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What should your kids be eating?

It’s important to ensure your kids get a balanced, healthy diet. In the short term, it gives them the nutrition they need to thrive, both physically and mentally. And in the long term, it sets them up with healthy food habits for life.

Health guidelines

How much should happy, healthy kids be eating? Click below to find out for your child. Or read the full guidelines on serving sizes, exercise and sleep, including simple daily meal plans.

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Daily serve of

Veggies
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Daily serve of

Fruits
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Daily serve of

Dairy

Tips on healthy eating habits

Useful info for raising healthy happy kids.

Serving sizes for kids

Unsure about the amount of food in a serving size?

Here is a handy guide to show you how much is right for your child.
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7 healthy dinner time habits

Here’s 7 dinner time routines to build healthy habits for life.
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Sugary drinks facts

A standard can of soft drink can contain up to 10 teaspoons of sugar. Beat the sweet with the right info on what your family’s drinking.
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Tips for starting your baby on solids

Here’s our simple guide for introducing your bubba to solid food.
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Healthy meals

Make sure your kids get the right nutrition with these healthy recipes and ideas.

Fun food ideas to do with your kids

Get your kids interested in healthy eating with these fun food ideas.

Bite-sized battles

A balanced diet ensures kids can fuel their bodies with nutrients to grow and to learn. Eating well also sets children up for a lifetime of healthy behaviours. But as we all know, getting enough veggies into the kids can feel like a bit of a battle, so we’ve developed these eight easy tactics to help you beat fussy eating – and they are all backed up by clinical research.

Phases of fussy eating are a totally normal part of childhood (especially for toddlers), and all parents struggle sometimes. For kids, fussy eating is a part of the development process. It’s a way of exploring their environment and asserting their independence. And it’s also linked to their appetite, which goes up and down depending on how much they’re growing and how active they are.

TACTIC 1

Hidden veggies

Hiding veggies in meals that kids love (like grated veggies in a pasta sauce or muffins) is a great way to up your children’s vegetable intake. Whether you’re doing this already (awesome work!) or want to try it, here are a few hidden veggie recipes they might like.

Although this approach is fantastic for getting veggies into your kids, it shouldn’t be the only way they eat them. If children aren’t aware that they are eating vegetables they won’t change their attitude towards them. To do that, your kids are going to need to try the different tastes and textures of unblended veggies. A good way to do this is by pureeing the veggies less and less over time.

TACTIC 2

Get the kids involved

If you can get your kids interested in and curious about vegetables, they are much more likely to try them, and to like them (hooray!). So it’s great to build up small positive experiences that help kids fall in love with healthy eating. And that will make mealtimes much easier. Oh yeah.
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Take the kids grocery shopping

The more involved kids are with their food, the more likely they are to try veggies. So take them to the shops and get them to choose a veggie they want to try that week. You could even take them to a farmers’ market, if there is one near your home.

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Watch a cooking show with the kids

Too much screen time isn’t good for children, but watching the occasional kid-friendly cooking show is great. TV chefs are chosen for their enthusiasm and love of different foods, and this will hopefully rub off on your fussy eater.

TACTIC 3

Go small

It’s unlikely a fussy eater will eat a full plate of veggies. A big plate of food can be overwhelming for any kid, especially if it’s made up of vegetables they’re not sure about. Giving them a small portion turns it into a bite sized battle that they can win. Start small, and aim for a couple of bites of carrot, or a cherry tomato, and consider that a win. Then work your way up.

For younger kids, having food pre-cut into bite size pieces can also help. In the early days of falling in love with healthy eating, the less work they need to do the better.

Teeny tiny tasting plates

Why not try a teeny tiny tasting plate? Get a few small bits of different veggies and some fruit and serve them on a plate for your kids.

  • Serve with something you know they like such as cheese, some meat or a healthy dip, like hummus
  • Regularly mix up the veggies you choose to keep it interesting
  • Try to stick with two or three veggies and a couple of fruits.
And finally (and we can’t stress this enough!) not all of the fruit and veggies need to be eaten.

TACTIC 4

No punishments, no rewards

It’s not unusual for kids to refuse to eat veggies. When this happens try not to make a big deal about it; instead try again another time.

Punishment and rewards are really common tactics for parents. And while it works for some things, when it comes to food, it can lead to unhealthy attitudes and behaviours, such as overeating and negative feelings towards healthy eating.

It’s a good idea to not use food as a bribe. It can make kids more interested in treats than healthy foods, and means they see healthy eating as hard work.

The big flipper

What you ultimately want is for your kids to eat vegetables because they like them, not because of the punishments or reward.
So why not try these behaviour flips?
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TACTIC 5

Make food fun

If you can keep food fun, kids should be more open to healthy food. It’s easy to get stressed when you have a fussy eater, but if you can stay in the right frame of mind, your kids are likely to as well. Don’t make a fuss, it can often do more harm than good. It sets up meals as a struggle between you and your kids, and it turns healthy eating into a chore.

