Feeding Children Naturally: Checklist of Natural Foods and Eating Tips

Choose Easy to Cook Meals- Low Prep

• Broccoli—yes, beets—no
• Veggieburgers—yes, boiling soybeans—no
• Refried beans on tortilla with cheese
• Use a rice cooker or crock pot
• At the produce department— purchase pre-cut vegies. and fruit
• Build up repertoire, transition gradually
• Burger Veggieburger Tofu Beans

Fat

• Only have good quality available
• Olive oil best overall choice- still minimize
• Ghee (clarified butter) and sesame oil are rich in nutrients important to children.
• Lower fat nut butters (almond butter, sesame butter)

Snacks

• Vegetable sticks- low fat dip or cream cheese
• Fruit slices
• Seaweed
• Sushi
• Smoothies- “silken” tofu and fruit

Alternative Beverages

• Vegetable juices, or combine with fruit juice
• Yogi Tea—delicious, healing (immune, hormone)
• Herb Teas   
• Licorice- noncaloric sweet
•   Stevia- noncaloric sweet
•   Chamomile, fennel, cinnamon

Protein Alternatives

• Veggie burgers
• Baked Tofu (chewy) with soy sauce
• Coat tofu with nutritional yeast and soy sauce. Bake.
• Baked beans—high fiber

Superfoods

• Nutritional yeast
• Chlorophyll
• Algae (spirulina, chorella, etc.)
• Seaweed
• Wheat germ
• Bee pollen
• Royal jelly
• Molasses
• Dried plant juice (barley green, wheat grass)
• Lecithin        

Supplements

The most basic supplement is a children's “mega-potency” multiple, from the health food store, which will usually be chewable.  Make sure it contains minerals, as well as vitamins, as many do not.  Even the health food style multiples are pretty conservative in dose, so many natural pediatric nutritionists recommend double the label dose for the child's age.

Holistic pediatrician Lendon Smith recommends:

•    Vitamin A 5,000 units

•    Vitamin D 500 units

•    Vitamin E 400 units

•    Vitamin C 500 to 1,000 mg

•    B-complex 50 mg of each

•    Folic acid 1 mg

•    Zinc 15 mg

•    Copper 1 mg

•    Calcium 400 to 1,000 mg

•    Magnesium 200 to 500 mg

Disguising Foreign Foods/ Supplements

• Vanilla soymilk
• Strong, thick juice- tomato, pineapple
• Honey, glycerin
• Nut butters (sunflower, almond, etc.)
• Colored food (pureed green vegetables)

Some tips from real parents

• Mix herb powder with honey, maple syrup, molasses, or glycerin.  Stir into paste.  Down the hatch!
• Blend herbs with mushy food like peanut butter, tahini, or applesauce.
• Stir into strong juice (papaya, pineapple, tomato)
• Herb colors sometimes bother children (“Mommy, why is my orange juice green?”).  Hide the herbs in dark colored food.
•  “If they don't see it, they won't taste it!”  Mix herb liquids with juice in an opaque cup with a tight cover.
• Mix herb tea half and half with juice.
• Brew the tea with juice or soymilk instead of water.
• One mother even hollowed out individual green grapes and filled them with herb powder.