Keep it colorful            

Challenge your younger children to try fruits and vegetables of different colors. Make it a red/green/orange day (apple, lettuce, carrot). You and your kids can also pick one color and see how many fruits and veggies of that color you can find

.Add it on  

Add fruit and vegetables to food kids already love. Try adding frozen peas to mac’n’cheese, veggies on top of pizza, and slices of fruit on top of breakfast cereals or low-fat ice-cream.

Try Smoothies   

Smoothies are a fabulous way to increase the amount of fruit your child eats and are really easy to make. A basic smoothie is just frozen fruit, some low-fat or fat-free milk and/or yoghurt, and 100% fruit juice all processed together in a blender until smooth. Let your children experiment with different fruit to find out what they really like.

Camouflage them  

Hide fruits and veggies in your children’s’ meal. Camouflage produce in other foods by chopping up and mixing vegetables in pasta sauces, lasagna, casseroles, soup, chili, and omelets. Folding fresh or frozen berries into pancakes, waffles or muffins is another great trick!

Let them choose

Involve your kids in the fruit and vegetable shopping decisions at the supermarket and let them help you in preparing dinner. Kids will want to taste what they helped create.

Meal time should be funtime

Rather than forcing your child to eat new foods, make it exciting to sample something they haven’t tried before. Try “ants on a log”. Cut celery stalk into small log size and fill with peanut butter and top with raisins. Or make a face on a pear half using pieces of fruit and raw vegetables.

Try to involve your child

Involving your child in the meal preparation and selection of a fruit or vegetable or glass of a fruit and vegetable juice blend is a great way to peak their interest in healthy diet decision-making.

Give them options

Offer a variety of foods, so your child has choices. Get them familiar with foods that you like and then find fun ways to prepare the same foods with seasonings and spices that will make it more enjoyable for your child.

Kids love to eat when they are hungry

Know that if children choose not to eat every time they are served a meal or snack, they will make up for it later in the day when they are hungrier.

Healthy snacks

Small meals throughout the day are not bad. Many picky eaters get most of their food at snack time, so make sure you are offering healthy and nutritious snacks and they will grow and grow.

Make them know about good eating habits

When your child is eating, make sure they are not walking around the house with food and/or a drink in hand. Have them sit in the kitchen or at a play table and not sitting and watching a video or television as they eat. This could become a bad food habit.

It helps to be persistent

Research shows that it can take 8-15 tries of a new food before your child accepts it... so just keep offering new foods and over time your child will expand their choices. Often parents stop offering a new food after 3 to 5 tries- so stay with and keep offering.

Smalls cooking innovations

Some kids are sensitive to new things. By offering a variety of foods your child will develop their taste preferences while also learning to appreciate different tastes and textures. Try mixing cooked veggies with raw veggies to introduce different textures for the same foods. Using fruits with skin on and off and in different size slices and cuts to form a funny face can also be a fun activity..

Postive Environment

Kids learn positive and negative habits based on what is happening around them, so keep mealtimes relaxed and the environment comfortable.

Avoid using food as bribe

Instead of using food as a bribe or reward - offer a treat and/or dessert if they eat their veggies! If they do not like the food, or have lost interest in eating, let them be excused from the table.

Weight check 

If you are worried that your child is not getting enough to eat, periodically check their weight. Remember your young child will gain weight less quickly than he or she did as an infant. Just stay calm, sit back and relax! Soon your child will be eating a variety of foods, just like you.

Click here for some quick healthy food recipes for Kids.