Editor’s Note: Shae Freeman kicks off this four-part series, “Creative Ways to Get Kids to Eat Fruits & Veggies,” offering advice about how to get the kids to eat the good stuff.
Getting children to understand the importance of eating healthy is a nearly impossible job. In many cases, parents find themselves making deals or bribing kids into eating their vegetables by rewarding them with junk food.
It doesn’t have to be that difficult however, if you become just a little more creative in how you present the vegetables to them. Yes, be a little sneaky! I’m not saying that you should lie to your kids in order to get them to eat what’s right, but I am saying that you should present these foods that they see as boring or nasty in a way that is more appealing to them — and in some situations, unseen!
Kids And Spinach
I haven’t come across any stories of children really wanting to follow Popeye’s advice of eating a can of cooked, soggy, salty spinach — even if it did mean they became big and strong!
Spinach is a very nutritious green leafy vegetable that can be eaten by kids, if you present it in salad form. If you buy a bag of fresh, cleaned raw spinach, (or a bulk of spinach from your market’s produce section) chop it up and mix it in salad.
Of course, you also allow your child to use their favorite dressing and you can get them to eat their spinach without argument. They may not even realize it’s any different from the lettuce aside from its shape.
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Shae's passion has always been in writing and medicine, so combining the two was a perfect fit! Her medical background began with the birth of her oldest son who is a hero in his own right fighting for awareness of his rare birth disorder known as Klippel Trenaunay Syndrome. Her educational background includes Medical Assisting, Emergency Medicine (she is currently a registered EMT) and Nursing --which later she starting teaching CPR around Phoenix. In 2004, Shae started advocating for families with kids who were born with various disorders, and began her own charity in 2007 known as The Because I Care Foundation, Inc. Recently, Shae decided to further her medical career by becoming a paramedic, from which she is due to finish in the summer of 2012.
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