Rhyming Our Way to Nutrition

I heard a great piece of advice of how to talk to your kids about nutrition.  A fellow preschool mom/work-out buddy told me about go, glow, grow.  You teach them that protein helps them grow, vitamins help them have shiny hair and sparkly eyes or glow, and carbohydrates help them have the energy to go.  It’s supposed to put it in terms they understand.

Last night we had gluten-free quinoa pasta with mushrooms and spinach for dinner.  This made me feel better about the hot dog and McDonald’s chicken nuggets they had the day before.  Anyway, I thought this would be a perfect opportunity to have this conversation.  Here’s how that worked out for me.

“Hudson, we have to eat lots of different food to help us stay healthy.  Like this pasta.  It has carbohydrates…”

Ok, I realize using the word carbohydrate with a four year old was a bit ambitious, but Hudson really can be quite wordy so I thought it would work out.  It did not.

“What?”

“Carbohydrates.”

“What?”

“Carbohydrates.  Anyway, carbohydrates help us go.  And these mushrooms have protein.  Protein helps us grow.  They also have...”

“Does go and grow rhyme?”

“Yes.  Anyway…”

“What’s this green stuff?”

“Spinach.  Spinach has….”

“I don’t like spinach.”

“Well, spinach is good for us.   It has vitamins which help keep us healthy and help us glow.  It...”

“Does that rhyme?”

“Does what rhyme?”

“Grow and glow.”

“Yes.  So it’s important…”

“Cat and flat rhyme.”

“Yes they do.  So we have…”

“Cat and hat rhyme.”

“Uh-huh.  So we have to eat…”

“What was that first word again?”

“Carbohydrate.  So anyway, it’s important that we eat all these different foods to help us grow, give us energy to go, and keep us healthy to glow.”

“I like pasta.”

(If you are interested in a good resource for meals anywhere from baby food to school lunches to family dinners, check out weelicious.com.)