The Five-A-Day Challenge for Kids
aka How a Peppa Pig Inspired Game Got My Kids to Eat More Veggies
My kids love the British show Peppa Pig. One day they watched an episode called Fruit Day which gets a little trippy when some giant fruits outside of a grocery store sing:
“Apple and banana, pear and pineapple too, Eat 5 pieces of fruit a day because they’re good for you!”
As a dietitian and millennial mom of two little ones, I was delighted to hear Peppa teaching about 5-A-Day. It was a popular slogan taught to kids when I was a child, too.
That night at dinner, my family counted up our servings of fruits/veggies for the day to see if each of us had reached 5.
The boys liked playing this game so it has become a regular occurrence of late. Sometimes we celebrate someone reaching the goal with a high five.
Why 5-A-Day:
5-A-Day started as a World Health Organization public health campaign and was adopted by many countries, including the US and UK, in the early 2000s.
The basic idea is that getting 5 servings of fruits and vegetables a day promotes health and wellbeing while preventing chronic diseases such as cancer, hypertension and diabetes.
Why I love this game:
The intrinsic motivation, for me, is priceless. The kids have been self-motivated to reach their goal for the day without me pushing it on them and they light up when they reach 5.
Several times, Theo realizing he was one away from 5 for the day decided he did want to eat the vegetable served at dinner after all.
A mild degree of sibling competition definitely comes into play here too.
The activity is fun and easy enough for the boys to participate. It’s something we can have as a family ritual and it’s gotten them to genuinely want to eat more fruits and vegetables without any extra work from me.
The celebrity endorsement of Peppa may have helped get my kids excited. However, that game can work for kids even without the show introducing it.
What is a Kid Sized Portion for Fruits and Vegetables?
If figuring out portion size is overwhelming, you can simply add up how many fruits and vegetables your little ate today regardless of the amount. This keeps the game from being too technical or complicated.
In case you are curious about what counts as a serving for kids, here are some guides:
A serving size for kids can actually be quite small and achievable especially if it is a food they love.
For vegetables, a typical rule of thumb is one tablespoon per for each year of life. So 2 tablespoons of vegetable would be a serving for a two year old and 3 tablespoons for a 3 year old.
Another easy measure is that a serving is roughly the size that they can fit in their palm.
For fruit, a typical portion for a young child would be 1/4 to 1/2 cup while an older child would get 1/2 to 1 cup portion.