A dramatic spike in COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations.Ohio is hitting record levels in both categories as experts see a worrying trend of more children hospitalized.Now, there's a renewed push for vaccinations in kids and masks in schools. Cincinnati Children's staff stepped outside its walls to help vaccinate kids at the Museum Center. "We don't want them to pass this virus on to their younger siblings perhaps," said Cincinnati Children's clinical director for advanced practice providers, Lisa Crosby. Anyone 5 years or older can get the COVID-19 vaccine.Experts said this is a critically important time as the omicron variant is causing a surge in cases of all ages. "We're seeing more positive COVID, not necessarily admissions, but positive testing. Our testing numbers have gone sky high over the past week and a half as far as how many people we're testing and how many are positive," Crosby said.Cincinnati's future mayor, Aftab Pureval, made a stop to speak to families and encourage vaccination.He said kids need to be in school and the safest way to do that is shots in arms. "It's so critically important for our kids to be protected. Across the country, 26,000 kids have been so sick they've had to be hospitalized. Here in our community, hundreds of kids have been hospitalized due to COVID," Pureval said.Kelley Davis said that jump in numbers is fueling her change of heart."I was kinda against it, but now that the cases are just running rampant — just everywhere, so now I'm convinced. I've been vaccinated and boosted," Davis said.Her 8-year-old daughter walked away with a first dose and a free ticket to the museum."It really didn't hurt and I really didn't feel it," said Kenneesiah Spears.Some were first-timers and others were ready for their booster, like Margot Hisle's son, Holland."He goes to a public school that's a really large public school and numbers are on the rise. He's a senior this year. I just want him to be safe. We have a new baby in the house. I just want to be extra cautious," Hisle said.After announcing those record-high COVID-19 numbers, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine sent out a statewide call for masks in schools.He's joined by health experts across the state who wrote a letter to all school districts. Tracey Carson with Mason City Schools said the district will continue to watch closely local health data, but for now, the district is sticking with a mask recommendation."We've had an interesting way of having masks required in our elementaries and strongly recommended at our secondary level. What we found is we did not see a difference in cases of COVID-19. So we feel really good going in," Carson said.

Cincinnati Children’s Hospital will hold a free COVID-19 vaccine clinic at Cincinnati Museum Center’s Union Terminal on Dec. 29, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.The clinic is geared to kids ages 5 to 11, but older children and adults may also receive the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine as well as a flu vaccine at no charge. No appointment is necessary. Cincinnati Children’s is teaming with Cincinnati Museum Center to hold the clinic. Admission to the Museum Center will be free to those vaccinated that day, and parking is free in the lots at 1301 Western Ave. In addition, Metro bus service is available to the Museum Center. Susan Wade-Murphy, RN, assistant vice president for Patient Services, who oversees COVID-19 vaccination clinics at Cincinnati Children’s, said the Museum Center offers a great opportunity to reach kids enjoying their winter break who might have been too busy before to get vaccinated.“Vaccinating them now will ensure they return to school protected while also giving them free entrance to the Museum Center,” Wade-Murphy said. “While our focus continues on kids, we want to reach anyone who is ready to receive the COVID vaccine – including parents, grandparents, and other community members. Our goal is to reach anyone visiting the Museum Center, and we are also conducting outreach to the nearby West End neighborhood.”Wade-Murphy noted that along with the arrival of cold weather, the flu season has begun. “We are providing both flu and COVID vaccines in one setting, and you can choose one or both,” she said. “It is perfectly safe and very efficient.”The Pfizer booster will be available for anyone 16 or older who completed their two-dose series at least six months ago; or, if they received a J&J vaccine, they must have received it at least two months ago. Clinical trials at Cincinnati Children’s demonstrated that the Pfizer vaccine is safe and effective for kids as well as adults. The medical center has vaccinated thousands of young children ages 5 to 11.

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Shelly Frank, Registered Dietitian: "Planning healthy meals can sometimes be a challenge. We often hear that it is a struggle to provide balanced meals due to food cost or food waste.

Today, we're going to show you some healthy food choices that will help you save money and keep your kitchen stocked.

The "MyPlate" graphic can be used to build a healthy meal. Each section represents a different food group. We will go through each section and highlight cost-saving tips.

In general, buying in bulk, choosing store brands, buying on sale and in season are all good ways to save money.

Meal planning often starts with the protein group, which includes foods such as meat, chicken, fish, eggs and beans. Beans are budget-friendly and a good way to stretch your food dollar. They make a great addition to soups, stews and casseroles. Canned meats and fish are shelf-stable and can be substituted into most recipes.

