Creative tips to get children to eat more fruit and veggies

Getting children to eat the daily required amount of fruit and vegetables can prove to be challenging, in light of National Nutrition Week, registered dietitian Brittany Johnson, from Imagine Dietitians in Stellenbosch, provided parents with some useful and creative tips.

She says: “Children love to make their own choices. Set up a snack station in the fridge or pantry with pre-cut fruit and veggies so kids can help themselves when they are hungry,”

Other ways in which parents can boost their children’s intake of fruit and vegetables is to add an element of fun to the snacks. Ms Johnson says making fruit kebabs on skewers, or eating veggie sticks with a dip things are made a tad bit interesting.

At home when children come back from school, instead of just giving them a regular bowl with cut up pieces of fruit, creatively displaying it in a different form can spark a new interest in them wanting to taste and eat it. Her suggestion is for parents to make a fun ‘platter’ as an after-school snack by incorporating one vegetable or fruit with other snack foods like biltong, home-made popcorn, crackers with cheese, or mini peanut butter sandwiches cut into fun shapes.

Then for picky eaters who are very adamant about and outspoken on what they like or don’t like there are ways to outsmart them.

“Introduce a new or disliked fruit or vegetable with a food your child already likes. For example, serve chicken nuggets with broccoli and tomato sauce for dipping. Or add cauliflower or green peas to plain pasta and white sauce. Or blend a disliked fruit into a smoothie with yoghurt and other fruits your child enjoys,” says Ms Johnson.

But she warns the first or even second attempt might not be successful, and parents would often need to offer a disliked food up to 10 to 15 times for a child to even consider taking a bite and trying it.

Disguising fruit and especially vegetables in meals is another smart way to make sure children get enough of their daily suggested intake. Vegetables can very easily be hidden and blended into sauces, like adding cauliflower into a cheese sauce or adding tomatoes to a dipping sauce for their favourite nuggets or fish fingers ‘tomato sauce’ dip.

Lastly putting a bit of thought into naming new cleverly disguised vegetable creations can be effective in convincing children to consume a meal. “For example, blend beetroot into pancake mixture and give them a fun name like “pink princess pancakes”, or blend in spinach and call them “scary monster flapjacks,” she says.