Encouraging kids to eat fruits is a must, you can consult any parenting guide! Even without parenting guides, I’m sure you remember your parents chasing you throughout your home to make sure you finish your fruits, and if you are expecting to be a parent soon, on your way to welcome a child to your life or maybe already are a new parent - you will be doing the same soon. Fruits are a necessary addition to every growing child’s diet, as they can get essential nutrients and minerals present in those fruits by consuming them. But chasing them and making them finish their fruits aren’t the only way to make sure they have a healthy amount of fruits in their digestive system. Let us take a look at a few tips that might help encourage kids to eat fruits without a fuss with this article.
Parents always have a hard time when it comes to making their kids eat fruits. Kids are always choosy about their food, picky about what they may be willing to eat depending not only on what they like but also what they are in the mood for at that moment, and so it becomes very difficult to make them understand the benefits of eating fruits. Even if we do succeed in explaining the importance of consuming fruits and the different benefits they have, it is still not always easy to actually convince them to eat the fruits necessary for a healthy balanced diet of fruits. Kids who eat fruits on regular basis in moderation and an inclusive variety of fruits, keep healthy and fit and they are less prone to obesity, sleep disorders and allergies. Such kids also have a strong immune system so they do are less likely to get seasonal colds and flu very easily, and are less likely to ‘feel under the weather or experience lethargy during season changes. These are the various reasons that parents find it imperative to try and include various kinds of fruits in their child’s diet that will help support their growth and absorb the benefits of those fruits. Parents and elders try out various ways to encourage and incentivize their kids and grandkids to eat fruits. Some of the ways you can try and adopt to encourage kids to consume fruits (or more fruits than they already do, if they are picky about which fruits they like to eat and it is not sufficient to fulfil their dietary needs) are given below:
1) Presentation is Important
2) Baking Fruits
3) Shakes and Smoothies
4) Grilling Fruits
5) Funny Faces
Presentation is Important!
It may seem like we eat and consume food primarily by the use of only one sense, which is our sense of taste, but that is not true! We eat with all 5 of our senses, and the sense of vision plays just as much into the experience of eating food. Especially for kids, as they are still very much taken by how different fruits appease their different senses. The sense of vision is very important to them, especially the different colours a lot of fruits have to offer. Maybe mix up a fruit salad with at least three colours, or turn it into a fun activity to try and find three fruits that are the same colour but taste different and make it a bonding experience to prepare those fruits and eat them. Children may not like to eat all types of fruits but they may like some of them. Sometimes a child might have one particular fruit they like a lot and may refuse to try out other fruits. A good way to try and encourage them to try other fruits would be to find a fruit that compliments the fruit they already like visually and present them in an attractive way. To explain it better, if a child has an affinity for blueberry, banana and apple then parents can arrange slices of apple and banana and whole berries alternatively on a skewer and garnish it with plain yoghurt or honey and serve the child. Or you can pair the blueberry, with vibrant blue colour, with strawberry - a fruit that is equally vibrant and compliments the colour of the blueberry. Your child will surely appreciate the pretty fruit bowl they will receive. You could also pair slices of apples and oranges together, and bananas and chikoos together! The child would surely get attracted to this wonderful presentation of fruit and consume it.
Baked Fruits
Children, usually, like baked items like cakes and puddings. While it is good to let your children indulge in them every once a while, the amount of artificial sugar in such baked goods can be unhealthy for your child, and these baked goods often use maida which is another complex carb that is not very healthy and can even prove to be unhealthy if not consumed in moderation. But parents can utilize their children’s love for baked items to help them consume more fruits. You can take slices of pear, apples, peaches or plums and bake them. Baked fruits, while delicious on their own, can also be garnished with maple syrup, honey, or yoghurt to make them even more appealing. And to take it a step further, you could even add crushed dry fruits on the top to make it even more interesting for your children, and add health value to a simple dish in the process as well.
For example, making baked apples is very easy. All you have to do is take out the entire cores of apples and leave the peels intact, as they are. While you can just stick the cored apples in the oven, you can also add butter, water, cinnamon powder or yoghurt according to your preference. Baked apple or peach along with maple syrup is a super healthy snack that even a kid would love to have on chilly days. You can even toast some nuts, crumble them and garnish on top.
