Fruit for thought

AS any parent who has attempted to force feed stewed apple to their infant will tell you, fruit just doesn't pack the same punch with kids in the taste stakes as chocolate pudding. When you want your child to grow up healthy and strong, that can be a headache.

A recent study showed that one in five children in Britain eats no fruit at all. It also found that youngsters' diets have generally become less healthy in recent years, with children tending to fill up on crisps and sweets instead.

Instilling a love of fruit in children is something the Government is taking seriously. It has just launched a new initiative which will give millions of children free fruit every day by 2004.

As the Government has recognised, schools have an important part to play in encouraging children to eat healthily. Andrew Calvert, headteacher of Park Grove school in York, says the important thing is to try to encourage the habit of eating fruit at a young age. Park Grove, like many other primary schools in the city, has banned sweets from school. "But we do allow them to have fruit in the playground," Mr Calvert said.

It's not all down to schools, though: parents have to play their part in encouraging healthy eating too.

Kate Elliot, deputy headteacher of Fishergate Primary School which is part of the Healthy Schools Initiative, says one way of trying to encourage the fruit-eating habit is to allow youngsters to try new, different fruits - and present the familiar fruits in a new way.

The school recently had a 'health week' when it encouraged children to think about what they ate - and a health economist gave parents handy tips on how to make eating fruit fun. Tips included simple ideas for parents like chopping coconut sticks or cucumber sticks, or making fresh banana milk-shake.

To help you make fruit more fun for your children, we asked some well-known food-writers to come up with their own ideas.

Acclaimed food writer Annabel Karmel says there are endless ways of making fruit fun for children.

It's important not to just confront children with whole fruit like a big apple, she says - even if you just cut it into quarters they are more likely to eat it.

One of her favourite ideas is fresh fruit ice lollies.

"I take strawberries, blackberries and other fruits and blend them with a little fruit juice and freeze them into lolly moulds," she says. "It's like fresh fruit on a stick.".

The way you present fruit can make a big difference, adds Karmel, author of Annabel Karmel's Family Meal Planner (Ebury, £14.99). Cutting a kiwi fruit - one of the most nutritious - and putting it in an eggcup so children can scoop the flesh out with a teaspoon is more fun than just peeling and slicing it.

You can also make a mango hedgehog by cutting a mango on either side of the stone and then running the knife along the flesh in diagonal lines 3/4in apart to make cube shapes. Then push it up from under the skin and it resembles a hedgehog and is easy for the child to eat with a spoon.

Alternatively, make a fruit dip, in which children can dip slices of fruit, Karmel suggests.

"Puree some raspberries, sieve them and mix them with a little icing sugar and get your children to dip fruit into it."

Another way is to mix fruit with savoury menus, she says - try dishes featuring chicken with apricot, pork with apple or duck with orange. Cheese and pineapple also goes well.

TV cook and mother-of-two Sophie Grigson says that getting your children involved in the preparation of fruit can encourage them to eat it.

Making a funky face on a plate with different fruits is one way - grapes for eyes, a satsuma segment for the mouth, apple or pear slices for the eyebrows, or just use your imagination.

"At school, my children recently made fruit kebabs, just threading grapes, hulled strawberries and bits of melon and orange on to skewers," she adds. "They thought it was great fun."

Grigson, who admits she is having trouble getting her son to eat fruit at the moment, says that making her own jelly and putting fresh fruit into it always works.

She uses leaf gelatine, available now in most supermarkets, fruit juice and fresh fruit.

"You can make a real jelly using fruit juice in five minutes. I don't have shop-bought jelly in the house because it contains so many additives and colouring. A real jelly doesn't take any longer to make and your child gets all the benefits."

Roz Denny, a member of the Guild of Food Writers and author of many books on cooking for children, doesn't agree with using tricks or disguising fruit. "I've never had to do that to get my kids to eat fruit," she says.

"Children should be started on fruit very young - from the weaning stages. They can be given pureed fruit or mashed banana. My kids had grated apple before they had any teeth." Problems may occur later on if you try to force them to eat fruit, she says.

Seedless grapes are a favourite with children because they are so easy to eat, as are satsumas.

Milkshakes and smoothies can be made with many fruits, along with a scoop of ice-cream.

Dried fruits are also nutritious and you can buy them in little boxes or brightly-coloured packets. To many children, they resemble sweets but are far healthier.

The important thing, says Denny, is not to make a big issue of it and lecture children about how healthy fruit is. "That's the best way of putting them off. Eat fruit in front of them and make it part of your daily routine, so it's no big deal. Eating fruit is more an attitude of mind."

Keep supplies of raisins and dried apricots handy, she says, and you may find that it steers children away from crisps and sweets.