Child Care Nutritional Articles

Child Care Nutritional Articles

fruit vegetable

Fruit is often a more popular choice than vegetables because children prefer sweet tasting food. Telling a child to eat their veges ‘because they are good for you’, is not the ideal way to promote vegetable consumption. For many children the term ‘healthy’ has a negative meaning. (It often becomes synonymous with not being allowed to eat favourite foods.)

some children find the smell of vegetables strong

It is no surprise that the foods most disliked by children are vegetables. Children often have a better sense of smell and taste than adults – so strong smelling vegetables such as broccoli, cauliflower, spinach and brussel sprouts are often the most disliked. Milder smelling and tasting vegetables such as pumpkin, kumara, beans, carrots, corn and courgettes are usually tolerated and therefore consumed more willingly.

Cooking can intensify smell and taste so if cooked vegetables are being regularly rejected by the child, try serving a plate of raw or blanched vegetables (raw beans, carrot/courgette sticks or blanched cauliflower florets) with a vegetable or fruit dip such as guacamole.

the recommended amount of fruit and vegetable servings per day

By offering fruit or vegetables in a ‘non-fresh’ form such as canned or dried can also help children meet the target of two fruit servings and three vegetable servings a day.

Canned vegetables or fruit are often more acceptable because they are softer and are easier to chew. When selecting cans look for varieties that are ‘reduced salt’ or in ‘clear juice’ as these are better nutritional options. Canned fruit or vegetables are NOT a poorer option when compared to fresh as heat treatment in the canning process can actually increase the bioavailability of some nutrients and this is good for the body.

encourage your child to eat fruit and vegetables

add grated carrot and courgette into mince so it disintegrates
add fruit to baked products such as muffins or scones and make the baked product child-bite sized
add berries into pancake and pikelet mixtures
offer a fruit smoothie for afternoon tea
puree broccoli and stir through soup or gravy
add orange juice to pumpkin mash
mash carrot and parsnip together
make vegetable soup and strain, offer a small mug of clear soup before dinner (the child may ‘drink’ their vegetables)
make salads with fruit as well as vegetables

If a child only likes fruit and avoids vegetables, don’t give up hope – keep offering a variety as part of a meal and ask that the child at least tastes each item. Don’t make a fuss if the experience is unsuccessful - repeating the trial every few weeks might encourage acceptance.

Talking to the child about eating a ‘rainbow’ is another way to encourage fruit and vegetable variety. Fruit and vegetables of different colours provide many health benefits.

red varieties (tomato, watermelon, etc) may reduce cancer risk
orange varieties (carrot, mango) improve night vision
yellow varieties (corn, kumara) may reduce cancer and heart disease risk
green varieties (broccoli, beans) may reduce cancer risk
blue varieties (eggplant, grapes, bluberries) may reduce cancer and heart disease risk.

did you know?

the most common reason for poor fruit and vegetable consumption in later life is a lack of knowledge of how to prepare them. Get children involved in meal preparation so that the skill of including fruit and vegetable variety is acquired early. Using fancy vegetable cutters can make otherwise boring vegetables suddenly seem fun and inviting to try.

Understand that there will be some foods your child will honestly not like. Maybe agreeing to select a few that can be avoided will help the child feel okay to accept others in their place.

(The above article was prepared by - Nikki Hart, NZ Registered Dietitian)

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