For fresh meats, buy on sale or in bulk if your budget allows. Meats are easy to freeze. Or, cook a batch of meat that can be used in several meals for the week.

Eggs and peanut butter are healthy, low-cost proteins that are easy to add to meals or snacks.

Processed or instant grains are often not the healthiest options and tend to cost more. Choose longer-cooking grains like rice and cereal.

We recommend whole grains when choosing bread, rice and pasta for more fiber and nutrition.

Remember to compare prices when shopping. Choosing store brands will often save money.

Half your plate should be produce. Choose fresh fruits and vegetables that are in season. It will cost less and taste best. Buy the amount you can use before it spoils.

Convenience items like precut fruits and vegetables tend to cost more. Canned and frozen fruits and vegetables are healthy options available year-round. Choose fruit canned in 100 percent juice and low or no sodium canned vegetables.

In the dairy section, consider buying larger containers. Skip the sugar by choosing plain versus flavored milk. Pick plain yogurt or yogurts lower in sugar.

Planning ahead is key to staying on track with your food choices and budget. For more tips and ideas, please watch our grocery shopping and meal planning videos."

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The funding for these videos was in part provided by Master Han and the Han’s White Tiger Tae Kwon Do Annual Break-A-Thon. Thank you!

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Shelley Kirk, PhD, RD, Director of HealthWorks!: "We need to eat right-sized portions to make sure we're eating the right amount of food. That means not too much and not too little. Portions vary, depending on your age, gender, how tall you are and how active you are.

There are spoons, cups and scales that can be used to determine exact portion sizes. But when these aren't available, or you just don't have the time, you can still estimate your portions.

Here are two easy methods:

The first is the "My Plate" portion method. Use plates no more than 9 inches around and have smaller plates for younger children. Fill half the plate with colorful produce that can include vegetables, fruit and/or a salad. Fill a quarter of the plate with lean protein food, such as meat, chicken or beans. And then fill the last quarter with grains, such as rice or pasta. We recommend at least half the grain choices be whole grains. Your meal can also include a 4 to 8-ounce serving of a reduced-fat dairy food. In our weight management clinic, the dietitian may recommend moving starchy vegetables, like potatoes and corn, to the grain group.

If still hungry after eating one plate of food, limit second helpings to vegetables and fruits. This means only have one serving of protein and grains and/or starchy vegetables.

The second approach is the hand method. Each person can use their own hand to estimate portion sizes. Two handfuls for vegetables, a fist for fruits and grains and/or starchy vegetables, and a palm for meats, and the top half of your thumb for fats and oils.

It doesn't matter what method you use to estimate right-sized portions. It's more important to make sure you don't eat too much or too little. Being watchful of portions will ensure you are eating the amount that's just right for you."

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The funding for these videos was in part provided by Master Han and the Han’s White Tiger Tae Kwon Do Annual Break-A-Thon. Thank you!

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Barbara Lattin, Registered Dietitian: "Snacks are small amounts of healthy foods eaten between meals.

They help us manage hunger and limit cravings. They are also an important way to get needed vitamins, minerals and nutrients.

We recommend no more than 1 to 2 snacks per day. Snack size, just like meals, depends on who the snack is for – small children need smaller snacks while teenagers will need bigger snacks.

Examples of a small snack can be as simple as:
- a piece of fruit (an apple, orange or fruit cup)
- some vegetables (carrot or celery sticks) or
- a piece of string cheese

Examples of a bigger snack can be as simple as:
- an ounce of nuts
- a low sugar snack bar or
- ½ cup of cottage cheese

Another way to make snacks fun (and perhaps more
filling) is to combine foods together. Why not try:
- apple or celery sticks paired with peanut
butter
- berries topped with yogurt or
- cheese or tuna on whole wheat crackers

Just remember that portion sizes need to be
adjusted to match who is having the snack:
- if the combo snack is for a small child it
might be: •½ an apple & ½ a tablespoon of
peanut butter
•3 ounces of yogurt with ½ cup of berries or
•½ a slice of cheese or ¼ cup of tuna with 3
whole
grain crackers
- if the combo snack is for a teen it might be:
•an apple with 1 tablespoon of peanut butter
•6 ounces of yogurt with a cup of berries
•1 slice of cheese or ½ cup of tuna with 6
whole grain crackers

Remember snacks are small portions of healthy foods that get us from one meal to the next without getting too hungry.

Many people think of foods like chips & sweets as snack foods - they taste good but don’t provide us with the good nutrition our bodies need.

We can have healthy snacks every day, but limit sweets, chips and other unhealthy choices to occasionally.

And just like planning can help us eat healthier meals, so can planning snacks.

