What equals a serving of veggies?

[nrsenadenos]

So I've made it my mission to get my kids to eat more fruits/veggies. DD1 and DS1 will eat most fruits. They will eat veggies sometimes if they are in something - like a stirfry or on pizza - though they are also known to pick them out. DD2 has SPD and is very, very pick about colors and textures. She will pick out the chunks from spaghetti sauce. Take apart her pizza to remove the smallest piece of bell pepper. Disassembles tacos. You get the idea. She won't even eat yogurt with whole fruit in and will pick the blueberries out of blueberry muffins.

So, in addition to serving a fruit and/or veggie on the side of every meal, I've taken to hiding them through the use of baby food purees. I've tried some of the Deceptively Delicious recipes, and then worked on my own using the same premise.

However, what I was wondering is, if you are using purees to sneak in extra servings, how much = one serving? My kids are 2, 3 and 5. For example, if I dump one jar of baby squash into their mac and cheese, they would get 1/3 of a jar, or roughly 1.3 oz. Or yesterday I made sweet potato oatmeal - again, it works out to about 1/3 of a jar per child. Is that enough to count as a serving? Is one jar the same as 1 serving? I figure any extra is better than nothing, but how much do I need to do to have it really count? And if they do eat, say a banana, does that count as 1 serving or more or less? What about juice? I've thought about getting those whole fruit juices you can find in the produce section that often have veggies hidden in them, but how much is a serving?

[vittoriosmom]

Vegetables
Vegetables contribute vitamin C, vitamin A, folate, potassium, magnesium, fiber and a number of other vitamins and minerals. One serving equals: ½ cup of raw or cooked vegetables, ¾ cup of vegetable juice, and 1 cup of raw leafy vegetables. One cup of vegetables is approximately the size of a baseball.

Read more on this website:

http://www.runningplanet.com/training/serving-size.html

[nrsenadenos]

Originally Posted by vittoriosmom Vegetables Vegetables contribute vitamin C, vitamin A, folate, potassium, magnesium, fiber and a number of other vitamins and minerals. One serving equals: ½ cup of raw or cooked vegetables, ¾ cup of vegetable juice, and 1 cup of raw leafy vegetables. One cup of vegetables is approximately the size of a baseball. Read more on this website: http://www.runningplanet.com/training/serving-size.html

Thanks - but are the serving sizes for toddlers/preschoolers the same as for an adult? And would you still need a half cup of puree to equal one serving? Because 1 C of spinach pureed would end up being a lot less puree than 1 cup of broccoli...

[RedheadMom09]

We were told that the serving sizes are much smaller for toddlers. The above look like serving sizes for grownups. Many toddlers don't eat a cup of food total all day, much less a multiple cups of vegetables in addition to other foods. DD's nutritionist told us that for her age (19 months) that a serving was equal to the size of her fist. So, 5 servings of vegetables would be 5 toddler-fist sized piles.

[nrsenadenos]

Hmmm...so I'm thinking that is more like a 1/4 or 1/3 of a cup?

[steely_cass]

I was told once that 1 tablespoon per year of age is a good guidline for the toddler years, not only for vegetables but for all food groups. My DD is 2, to 2T is 1 serving.

[nrsenadenos]

Do you know what age that goes to?