville. The goal of the EXPO is to ignite interest in the study and eventual pursuit of fields that support sustainable development, with exhibits ranging from examples in engineering and design, alternative energy and environmental consulting, socially responsible investing, public policy and law, and much more.

Thanks very much to Patti for sharing her knowledge by doing a Q&P! Check back next Friday for another Q&P. If you know any parents who you think would be great to feature, please comment here on the blog or send me an e-mail at jalterio@lohud.com.

We have so many smart and talented parents here in the Lower Hudson Valley whom it has been my privilege to meet, either through this blog or in my job as a reporter. So, today I am introducing a new feature on Parents’ Place: A question-and-answer session with an interesting local mom or dad. I decided to call the feature Questions & Parents, or Q&P for short.

Our first Q&P is with Dr. Leyla Z. Nakisbendi, a pediatric dentist who practices at Mayers & Nakisbendi Dental Associates on Mamaroneck Avenue in White Plains. She’s also been a wonderful participant in the Parents’ Place blog. She lives in Pleasantville with her husband, Michael Mayers, also a dentist, and her three children, 9-year-old Aliya, 6-year-old Aydin and 3-year-old Maia.

Q: At what age should children have their first dental visit?

P: I like children to have their first dental visit as soon as they start getting their first eight teeth (four on top and four on bottom). We don’t expect the baby to sit in the dental chair, but we like to check for hygiene, dietary habits, well-formed enamel and any developmental anomalies. This screening theoretically is done by pediatricians, but we like children to have a dental home by 1 year old. The exam is usually done on a parent’s lap and usually doesn’t involve a cleaning unless the child has staining from antibiotics or tartar that needs to be removed.

Q: How should you choose a dentist for your child? What questions should you ask? Should you visit the office first alone?

P: Being a pediatric dentist, of course I think children should see a pediatric dentist who has received two to three years of extra training in treating children, either at a children’s hospital or dental school. That said, there are a lot of general dentists who are very adept at treating children. A pediatric dentist should be chosen based on location, comfort level with the practice and referrals from pediatricians and friends. Ask around. I see all new patients. This does not always happen in all dental offices. I like to meet the families and get a sense of their needs and I feel I can only do this by seeing patients myself first. Right now, my husband and I do everything ourselves so our patients always see us. I think if you trust the people referring you, you don’t have to visit an office alone first, but that is always an option. It all depends on your schedule. I do not recommend choosing practices based on insurance. While it may save money, being part of a dental plan doesn’t necessarily mean it is the right practice for you. This is not an area I skimp on.

Q: How often do children need to brush their teeth? Is it the same as adults or more/less often?

P: Children should be brushed two times a day, as should adults. After breakfast and before bed. If children swallow toothpaste, they should get a training toothpaste with no fluoride. If they are good at spitting, they can use real toothpaste. Flossing is required if the teeth are touching. If you can see spaces, you don’t need to floss.

Q: At what age is a child old enough to brush his or her own teeth? Use adult toothpaste?

P: Age 7 or 8 is when children should be able to brush their teeth alone, but this all depends on your child’s manual dexterity and attention span. I’ve seen 2- and 3-year-olds who really can do a good job brushing their teeth!

Q: What age do you start seeing cavities?

P: I’ve seen cavities in children who have only two to four teeth! Children who nurse on demand all day or night or have a bottle with milk or juice at night are at very high risk for decay. Children whose parents or primary caregivers are still actively getting new cavities are also at increased risk for cavities.

Q: Is there any special advice you have for teenagers?

P: Teenagers are tough! It’s hard to get them to shower let alone brush their teeth. Access to junk is much easier. I think kids who were raised with good oral health habits and dietary habits, for the most part, continue that way with minor detours. Soda is brutal — diet or sugared. They are very acidic and actually can etch teeth. Sports drinks for athletes are also a very high-sugar drink and the frequent sipping while rehydrating is high-risk for cavities.

Q: Are teeth-whiteners safe for teens?

P: Unless a child has severe cosmetic issues, we try to discourage bleaching until kids are in their late teens. Even then it can cause sensitivity because the teeth are very young. As we age the sensitivity decreases, usually. I’ll do isolated in-office bleaching for severe issues.

Q: What is the biggest mistake parents make with regard to their child’s dental health?

P: I think the biggest mistake people make with regard to taking care of their children’s teeth is assuming that because their child will not behave well at the dentist, that they aren’t going to go. We change our children’s dirty diapers with them screaming, we let the pediatrician check ears while screaming and we clip finger nails, etc. Parents need to let the pediatric dentist do their job even if the child cries. If the parents follow the pediatric dentist’s advice as to follow-up care almost every crier at the first visit turns into a great patient eventually. That is the goal of my pediatric dental practice — raising children so that they grow up to be great dental patients. It is not a perfect science and sometimes takes some trial and error but eventually all the kids gets there.

Q: What advice would you like to give parents reading this blog?

P: Teach your children that taking care of their teeth is not optional! Teeth get brushed and flossed every night and morning no matter what. Also, do not show your children that you have any dental phobias. They don’t understand and it just makes it harder for your pediatric dentist to work. Don’t use the word drill, needle, etc. Let your pediatric dentist do his/her job. I’m including a link to the American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry Web site, which is a great source of information.

Thanks very much to Leyla for being the first to do a Q&P! If you know any parents who you think would be great to feature, please comment here on the blog or send me an e-mail at jalterio@lohud.com.

Also: I’d love to know if you like this feature. Do you think it’s worthwhile? What kinds of questions would you like answered?