Veggies for your Kiddies

 

Update 4/25/14: When I originally wrote this article I had only one happy little girl who loved her veggies.  Now I have two beautiful, healthy little girls who both love vegetables and love to call their carrots their dose of Vitamin A.

Thankfully, I’m blessed with a child who, though she loves french fries,  likes her veggies.  As soon as she could use her chompers we started her on broccoli, steamed spinach, asparagus and the basics – carrots, peas, squash, etc.  Needless to say she also loves fruit of any kind.  It’s cute to watch her steal the freshly rinsed and cut veggies from the cutting board when I’m making supper.  I mean, what other kid have you ever seen do such a thing?  Most kids are running in the other direction looking for their next salty or sweet fix.

My husband has been very cooperative in this arena.  Unlike my father who was a meat, potatoes and corn guy (and nothing else besides the daily hot dog and chips for lunch), my husband grew up in a household that had to try everything at least once before they could make a decision whether they liked it or not.  I thought my mother opened our eyes to new, yummy and nutritious stuff, but I must say my father-in-law is VERY adventurous when it comes to food.

A key factor in getting your kids to eat all kinds of food is DON’T, I repeat DON’T, project YOUR likes and dislikes on a kid.  If my little one is willing to eat liver and brussel sprouts, more power to her, but I’m not going to tell her I think they are yucky.  How else am I going to stick to or try to exceed the recommended servings for little ones:

• Between ages 2 and 6, they should get 3 servings of veggies and 2 servings of fruit a day.
• Over age 6, their recommended daily allowance is between 3 and 5 servings of veggies a day and 2 to 4 servings of fruit.
• By the way, Adults are recommended to eat at least 5 a day of each (of which I probably don’t get enough 🙁 )

For some tips on how to prepare your fruits and veggies in an appealing way that will make any kid drool (or at least clean their plate), please, visit my fellow blogger’s site, Mommies Home.

A side note. . .

I noticed that from a young age, though she would eat all the veggies and fruit I gave her, my little one suffered from what seemed like chronic constipation.  This concerned me so I mentioned it to my mom, not that she hadn’t already noticed while taking her to the bathroom anyway.  She said it could be a deficiency in magnesium.  But to that I said, “How the heck to you supplement a kid with magnesium.”  Thankfully, she had some literature available that was for nutritional factors for sufferers of fibromyalgia that recommended foods high in magnesium to ameliorate the effects of the disease.  She mentioned that she had been told by her doctor as well that these would also help in her digestive issues.  Then it made me think, BINGO, that’s why they make Calcium/Magnesium supplements – the calcium may tend to bind, but the magnesium will soften.

Two of the foods on the list were almonds and avocados.  These are things I always have in the house and would be easy to incorporate into our daily diet.  My goodness, do they work.  From one day to the next with only a serving of one or the other she has been able to eliminate without pain or discomfort.

Thanks MOM 🙂