The Happiest Baby on the Block and The Happiest Toddler on the Block 2-Book Bundle pdfdrive com

Be a Master of Disguise
Okay, the following may sound like you are being a spy more than
an ambassador, but here are my favorite tricks for getting nutrients
and veggies past your toddler’s lips:
• Appeal to her “sour tooth.” Cut vegetables into French fry–size
strips, cook them, then marinate them overnight in pickle juice
or Italian dressing.
• Blend veggies into a soup.
• Blend and bake veggies into batter bread. Use a recipe for
zucchini bread, but use pureed broccoli in place of zucchini and

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double the amount the recipe calls for.
• Make yam chips by baking or broiling them in an oven with a
little salt and butter.
• Dip lightly steamed veggies into ranch or creamy Italian
dressing.
• Grind zucchini or carrots and put them into pancakes and serve
them with syrup.
• Serve fresh carrot or carrot/apple juice.
• Iron is important for blood, muscle, and brain growth. You can
add a lot of iron to your child’s diet just by cooking in a cast-iron
pot or skillet. Add lemon juice or vinegar and the acid will really
help bring the iron out of the metal and into the food.
• Your toddler needs 12 mg. of iron a day. Iron-rich foods include
black beans (1 cup has 8 mg.), liver (4 oz. has 7.9 mg.), lentils (1
cup has 6.6 mg.), beef (4 oz. has 3.6 mg.), blackstrap molasses (1
tablespoon has 3.5 mg.), raisins (8 oz. has 3.2 mg.), prune juice
(8 oz. has 3 mg.), or cooked greens (1/2 cup of mustard greens,
dandelion greens, or collards has 2.6 mg.). Squeeze a little lemon
juice over iron-rich foods—you’ll increase iron absorption
severalfold. (But dark grape juice cuts iron absorption by over 50
percent.)
• Your toddler needs 700 to 1,000 mg. of calcium each day. Some
powerhouse sources of calcium that are easy to sneak into your
toddler’s diet include skim milk powder, which is easy to mix
into foods (2 oz. contains 400 mg.); blackstrap molasses (1
tablespoon has 290 mg.); sesame seed butter (tahini), sold in
health-food stores (2 oz. has 270 mg.); yogurt (8 oz. has 270
mg.); grated Parmesan (2 oz. has 260 mg.); and broccoli (1 stalk
has 160 mg.). And you can give your child a further calcium
boost simply by letting her play outside! Just fifteen to thirty
minutes of sunlight a day will help her body make vitamin D,
which is essential for her to fully benefit from the calcium in her
diet. (Don’t forget to put on the sunscreen if your toddler is
going to be out in the sun for more than thirty minutes.)

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