Juicing is a new and fun way to get your kids eating fruits and vegetables without really realising. It can be tough to get children eating the right foods especially when they go through that picky eating stage, but try and stay consistent. Don’t give up! Blending can sometimes be tricky for children who struggle with textures, that's why we suggest juicing.
Research has proven children who drink fresh fruit and vegetable juice from an early age are much more likely to eat more fruit and vegetables whilst growing up, and into their adult life. This research suggests children can easily learn to like particular foods, and you should let your children taste a food up to 15 times before giving up.
Why Juice
Giving your children fruit juice will give them all the vitamins and minerals they need for a healthy growth and development. Young children tend to catch nasty bugs easily but if you give them the right vitamins and minerals via juice, you will be able to strengthen their immune system very quickly.
Vegetables that have strong flavours can also be a challenge, even in juice. Pairing strongly flavoured vegetables with sweet fruits is essential when getting young children to drink juice. Lemon juice is a great way to disguise lots of produce, but you need to get your proportions right for this to work. Try masking spinach and kale flavours with lemon and pineapple, and you will be pleasantly surprised by the taste. Introducing new foods will broaden your child’s palette and give them a varied diet.
Make Juicing Fun
Make juicing fun and get your children involved in the process. This can be done by letting them chop up and peel ingredients or you can get them to feed the ingredients into the hopper. Allowing them to help is a great way of getting them involved. As they have helped to make their juice they may actually enjoy drinking it. Children also love watching their food being turned into liquid and the pulp being pushed out.
Start your kids of simple by using a couple of fruits and vegetables you know they like, then slowly incorporate different fruits and vegetables. Once they feel comfortable with that juice, start creating new juices. Always keep one of there favourite fruits or vegetables in the mixture as this will help psychologically.
It is advised to start giving children fruit and vegetable juice at around 1-2 years, the juice should also be diluted so they are not digesting to much sugar. Diluting the juice will also make it weaker and it won’t upset their stomach. Please do remember never to substitute a child's meal for a juice.
Simple Juice Recipes
Recipe 1
- 2 Apples
- 2 Carrots
- Add 10-20ml of cold water
Recipe 2
- 1 orange
- 2 carrots
- 1/4 mango
- Add 10-20ml of cold water
More Interesting Juice Recipes
- 2 Carrots
- 2 Blood Oranges
- 1/4 Pineapple
Make sure to peel the oranges and pineapple before you juice. This juice will look like a darker version of orange juice you can buy from the carton.
- 1 Apple
- 1/2 Beet
- 3 Carrots
The beetroot will create a vibrant colour but the apples will mask the beetroot taste.
If your children are much older then take a look at these more complex smoothies suitable for a range of ages here.