Share your tricks for encouraging kids to eat healthily with Soreen - chance to win a £300 voucher NOW CLOSED

[EmmaMumsnet]

Behind every child's balanced diet is a healthy portion of creativity, and Soreen want to find out about all the imaginative ways in which you jazz up healthy foods to make them more appealing for your DCs.

Here’s what Soreen has to say: “At Soreen we created our individually wrapped lunchbox loaves to feature our malt loaf character, in order to keep lunchtime and snack time healthy but exciting for young children. We’re always trying to come up with new ways to help children make heathier choices and would love to hear how you do this with your DCs.”

So how do you make healthier food choices more fun? Do you fashion food into faces? Draw smiles on bananas and egg shells? Or even blend fruit and vegetables to hide them completely?

Share your creative ways of making healthy eating more fun below and you will be entered into a prize draw where one MNer will win a £300 voucher of their choice (from a list).

Thanks and good luck!

MNHQ

Standard Insight T&Cs Apply

i always find getting them to help out with food prep has helped although my eldest is very picky so when i make soups i literally put all sorts in and just blend it up, she will eat soup :)

My daughter is a very fussy eater but I find hiding vegetables in food works! She also loves a lot of home made soups which I put vegetables she won't normally eat in and she doesn't realise!

Listen to what they say and work around it. My son hated carrots (and prawns and mushrooms), but was perfectly happy to eat all his greens!

Fruit salads, delicious and healthy, and a good way to get your five a day

I have always found growing vegetables, fruit and herbs with the children really helps. I also get them to cook with me eg. make some wholemeal bread dough for pizza and a tomato sauce topped with home grown courgettes works well. We all eat together and babies are offered a tiny taste of everything suitable from my plate

Being open and honest works for us. They know why they need to eat well and we encourage it to the point that they enjoy both the healthy options and also the treats that follow.

I always try to get my son involved in whatever we are making. We always do a little tasting along the way and although we have a long way to go he is starting to try most foods. I have always named his boiled egg and now he wants superhero characters drawn on the egg shell!

My daughter is vegetarian like all of us so she does eat pretty heathily although she does have her mother's love for chocolate! We try and make meals interesting with different vegetables and pulses. When she was really little, we used to make spaghetti faces, which she loved.

Although my children do like some veg (they all love fruit) theres others they wont touch. Pasta sauces and pizza sauce are great for veg hiding. Blending veg with tomatos and a bit of tomato puree helps to disguise for the perfect pizza sauce

I like to cut salad and fruit into shapes and make funny faces out of them, this has definitely helped. The best of both bread is a great way to get them to eat whole meal bread

set a good example for them, and eat fruit and veg at every meal

make sure you stick to a healthy diet as well

I turn everything into a story for my 5 & 2 year old. They love stories anyway but if they're looking at their broccoli like it's just flown in on a UFO then I just say something that sounds magical to them like 'broccoli is so yummy that it's said to be a Mermaids favourite food when she visits the land'
Gobbled up
'Sweet corn gives your skin a lovely golden glow like a princess'

And so on. Works like a charm for my two.

The best way is for you to show them how you enjoy veg/friut yourself and allow them to choose there own at the supermarket.

My daughters 12 now and as a child would eat anything, now I'll resort to anything to try and get her 10 a day in. I grate carrots and courgette and put them into everything. She'll drink smoothies but claims not to like bananas so I always chuck one in I'm hoping she grows out of it! Never have a problem with her eating malt loaf though-maybe that's the way to go!

I think hidden veg is the easiest way. We have carrots, aubergine and peppers in our Spaghetti bolognese. I also have a spiralizer and courgette spaghetti always goes down well.

I have never had a problem. Introduce your baby to as many different tastes as possible. Yes they will turn their nose up at it the first time, it is simply something they are not used to, but persevere & you will have a child that enjoys all the healthy food, without being forced to eat it

fortunately we have a happy eater who isn't fussy at all, if h was I think I would try to make the food on the plate look as inviting as possible by cutting things into shapes and adding foods of different colours and textures to liven it up a bit.

We get our sons involved in cooking healthy meals and find if they have had input into choosing the ingredients and making it they are far more open to trying new things. They love learning about new foods and what benefits they have on their health as well.

Sneaky veg recipes like sweet potato brownies and banana pancakes. They still get their favorites but you sneak in fruit and veg without them having any idea - win win!

We've always offered fruit and veggies as finger snacks for the children and when weaning I concentrated more on getting veggies in there first. As they are now older I make sure that we don't have much junk int he house so that they don't help theirselves but we always have lots of fruit and veg in the house and I persuade them to help prep meals too

I always put a mixture of foods on the plate and different shapes to make it fun. I've also got a plate that divides foods into sections. I'm lucky because both my kids love fruit.

I'm quite lucky with my son that he does enjoy healthy options, but I do try and have help me prepare our meals and make it all a bit fun for him! Also when we are doing our grocery shopping I have him choose the fruit and veg :) x

To make healthy eating fun, we make it colourful and make shapes with the foods - such as vegetables as faces and make it tasty using a tomato dip

Hide those veg in anything I possibly can!