Do you give your children 5 pieces of fruit or veg?

Do you manage to give your children the recommend 5 peices of fruit or veg?? elisa is not fussy but sometimes it is a struggle do i force her to eat it or reward her if she does?? would like some advice if anybody can give me any Thanks xx 😀

I do but remember a childs portion of fruit or veg is less than ours. They need to eat about 2-3 portions of ours to get their 5 a day.

Try hiding her veg, if she eats mashed pots then try adding turnip or carrots to it, homemade soup liquidised is good. offering sticks of fruit or veg as a snack can work.

IMO I would reward her when she does eat them do not force her as she will end up being terrified of them

i do try but i also have a lo thats reluctant to eat them.

i make 'special' mash, with carrot, cauli and broccoli in it. in fact anything 'special seems to work! but if i ask them what veg they want im told firmly i dont like veg.

bee wont eat fruit either but she will have yoghurt with fruit cut up into it.

My kids are old enough now that they ask for the veggies they like and adding others to the menu at home is easy enough.

When they were younger it was a matter of making it fun to eat healthy items. Now it is a matter of letting them help plan the shopping list and the menus for the house.

Thanks always hard to get the balance right you want them to eat healthy but sometimes you just want a quiet life!!!

I do the same - add veg into sauces/mashes - i even make a frit smootie in the summer which dd loves!
DD loves having cucumber and carrot sticks with her tea! i know she hates sweetcorn and peas with a passion so they are the only ones i dont give her but everything else i put on her plate of "hide" them in her dinner in some way! i also make patterns on her plate with veg to make it more itneresting!

well i wouldnt say my 2 have 2 or 3 portions a day, they only have veg twice a wk 😲

bad i know, i must start doing it everyday coz they dont eat fruit either 🙁

they need a good diet and i feel bad coz everyone elses kids eat really well 🙁

With Ben, he's more likely to eat veggies when we pretend they're other things. A prime example is broccoli. When we called it "broccoli", he didn't want any, but as soon as we asked him if he was going to eat his "trees", he wanted to eat them! Disguising stuff underneath other bits (eg putting a bit of carrot underneath some potato on his fork) seems to work too. The age old "Here's the train going into the tunnel" technique with the fork going into his mouth also works!!

Must admit the veg part is easier now she's at nursery!

But she eats Cucmber, grapes, apples and honeydew melon at home until it's coming out of her ears!

We put celeriac in our mash so she gets that, i put tomatoes in omelettes (as she adores those), courgettes in spag bol.

She used to eat everything - as i cooked all her food myself when she was a baby and weaning - but my mother ruined that when she had her at weekends and introduced her to evil tinned sausages and beans etc etc! lol

god yeah my girls eat fruit and veg till its coming out there ears but thats there own choice.they have fruit with breakfast,veg with there lunch followed by fruit,veg with there tea followed by more fruit and snack on it all day long too.cara gets really upset if she has no veg on her plate lol we went to mcdonalds for tea the other night for a treat(caras choice of eaterie) and she was horrified to find no veg come with her nuggets meal!

When my daughter was going on to finger foods she went to carrots and cucumbers so easily and she's always eaten fruit and veg. Now she's 7 and would rather have them than junk food. When I had my son I thought it would be just as easy to get him to eat healthy stuff but oooh nooo! He wants deep fried chocolate lard and a milkshake please! I can't get him to eat anything unless I hide veggies in a bolognese or something, meanwhile my daughter comes into the kitchen when I'm chopping veggies and eats raw courgettes!

Interesting thought about the broccoli "trees" though. When my mum was little she wouldn't eat roast potatoes. One Sunday at my great aunt's house she was served with a full Sunday Roast and refused to eat the roast spuds. My aunt said "that's ok, I didn't roast your potatoes, I cooked them in the oven" so my mum ate them!

I'm really lucky in that my 2 both love fruit and veg. I worry more that they eat too much and will end up with runs than that they don't eat enough. I do try and plan meals though to make sure they get all their portions.

Grapes is there fave, along with banana's and tangerines, well any fruit. Abigail loves peas too!

My main problem is having enough fresh stuff in so i sometimes give them raisens which you can keep in the cuboard forever, also tinned fruit (in fruit juice). They sometimes have fruit and icecream as a pudding if they've not had much during the day. And like someone else mentioned you can add it to their breakfast.

They'll eat most veg, especially if its got gravey on or is in somthing...lasagne or shepards pie. Katie has started pulling her face a bit at brocoli and mushrooms, but she eats them with stuff.

Gemma

Mine both love fruit and veg, so I suppose I'm lucky, so most days they do get their 5 a day.

The saying broccoli are trees i use too lol works a treat and also making funny faces with fruit and veg, and letting them help to make food i.e pizza is a good o0ne to make with them and you can blend veg up in the tom sauce 😀

Wolfblass said:
Must admit the veg part is easier now she's at nursery!

But she eats Cucmber, grapes, apples and honeydew melon at home until it's coming out of her ears!

We put celeriac in our mash so she gets that, i put tomatoes in omelettes (as she adores those), courgettes in spag bol.

She used to eat everything - as i cooked all her food myself when she was a baby and weaning - but my mother ruined that when she had her at weekends and introduced her to evil tinned sausages and beans etc etc! lol

it was my dad who fed Amy sausage and beans 😠

I find its easier to get Amy to eat veg if its in a casserole so we usually have chicken,beef or sausage casserole or mince, mash with the veg in it.

She much prefers fruit and eats quite well so i`m happy at the moment with her diet 😀