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Childhood Nutrition by Age: How Veggies Help Healthy Growth

The kinds of nutrients your need for healthy growth change over the years. We look at nutrition needs among kids in three age groups with tips for getting them to accept veggies.

Kids grow so fast, but are they growing well?

One day they’re mastering a tricycle and the next, it seems, they’re asking for the car keys. In the years between, the fuel that drives healthy growth also is shifting.

The Dirt on Growing Kid-Friendly Spring Veggies

Gardening is a beautiful, and delicious, activity for kids and a great way for them to learn to appreciate veggies. Here’s a list of the best veggies to get into the ground in early spring and tips on getting the kids involved.

If the forests are the lungs of our lands, as Franklin Roosevelt eloquently put it, then consider gardens to be little sighs of joy.

Gardens bring light to cloudy mornings,

After the Bell (Pepper): 5 After-School Veggie Snacks for Smarty-Pants

Kids run out of fuel fast. In the time it takes to say “peanut butter and celery” they can go from full energy to full meltdown. Turn after-school snack time into an opportunity to jump-start your kid’s motor and memory. These five veggie-rich snacks include kid-friendly ingredients that should pass your little one’s smell test.

It may just be a coincidence. Kids get out of school the same time that our circadian rhythms recover from one of the day’s strongest sleep-drive periods.

National Nutrition Month and Kids: 5 Ways to Put Your Best Fork Forward

March is National Nutrition Month and parents are asked to “Put Your Best Fork Forward.” Following are five pieces of advice for carrying that fork down the path to better childhood nutrition.

The path that leads to a lifetime of good nutrition is interrupted by many forks, or choices. When making these choices for your kids, do you know what you would like on the fork?

This is no trick question,

Preparing of the (Kid-Friendly) Greens: 5 Recipes Worth Their Weight in Gold

St. Patrick might have worn a shamrock on his shirt, but the greens in his belly were more likely to give him the luck, and good health, of the Irish. Here are five kid-friendly recipes for green veggies that even your little leprechauns could celebrate.

If we are to feed our kids a rainbow of veggies, then consider the green ones to be the pot of gold on the other side.

Prompting Kids to Like Veggies in 7 Ways, From a Professor

Guiding kids to a lifetime of liking veggies begins earlier than you might think. The good news: We have many opportunities to encourage veggie acceptance as our kids grow up. This research from Kansas State University presents seven logical steps.

Want your kid to like Brussels sprouts? The time to start might be at T minus 250 days.

Or, as one professor might put it: Feed the veggies to your sprout before he even comes out.

5 Veggie-Rich Soups Kids Can Help Make

Few foods say love like hot soup. Ask the kids to help you make a batch and you have warm memories, not to mention the start of a tradition. These five kid-friendly veggie soup recipes are easy, versatile and fun to make together. 

Few foods feed a child’s soul, not to mention belly, as well as hot soups.

A bowl of soup is like a warm bath for the soul.

The Sweet Potato: A Sweetheart of a Meal Maker for Little Sweetie Pies

Chock-full of essential nutrients including vitamins A and, the sweet potato has become a sweetheart of American meals. It’s among the most versatile of veggies in the produce section, as these recipes will prove, and it’s easy to find year round. Just don’t call it a yam.

If a sweet potato could talk, it likely would tell you this: “I yam not your typical tuber!”

True enough, sweet potatoes are pretty darn special.

Carrots + Peas 4 Ever: 5 Ways to Help Your Kids Fall in ‘Like’ With Veggies

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if kids could show their veggies just a fraction of the love they show you? Perhaps this Valentine’s Day we should ask cupid to strive for veggie “like.” These five tips will help.

If you wrote “Be Mine” on a string bean, would your kid eat it like a little candy heart, or turn away your offer?

These are the challenges parents face every day,

Veggies Against the (Common) Cold: Mother Nature’s Best Defense

The picture of health might look a lot like a broccoli floret. Lots of veggies pack a high dose of immunity-building vitamin C. Here’s a look at some of the best C-rich veggies for cold season.

We’ll tell you one thing Peter Piper never picked: his nose.

And thanks to all of those peppers he picked, he probably didn’t have to blow it much, either.

This is because peppers,