Consider:
-who will be eating the snacks
-how many snacks are needed and
-pre-package so they are always ready in the right-sized portions

Check out our meal planning video for more planning ideas."

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The funding for these videos was in part provided by Master Han and the Han’s White Tiger Tae Kwon Do Annual Break-A-Thon. Thank you!

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Kelli Rearden spent her summers in college working in orphanages in Peru. That’s what drew her to become a social worker in the adoption profession. And it opened her heart to want to adopt internationally herself.

Kelli Rearden, Adoptive mom: “I wouldn’t marry Randall until he agreed that he would adopt with me one day.”

Early in their marriage, she’d browse the international “Waiting Children” site online, and when a picture popped up of a little girl in Vietnam, she couldn’t get the image out of her mind.

Kelli: “I just thought she was adorable, and I was just drawn to her.”

Randall Rearden, Adoptive dad and Baptist pastor: “Every time you looked at that picture, or we would get new pictures, you would just, you just couldn’t put it down.”

Other adoptive families had already expressed interest in the little girl, but the Reardens kept checking back.

Kelli: “I know it sounds crazy, like, how can you love a picture when you don’t know this child, but we really did, and I just knew.”

What they didn’t know were what challenges, exactly, they would be taking on. They saw the medical files for the tiny toddler Vietnamese orphanage nannies called Mai-Mai. They knew she was blind in one eye and had a heart murmur, that she was premature – born at 26 weeks – and that something wasn’t quite right with her brain.

Randall: “It was kind of scary to read that file for the first time, ’cause it was a Vietnamese medical report. It was a coin flip to, you know, whether these things were actually true or not.”

They had already committed to adopting this child. But they wanted expert advice on how to care for her once she got home. So, they sought out the International Adoption Center at Cincinnati Children’s, where they met Dr. Mary Allen Staat, who founded the center and has three internationally adopted children herself.

Kelli: “The first thing that she told me was: ‘She’s an amazing little girl.’ And I’ll never forget that. We had other doctors that just told us, you know, basically a doomsday story that was discouraging, and she saw her first, and she was very realistic and helpful and explained things, but she saw her for a person first, and so, that was very encouraging to us.”

Mary Allen Staat, MD, MPH, Director, International Adoption Center: “It’s so personal to me. You know, this is a great job for anyone to have as far as, you know, the joy that you get in helping families who are internationally adopting. But, for me, it’s incredibly personal. I really want to make sure all our families feel very supported from the very beginning until their kids are adults. My kids are now adults, and adoption is always going to be a part of their lives. And I want to make sure that we have services there for the families throughout their children’ lives.”

As it celebrates its 20th anniversary this year, the International Adoption Center has seen more than 3,000 children over the years and helped countless more families pre-adoptively.

Kelli: “I can’t even imagine if we had had– with all we had going on – if we had had to go find specialists on our own and make appointments and figure out all the things that Dr. Staat just referred us and showed us what to do and made all those appointments. It was kind of like a one-stop shop.”

Randall: “They treated our daughter, but they helped us so much.”

Dr. Staat: “It’s probably the most fun thing I get to do is to help families through the process of international adoption. We are there to help the family once they’ve decided to internationally adopt and to help them to feel comfortable with what conditions their child has.”

Ever since the Reardens came home with the daughter they call Gracie they’ve reached milestones they never expected. Gracie is spunky. She loves to play and jump. She can sign a little and is starting to say words.

She goes to kindergarten, and the family can’t wait to see what she does next.

Kelli: “When we were praying about her file, my mom, I called my mom to talk about it because we’re very close, and I knew that I would need her support if we adopted a child with special needs. So a few days went by, and my mom went to church on Sunday, and the pastor um, was saying, you know, some people can’t see that the Gospel is a masterpiece, just like this Picasso painting, and he put up a Picasso painting of this dark-headed little girl that her eyes, you know, Picasso paintings are crazy, but her eyes were like all over, and her nose was like moved over, and, you know, it looked a lot like Gracie. The pastor said, ‘She’s a masterpiece.’ And so, that’s the calling I always go back to, you know, that God, he made her exactly who she’s supposed to be. She’s perfect the way she is. And I have zero doubt that she’s supposed to be in our family.”

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What's it like to be chef for a day?

Chief Operating Officer Steve Davis visited Food Services to find out.

He learned we serve 1 million slices of bacon every year.

A healthier option might be the 79,000 pounds of salad sold annually.

At any given time, 12 to 15 cooks are preparing meals.

That's because they're feeding 1.3 million customers a year.

"The Soup Guy" serves up 180 gallons of soup daily.

