Help Your Children to Eat More Fruit and Vegetables

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All material copyright ©RedBranch 2011. You may freely distribute this eBook, provided that you don’t make modifications. The information in this eBook is for educational purposes only. Parents for Health. www.parentsforhealth.org Email: [email protected] All material copyright ©RedBranch 2011. Page 1

Do you struggle to get your kids eating enough fruit & vegetables? Maybe you already know that fruit and vegetables are essential for good health, but your child just won’t play ball. Don’t despair; this article should give you some ideas!

Essential for Health It is vitally important that we encourage our children to eat more fruit and vegetables. Experts agree that eating more fruit and veg helps prevent illnesses like heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes, obesity and certain cancers. The World Health Organisation estimates that 2.7 million lives could be saved each year simply by eating more fruit & veg!

How Much Fruit & Veg? The amount of fruit and veg that you and your family consume is important. Most people should aim for at least 9 servings of fruit and veg per day, and potatoes don’t count. Most children do not consume enough fruit and vegetables. A “serving” or a “portion” is roughly a handful – so for a small child, a single portion would be a piece of fruit or veg that fits into their hand. Obviously, as children grow and get bigger, their portion size will need to increase.

A portion means the amount of fruit or veg that fits in your child’s hand

Don’t Panic First of all, if your child doesn’t eat a lot of fruit & veg, or they only eat one type (maybe they just eat apples) don’t panic. It is very common for children to be fussy eaters – refusing to eat certain foods, or not getting adequate variety in their diet. You may also find that your child is reluctant to try new foods – there’s even a name for this: “food neophobia”. The good news is that children usually grow out of fussy eating and food neophobia – in the meantime, there’s a lot you can do to encourage your child to eat more fruit & veg.

Persevere Sometimes children need to be presented with a new food several times before they will even try it. Children may hate a particular food one day, and love it the next – so keep

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introducing new foods. If your child expresses a dislike for carrots, just keep serving them. They may try them eventually! Be patient and keep trying. Don’t worry if your child leaves veg on their plate – just keep serving them and be positive. You are aiming to make fruit and veggies normal, so just seeing them regularly on the plate will be helping.

Chill Out! It’s always a bad idea to pressurise your children to eat a particular food, no matter how frustrated you may feel. Forcing a child to stay at the table until they have finished a particular food is counterproductive. Don’t force kids to eat – keep offering a wide variety of foods, and eventually they’ll eat a wider variety.

Be Positive

Be Positive - if your child dislikes a certain food, don't constantly refer to this - your're just reinforcing your child's aversion!

Try to “sell” the benefits of fruit & veg. While you shouldn’t force your child to eat, you can be positive about the benefits of healthy food. If your child likes sport, tell them that top athletes eat lots of fruit and vegetables. Tell your child that fruit & veg: 

Helps keep us strong

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Gives us lots of energy to help us play

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Keeps us fit

Choose Your Words If your child is a picky eater, don’t make a big thing out of it, especially if they are within earshot! You don’t want your child thinking of themselves as “special” because of their eating habits -this might encourage the fussy habit.

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Make Fruit & Veg Fun Kids are far more likely to eat fruit & vegetables if they see it as a fun activity. Try the following ideas: 

Cut fruit into funny shapes with cookie cutters

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Play the rainbow game – see how many different coloured fruits can your child eat in a day, and write down their score on the fridge

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Dress up sandwiches with faces & shapes made from vegetables and fruit

Make Fruit & Veg Easily Available 

Keep a bowl of fresh fruit in an accessible spot and tell the kids that they can dip into it whenever they like

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Keep bags of chopped up fruit in the fridge for healthy snacks

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Put a bowl of chopped raw veg on the table during dinner – kids often love raw carrot, cucumber & broccoli when it is presented this way

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Have veggies with every meal, fruit with every dessert

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Keep bags of peas, sweetcorn, raspberries and other fruits & veggies in the freezer so they are

You control the shopping - so you control the foods that your kids have access to. Don't buy junk food, and they'll stop eating it!

always to hand 

Add a box of dried raisins or chopped fruit in a bag into your child’s lunchbox as a surprise

Dump the Junk Food If your kids are full up on sweets and cakes, they’re not going to be eating healthy fruit & veg. Remember that you are the boss – just stop buying sweets and crisps, and they’ll stop eating them. Explain your food rules to childminders, grandparents and others – only allow your kids to have sweets on special occasions, and be firm with others.

