Kids health: how to make fruit fun for fussy eaters

If your failure to make fruit 'fun' for fussy eaters is hindering your youngster's health, today's sensible snack is not only guaranteed to stimulate their senses, but satisfy their stubborn stomaches with a multitude of mandatory micronutrients - think vital vitamins, minerals and free radical fighting antioxidants - that will benefit both their body, and their brain...

Ingredients:

• 1 pear
• 2 tiny raisins 
• an abundance of green grapes (and one red or black grape to create the nose!
• a selection of cocktail sticks

How to make the healthy hedgehog:

• Using a potato peeler, slice the skin from the tip of the pear to create the hedgehog's head.
• Insert a selection of cocktail sticks (piercing the posterior part of the pear) to create the appearance of spikes before adding an abundance of green grapes - the grapes should be positioned as close to the body of the pear as possible, with the tip of the cocktail stick still showing.
• Slide a single cocktail stick through the tip of the pear (at the end of the hedgehog's head) and attach a darker coloured grape to create a nose.
• Add two tiny raisins as 'eyes' before serving on a bed of lettuce (for leaves) scattered with tasty tomatoes (these can be transformed into ladybirds!) and your youngster's favourite fresh fruit and/or vegetables.

Top tip: tempt your youngsters' with nutritious tastes and textures.

Although failing to excite and entice fussy eaters with the foods that they 'fear' may be frustrating, persistence is paramount - particularly as the problematic eating patterns and preferences that are developed during childhood often continue into adulthood. 

If you can't convince clever children to try your creative combinations, encourage them to participate in food prep by picking and personalising a selection of their favourite (healthy) foods and fluids - a simple trick that will make food both fascinating, and fun!

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