Are Children Getting The Nutrition They Need

32.    How can you be sure your children are getting the nutrition they need?

Most parents would worry that if they keep their children from eating those fatty foods that they love, and only offer vegetables, that the children will starve, or have nutritional deficiencies.  These parents feel that the kids will just not eat the food.  If you think about it this way, how much nutrients are they receiving from the fatty, processed foods now?  If their diet consists of French fries, mashed potatoes, apple sauce, chocolate pudding, and maybe chicken fingers, how could it be worse if you only offer fruits and vegetables?  Sure, maybe they will demand to have the foods they like, and not eat.  They will eventually get hungry and if you keep offering fruits and vegetables and do not give in, you will see that they will begin to enjoy it, especially if they see everyone else in the family eating healthier.

Incorporate bean soups, such as yummy lentil soup and if that doesn’t work make your lentil soup into a “lentil burger”.  You may have to gradually change their eating styles.  Try making fresh bean and/or vegetable soups with some cheese sprinkled on it.  Make sure it is tasty, and not too spicy.  Make homemade pancakes with wheat and only sweeten it with pure raw honey.  Make fruit shakes and throw in a carrot or romaine lettuce. Make tasty salads with homemade dressings….and also make faces out of the tomatoes and cucumbers and carrots.  Make tasty salmon and have them try it. 

There are so many possibilities and recipes that you can try.  Do not give up on your child because they have shown a dislike for a vegetable or fruit.  Just eat it around them and watch them ask you for a piece.  Keep offering it to them at dinnertime and ask them to eat a couple of bites. 

If children eat plenty of fruits and green leafy vegetables, they are also getting their calcium requirements.  But you could also include some almond milk or rice milk if you want.

The focus is to keep introducing them to new foods so that they develop a taste for natural foods that we as humans were meant to eat.