Thursday, March 18, 2010

Five or More Servings of Fruits and Veggies a Day?


Getting kids to eat the recommended 5 or more servings of fruits and vegetables a day is a challenge.
Parents are the role model for their kids, so a good start is to enjoy a variety of foods themselves, especially fruits and vegetables. Although infants often get a lot of healthy foods, once they start eating table food, what you eat is going to be a big influence on what your kids like to eat.

Also, kids should be offered repeated opportunities to try new foods. That may mean offering up to 10 times a particular type of vegetable before the child can start enjoying it.
Another recommendation from experienced moms is to find foods kids already like, and add fruits and vegetable to them. That works perfectly well with recipes for smoothies, muffins, cookies, etc

Here are additional tips provided by keepkidshealthy.com:
- Let your kids pick the fruits they want to eat when you go shopping.
- Mix fruit pieces in with yogurt or serve them with a dip.
- Make fruit smoothies.
- Offer a fruit salad as a dessert or snack.
- Add chopped fruit, especially berries and bananas, to your child's cereal.
- Try dried fruits.
- Offer chopped veggies with a dip, like ranch dressing.
- Serve vegetables as a stir-fry.
- Let your child help prepare the meal.
- Start a vegetable garden at home so your kids can eat the vegetables they grow or visit a farm or farmer's market.

Based on source: kidseathealthy.com

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