Fruit And Vegetable Juice Recipes For Kids - Juicer And Juicing Tips For Parents

Note from Rika: For more healthy eating ideas for your family check out this simple, step-by-step system for shopping, cooking and eating the world's healthiest foods.

Now that you know all about the main health benefits of fruit and vegetable juice recipes for kids, it is time for some tips to get that juicer into gear! Your juicing adventure can be a fun experience for the whole family.

Just remember that juicing for young kids should be discussed with your health practitioner. This should also be done if you have kids with a sugar problem. Some fruit and vegetable juice recipes can be highly potent for young bodies and may also be too high in sugar.

1. Don't start off by calling it vegetable juice! Be creative. Come up with a unique, enticing name that the kids won't be able to resist. If they are in a particular phase with an admiration for a character in a movie, try to create a name for the concoctions that connects to that movie. If the current craze is a character in a book, go for something around that.

2. How about getting fun aprons for the kids, only to be used while preparing fruit and vegetable juice recipes. Ask them what they want to wear. By allowing them to be involved in the process, they are more likely to be compliant.

3. Get each child a colorful cup that is only taken out of the cupboard when juicing. Better still, allow them to choose their own cups on a special shopping trip.

4. Remember that any juices can have an effect on dental health, so get the kids to drink some water after drinking their juice. Brushing teeth right after drinking juice, isn't a good idea. A better tip to keep in mind is that eating cheese helps to normalize the pH in the mouth, so give them some to munch on after giving them their juice!

5. Don't start with potent, full-strength juices right away. Ease the kids into juicing by diluting the juice with water or a favorite fruit juice. It may take some time to get them used to the different tastes. Be patient.

6. Fruit and vegetable juice recipes for kids can be very filling. If you want to lose weight, it can help to drink your juice before your main meal, but for kids this isn't such a great idea. It will affect his or her appetite. A better time is early in the morning with breakfast or as a healthy, nutritious after-school snack. If you add something like cheese afterwards, so much the better!

7. While your aim should be to keep the veggie juice concentrate as high as possible, it is all right to start off by adding more fruits. This will help them to adjust to the new tastes. Just be very careful if you have a child with a sugar problem. In this case, you should ALWAYS discuss juicing with your doctor first.

8. If you are struggling to get your kid to accept veggie juice, why not call in her teacher's help? Ask her to work juicing into her next lesson on fruits and vegetables or healthy eating. If 'Teacher' says it's good, it usually means it is the absolute very best and a must-have!

9. Get your child to invite a friend to come and see how she helps to prepare the ingredients for her special drink! She may enjoy showing off in front of her friend, if she knows that this is something only she gets to do.

10. Don't force your kids to drink the juice. That will only cause more resistance. Try other ways to get them to agree to drink it, such as by adding some to a yummy smoothie. Take your time. Rather postpone using juicing recipes for kids for a while if you have to. This isn't supposed to cause more veggie squabbles! It should help to reduce them...

11. Dream up a competition in which the child who comes up with the best recipe or the best name for a recipe wins a really cool prize. Be sure to tell everybody about the creativity of the winner!

12. Start really simple with one or two ingredients, such as carrots and sweet, red apples. Don't introduce greens until later on.

13. Beet gives the juice a good, appetizing color. But don't use too much, as it is extremely potent. A little goes a long way.

14. You can gradually start to add things like a small rib of celery or a bit of broccoli. But do it sloooowly over time. Don't go for something like wheat grass that is way too strongly flavored. Many adults can't even stand the taste, much less kids!