Fruit for kids

Fresh fruit is best and you were doing right putting peeled and cut up fruit in their lunch boxes. Children can have fruit - pureed, or poached and pureed - almost from the moment they start on solid food. The problem for toddlers is usually that they usually need fruit peeled and cut. Bananas are very popular as they are easy to prepare, soft and sweet - and probably they are used to mashed banana from when they were babies. You can also try pears or apples, peeled and cut, easy peel tangerines, freshly squeezed orange juice, seedless grapes, and summer berries.

There are other ways to serve fruit you can try.

Serve fruit chunks with a sweet dip, such as vanilla flavored cream cheese or chocolate. This usually entices kids with a sweet tooth to try fruit. Try fruit in a skewer as this easy fruit kebab if they are old enough.

Fruit salads are always popular, and you can serve them with a littler cream or ice cream. Encourage them to peel their own bananas and tangerines, and praise when they do, and help to cut fruit for the fruit salad, or they will become lazy and will not eat fruit when they are older and you are not longer preparing it for them.

They can drink fruit in the way of fruit juices or smoothies. You can try all sort of fruit juice varieties and combinations if you have a juicer at home. Take care. They are kids and they need kids portions. Probably 1/2 cup orange juice is plenty - it is plenty even for adults as variety is a better choice. Toddlers and very young children may need the juice diluted. Also remember fruit juice is not water; too much fruit juice amounts to liquid candy.

See cool and healthy snacks for kids for fruity snack ideas ideal in the warm weather.

Dried fruit has health advantages and you can add it to sauces, such as a mild curry, cakes, muffins, or make fruit snack bars such as these date squares. If the kids are enough, add dried fruit to their breakfast cereal. Dried fruit is more than raisins apricots. You can have sliced bananas, apple, mango and all sort of berries. While most kids will not take to dried cranberries, they love dried strawberries of raspberries with their cereal. Try dried fruit in home-made trail mix. Ask them to help so they can choose the kind of fruits and nuts they want. This way they will be more likely to eat it later.

Peel and chop a variety of seasonal fruits your child enjoys. Serve as finger food or with some vanilla yogurt - summer - or home made custard - winter.

Suitable for children from 2-3 years. Remember to use seedless grapes or halve them and remove pips.

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Fruits and vegetables should be a staple in the diet because they pack in nutrients and are typically low in calories. They make healthy snacks and great additions to omelets, add color to the lunch or dinner plate, satisfy with their chewiness and hydrate with their high water composition.