Eat your Vegetables!

Parenthood is full of little tricks and tips that moms and dads swap, trying to help each other stay ahead in the game of raising young children (we're all in the same somewhat sleep-deprived boat, trying to stay afloat). It's not as concrete as "advice" because, as every parent of 2 or more knows, there is not a single piece of parenting advice that is guaranteed to work for every child. So it's not advice exactly, it's more troubleshooting. Saying well, "I tried this" or "I tried that" and seeing if it happens to be the missing puzzle piece to your friend's particular dilemma. Honestly every time I tackle sleep, nutrition or discipline with a friend, I need to offer the disclaimer "This worked really well for the Lamb. But not at all for the Lion Cub." Or vice versa. Who knows what's going to work? But we offer up these suggestions and see what happens.

There are a lot of parenting books out there that are basically built around one or two parenting strategies, with about 8 chapters of padding around them. These are mainly fads that come and go. One book last year was Deceptively Delicious by Jessica Seinfield. I saw it at Target the other day and was flipping through it. The book basically advocated adding pureed vegetables to your child's regular food, like broccoli in brownies, stuff like that. Sure, I mean, who hasn't done something like that, fortifying the pasta sauce with some extra veg. The book offered a whole repertoire of recipes to do this, in fact she says that you'll never have to say "eat your vegetables!" again.

Well... sounds... good? Never telling them to eat vegetables again? I'm not sure. I mean, don't we want our kids to understand the nutritional content of what they are eating, and teach them good choices to carry them through the rest of their lives? At our parenting group we joked about the far extreme of this system... imagine you are getting married to the love of your life... and on your wedding day, his mother comes to you and says "so dear... what you need to do - when he's not looking - is take some steamed broccoli and puree it until it's unrecognizable, and then..."

I sympathize with the plight of the picky eater - I have at least one, and she has a little sister who follows suit in whatever she chooses to eat or reject come dinner time. Usually she'll just eat what she likes on her plate and leave the rest. So I'll share with you my (less deceptive) scheme with regard to vegetables in particular. It's not complicated and doesn't involve pureeing carrots in secret at 10 at night. It's just about finding the most opportune time... to present... the Veggie Platter.

That's it. Dinner is still being made but the kids are starved. A plate of carrots sticks, cucumber slices and grape tomatoes appears unceremoniously wherever they are around 5 o'clock. And at our house, it's all gone by dinnertime. I don't have any guilt that they are eating right before dinner, because raw vegetables are probably better for them than what I'm serving that night (if only because vegetables are better for you raw than cooked). And I don't feel as much pressure during dinner to make them eat everything in sight. It's not such a big deal if she doesn't finish or only wants to eat the rice. I serve up the veggie platter with their lunch and just before dinner. In fact I was interrupted typing this post by the Lamb asking for hers, "6 tomatoes this time, Mama".

So that's what I'm sharing with you today, my little tip that made my worries about nutrition much much less. That, and offering fruit first for every snack, is the best way I've found to keep their diet in balance. I thought I'd put that out there, who knows, it might work in your house too.