Moms and Moms2B, Share Your Nutrition Tips – Win a Prize Pack of books from Harvard Medical School

I recommend starting early in having only healthy foods readily available in the home. It's easier to think of treats as just that if they are reserved for special holidays, outings and events.

Those look like great books!

When I was pregnant I found it very difficult to want to eat anything, let alone something nutritious. Although I'm sure it gets easier as time goes on, I never found out since I miscarried. But what helped me in those beginning stages was peanut butter. Lot's and lot's of peanut butter. Thankfully I still love peanut butter today!

The easiest way to get them started? Eat the things you want them to like while you're pregnant. My kids definitely have more of a taste for the foods that I pigged out on during my pregnancies! So if you want 'em to like peas, eat your peas.

I have three kids. Two out of the three will eat healthy food, but my son is really picky. So with him I will take and puree all the vegetables and things together, mix it in organic tomato paste, layered on whole grain pizza crust and use soy burgers for the meat. He loves these pizzas and eats at least one a day. All of the kids are only allowed to drink water and organic milk, but they seem to love it.

When my sons were ready to eat food instead of just formula, I bought a book called First Meals and made all their baby food. They didn't get all the additives and preservatives from pre-made baby food, and the food was tastier. Now that they're 2 and 4, I don't keep a lot of junk food around the house. They eat lots of vegetables and fruits, and they love them. My older son will ask for apples or natural applesauce instead of cookies, and my younger one wants bananas. I try to keep the fridge and pantry stocked with nutritious foods. I also buy milk from a local ice cream and dairy store. The milk is less expensive than that I get at the grocery store, it tastes better, and it has no hormones or antibiotics in it.

Once I have my child, I'll let you know. I do know that when I baby sat, I offered the children only 2 choices at a time. That sounds aweful, but that way, they got to decide what they wanted out of what I had available.

Since the kids were little, I tried to feed them healthier foods. Each day, they had to have milk, water and juice (at least 1 serving of each). As a result, they still voluntarily choose milk over soda many times and will drink plenty of water. They all love fruit and have favorite veggies, especially mixed salad, broccoli & carrots. We also try to eat a variety of foods, so they are not afraid to try new things and will often eat things most kids wouldn't even consider. For instance, two of my boys enjoy the grilled fish at the Mexican restaurant we like to go to at Disney World. Sure beats the standard burger and fries kids' meals there!

I don't have any children but I babysat quite frequently for these two kids that ate a lot of junk food. They loved their popcicles and contantly wanted parfaits from Mc D's. I used to blend fruit with yogurt and give it to them or freeze fruit on sticks. They liked them well enough. Ironically they had no problems devouring veggies but fruits were horrible trying to get them to eat.

I started my kids eating healthy before they were even born! I ate so many fresh fruits and veggies while I was pregnant, that I thought I might turn into one! Eating healthy starts from the beginning and just builds from there! I offer and provide healthy snack options and meals for my children every day.

We always have a variety of fresh fruits for them to snack on and to have with their meals, bananas, pears, grapes, baby carrots, brocolli, etc...

My children amaze family, friends and restaurant employees when they will choose a fruit or a veggie over a dessert. Or when they choose milk or water over soda pop!

One thing that we have done since our daughter was a toddler and was able to eat table foods is we have never done a separate menu for her. She always ate exactly what we ate for the most part. We did avoid chocolate, peanut butter and are still avoiding shell fish until she is older. She is 4 now and our son is 2 and they both eat really healthy. When we eat with other families they are amazed at how both of our kids love fruits and veggies and will gobble down salads.

I think that starting early is the key to getting your children to eat healthy foods. I was sure to eat lots of fruits and vegetables while i was pregnant with her, and now we only feed her all natural products. We actually gave her a small taste of frosting the other day and she spit it out because she isn't used to sweets!

We feed her whole grains chopped up finely and mixed with breastmilk. Later we will incorporate beans in this mixture as well. She also eats unsweetened apple/rasberry sauce, which is so tart that my husband will not eat it!

I hope to start bananas and avocados in the near future.

My brother's girlfriend is currently pregnant and could use the book on what to eat during pregnancy. I would love any book that has eating advice as my little one is 6 months old and I'm still learning what is best to feed her.

Looks like some great book. Someone will enjoy them.

We had a rule that everyone had to taste everything that was on the table. You did not have to eat it all if you did not like it but you had to taste it. We always had a well balanced meal and always ate at the table. Even if you tasted it the day before, if it was on the table again, you had to taste it again. They did not hesitate to taste foods they thought they did not like because they knew once they tasted them, they could eat the things they did like.

It worked they grew a taste for all healthy foods. I also think that eating at the table as a family helps to teach them the importance of eating meals instead of unhealthy snacks.

