Kid's Nutrition: Are Your Kids Getting Five or More Fruits & Vegetables a Day?

My head whipped around. Questioning blue eyes were looking up at me. This little girl looked my six-year-old daughter. She even sounded like her. But she also sounded like the little girl who had asked last night if we could please have green beans again. She also looked like the little girl who had returned to the buffet of Italian food last week to get more broccoli- yes, steamed broccoli!

I had become very suspicious of this little craver of fruits and vegetables. Where was the girl who asked for cookies and rolled her eyes when offered a banana instead? Where was the girl who looked at a plate with only six green beans and asked with distain how many she had to eat? That little girl would have never noticed broccoli amid the creamed and the deep-fried.

Then I had tried an experiment. Don't get me wrong. My original experiment didn't lead to this great nutrition success. In fact, originally, it failed miserably.

Like many major changes that I attempt in life, this family nutrition overhaul was inspired by pure jealously and extreme guilt. A friend and I had met at the park with my two kids and three for some exercise. When the kids starting asking for snacks she pulled out a container of green pepper. Green pepper strips! All three of her children, including a one year old, grabbed a handful like these things were popcorn. More accurately, they grabbed them like they were caramel popcorn. My daughter looked at them in shock but managed a "No thank you." My one-year took one but not at all convinced that it was eatable, he began writing with it in the dirt.

That's when the pangs began. My kids would never snack on such things. Then again, why would they? How could they? I always brought cereal bars or crackers or pretzels. I felt like a nutrition failure.

We did a great job in the beginning with our daughter but over time we had relaxed a little. Then came our son. He challenged most of all our previous parenting successes beginning with sleeping, or should I say not sleeping, through the night. Diligent with our first born, we more easily gave in to our son's whims. We were weaker, probably from exhaustion. Did I mention the not sleeping through the night thing? Did I tell you it lasted for six months? Six months past his first birthday that is!

Anyway, while we could pat ourselves on the back for a few things like that our kids would eat salmon and plain yogurt, I knew we needed a new system for encouraging better nutrition.

So what does a teacher do when they need a new system? I found a chart. It was a cute little chart for eating at least five fruits and vegetables a day. I made copies, bought colorful stickers and presented our exciting new system for tracking fruits and vegetables consumed.

Guess what? It wasn't exciting. No one cared. There was so little excitement for this that past the first couple of days no one even asked for a sticker when they did eat their fruits and vegetables. It was so boring, I would even forget about it until I would go to wipe off the fridge, which trust me, is not a daily occurrence.

I wouldn't let go of the goal of getting my family to eat healthier but I had to let go of the sticker chart idea -everyone else had. I spent the day thinking about what would motivate my daughter. What would she get excited about?

The answer came when she walked into the kitchen to show off her rings. On each finger there was a big, bright plastic gemstone and I could see how happy thee dime a dozen rings made her.

Together we traced her hands on paper and cut them out. Our new gem of a system was that for each fruit or vegetable she consumed, she could draw a ring on a finger and glue on a rhinestone. My son was too young to consent to the idea. Since he really liked cars we decided to make him cars and he could get four circle stickers for the wheels and one for the steering wheel to shoot for five a day. I liked this idea because I could utilize the circle stickers I had purchased for my previous bad idea.

We had to haggle over a few things; like that corn wasn't a vegetable so corn chips couldn't qualify either. Gluing on the rhinestones was so fun for my daughter that she was asking for five servings of fruits and vegetables by lunchtime. Her excitement kept me motivated to find and serve more kinds of fruits and vegetables. Her enthusiasm also motivated her brother to try new things. The "I want to have anything my big sister has " bug really hit him. It was as if she was onto something great and he didn't want to miss out.

Our new habits became just that, habits. Now we don't even need our rings or wheels but we still excitedly count our servings and compliment each other on them daily.

So did this child ask for fruit because she wanted to glue on rhinestones or because she wanted to impress me? Or was it because she really found a lot of new things to like and enjoying them is its' own reward? Maybe all but either way our system has worked.

My children now snack on carrot sticks, cauliflower and cheery tomatoes. As I type they are dipping carrot sticks into homemade black bean dip. They eat fruits and vegetables enough that my pangs of jealousy and guilt and have been replaced by joy and pride.

My son no longer draws in the dirt with green pepper strips. No, he still doesn't think those things are eatable. Now he uses them as slingshots.