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

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'Baby' fruit and veg are always a hit. Cherry tomatoes, mini cumcumbers, baby corn, baby carrots, baby potatoes, Scottish strawberries.

My Kids both love Fruit & Veg! I've never had to try and bribe them to eat it because they both enjoy it, and will ask for a Fruit salad for eating all their dinner.
But we do change it up now and again and make them in the Blender, or Blend it and freeze it for a Yummy frozen desert!

Set up a smoothie stall in your house for a fun activity! I buy a lot of different frozen fruits, pop them all on the table along with some fresh fruit, and juice, and I let the children make their own smoothies. Of course they get to press the button on the smoothie machine too to swoosh it all up! They drink the lot too.

My children much prefer fruit and veg uncooked so when they were pre-school age I used to give them loads of it as finger food with a little sandwich or breadsticks.
Now they are older I find myslef doing the same - I try to get the fruit and veg into them at breakfast, lunch (packed lunch for one DC; lunch at home for home-schooled DC) and snacks and just accept they aren't going to eat many at dinner.
One of my resolutions has to be to try to get them to go to trying new fruit and veg again and to remember to buy a wider variety. My younger child loves avocado, for example, but as it's pricey I hardly ever remember to buy it. I have also started giving her a fruit smoothie or juice at lunchtime which isn't great sugar- or fibre-wise but I don't think I could meet the target on school days otherwise. Again, I put some dried fruit into lunchboxes which I am not keen on because of sugar and cost but it's a shortcut...

When introducing new vegetables my ds would try anything that was shaped into the letters of his name. Peppers, carrots, sweet potato and cucumber can all be easily carved into shape.

Honestly I don't do anything elaborate, just include fruit and veg at meal times. We set an example as parents that fruit and veg are key points for each meal and for snacks. My children love to steal my snacks so that works out well! I'm quite happy for them to nick my apple or blueberries.

My one year old does love when I hide blueberries in my closed hand and she has to find them!

I always offer veg first at dinner. My little one is only 14 months but will always choose meat over veg (well except for sweet potato!). He loves roasted courgette so I offer that to him first and once he's eaten that I give him the rest of his dinner. Guarantees at least one vegetable into him!

Mine do like their fruit but prefer it if I cut it up and make a platter for them..... bit time consuming but it has the desired result! Also I have an apple slicer which is amazing! So little waste.
I bob lots of veg (sliced up tiny so they don't notice) into my spag bols, currys, chillis etc

Broccoli is little trees.... carrots are what Peter Rabbit eats....

I make faces using tomatoes, cucumber, peppers, peas, green beans etc.

Remind them why they should be eating fruit & veg - children often want to be 'big & strong & tall'!

I struggle with this, as I don't eat salad, and DC won't eat it either, but they do eat vegetables. With them, I find plainer is better, they don't like anything in a sauce or messed around with!

No idea how to get them to eat salad, as I don't believe in forcing a child to eat anything which is what happened to me as a child. Now I can't stand the stuff.

DD loves strawberries and will eat them in a wrap with a light spread of chocolate sauce. I guess the sauce will be frowned upon, but everything in moderation!

I get DC to help me in the kitchen, they wash/prep veg, they are more likely to eat what they made by themselves.

Fried rice, I throw in all veg

Giving them a choice, they are likely to pick at least one type of veg

Veg soup.
Butter, minced garlic and onion, sauté it , throw in any veg you have, stock/water , let it simmer. Blend everything together, add cream and freshly ground pepper.

My dcs (lazy as they are) love a platter of chopped up fruit and will happily eat it.
I always serve vegetables with meals. Sometimes it’s grated and hidden, sometimes it’s the main part of a meal and sometimes it’s blended as a soup.
One of my dcs refuses to eat peas and another, aubergine so I don’t serve those.
If we bake, I try to find recipes that include fruit and veg like blueberry muffins or carrot cake so there’s a bit more veg there.

Smoothies!
And we had afternoon tea recently where we had puréed cranberries with cream soda in a cute tiny milk bottle with a fancy paper straw - dd loves recreating it (with soda water instead of cream soda!).

We have a selection of fruit and veg in at all times and I often let the children choose things in the shop. We usually have a veg starter and I often let one of the children choose/make it.

My approach has been to always have it available - big bowl on the counter, lots in the fridge, and serve lots with meals. Normalise it. In addition, we serve lots of smoothies - great for using up the fruit going a bit soft - to increase their intake.
I do think there's an element of individual preference at play here. I have three DDs: two eat loads of fruit and most vegetables. The 3rd (not the youngest) - will eat a fair amount of vegetables, but will 'tolerate' kiwis and raspberries only. None of my usual tricks work. But perhaps she'll come round in the end: it's a marathon this parenting malarkey, not a sprint...

DS is ASD so he's tricky but he loves a pea eating competition with his sister, first to 100 peas.

Fruit much better with and a bowl by him helps.

I do smiley faces with food and he loves broccoli which looks like trees, the tenderstem.

Good luck with getting much veg during this brexit summer. Food shortages coming down the track.

Sprinkle them with edible glitter!

leaving bowls of chopped out fruit works for mine.

Mine are pretty good with both fruit and vegetables. I try to offer a variety and have always found the novelty of fruit/veggie kebabs or ice lollies made with chopped up fruit and juice have been a hit with more reluctant eaters. I’ve found that a story helps eg brocoll forest or spiralled veg as a sea is helpful in that reluctant toddler phase. Failing them falling for the story I sneakily grated in lots of veggies to bolognaises and stews

My girls love beetroot.
Weirdly, I give the girls peas and sweet corn straight from the freezer. They LOVE them as a snack.. and they're like a tiny explosion of flavour... I tried them.
I give them raw bits of veg when I'm preparing food, so they nibble on sugar snap peas or carrots.
Then, in food: I make a lot of soup. We all eat soup and the kids love it. We have veg chopped into pasta and really, in everything (lasagne with sweet corn, French beans, peppers..)
Then in summer I make a massive salad with feta and we all sit around and eat from the same huge sharing bowl! Delicious..

I have found that if I offer fruit and veg, it is often refused, but if I just peel/cut/prepare some and start eating by myself, my preschooler will then want some too.

I think a couple of things help and one of those is getting them involved in preparation of the fruit/veg. My kids love helping out and are much more interested if they have been involved in the process.

My two children absolutely love fruit kebabs! If I give them a whole apple or a bowl of grapes they are disinterested.

Pull out a wooden skewer, let them attach a variety of ready chopped colourful fruit pieces and they're suddenly engaged and well on their way to give a day!

My kids love to chop up their own fruit to make fruit salads. They love fruit, it’s vegetables that are less popular.