How to get kids to eat vegetables

Jay Gordon, MD Pediatrician, shares advice for parents on how to get their young kids to eat vegetables in order to eat more healthy
How To Get Kids To Eat Vegetables - Kids Nutrition Tips
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How to get kids to eat vegetables

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One of the most frequent beginnings to a 1 or 2 or 3 year old check up in my office is a mom or a dad saying he won't eat any vegetables. And what I want to say, but I don't play it safe this way, is I want to say you are right, he won't eat any vegetables. Do you have any questions? What they might say is how do we get him to eat more vegetables? And I'll say you can't. You offer vegetables, you offer good food, you offer a choice among sweet potatoes, green beans and broccoli, not sweet potatoes, green beans and cookies, and your child will eventually eat. We are very good animals. We get every last minute's sleep that we need, we get every last calorie that we need and all that we have to do is keep on offering. In America kids learn to eat over cooked, buttered, salted vegetables and they learn to love butter and salt. Instead we should offer them the taste of broccoli and sweet potatoes and let them choose this when they are 1 year of age, maybe 2 or maybe three, or maybe like their doctor, 25 years of age.

Jay Gordon, MD Pediatrician, shares advice for parents on how to get their young kids to eat vegetables in order to eat more healthy

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Jay Gordon, MD

Pediatrician

Jay Gordon, MD, FAAP, IBCLC - In the middle of his residency training, pediatrician Jay Gordon took an unusual step. Deciding that he needed greater knowledge about nutrition, vitamins, and alternative medicine in order to practice medicine the way he wanted to, Dr. Gordon took a Senior Fellowship in Pediatric Nutrition at Sloan-Kettering Institute in New York City. After his residency at Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles, Dr. Gordon joined the teaching attending faculty at UCLA Medical Center and Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.

Intensely interested in infant nutrition and breastfeeding, Dr. Gordon is the first male physician to sit for and pass the International Board of Lactation Certification Exam and has served on the Professional Advisory Board of La Leche League for 24 years.

In addition to treating patients, he participates in the training of medical students and residents, lectures all over the world, writes books, and writes a monthly column for “Fit Pregnancy” magazine. He has contributed to “New York Parent,” “Parenting” magazine and has been quoted in the L.A. Times, New York Times, and The London Times.

Dr. Gordon’s first book, the well-received Good Food Today, Great Kids Tomorrow, offers a life-changing plan for families who want to make dramatic changes in health and fitness through nutrition. Brighter Baby examines the positive effect that attachment parenting, combined with infant massage, has on children’s health and intelligence. Other releases include: Good Night! The Parents’ Guide to the Family Bed and Hug Your Baby, a Gentle Guide through the First Year, which was released summer, 2002. He also authored Listening To Your Baby: A New Approach to Parenting Your Newborn, which still gets great reviews from parents. His most recent book is The ADD and ADHD Cure, the Natural Way to Treat Hyperactivity and Refocus Your Child.

When the American Academy of Pediatrics’ Committee on Television and the Media named Dr. Gordon “the most influential doctor in America,” they were referring, tongue-in-cheek, to Dr. Gordon’s role, as the medical script consultant, in eliminating lollipops from the office of “Doctor Weston,” lead character on the sitcom “Empty Nest.”

After two years of consulting on television scripts, sets, and ideas, Dr. Gordon was named CBS TV’s Medical Consultant for Children’s programming. He also worked for five years on ABC Television as the on-air medical correspondent for the “Home Show,” and continues to consult regularly for television and movies. He’s appeared on Fox 11 News, ABC’s 20/20 and most recently on Larry King Live. 

Dr. Gordon contributed and wrote the forward to Smart Medicine for a Healthy Child and The Encyclopedia of Vitamins and Supplements (both published in 1999), is pediatric consultant for “Fit Pregnancy” magazine and a frequent contributor to “Parents,” “Parenting,” and other media outlets.
 Busy as he is, Dr. Gordon finds that his most challenging job is “being a good husband and the best possible parent to my 22 year-old daughter.”

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