How to Encourage Kids to Eat More Fruit? 

Fruits are loaded with essential nutrients like vitamins and minerals for growth and development. As parents, we often worry about our kids are not having enough fruits in their diet. Indeed, 60% children ate fewer fruits than the recommended daily amount according to Center for Disease Control between 2007-2010. 9 out of 10 children are not eating enough fruits and vegetable in 2007-2010. And 34% of the children aged between 2 and 19 preferred to eat fast food on any given day. What a sad state of reality!

Is there a way to make them eat fruits without making it a tough experience for both parents and the children? We think there is a way out for this. Here are 5 tips to get your kids to eat some fruits without forcing them:

1) Make the “eating” process exciting! Use Fruits Skewers

Fruit skewers are exciting!

Make fruits skewer with kids and decorate their snack box with their favorite cartoon characters’ stickers i.e. Minions, characters from the Frozen movie, (Elsa and Anna), Thomas & friends & etc. Serve fruits on their favorite plates. Perhaps you also can create funny names for the fruits.

2) Fruits to Go with Meals 

Make sure to include 1 serving of fruit along with breakfast, lunch, dinner and even as a snack. Sandwiches are a great way to incorporate fruits with cream cheese or sliced cheese, and you can even mix and match by experimenting with a variety of breads like alternating between a bread sandwich, a wrap or even dinner rolls, multigrain bread, Indian bread, i.e. chapati etc. Make some fruit salad or fruit yogurt and give it to your kid as a snack in between meals.

3) Lead by Example 

Eat together as a family

Children learn what they see and experience around them. Parents must try to maintain regular meal time and encourage eating at the dining table with children instead of in front of the TV. Create a grocery shopping list. Make fruits as must-have food items in your shopping list besides vegetables, whole grains, and lean protein. We must continue to put more efforts to ensure our children get every opportunity to eat healthily. Eating with your kids helps to foster family bonding.

4) Keep Serving Sizes Small and Interesting 

Kids tend to refuse fruits that are cut in big chunks. A sliced apple and pear are always more appealing to children. Remember to cut fruits into smaller bite sized pieces. Cut fruits into different shapes to pique your kid’s interest. For instance, press heart-shaped cutters into watermelon or a star-shaped cutter into a banana. It makes it easier for kids to eat their fruits at school if you try to pack fruits that are cut into smaller segments rather than packing the whole fruit by quartering or peeling apple, pear or oranges by using a cutter to core and segment fruits; cutting a sliced papaya or a banana in half. Keep a handful of strawberries or a few grapes in a sealed container. Try a small pear or apple instead of a large one. Remember to rub lemon juice to avoid cut fruits such as apples and pears from turning brown. This way they will still look fresh when your kids eat it.

5) Encourage Children to Take Part In the Cooking/Preparation Process 

Involve children in the kitchen

Start young, say our elders. Developing good food habits need to start at a young age. Teaching children to cook with healthy, fresh ingredients to make nutritious meals is one of the most important things we can do in their upbringing. We can start with some easy tasks such as plating sliced apple with raisins and lettuce in their grilled chicken sandwich, cutting banana and strawberries before adding into their cereals & garnishing pancake or yogurt with assorted fruits. They get to learn to appreciate the effort that goes into preparing the meal especially when they see the difference between wholesome fresh foods and processed ones.

6) Be Patient and Keep Trying 

Are these efforts not working? Don’t lose hope, just keep trying. Keep introducing a new fruit one at a time. Kids are afraid of new food as they have not seen them or tasted them before. Some kids are more adventurous than others. A study has shown that if we introduce new food to kids more than 10 times. Eventually, they will accept it. We just have to be patient.