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Combine Foods If your child eats only one particular type fruit or veg, try combining the old favourite with something new. For example, if your child only eats apples, try chopping apples and pears together to gradually introduce the new taste of the pear. Try adding fruit to your child’s breakfast cereal – you could try raspberries, strawberries, chopped apple or banana. Dried fruits like raisins can be added to cereal or porridge.

Get Kids Involved 

Your kids will have fun helping to chop fruit into fruit salad, and they’ll be more likely to try the end result

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Sit down with your kids and create a smoothie recipe together – and then send us the recipe, we’ll put it on the site!

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Encourage children to choose recipes containing fruits & veggies from magazines

Helping your child to eat more fruit & vegetables will help them avoid heart disease and other illnesses in the future

or cook books

Change the Mode Try presenting fruit & veg in different ways: if your child won’t eat cooked carrots, try cooking them a different way or serving them raw. If you usually boil vegetables, try stir-frying, steaming or roasting. Many children prefer veggies like carrots and broccoli raw – just wash the veg, chop into handy pieces and leave on the table.

Smoothies A great way to get children eating more fruit and veg is to create home-made fruit smoothies. If your kids are reluctant to try different fruits, smoothies are a good way of introducing new flavours. Full of vitamins and antioxidants, smoothies are a tasty and healthy snack. Even the most “anti-fruit” child may enjoy a smoothie. If you can’t make your own, you can buy smoothies – they just won’t be as nice! Look for smoothies made with 100% fruit.

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Fruits of the Forest Smoothie Try our Fruits of the Forest Smoothie recipe. You’ll need: 

2 bananas, peeled and roughly chopped

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200g frozen fruits of the forest

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250ml pure unsweetened apple juice

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250ml milk

Smoothies are a great way to get children eating fruit - and an excellent way of using up fruit that is past it's best

Put all the ingredients into your blender or smoothie maker. Switch on, stand back and blend until smooth. Serve immediately in a tall glass. Make up your own smoothie recipes using whatever fruit is available and cheap.

Grow Your Own When children get involved in growing fruit and veg, they are much more likely to try them. If you have a small garden, you could try a blackcurrant bush or a dwarf apple tree. If you don’t have a garden, you could grow cress on the windowsill. Do a few Google searches on easy vegetable growing, and start a family project.

Set a Good Example You are your child’s most important role model – don’t expect them to eat lots of fruit & veg if you don’t set a good example! Cut down on the junk food and eat more fruit & veg – it’ll benefit your health as well as the kids. Try to get your family and friends in on the act – it will really help your efforts within the home.

The Big Freeze Children love novelty, so try freezing fruit – it totally changes the texture, and “fruit popsicles” might just get them snacking on more fruit. Why not try: 

Frozen raspberries (nice and crunchy, and frozen raspberries are usually cheaper than the fresh variety)



Frozen strawberries

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

Frozen segments of orange/satsuma

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You could freeze berries and add them to a glass of water as a novelty ice cube, or use them as a topping for low fat natural yoghurt as a healthy pudding.

Change the Texture Some children like lumpy food, others prefer it smooth, and others prefer food to be crunchy – so experiment with different textures. The humble carrot can be served raw (crunchy!), lightly boiled, or mashed to a puree. Just see which method works for your family. If your child likes smooth food, take leftover veggies (e.g. carrots, potatoes, parsnips), blend them in a food processor or smoothie maker, add some stock and you have instant vegetable soup.

Summary Keep calm, persevere, and do your best to make fruit & veggies fun. For more information on helping your children to eat more fruit and vegetables, including recipes & tips, see our resource page: http://parentsforhealth.org/resources-to-help-children-eat-more-fruitvegetables If you have feedback or suggestions regarding this eBook, we’d love to hear from you Email us: [email protected] Good luck!

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About Us Parents for Health is a new initiative building a community of healthy parents. With a little help, every parent can be a Parent for Health! By helping our children to have good eating habits and to be physically active, we can help them to avoid serious illness in later life. Find us online: www.parentsforhealth.org Parents for Health is a RedBranch initiative. RedBranch is an Irish registered charity (CHY 17694) with a mission to empower people, especially children, to make healthy lifestyle choices. We fight childhood obesity and prevent serious illnesses by helping children to have a healthy diet and to be physically active. Our Vision is a world where children, young people and parents choose a healthy lifestyle, and these choices are fully supported by society. For more information about RedBranch see http://red-branch.com/

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