From the kitchen to the checkout lines.

Our Food Services staff makes a difference every day.

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Jenna Williams, Registered Dietitian: "Are you spending more when you go to the grocery store but coming home with less? Do you stress about the time it takes to go to the grocery store, especially with your kids in tow?

Well, you're definitely not alone. This short video gives you five tips to navigate in the grocery store and becoming smart, savvy shoppers.

Step 1: Make a list and stick to it.

This is one of the most important tips we're going to talk about today. By making a list of items that you need, especially if you can organize it by the store layout, it will cut down on the time it takes in the store, help you stay on budget and eliminate forgotten items.

Involve your kids in helping make this list. Have them choose new fruits, vegetables or meals they'd like to try. It's a great way to give them options and a voice in decision-making before you get to the store and are surrounded by unhealthy treats that they are definitely going to beg you for.

Step 2: Set a Budget

Make a budget of how much you're able to spend at the grocery store. Clip coupons, download the store app and join your grocery's shopping club for discounts. Each store will have something along the lines of a shopper's club where you will receive special pricing, and they may even send you coupons for foods you frequently purchase. The last thing you want is to be surprised when the cashier rings up your cart. So setting a firm amount will help you plan for what you need and avoid the extra treats as you go through the store.

Step 3: Shop the perimeter for healthier, less-processed foods first. Foods that spoil or go bad are less processed than the foods on the shelves and can be found around the outside edge of the store. Then, if there are items left on your list, try to only go down those aisles and not spend time wandering through the store.

Junk foods and treats are often at the eye level of children, so avoiding seeing them may help keep your family stick to the list and can keep you on budget.

Step 4: Buy local and seasonal produce and products when possible.

Fresh, local produce is often cheaper than canned or frozen options when it's their growing season. These foods will be at the front of the produce section and generally will have special signage.

Lastly, 5: Buy in bulk if products are on sale, especially if you use the products often or could freeze the extras until you're ready to use them.

The retail price, or what you pay in the store today may be more than buying a smaller package or quantity, but the unit price, shown on the tag here, will be less when you buy in bulk.

This means you're saving money in the long run if it fits in your budget to buy more today.

It may take some trial and error to see what works best for your family, but starting to work on these five tips will help you shop faster, smarter and healthier when you're at the grocery store."

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The funding for these videos was in part provided by Master Han and the Han’s White Tiger Tae Kwon Do Annual Break-A-Thon. Thank you!

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HealthWorks! Healthy Living Series: Reading Food Labels
by The Center for Better Health and Nutrition/HealthWorks! at Cincinnati Children's

Emily Ross-Teague, Registered Dietitian: "A food label tells you the nutritional content of your food and can help you make decisions about which foods and drinks to buy at the store.

You will find a nutrition facts panel on most packaged foods and drinks. When reading a food label, start by looking at the serving size, located here on the nutrition facts panel. All nutritional information on the label is based on the serving size given. Pay close attention to the number of servings per container, as many products have more than once serving in a package.

Here is an example of a food with two servings in one package. If you were to eat the entire package in one meal or snack, you would be getting twice the amount of calories and other nutrients listed on the panel. Having one serving of this food would provide 190 calories. But the entire package would be 380 calories.

You will find calories listed right below the serving size as well as the amount of fat, cholesterol, sodium, carbohydrate, protein and some vitamins and minerals. Again, these amounts are all based on one serving of the food or drink.

You may notice some labels include the amount of added sugars per serving. This is located below the total sugar. Limiting added sugars is recommended for weight management and good overall health.

Most nutrients on the nutrition facts panel also have a percent daily value listed. This shows how much of each nutrient is in one serving of food compared to the daily recommended amount. If the percent daily value of a nutrient is 20 percent or greater, this food is considered high in that nutrient. If the percent daily value is 5 percent or less, this food is considered low in that nutrient.

For example, this food is considered high in saturated fat because the percent daily value is higher than 20 percent.

Looking at a different food, we know this food is low in sodium because the percent daily value is less than 5 percent.

A list of ingredients in the food will be located below or beside the nutrition facts panel. The ingredients are listed in order of highest-to-lowest amount with allergy information listed at the end.

If you are looking to buy a whole grain product, use the ingredient list. You should find the words 'whole grain' of 'whole wheat' as part of the first ingredient.

The front of the package may also say '100 percent whole grain' or '100 percent whole wheat.'

If you have other questions about reading food labels, be sure to speak with your registered dietitian."

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The funding for these videos was in part provided by Master Han and the Han’s White Tiger Tae Kwon Do Annual Break-A-Thon. Thank you!

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