I think chldren learn much by example, that's why our house was filled with healthy food. Visits to farmer's markets were always good field trips and then we would have fun figuring out how to fix the food. Our daughters also took their cameras with them when we visited the farmer market. Another thing we did was to grow our own food. They were always so excited when things in the garden were ready to pick.

I ate healthy during pregnancy. Then once he was born I breastfed. Once I started giving him solids, he was always fed foods that didn't have added sugars or preservatives and I tried to feed him organic as much as possible. He loved eating broccoli and asparagus. Recently (he is now 15 months) he started to reject broccoli. Instead of forcing him to eat, and instead of hiding it in his foods, we've started offering it in different ways. I think the key is to keep offering good, healthy foods and have plenty of options. Not every kids is going to love broccoli, but keep offering other good healthy options and lead by example. It takes somewhere between 10-15 times offering a food to know if they really like or dislike it.

I use low-fat or fat-free lunch meats. They are good in sandwiches or cut into strips on top of a salad. I also purchase leaner meats, such as turkey, chicken or veggie dogs., and put leftover chicken or turkey strips in a tortilla to make a cold fajitas. And we play a daily game with colored blocks representing the food pyramid. Playing with my makeshift food pyramid encourages my grandkids kids to eat foods from each of the food groups each day.

My kid-friendly vegetable recipes include: ( Presentation is the key for me!)

vegetable soup
vegetable lasagna
pizza with vegetable toppings
egg omelet with bell peppers, broccoli, spinach, mushrooms or tomatoes
sandwiches with lettuce, tomato, cucumbers, bell peppers, or onions as toppings
whole grain pasta with vegetables added to the sauce
carrots and broccoli with a dip as a snack
vegetable wraps

We never really had a problem with our kids eating healthy. They were always expected to eat what was served (at least 2 bites of a new food). I cooked almost everything from scratch when they were young, so it was easier to control what they were eating. We limited sweets and other unhealthy foods - no sodas, limited juice, fast food was a rare treat. Both of my kids are young adults now and while I give my 19 year old son the choice to eat what he wants now, if I fix dinner and suggest he has some vegetables, he will eat them!

Last summer I prepared some zucchini sqaush as part of a meal when my daughter and son-in-law were visiting. My daughter was 22 and she finally told me she really doesn't like zucchini! I asked her why she never said anything and she said she didn't want to hurt my feelings. She always ate it when it was served too!!! Even as an adult!

Ultimatums! I would only give my children two choices of food for each meal (i.e. apple or banana - turkey sandwich on wheat or peanut butter and jelly on wheat) - both of which are healthy choices - and they would choose which they preferred. It allowed them the opportunity to feel as if they had options but within the grounds that I still controlled what they put into their mouths! It works! :)

Both my family and my husband's family have a lot of diabetes, heart disease, strokes, overweight people, heart attacks, cancer, etc. So, healthy eating is very important to us. We feel that if we encourage healthy habits at a young age, our son won't be as likely to eat poorly as he grows.

So, our #1 rule is NO FAST FOOD and NO JUNK FOOD whatsoever! My son is 3 yrs old and has NEVER had any fast food. In fact, when he sees the commercials for fast food restaurants, he immediately says "Ooh...that's yucky!" We don't buy junk food at all. If we buy something like chips, we make sure that they are organic, low sodium, etc and limit the quantities he's allowed to eat. More often than not, I make homemade tortilla chips with whole wheat tortillas, smart balance, and a little salt. You bake them in the oven for just about 5-7 minutes and they turn out crispy and better for you than store-bought chips.

We read labels very carefully. We do NOT purchase any products that have hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated oils in them. We try to make as much food as possible from scratch using fresh ingredients.

We offer healthy choices for snacks. For instance, my son is only allowed fresh fruits or veggies for snacks....not things like candy, etc. And, we make him eat his vegetables. His favorite vegetable is lima beans!

Our healthy habits have helped us too. My husband and I find ourselves reaching for healthier options and it's improved our weight and health as well. We are currently trying to get pregnant again and we know that our healthy habits will help us to have a healthy baby.

I don't have any children yet! But boy, are we trying!!! I had a miscarriage four years ago. Ever since, I've been studying all kinds of boks, and trying to change my diet. So that my body is conducive to getting pregnant, carrying to term, and having a healthy baby.

Now, I also have six nieces and nephews that swear they are my children, and want me to live with them (it's the food I cook!) It's okay...I love them like they are mine!
They are very picky eaters. But, whenever I cook for them, I always put their veggies in there some way. Fortunately, their parents are big vegatable and salad eaters...not too much fast food!

