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

[AbbiCMumsnet]

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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

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For one child I leave fruit slices in a bowl while he watches TV, put 'fruit sweets' in his lunchbox and insist on a banana for breakfast. For the other I have to limit how much he has in one day as he eays so much and a great variety.

We always leave fruit in a bowl on the table and if my kiddies are hungry between meals they can help themselves to fruit.
We make watermelon slices, pineapple, banana and pop them in the freezer that way the kids have a nice healthy ice pop for hot days or a treat after dinner. These are great for teething too.
Often when I'm making dinner I will ask the 8yo and 5yo to choose and chop the fruit for a fruit salad after dinner. They love helping out and this way it encourages them to include fruits the whole family like.
I find the best way for kids to eat fruit is just to see their parents and siblings eating it too

Fruit ice lollies especially in summer make them with the kids. Always offer fruit as a dessert instead of say cake or ice cream it encourages them to automatically assume fruit is the go to dessert. Have the fruit bowl in reach for little hands to grab.Always try and garnish breakfast with fruit say banana on toast berries in the oatmeal fresh squeezed juice. Show kids that you are eating it they will almost always copy you.

My two really enjoy fruit, it tends to be the first thing I offer them as a snack, I can't convince them that fruit is a treat though. They really enjoy fruit cut up into a fruit salad!
The ice lollies sound great though, I'm going to look out for them!

Hi I am a newly single mum and this be world is very daunting to me? I keep being told by friends that I should now be looking at the benefits I would be entitled too. I really don't know where to start. Has anyone been through this recently? I work part time about 25 hours and will continue to do so I just don't know where to begin?!

My little boy is 4 and has autism, he's a very fussy eater and restricted diet, along with sensory processing difficulties, but with lots of time and patience I have managed to get him to try and explore more fruits, I found a fruit song naming video on YouTube where he discovered lots of new fruit names, and I made a fruit snake on a long tray, so each section of the snake had a different type of fruit, he would start of by pointing and naming each fruit, then he would pick it up and feel it on his cheek, then give a lick with his tongue, which he found funny when it tasted sour an pulled a face, he would squish the raspberries in his hands and roll it around then lick his fingers, same with the banana which would often get rubbed into my sofa 🤷🏻‍♀️ but it's all fun and I think that's the best way to go with when trying to get a child to try new/healthy foods, he's now obsessed with fruit and asks for it all the time, I suggested mwe stir his mashed up raspberries in yoghurt an he enjoyed mixing it, he absolutely loved it 🤗

I'm lucky that all three of mine love fruit though it costs me a bloody fortune! and I know that is hugely luck and small part down to me, not the other way around, but my top tips would be -

1. Fruit bowl is always available, the reply to "I'm hungry" is "go have some fruit", as my mum always said "if you aren't hungry for fruit, then you aren't really hungry" and I kind of agreed with her/understood this properly by the time I was about 8, my sister's and I loved fruit anyway though

1. Have a good selection of fruit / change it up each week so they don't get bored of eating the same 2 or 3 types of fruit all the time. I get them involved in choosing before I go shopping / while we are there if they are with me

1. Lead by example, but that's easy for me because I'm a big fruit fan, not so easy if you aren't

1. In warmer weather keep fruit in the fridge so it's really refreshing, I eat a lot more apples in the summer than in the winter because I find them really refreshing from the fridge in the hot weather

I have different fruit ready in bowls for when they come back from school starving. This fills them up better than crisps and snacks, so I’m pleased!
I have their usual fruits they enjoy, but sometimes add something new like pineapple or raspberries. I’ve made a rule in the house to always try new food, that way they can decide if it’s nice or not.
I also make fruit smoothies with fruit that is close to going off and I call it superhero juice to make boys and girls strong, which they love!

My children only like some fruits like grapes strawberry and banana but I like to make fruit kebabs using shapes of fruit that way they will eat or I’ll make jelly with satsumas in they will eat it ❤️ I have to trick them 😂😂

Pancakes with banana, cinnamon and egg - no sugar! Porridge with any fruit cut up small and stirred through. same with yoghurt. Peeled apple as snack. Fruit isn’t the issue, veggies are a bit harder!

