8 ways to get your children excited about eating fruit and veg

Despite all our best intentions as a parent to get our children eating more fruit and vegetables, sometimes it can be a bit of an uphill struggle. A child’s palette is tuned to sweetness and so sometimes it can be rather more of a challenge to get the green stuff off the plate and into their mouth.

However, there are a few fun and simple ways you can get your kids engaged with fruit and veg – these might even renew your excitement for them too!

1. Eat the rainbow

Fruit and vegetables come in an array of beautiful colours, all with varying vitamins and minerals packed into them. Therefore it may come as no surprise that each colour you eat packs a different nutritional punch.

So, why not try stepping away from the mundane greens for a moment (although these are equally important!) and try exploring veg like carrots, sweetcorn, tomatoes, peppers, melon, pineapple or blueberries.

Each of these are bursting with different nutritional value and presenting these to your children in all their colourful glory will instantly do away with the ‘eat your greens’ concept of fruit and veg.   

2. Do a blind fold taste test  

This is an excellent way of getting your children to try different flavours without them associating it with the look of the fruit and veg, and also a super fun Saturday afternoon kitchen activity! Get a selection of 7-8 different fruits and veg and get your children to take a blindfold and try different mouthfuls.

You can get involved too – to show it’s really not scary, but fun! It’s okay if they don’t like some of the flavours; the most important part is trying!

3. Get them to do the cooking

Kids love to get involved with cooking and what better way than to let them see and touch the vibrancy of vegetables and fruit themselves?

Why not create some colourful vegetables kebabs for dinner and get your children to cut up brightly coloured peppers, onions, aubergine or courgette.

4. Dip it 

Some vegetables do take a while to get used to, and that’s okay too, not every child’s palette is the same. You can always disguise the taste of particularly strong tasting veg with nutritious dips, like hummus or tzatziki.

You could even invite them to help you make the dips themselves – the whizz of the blender can be quite exciting too! 

5. Try frozen and dried fruits

Frozen and dried fruits can count too! Try freezing some grapes for a delicious frozen treat; you could even dip them in some dark chocolate for an extra kick of antioxidants.  Dried fruit counts too, so sultanas or raisins are a great option for a quick snack.

6. Use stickers

There are a few ways you can use stickers to boost their enthusiasm about fruit and veg. You could try placing a sticker of their favourite cartoon or character on an apple for their packed lunch. Look, suddenly it’s Tinkerbell’s apple!

You could also do a little sticker reward chart with stars. When they try a different fruit or veg they get a star, and when they have say 10 stars perhaps they get a treat? Try what works for you!

7. Create a family vegetable patch

Plant them, water them and let your children watch them grow. Understanding and learning where vegetables come from make less alien, and it’s pretty cool do watch them blossom and know you did that!

8. Go fruit picking

Another excellent way to get your kids excited about where fruit and veg comes from. Throughout the year there are a variety of different fruits and veg which you can pick at locations across the UK. Go home and create something delicious with your findings with your kids!