They love brocoli, stringeans, and tomatoes. They also love my sweet potatoes. I bake them, sprinkle them with a bit of cinnamon, and a very small drizzle of honey! The kids love it...so does my brother and sister-in-law! They also love their desserts!
I had Jerry Seinfelds wife beat on this one! I was doing this six years ago. I would put pureed spinach in my brownies. Zuchinni in my cakes. Pinto beans in my oatmeal cookies, sweet potatoes in my carrot cake. I've als been using all organic bproducts. Whole grain flour, organic eggs, soy milk, pureed fruits. To give my carrots a bit of a kick, I cook them in a bit of orange juice and a little honey for a glaze. The kids love that with turkey meatloaf.

One other thing I do is, and the kids have no idea! I make meatless sloppy joes! They don't even know that I used soy (Go-Lean), looks like hamburger. I add in the vegatables finally diced, the spices, and voila! The perfect sloppy Joe! Works grat for tacos, too!

As soon as my toddlers were able to eat finger food, they had the same meal as we did...just chopped, shredded, etc. We only offer healthy options for meals and snacks. I offer options at mealtime...they might have a little of 4 or 5 different healthy foods on their plate so no matter what they choose to eat I can rest assure that it is good for them. When they were babies we started them on fruits and vegetables; fresh whenever possible. Both of them LOVE fruits and veggies still...more so than meat even. We also refuse to get into food wars...I have totally accepted that they will eat when they are hungry and stop when they are full.

I make sure that we have lots of healthy choices available in the house. If we have junk in the house, then they'll ask for junk so I limit the non healthy stuff. I have three boys and my oldest two aren't that keen on eating their veggies so I blend them up and mix them in the spagetti sauce or whatever else we're having. I always make sure there is fruit on hand that they like such as kiwis, apples, strawberries and bananas. When I buy canned fruit, I make sure it's in a syrup that has no sugar. They love eating frozen grapes and that is one of their favorite desserts.

I completely agree with the posts above - I ate healthy when I was pregnant, and I think this was a big factor. When I had huge urges for junk food (this happened a lot in the last month), I would always use portion control. If I had not placed chips in small plastic baggies and allowed myself 2 per day, I think my son would have come out as a potato!

We also ask our son (age 2) to try everything - he has the option to spit something out if he does not like it at all. This has worked well for us. In addition, his options are overwhelmingly healthy - if he doesn't want fruit, he can have yogurt, for example.

He is also going through a stage where he doesn't always want to sit and eat a complete meal, but will snack throughout the day. We've started to implement a choice in snacks so that he doesn't eat just one thing. For example, he always has access to fruit, veggies, and yogurt. But for special snacks (graham crackers, oatmeal cookies, etc), they start out on the counter in the morning, but go in the cupboard (high and out of reach) after he has chosen it for a snack. I always make sure to control the portion size for these snacks, and he knows that once it's in the cupboard, that is it for the day. This is nice because it does allow us to throw in the occasional not-so-healthy snack without a problem (we live in a town that makes snack foods and has outlet stores, so chips do find their way into the house a couple of times a year!). He has caught on quick, and will usually choose some graham crackers in the morning, but goes for the fruit and yogurt in the afternoon with an occasional oatmeal cookie after dinner.

My son is only 13 months. The biggest secret so far (which was big news to my husband) is that if you eat something it is interesting. He generally wants anything I eat. So, if I eat tomatoes and cucumbers, he will eat tomatoes and cucumbers....but if I eat cookies, he eats cookies.

You've got to set a good example is rule #1.

I always think it's a good idea to start healthy eating habits early. If they aren't "aware" of unhealthy foods early on, then it would be easier, I would think, to get them to eat healthy foods. Eating healthy foods is always a great way to set an example.

My son, now 28 mos., has always loved to eat fruit and put til recently ate veggies too. I have now been fixing food with veggies mushed and hiden in it. I also go with the fact that toddlers love to dip foods and he has veggies and yogurt for snacks along with veggies and ranch. He has even taken a liking to salsa and chips.
My boy loves to eat!

I recommend starting from day one eating as a family. No desert till they eat a decent ammount on their plate. I wouldn't make them eat it all so it don't cause them to be overweight. Just don't buy the junk food and be creative. Make animals out of fruits and vegetables. You can now get yogurt with characters, flavors, etc. Fruit snacks come in a wide variety and kids think its candy.

We drop the labels of "healthy food" and "unhealthy food" and just provide what we have in the house. I DO think that children tend to gravitate to sodas and chips if they are around so we don't keep them around so much. We never forced our kids to eat breakfast, lunch or dinner but they did have to sit down for a minimum amount of "family time" - whether they ate or not. Generally, they ate. :)

We aren't purists but we don't load up on junk food and rarely buy soda pop. OUr kids are plenty happy with freshly popped bowls of popcorn, bags of peanuts, fruit and healthy dips, etc.

