How do you make fruit and veg fun to help your children reach their five a day? Share your ideas with Change4Life for a chance to win a £300 voucher NOW CLOSED

[EllieMumsnet]

We all know that fruit or veg is the healthiest option, but it can sometimes be tricky to get your children eating their 5 a day. With that in mind, Change4Life would like to hear about the ways you make fruit and veg fun so your children happily tuck in to the fruit and veg on offer.

Whether you arrange fruit and veg into faces, create fruit kebabs or have other creative ways to make fruit and veg fun - share your tips and ideas below.

Feel free to share images of your creations if you have any!

All who leave a comment below will be entered into a prize draw where one MNer will win a £300 voucher for the store of their choice (from a list).

Thanks and good luck!

MNHQ

Standard Insight T&Cs apply

Spiralize the fruit and veg or cut it into shapes to might make it fun and colourful. Make 'grape' caterpillars and 'broccoli trees' etc

I think it's important to get them interested in the preparation and choice of fruit and veg. What I do is get them to pick a fruit or veg they want when we're at the supermarket and encourage them to try a variation and things they haven't tried before.

My children also love fruit but I always try to encourage them to try different fruits, they have them in the porridge and we also make yougurt topped fruit and freeze so it's like a lolly but much healthier. Especially good with grapes or blue berries. Grapes in the freezer are like a sweet my kids love them in the summer

My fave meal in this house (which the kids Devour) is Spag bol! or pasta Bol! So i add veggies tot he sauce!!!!!!! Works a treat and is always scoffed :)

l used to let mine pick all the fruit they liked and vrgtables also then everythink else they would eat but mixed with one of there favs so one of each to eat always worked fine for me let them help do the fruit salad or carrot sticks

I let them think that they're inventing new smoothie flavours and help them to make them

I get them to help choose which fruit and veg I buy each week and vary the options available - bananas or grapes this week? Which variety of apple should we get this time?

They also help prepare fruit kebabs which they enjoy doing.

Smoothies and hidden veg pasta sauce also work well for those fruits and vegetables they aren't so keen on!

I get them involved in the preparation and I try and add as many different coloured items to their plates. My older daughter is interested in how a particularly fruit or vegetable is good for you, so we have quite a few books explaining where they come from and detailing about how they're grown. Finally, their grandparents grow fruit and vegetables in their garden and allotment and this is the most exciting for the children to eat as they love the fact that they've helped harvest what ends up on their plates.

Serve it with something desirable. Veg sticks with cream cheese or hummus to dip. Fruit chopped up and mixed with cereal and a few choc buttons or with yogurt to dip.

I always ask which veg they want with their tea, so they have a choice in the matter, rather than being told to eat their greens. I also make sure we have a choice of fresh and dried fruit at home. We also always have juice in the fridge, and we make smoothies, chop bananas on our porridge, make banana bread in the bread machine, freeze grapes to make them like boiled sweets.....the list is endless. A little bit of imagination and creativity and healthy foods don't have to be boring for children!

When they were younger I used to make faces but now I get a bit of healthy competition going - who will be the first to get their 5 a day! It helps me eat better as well :D

My youngest is bonkers and will steal broccoli and carrot from other people's plates, she loves veg more than anything, but my eldest avoids it like the plague! I like to sneak it into soup or make kebabs, I also hide it in bolognese, lasagna, chilli con carne.

Smoothies all the way! You can hide most things in a smoothie!

I like to make smoothies to boost the count up but I try spread them evenly through the day and incorporate it in to their meals

We grow some veggies in the garden and always have veggies with every meal. I talk about how they are healthy. I don't force them with the ones they don't like. Only encourage them to sometimes try a bite. But focus on serving them the ones they like/ will eat.

Definitely get my child involved with prepping dinners with me helps. So i think letting children in a kitchen whilst you're preparing food helps a lot. Yes sent out of the way if I'm opening the oven, etc but in the rest of the time. They see the colours, smell them and often wants to try them. My Dd has tried and liked all sorts of things you wouldn't think she would because I've never said no (unless it would be unsafe/inedible). Thats how we found she likes onions so much!! Even when I've thought I don't know if you'll like it, it's like what have I got to loose by letting her try?

Also we grew a lot in pots in garden and that also helped. When we picked the carrots, she wanted to eat it straight away. So i made her wash it first, then she ate it with leaves still attached (obviously left that bit). Helps that Secret life of Pets rabbit eats carrots like that to make a key so she tried to as well.

I allow my dd's a little control over it, such as encouraging them to make themselves a fruit salad as a snack, or putting together a pasta salad for their lunches, or topping a pizza base from the selection of fruit/veg/cheeses etc we have in the house (they sometimes make odd choices.... peas on a pizza anyone!?)

Afraid I don't follow the making food fun thing - it's not something to be played with.
I introduced a wide range of fruit and vegetables from weaning so they got to taste as much as possible. There are things they like and things they don't like - and that's okay, some stuff I don't like either, so I don't eat it!
As long as overall, they are getting some veggies and some fruit down every day then I'm cool. I've always talked to them about a healthy diet and they have to make some choices for themselves. I had parents who sat me at a table for hours forcing me to eat and absolutely refuse to do that with my kids. Also, tastes change as they get older - my son hated mushrooms with a passion - loves them now and can't get enough of them.

Just keep encouraging them and more often than not - everything works out okay.

My DS loves his veg (but only raw) and I am quite happy that he would rather eat a plate of veg sticks than a bag of crisps. We mix things up a bit by having different dips - humous, curry mayo etc.

I've never played around being creative with fruit and veg because children should know what their food looks like in its natural form.

Asking your children to help out with food prep is a good way to encourage them. My DS likes to peel the carrots or chop the cucumber (under supervision).

I was brought up on a varied diet which included lots of veg n fruit. I've never really been ill so totally agree get the young ones eating it. Make up a face with fruit and a little white lie on hiding Swede in mash potatoes always works in my home.

I'm lucky in that my four year old really likes fruit. Vegetables are another matter however. Pasta sauces are the best way to get cooked veggies in her as she won't eat soups or vegetables on the side unless they are raw. I decorate pizzas with vegetables and sometimes that works. Also watching 'I can cook' on cbeebies has helped.

Keeping a bowl of chopped fruit in the fridge makes it easy to snack on. My teens definitely eat more fruit when I do this.

I was pleased to learn that pulses count toward five a day. My two year old son is a bit fussy about most veg, especially if it's served on its own rather than as part of a recipe, at the moment but loves spicy falafel, refried bean or homous wraps, bean burgers and thick spicy lentil soup. He also enjoys roast veg and veg frittata.

I'm reading through the thread for ideas to get him back into enjoying fruit. He went off most fruit apart from bananas as it made his reflux worse when he was little. He's better now but still refuses it.

From day 1 if weaning we just put a few different veg on the plate. Let him choose what to eat. Some days he'd only eat carrots, others only the meat or fish. We never made a fuss, never watched or put pressure on to eat certain bits. He's 3 now and we still do the same and he mostly chooses the healthy option.