Mine are not too bad at eating fruit, but if trying to get them to eat something different for a change I let them pick a different fruit, something that they haven't tried at the supermarket and then as it is their choice they seem to be more open to it!

Fruit picking farms are a fun activity they enjoy in summer time and it is nice for them to pick them themselves and see how they grow.

Occasionally as a treat mine some times have kiwis, strawberries, apples and orange segments with dipping chocolate.

Mine are quite good but smoothies definitely help.

Mine have no trouble eating fruit at all. They clear the fruit bowl in days. I often have to say to them to not have some. I think vegetables are better, for their teeth anyway but there are less of those they'll eat.

Smoothies here too. It's the easiest way with lots of fruit and enthusiasm!

I don’t have problems getting my DC to eat fruit - it’s sweet! But, we try to vary it a lot and do things like;

• find a fruit we’ve never eaten before in the supermarket to encourage trying new things
• make smoothies that are fruit based & add vegetables and seeds
• make smoothie ice lollies instead of buying ones full of sugar etc
• use over ripe bananas to make ice cream
• create fruit salads
• berries or stewed fruit in porridge every morning

If you asked DD1 what her favourite food in the whole world is, she says strawberries (not sure how long that will be the case though, only age 5!)

Ds1 isn't a fruit eater by choice. He can be persuaded to add bananas, strawberries and occasional blueberries to Weetabix at breakfast time. He likes a smoothie but only once in a while.

Ds2 needs no encouragement to eat apples, he likes crunchy and tangy fruit. Not keen on soft fruit though. Hates smoothies.

So my advice is have it with breakfast I suppose.

I never really understand threads like this. Is there anyone who finds eating fruit a chore? It's pretty simple really, you just try different fruits until you know which ones you like, and then you eat them. For instance, I like peaches, berries, bananas, citrus, melons, grapes and passion fruit. I'm a bit ambivalent about apples and mangoes. I don't like pears. Sometimes I eat them raw, sometimes cooked, sometimes on their own or sometimes in combination, sometimes on cereal, sometimes in smoothies and juices, sometimes with cream, ice cream, yoghurt or custard. My children have different preferences and therefore choose different fruits. I facilitate this by adding them to my shopping list.

If you don't like fruit, you could try vegetables or salad stuff instead (perhaps not with custard).

fruit it part of every day life.its their as much as other food is so is to be enjoyed not made into a treat or a chore.
cut them into slices and pieces helps.
try to get them to have some everyday.
there is alays apple in the fridge.melon.and a berry.and its good to hav them choose a fruit when they go out so they can keep getting excited about them.
berrys on branflakes in the morning
little pots of fruit salad are great.
and even putting them into pudding to make them see how they can taste different and great even in their cakes!
fruit plate faces is a fun thing to do for the littlies.
smaler fruit like grapes(cut)strawberries and raspberries in a bowl for them to pick at is a good idea.finger food always helps things along.
show them how to make jams and syrups for their ice cream
and crumbles.

We love sugar free jelly made with tinned or frozen fruit as a treat. Growing fruit in our garden has been a great success, as have visits to pick your own fruit farms. Our ice cream maker was a great investment, Greek yoghurt and banana is our favourite

Making smoothies or fruit kebabs together. I also make pasta sauces with loads of hidden veg. Tinned fruit, provided its not in syrup is good as can be more consistent/easy to eat/prep. Although my kids are pretty iffy about cooked veg they will eat raw veg. My kids also love raisins which are a handy treat!

No persuading necessary. We love fruit. Always have good stuff in the fruit bowl.

Find a fruit they like and keep it available in the house. Mine love
Cherries
Blueberries
Strawberries
Melons
Kiwi Fruits
Bananas

No other encouragement is needed.

My 11-year old is obsessed with frozen fruit. I get bags of mango chunks, strawberries, raspberries and he has bowlfuls. I have to stop him so he'll eat something else once in a while! I make fruit smoothies every Sunday for breakfast with fresh and frozen fruit, milk and honey. There's always a fruit bowl with washed fruit in the kitchen and we often have fresh watermelon or pineapple which he helps chop.