Here’s a couple of tips:

  • Try to shift mealtime conversation away from food and focussing too much attention on your kid. It builds an unhealthy feeling of pressure on your child. So instead, talk about their day, what they learnt at school, anything that keeps it light.
  • Don’t say that vegetables are healthy. For most kids, this will mean they are boring. Instead talk about how veggies have ‘super powers’ like vitamin C, A and E that will help them grow big and strong.
  • Instead of asking your child to eat a vegetable, get them to describe its colour, smell and texture.
  • Serve their food on fun plates, in dividers or with fun cutlery.
  • Play off your child’s interests – if they love dinosaurs, call broccoli ‘dinosaur trees’.
  • Serve food in a fun way, like these delicious pretty plates.
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TACTIC 6

Variety, variety, variety

When it comes to cooking veggies, there is a wide world of variety out there. So if your child doesn’t like grilled zucchini, why not serve it another way? Try roasted, steamed, oven baked or raw zucchini, the options are endless. It’s the same for all veggies, so mix it up with this handy chart.
We’ve also included some ways to boost the flavour but generally, serving them plain is best.
peas
potato
pumpkin
zucchini
beans
broccoli
carrots
cauliflower

Try these different combinations with your peas

Ways to serve them


  • Boiled/Steamed

  • In whole form (sugar snap peas)

  • Blended

  • Frozen

Flavour boosters


  • Dressed with lemon juice

  • Seasoned with salt and pepper

  • Tossed with cheese

Try these different combinations with your potato

Ways to serve them


  • Boiled

  • Baked

  • Roasted

  • Steamed

  • Mashed

  • Potato bake (jacket or layered)

  • Cut into chips or wedges

Flavour boosters


  • Seasoned with cheese

  • Sprinkled with rosemary

  • Light sour cream and chives

Try these different combinations with your pumpkin

Ways to serve them


  • Roasted

  • Boiled

  • Steamed

  • Grilled

  • Mashed

Flavour boosters


  • Sprinkled with Cajun spice

  • Sprinkled with cinnamon

  • Drizzled with a small amount of honey

Try these different combinations with your zucchini

Ways to serve them


  • Roasted

  • Steamed

  • Grilled

  • Raw with dip

  • As zoodles

  • Grated in smoothies

Flavour boosters


  • Sprinkled with basil or parsley

  • Sprinkled with parmesan

Try these different combinations with your beans

Ways to serve them


  • Boiled

  • Steamed

  • Roasted

  • Grilled

  • Raw with dip

Flavour boosters


  • Drizzled with olive oil

  • Tossed with cheese

Try these different combinations with your broccoli

Ways to serve them


  • Boiled

  • Roasted

  • Pureed

  • Raw with dip

  • Grated in a salad

  • Broccoli tots

Flavour boosters


  • Dressed with lemon juice and olive oil

  • Mixed through with bacon and cheese

Try these different combinations with your carrots

Ways to serve them


  • Steamed

  • Roasted

  • Microwaved

  • Stir-fried

  • Raw with dip

  • Pureed

  • Spiralised

Flavour boosters


  • Drizzled with a small amount of honey

Try these different combinations with your cauliflower

Ways to serve them


  • Boiled

  • Steamed

  • Roasted

  • Grated as ‘cauliflower rice’

  • Raw with dip

  • Blended in smoothies

  • Cauliflower steaks! It’s a thing! So is ‘popcorn cauliflower’

Flavour boosters


  • Drizzled with lemon juice

  • Mixed through with bacon and cheese

  • Mixed through with cheese

TACTIC 7

Give kids a choice

Kids respond really well to a bit of freedom of choice (as long as it’s done in the right way).

The ‘parent provides, child decides’ principle means that it is up to the parents to provide healthy food (i.e. you choose what and when they eat) and from that your child decides what they’ll eat, and how much.

Another great approach is letting your child choose between a small selection of vegetables, so for example, you let them choose between peas or beans with their dinner.

TACTIC 8

Try, try, try again

At some point all veggies are new to young kids, so it’s natural they might take some time (and effort) to warm up to them a bit. It’s not unusual for kids to need to touch them, sniff them or even lick them a few times before they’re willing to actually eat them, especially if they are younger. Sure, it can be gross, and messy, but it is all part of the process. Research has shown that it can take up to 20 experiences with a food before a young child will start to accept it. So, stay positive and patient, and keep putting those veggies on the plate.

Need reinforcements?

If you are worried about your kid’s nutrition, speak to your GP, your pediatrician, or a practicing dietitian.

Healthy family

Kids learn their behaviours and attitudes towards healthy lifestyles from their parents. As a parent, it’s important to be a good role model; your child learns about food choices from you, so the best way to encourage your child to eat vegetables is to let your child see you enjoying them yourself.

We know it’s not always possible, but when you can, try to eat at the same time as your kids, make mealtimes regular and consistent, and include veggies in different meals throughout the day, including snacks.