Getting children to eat their recommended five portions of fruit and veg a day is not always easy. If your child thinks cabbage is ‘yucky’ or green beans are ‘disgusting’ – what’s a parent to do?
One thing that won’t work is forcing your kids to eat food they don’t like – as you risk putting them off even more. But a with a few clever tricks and a gentler approach, kids can often be won over. It just takes a little time and patience and bit of ingenuity too!
5-a-day For Kids Made Easy
5-a-day For Kids Made Easy, by Karen Bali and Sally Child is packed with ideas and advice on simple strategies to ensure your kids get all the fruit and veg portions they need. Here the authors explain, in an extract from the book, how the time straight after school, when your kids are truly ravenous, can be a great opportunity to contribute to their 5-a-day:
If kids come in from school or play and are starving, they want something to eat now, now, NOW! They will not wait while you chop, blend, cook or otherwise prepare anything – they will probably just head for the biscuits or crisps. If you can, it is a good idea to have a menu of food they are allowed to eat anytime as a snack or while waiting for a meal. If you can have emergency snacks on standby, even better. The ideal snack has minimum sugar or salt, will not be gone in one gulp and preferably contains some fruit or vegetables. Serve with fruit juice or high juice squash. Experiment and combine two or three of the following ideas if your child is extra hungry:
• A milkshake or smoothie
• A couple of homemade cakes or muffins (with hidden fruit, such as Secret Peach Muffins, see below), already prepared
• A small packet or handful of raisins
• A banana
• One or two satsumas
• A chopped apple
• A bunch of grapes
• A kiwi fruit, cut in half to eat with a spoon
• A bowl of tinned fruit (in natural juice, not syrup)
• A fruit juice ice lolly (just freeze fruit juice into lolly moulds)
• A cereal bar
• Mashed banana sandwich with an optional drizzle of honey
• A small bread roll, or one sandwich with some salad sticks
• Bread sticks or crackers with cream cheese or dip, with cherry
tomatoes and salad sticks (carrot, cucumber, celery and chopped
apple)• A handful of plain nuts (for children school aged and upwards
only – not salted or roasted)• A small sweet potato with butter (quick to make in the
microwave)• Houmous with wholemeal pitta bread
If those ideas have given you some much-needed inspiration, why not have a go at baking the Secret Peach Muffins featured in the book? Click on the images below read the recipe. There are heaps more tasty recipes and helpful tips in 5-a-day For Kids Made Easy, published by White Ladder Press, which we will be reviewing on the site soon.
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More 5-a-day tips from mums
Three mums of school-age children share their tricks for getting kids to eat their 5-a-day.
“I’ve grated carrots and courgettes into spag bol before and my girls ate it very happily. I’ve also got them to help me to make pizza and put broccoli and cheese on top. Pitta breads at lunchtime are good for getting them to stuff with grated carrots and pineapple.” Sian W
“I tend to put frozen mixed veg into mince dishes like spag bol or chilli, and cook it for a little bit longer than usual. Works a treat!” Susan S
“Unfortunately, my children know when I’ve sneaked veg into any meal. But we do have ‘broccoli races’! A nice tree size and the first one to get the whole thing in their mouths wins. No prizes required but it does work, bizarrely. Also mentioning Sportacus and his sports candy does encourage carrot eating. I try to look at the week as a whole, so I don’t stress too much if there aren’t many veg on a night of fish fingers and chips, brightened only with 5 peas and a broccoli tree!” Sarah C
Other ideas
Sometimes reading a children’s book which encourages kids to eat their greens can work like magic. Annemarie, mum to Ollie (4), checked out the classic Charlie and Lola title – I Will Not Ever Never Eat a Tomato by Lauren Child;
“My son doesn’t show much interest in eating and it can be a struggle to get him to try new foods or even ones he has tried before, for that matter! This is a great picture book from the popular Charlie and Lola series. Charlie and Lola are familiar characters to us, so it was great to find a tricky subject handled in a fun way.
Lola is a fussy eater so Charlie, her brother, plays a trick on her, telling Lola that they are not going to have all the foods she doesn’t like. Instead they are going to have ‘Orange Twiglets’ from Jupiter, not carrots. ‘Green Drops’ from Greenland, not peas. ‘Cloud Fluff’, not mash and ‘Ocean Nibbles’ that mermaids eat. Lola not only tries all of the exciting and exotic food, she loves it, and in the end reaches for the tomatoes (I mean ‘moon squirters’!).
Ollie is now willing to try new foods and we try to make them more exciting with a story. He is telling everyone he likes raw tomatoes (he doesn’t, but this book got him to try them). He now understands that it’s good to try new foods, but you don’t have to like everything.
The layout and fun typeface in this and all the Charlie and Lola series of books, helped Ollie to read too. The sections where there were words and pictures combinations helped Ollie recognise and read the words. This book has been a great help – great fun to read and I would recommended it.”
For even more recipes and tips visit the NHS 5 A DAY website, which has information for parents of how they can help their children to achieve their 5 A DAY.
Please note that the amount of food a child needs varies with age, body size and physical activity. An adult portion size is 80g, but as a rough guide, one portion for children is the amount they can fit in the palm of their hand.
This family favourite from ASDA is healthy and filling and easy to put together. For more great family recipes like this visit 