Fruit Shakes and Smoothies
A big part of the reason a child may not like certain fruit maybe because they don’t like the texture of that particular fruit rather than the actual taste of the fruit. A good way to get them to try or consume such fruits would be to either juice such fruits, or to incorporate them into shakes and smoothies. Children generally like fruit shakes, as they are easy to sip on, and sipping at the juice, smoothie or milkshake may even be a fun activity in itself. Smoothies and Shakes of the fruit they prefer the most will definitely be popular with them, especially mango and banana shakes and smoothies are preferred by many children. But shakes and smoothies are also a great way to incorporate fruits they are not super enthusiastic about into their diet. Adding small amounts of the fruit they don’t like a lot to a smoothie or milkshake of a fruit they do like, would ensure they get the necessary nutrients from the fruit, without the flavour of that fruit overwhelming their taste buds if the flavour of the fruit they do like is still the dominant flavour of the juice, smoothie or shake. To help the kids have a healthy start, parents should give them fruit smoothies or fruit shakes in the morning or along with breakfast. It is also a good idea to give children fruits in the morning in general, as the healthy sugar from the fruits will help give them an energy boost throughout their day. Children may not like to have fruit slices every day, so fruit juice or fruit shakes and smoothies can be a good way to break the pattern, change up things and will also be exciting for them! Orange, watermelon and kiwifruit can be taken together and blended. To make the mixture smoother, almond milk, yoghurt, coconut milk or soymilk can be added before blending. Children would not refuse these types of smoothies or shakes when served once or twice a week. You could even make smoothie bowls with a pretty presentation to make it seem something special, they will definitely eat it up then.
Grilled Fruits
Grilling fruits is another good way to encourage kids to consume more fruits. Almost all children like grilled fish, chicken or mutton. If they are served grilled fruits it becomes another fun-filled experience for them. Grilling fruits serves two purposes - one, grilling fruits adds to the texture as the places where the fruit has been grilled becomes a little, The second purpose it serves is that when fruits are grilled, the fructose present in the fruit gets caramelized. This crispy and borderline-sugary version of fruits will definitely be a new experience for them and will add to their excitement. And like we suggested before, it is a good way to avoid kids getting bored of fruits and building an aversion to fruits because they feel like they have to eat fruits and feel like they have to eat them every day. By grilling fruits, you give them a nice break from cut fruit and fruit salads, and shakes and smoothies! As an added benefit, its flavour can trigger appetite even in the kids who are always fussy about eating. Fruits like mango or pineapple can be sliced and brushed with maple syrup before they are grilled. To make it more fun, you can let your children choose the toppings they want. This is a good way to make them feel involved and will also make them feel like eating fruit is their decision. The options for toppings could be yoghurt, honey or maple syrup, whipped cream (in moderation, as that is also processed sugar. Chopped toasted nuts, or even untoasted and chopped nuts can be used for making it more delicious and kids would surely gobble it up. Another topping could be to bake a pastry sheet and chop it up to add that savoury flavour.
Funny Fruit Faces
Just think about the kids’ reaction when they are served fruits that look like funny faces. As mentioned before, eating is as much an experience that involves the other 5 senses as it is a necessity for sustenance and to maintain a healthy diet. Arranging fruits in such a way that they resemble funny faces can be beneficial to your children in two ways. Firstly, the obvious benefit- which is to amuse your child and make fruits interesting enough to your child so that they are more likely to go for the fruits. The second, less obvious benefit is that trying to look for faces in fruits served to them will also be a fun activity that will encourage the growth of cognitive functions that help makes patterns and make sense of the surroundings.
Moms can always serve fresh fruit salads to their kids and while slicing the fruits, they can try making out funny faces with these slices. For example, Grapes can be used as eyes, strawberry slices for making the nose and banana slices can be used for making a smiling mouth. And this is just the simple version. If you have a little more time and are willing to put in a little more effort, there are many recipes and tutorials on the internet that make it very easy for parents to follow and make creations that will surely entertain their children and trick them into enjoying fruits that they might have otherwise not enjoyed as much.
Kids will definitely gobble up any food that is appealing to their eyes and is tasty to eat. If parents could invest a little bit of time and take the trouble to serve their kids fruits in a presentable manner, kids would never say no to them. It then becomes a win-win situation as kids are happy munching on food that they find attractive and parents are satisfied as they have ensured that their child gets the required minerals, vitamins and fibres essential for the right growth and development.
How to encourage kids to eat fruits? Which fruits should be included in the diet of kids? Which fruits can cause allergies in kids? Discuss below.
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