Parenting
Helping your child to get their 5 a day By Kate Duggan Fruit + vegetables + kids isn’t always a match made in heaven. These tips might help to make meal times a bit less stressful. Give them a choice - If you can, involve your child in shopping, and let them pick out some fruits and vegetables that they want to try. You could also help them to grow some of their own, even if it’s just strawberries on a windowsill. When it comes to meal times, try offering your child a choice of a few different vegetables sometimes, so they feel that they have some control. And when you have time, involve them in preparing dinner and then praise them for how tasty the food is. Try raw - Kids often prefer the taste or texture of raw vegetables over cooked. My children, for example, will happily munch on raw carrots and peppers, but loathe cooked ones. Some vegetables shouldn’t be eaten raw (like potatoes) but most can be, even ones you wouldn’t usually think of eating cold, like broccoli. When you are cooking vegetables, it’s worth trying different methods.
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My daughter hates steamed kale, but loves crispy kale (chopped up, tossed in olive oil and roasted in the oven for 5-10 minutes). Blend it up - Children often complain about ‘bits’, whether it’s the seeds in granary bread or pieces of mushroom in a pasta sauce. Blending soups and sauces until they’re smooth can work wonders. Let them help themselves - Keep your fruit bowl within reach of children over three, so that they can help themselves when they want a snack. You could also keep a snack box of chopped up carrots, peppers, cucumbers etc. on a low shelf of the fridge. Boost with multivitamins Multivitamins don’t replace the need for a healthy diet, but they can provide a handy boost. Look for ones that include Vitamin D, as our bodies struggle to absorb enough of it during winter. Bassetts chewable multivitamins tend to be popular with kids. Another option is Kendakids VitaBoost Shakes, which are fortified with twenty-three vitamins
(including vitamin D). You mix the powder with warm water (it’s a bit like making up a bottle of baby formula). There are three flavours to choose from. The chocolate one is basically a healthier version of hot chocolate, but my son swears the strawberry is by far the best. See www.kendamil.com. Don’t let dinner become a battle field - Studies have shown that putting pressure on kids to eat can actually lead to worse eating habits a couple of years down the line. Try to make sure you’re sitting down to eat as a family at least a few times a week and don’t let the tension build up until you’re all just focusing on how much (or how little) your child is eating. Ultimately, you want your child to have a healthy long-term relationship with food. That’s going to be so much harder if they end up getting anxious about dinner time. And remember that we all have food we hate, even as adults. So if they really despise something, move on.
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