Getting kids to eat fruit and veg is a losing battle every parent must fight, but DI-VE has the key to make your life easier and your kids’ diet better!

Let’s be honest, vegetables are not as appetising as chicken nuggets or an ice-cream, but they are vital for a healthy diet. And while WE understand the importance of eating our ground-grown friends many kids don’t. Worry not, however, as there are many ways to get them to eat fruit and veg.

Disguise Them: Finely grate carrots into tomato sauce or cover broccoli heads in low-fat cheese. What kids don’t see, doesn’t exist! However, make sure you tell them what they’ve eaten once they’ve actually eaten it so they realise that vegetables are neither scary nor disgusting!

Cheat: Bake a cake with currants, make homemade strawberry milkshakes or use vegetables as pizza toppings. This way they’ll be eating something they would normally ask for themselves while unknowingly upping their intake of fibre and vitamins.

Get the Kids Involved: Cooking is a fun activity for kids not a chore! Once they get involved in making the pizza or the casserole, they are more likely to want to eat it because they’ll be proud of their achievement. It also teaches them that food does not come out of thin air and they are more likely to appreciate the parents’ effort at putting meals on the table.

Seeing is Believing: According to a British study, when kids see adults eat vegetables, they are more likely to try it out. Of course, don’t expect miracles overnight, but in the long run this almost always works, after all we all used to be vegetable non-eaters, didn’t we?

Make Vegetables Fun: Vegetables don’t have to be boring! Turn vegetable eating into a game. Try filling up a Yorkshire pudding with mashed potato and placing a broccoli head on top, it will look like a tree on a hill. Alternatively, boil various vegetables and, making sure the child’s hands are clean, let them know they can arrange them into something they like, like a face or a boat - it’s not the cleanest of things, but it will sure help them eat veggies!

Don’t Nag: It’s in our DNA: the more someone pushes us to do something the more likely we are to not do it. Studies have shown that the worst thing a parent can do to make kids eat vegetables is to actually tell them to. Your job as a parent is to present them with vegetables, but eating them is their job, so as difficult as it is: keep your mouth shut. Nevertheless, telling them that not eating vegetables will not get them any snacks or sweets after is totally acceptable.

Do you have any tips on how to make kids eat vegetables? Let us know!