Fruit and Veg - Marketing 101

"I can't get my child to eat fruit and vegetables!" Many parents struggle daily with their children trying to get them eating fruit and/ or vegies. We know that a balanced diet should be high in both of these food types, but how do you get your child to eat them without a fuss?

Good Old Dependable Puree

This is certainly the easiest option when trying to get your kids consuming their daily fix of greens. Proceed as follows: Boil or steam a selection of delicious, healthy vegetables; puree them into a brown sloppy mess; add brown sloppy mess to your bolognaise sauce, casserole, hamburger patties, tuna mornay - or whatever takes your fancy; watch your child eat their daily serve of vegies none the wiser as to the real contents of their dinner. Easy, quick and no tantrums involved! In all honesty, my toddler enjoyed this food preparation method for about six months and it worked perfectly for us. I was happy, she was happy and gone were the nightly dramas associated with dinner time where she would push the lovingly prepared meal back across the table "I not like yucky green things Mummy!" I had added puree veg to about everything I could think of without a care in the world. But what happens when you decide you want your child to start 'seeing' the vegetables/ fruit in their food?

Food Appeal

One day we were out shopping and passed a Sushi take-away store. "Oh please Mummy, I have one of those ones?" My daughter was pointing at the beautifully arranged Sushi rolls, sitting in the window looking gorgeous with their colourful presentation and interesting shapes. It started me thinking about the way I presented food and how my child perceived the food she was given. So I conducted an experiment. I put a plate of steamed vegetables and sliced fruit in front of my child at the table - which was promptly rejected (as I expected). I then sent her to play and placed the same vegetables and fruit slices on a skewer, arranged in alternating colours, looking quite appealing and a little bit fun. I accompanied them with a yoghurt dipping sauce and tried again. To my surprise she picked up the skewer and started eating, using the dipping sauce and exclaiming how delicious her new treat was.

Marketing to Your Child

Now I have been a parent long enough to know that these little tricks are not full-proof, nor will they work every time with every child. But I do think that sometimes we overlook the importance of a beautifully prepared meal that appeals to our child's senses, not our own adult expectations or a functional meal packed with all five food groups represented. Food should be fun, colourful and interesting to your child if you want your best chance at success for a fuss-free meal and clean plate at the end.
Here are some of our suggestions to get you thinking about the way you market food to your child:

• Fruit or vegetable skewers (grilled or served raw) with a yoghurt dipping sauce.
• Muffins baked with your favourite fruit or vegetables diced into the mixture before cooking.
• Beautifully coloured plastic cups containing diced fruit and a few small chocolate chips.
• Add fruit slices to jelly before setting it in the fridge.
• Use cookie cutters to make delicious fruit and vegetable shapes.
• Puree fruit and freeze it in ice cube trays to add to your child's milk.
• Roll up salad and chicken together in a soft tortilla shell and serve with a tomato dipping sauce.
• Give your fruit or vegies a name and make a game out of it. Sometimes we have 'alien bites' from Mars (this is generally slices of banana or cubes of pumpkin). We have a race to see who can eat the most.
• Place noodles and vegetables in a take-away container and eat it outside.
• Cut up your fruit and veg to make a picture on your child's plate. Try making a face, a house or your child's favourite animal. Encourage them to eat a certain part for each bite.
• Place diced vegetables in your child's favourite soup along with some fun pasta shapes.
• Serve pikelets with a pureed fruit dipping sauce. Berries are delicious as well as mango, banana or apple.
• Dip fruit in a little chocolate spread and arrange in matching colours on the plate.
• Thread dried fruit on some string for a 'fruity' edible necklace.
• Place diced fruit in a square-bottom ice cream cone and top with yoghurt. Serve with a spoon.

Remember - you know your child the best, so market food to their interests and favourite things. If your child is into superheros, call the carrots 'power bites' (designed to give all superheros special powers like seeing in the dark!), or if your child enjoys creepy crawlies call the beans 'spider legs'. It is just a matter of finding what works. And if all else fails, try again in a week or so - you will eventually find something that appeals, and when you do, milk it for all it's worth!

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