Share your tips on the ways you get fruit into your kids' diet and encourage them to eat more fruit

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Fruit is a key component of a healthy diet, and making sure your kids eat enough of it can be a challenge. It can take countless attempts to convince your child to eat some, and getting to a point where your kids don’t dismiss the idea is no mean feat. With this in mind, Nice by Nature would love to know all the different ways you get fruit into your kids’ diet, and how you encourage them to eat more of it.

Here is what Nice By Nature have to say:
“At Nice By Nature we’ve created a new range of delicious fruit ice lollies! They are made from 100% fruit and absolutely nothing else! In fact our lollies always contain:
- 4 ingredients or less
- No added sugar
- 22-24 calories
- Contributes to your five-a-day

Your kids might call them a snack or even a treat, but you can think of them as a fruit bowl in your freezer!

From talking with mums and dads, we know that it is not always easy getting the food we want into our kids' hands, let alone their tummies! We simply believe that nature has its own store cupboard, a world of wonderful ingredients in the fields, forests and orchards. The good news is that Mother Nature is happy to share!

Visit our website and follow us @nicebynatureuk to find out more!"

Have you come up with a crafty way to get your kids to eat more fruit? Have you managed to persuade your kids to see fruit as a treat? If so, do you have any techniques you could share? Or maybe this isn’t necessary and your children are already very good at eating lots of fruit?

Whatever your ways of getting your kids to eat more fruit, share them on the thread below, and feel free to add a picture or video to accompany your post - we’d love to see these!

Everyone who does 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

Dried fruit, smoothies, ice lollies

I've never had a problem with DS1. So far he has tried every fruit given to him and the only ones he hasn't liked are papaya and litchi which I can live with. We have to stop him rather than encourage him.

DS2 is much more fussy. We found growing fruit and PYO helps him try new fruits but he doesn't always continue eating them when at home. I blend fruit in lollies and freeze or blend up frozen banana and another frozen fruit as ice cream and he eats those. Fruit salad and fruit kebabs which are a great hit with DS1 don't work for him as he just picks out what he likes. He eats about 5 different fruits so we are just going to keep offering and hope he improves over time as he only 2 and will hopefully get more adventurous.

I find a fruit salad goes down much better here than say 1 whole apple/banana etc, plus by the time I've added a selection of everything they are probably eating 2 whole portions (and a good variety of colour and vitamins) rather than just 1 piece of the same fruit

I also offer fruit first when they come in from school...they are ravenous then so aren't as picky!

Too much fruit isn't good for the teeth, so better to balance with a rainbow of vegetables too. It's always been a thing in our house that breakfast includes a fruit and that all snacks through the day include some form of salad and/or chopped up carrots.

When dd was little I made fruit plates up with different fruits set out like a face. She's older now but still tucked into one I made about an hour ago.

Both my kids love fruit, and some veg. We always have a big, seasonal variety of both fruit and veg in. We leave it in easy reach so they can just help themselves, which they do. When I cook vegetables for myself I always offer it. Some days when my kids are not in the mood for fruit or veg I make them skewers, which they get really excited about, even though it is just fruit or veg chopped up. At school they made fruit faces which my DD thought was really fun.

Praise every time they try something new and let them pick what fruits and veggies they want in the house :)

My DS loves fruit - always left a fruit bowl between the sofa and the TV. DD loves to make fruit smoothies.

Share your tips on the ways you get fruit into your kids' diet

Easy. I put fruit in the fruit bowl, turn my back, and next minute it's gone.

On the other hand, if I want the entire week's supply to last more than 24 hours I hide it in a cupboard, remind my boys to please only have one of each type of fruit per day (bearing in mind there are usually at least three types in the bowl at any one time, e.g. apples, bananas, satsumas) and gradually replenish the fruit-bowl from the cupboard as it runs down.

Give them bowls of cut up fruit while they are watching TV. Carry satsumas in my bag for snacks while out. Get them involved with cooking - we made summer pudding last week with fruit we had picked at PYO.

Get them to see fruit as part of what they eat from from a young age. Fruit salads can be useful to get a variety of tastes in. I don’t believe in sneaking in anything to a child’s diet but we do make fruit ice lollies and smoothies which the DC love

Fruits are nature's candy! Most children love fruit. Certainly in my house, it's never been a problem. If anything the opposite is a problem as too much fruit acid can be bad for your teeth

I'm lucky as my children will eat fruit happily. One thing I've always done is buy lots of colourful fruit and just put them on the table when we're eating lunch - this seems to do the trick and I'll often let them pick what they want in the supermarket. We have a fruit bowl out and accessible at all times too. Also my youngest is addicted to oranges even though we've never bought any (until now of course) because no one else likes them. She started liking them because she picked up a free one in Tesco!

Mine love a fruit salad so we do this often, also have fruit on offer for snacks instead of sweets and cakes etc. We also like to make smoothies ice lollies.

I don't need to encourage my DC at all, they eat loads of fruit, in fact my only issue is buying enough to keep up! :)
Frozen grapes are lovely!

My two DDs love fruit. But recently the 7 year old has started to see it as a healthy choice, so if after dinner she has some fruit (which used to count as dessert) she now thinks she should still get a treat after that!

I find that they both prefer fruit when it’s chopped up and laid out nicely on a platter - they will happily munch away until it’s all gone. Whereas an apple or banana is usually left half eaten somewhere.

My DH is terrible at eating fruit, but he will have it if it’s dessert - so loads of chopped berries in a meringue nest with a scoop of ice cream or a fruit platter / skewer with a tiny side of Nutella goes down well.

I realise you asked about how to get fruit into kids, but honestly DH is the fussiest of the lot! He does love ice lollies though so maybe I’ll try them!

Prepare it nicely even though it's annoying to chop and peel until they become more accustomed to it.

Stick to the real thing and avoid fresh fruit "products" or treats which don't teach them fresh fruit appearance and taste is variable and that's OK.

Banana milkshakes.
Banana and strawberry or raspberry milkshakes.
Apple grated into pork rissoles or into coleslaw

To be honest, my children eat very little fruit, through choice. An apple a day. The very occasional peeled pear or chunks of pineapple or watermelon. But they eat lots of veg of all types, so I don't worry.

We've always been really enthusiastic about fruit in our house. It's not a treat but we act like it is 'oooh who wants an apple!'
Also fruit is always readily available on the kitchen table and kids are allowed to help themselves

My youngest is amazing he'll eat anything! My oldest is awful he'll only eat apples! He eats up to 4 a day! I've found that smoothies work and juices but if he suspects certain ingredients are in them he'll sometime refuse! Using a cup or bottle that isn't see through helps as then they can't see what colour it is!

Go Fruit Picking. Visit a farm where it is PYO and they'll probably easily be eating them as you go round. Doesn't just have to be strawberries either. Great way to be hands on and food always tastes better outside to.