As far as getting them to eat healthy main courses and vegetable dishes, I put plenty of veggies in my spaghetti sauces and I've never forced my kids to eat something because it is "healthy". We drop the labels and discover they'll eat the healthy foods and not even realize they are doing anything good for their bodies :) V-8 Juice, for instance, can be used as part of a sauce for chicken or other dishes. High in vitamins, low in obvious "vegetable" look or texture.

Of course, although my kids may think they aren't eating "healthy foods" I'm there in the background , closely monitoring the nutrition labels -and I know they are eating foods which are good for them. Sometimes I play dumb and ask them to read a label in the grocery store for me. They'll often be shocked by the sugar and/or fat content. So they get educated by default ;)

When I was pregnant, I scoured the internet for recipes that were geared to pregnant women. I ended up making the few recipes in the What to Expect When You are Expecting book.

Now that my daughter is two, we have to get creative in how we get her to eat healthy. We really only have a problem with vegetables. By trial and error, we have found out that she likes green beans and carrots the best, so we lead by example and try to provide them as often as we can. Sometimes we make veggies seem really fun by getting excited when we tell her they are for dinner.

Everyone has really good tips here! What's worked for us is requiring them to take three bites of everything on their plate, or no second helpings or dessert. Also, I just kept serving veggies in different forms until they start eating them on their own. With my son, after about the twentieth time of having baby carrots and dip, he started eating them willingly and even asking for them as a snack!

Other than that, we just try to eat healthy as a family and haven't really had any major problems with them eating.

Wow, I have received lots of great tips just from reading these comments.

From my personal experience I have found that it often takes a lot of creativity to get my kids to eat healthy. I am a vegetarian, so my sons always see veggies on the dinner table, and both of my sons help out with our little vegetable garden. My five-year-old is a great help, and he loves to water the cucumbers and tomatoes, while my two-year-old son prefer to pick the peppers. It seems to me that the boys are more excited about eating healthy, when they help grow the veggies themselves.

Other creative things that I do to get my kids to eat healthy is little things such as putting meatballs on a stick in between peppers, cucumbers, tomatoes and whatever else we have in the fridge. It always amazes me how excited the kids get, when they see these meatball/veggie sticks.

Sometimes the creativity is more subtle, as I grind fresh herbs together with peppers to put in the meat sauce. If I puree the peppers, it takes a certain level before my sons discover the trick, and even my husband seems to be in the dark about the veggies I manage to sneak into his food.

Finger food is another great way that I have found helps my sons eat healthy. Instead of having to struggle over the dinner table, I sometimes give my sons a little plate with cucumber, celery and carrot sticks before dinner, and a cup of frozen peas is always a hit. This way I don't have sit at the dinner table nagging at what the kids eat, and I get to enjoy my food as well.

Finally, including the kids in the cooking is always a great way to get them excited about what they eat, and as an extra bonus the kids get to feel a sense of pride and responsibility about the food they have helped prepare.

I tried to eat healthy when I was pregnant, but that wasn't always possible since I was sick during most of my pregnancy, and can't stand certain foods anyway.

When my son was an infant, though, we started with vegetables, and then added fruit. Now he is 2 years old and eats most veggies and all fruits. Even if it's a veggie he doesn't really care for, he will usually eat at least a few bites if it is served with low fat ranch, or cottage cheese.

We offer him two choices for meals as well. He gets to pick what the whole family has for most meals. Occasionally I will serve two different things, but very rarely. Usually only when we are having steak, I will fix our 2 year old something that is easier for him to eat, like chicken nuggets (homemade and baked) or peanut butter. He also gets to choose between 2 vegetables each night, and then between 2 fruits, or a fruit or yogurt for dessert.

We rarely have chips and prepackaged cookies in the house. I make a lot of what we eat from scratch. I use a lot of whole grains.

My husband and I treat healthy food like they are treats for our 2-year-old. When it's time for dinner, we would tell him, "Wow, look, you got carrots!" After a few times, he would be excited about the carrots or other fruits/vegetables on his plate and looked forward to eating his "treat". We also lead by example.

We keep a variety of easy, healthy snack for my son. When he wants a snack he knows to ask for something healthy like fruit. I also make fruit smoothies- they taste great but are also good for you.

I think the most important thing is to consistently give them healthy food so they don't get used to the junk.

Everything tastes better when it comes from Momma's plate! Even if it is the same thing, my son will eat it better if it comes from my plate. So if he doesn't want to eat something I offer a bite from my plate.

These articles are very helpful. I hope you'll keep posting them

Has anyone heard who the winners were for this? I would love to know:)

THanks Sherry W that is the greatest tip I've seen so far. I want to be so healthy once I finally become pregnant.