Leafy greens

[mysonvaughn]

Hi. I cannot get my two year old son to eat anything green and leafy. He will eat brocolli if I call it little trees, but no go on the spinach or lettuce etc. Any suggestions?
Thanks

[NYCVeg]

This is only second hand info, as I don't have a child myself. I've heard from other vegan moms that steaming and pureeing greens, and then sneaking the pureed mixture into things the child likes (tomato sauce, mashed potatoes, veggie burgers, even smoothies) works well. BTW, if you're using greens as a source of calcium, you should probably switch to kale or collards instead of spinach--spinach contains oxalates (sp?) which bind to calcium and make it unabsorbable.

[mysonvaughn]

That is a way cool idea. I knew someone would have an idea I didn't think of. Thanks. I think he is getting plenty of calcium. Thanks again.

[xmysticprincessx]

also, make sure you get greener lettuce. i've been told that there is almost no nutritional value in iceberg lettuce.

[Erin Pavlina]

Salads are hard for little ones to masticate. My 4 year old will now eat salads, but it took a few years for her to be able to eat it properly without choking a little.

One thing we did was get a juicer and juice the collard greens and ohter green leafy things. I know it sounds yucky, well it does to me, but our daughter would suck down those juices like there was no tomorrow. She likes kale, collard, apple, carrot juice a lot.

[mysonvaughn]

There are just so many things to think of now. We just went vegan a couple of months ago. I even have a juicer and I never think to use it. danka