ABOUT
Using data from the National Survey of Children's Health, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released new estimates that show:
Almost half of kids ages 1–5 do not eat a vegetable every day,
About a third of kids do not eat a fruit every day, and
In the last week, more than half of kids drank at least one sugar-sweetened beverage.
As a way to help parents and caregivers provide fruits, vegetables, and healthy drinks every day, the CDC Foundation has produced a series of playful activities for use during meal and snack time. We encourage you to share these activities with your audiences — on social media, in newsletters, as printed games in your home, or at your child care center.
Based on this research, it’s more important than ever to make sure our kids eat fruits and vegetables to support optimal growth and brain development. The toolkit shares playful and easy-to-implement activities to help families incorporate healthy options into their daily routine. In the toolkit, you’ll find:
Key Messages
Description of the Playful Activities
Social Media Resources (including graphics, gifs, and template posts)
Additional Resources
In addition to sharing these posts, please be sure to:
Like CDC and CDC Foundation on Facebook.
Follow CDC and CDC Foundation on Twitter.
Follow CDC Division of Nutrition Physical Activity, and Obesity (DNPAO) on Twitter and Facebook.
Use the hashtag #EarlyNutrition in your posts.
If you have any questions about using this toolkit, please contact info@cdcfoundation.org.
CONTENTS
KEY MESSAGES
Here are important messages related to healthy eating, along with tips for how to help kids eat healthy. Feel free to use these messages in any content you are developing.
Why healthy eating is so important:
Fruits and vegetables are part of a healthy diet that helps kids grow up healthy and strong.
Eating a healthy diet helps children get the nutrients they need for their growing bodies and developing brains.
Fruits and vegetables are a great source of the vitamins and minerals kids need to support optimal growth and brain development.
Experts recommend kids eat fruits and vegetables each day and avoid sugary drinks like fruit drinks, lemonade, and soda.
Eating a nutritious diet that includes fruits and vegetables can help kids build healthy habits that will last a lifetime.
Tips for how to help kids eat healthy:
Offer fruits and vegetables as snacks and include them in meals every day.
Make it easy for your kids to choose healthy options by keeping fresh, frozen or canned fruits and vegetables on hand at home and have milk and other healthy drinks readily available.
Help your kids learn to eat a variety of healthy foods. Kids may need to try foods up to 10 times before knowing if they like it or not. Try preparing fruits and vegetables in lots of different ways to find out what way your child likes best.
Lead the way by being a role model: eat and prepare healthy meals and snacks with your kids, include fruits and vegetables with every meal, and avoid sugary drinks.
Try offering a few bites of new food first.
Try freezing small bites of different foods. You can use these later and avoid throwing a lot of food away.
Wait a couple of days before offering the food again.
Pack healthy snacks and meals before you go.
Select 100% fruit juice instead of fruit drinks. Fruit drinks have added sugar.
DESCRIPTION OF PLAYFUL ACTIVITIES FOR PICKY EATERS
Bingo
Encourage your kids to try different kinds of fruits and vegetables.Choose One
Have conversations about new foods. Ask kids what they think about foods they tried (for example, “Is it thumbs up, thumbs down, or in-between?”) and honor their answers.Eye Spy
Keep fresh fruit on the kitchen counter or someplace where your child can see it as a reminder for a healthy snack.Five Senses
Allow kids to touch and smell their food to spark interest and improve comfort with new foods.Funny Face
Make funny faces with the foods on your child’s plate. It might help your child get excited to eat it.Guess What
Fresh, frozen, and canned fruits and vegetables (without added sugar or salt) are healthy. Cover up or remove the label from the packaging. Have your kids guess the fruit or vegetableRainbow
Offer a rainbow of colors with different fruits and vegetables for snacks and meals.Simon Says
Lead by example. Try eating the food first to show them you like it. Then let them try it.Tie Dye
Serve water instead of sugary drinks such as soda, fruit drinks, and sports drinks. You can add berries or slices of lemons, limes, or cucumbers to give the water more color and flavor.Tiny Chef
Involve kids in making healthy snacks and meals. Even the youngest can help by washing and sorting foods. Encourage your child to use three of their five senses (smell, touch, taste) as you prepare food. Prepare the same fruit or vegetable in different ways.
SOCIAL MEDIA RESOURCES
We provide a few options:
Use graphics that are branded with the CDC Foundation logo,
Use unbranded graphics (without a logo or add your own), or
Make your own set using Canva.
If you are using the Canva templates, you can edit the design by adding images from pages 6–8 to make a unique graphic featuring the playful activities. While we have provided a blueprint for each graphic, we encourage you to get creative and really make them your own!
Whether you’re using pre-made graphics or creating your own, we suggest always using the intro graphic as a way to introduce this campaign to your audience. Encourage your audience to engage and share by also posting the animated graphic. In addition, we have provided copy for social media posts that can be used on the platform that best fits your organization.
Click on each visual to download directly.
Pre-Made Cards (Branded)
Below are the pre-made cards that include the CDC Foundation logo that you can use across social media platforms.
Pre-Made Cards (Unbranded)
Below are the pre-made cards that you can use across social media platforms that do not include the CDC Foundation logo.
Make Your Own Cards (Branded)
Using this branded template, you can edit these designs by adding images from pages 6–8 to make a unique graphic featuring the playful activities. While we have provided a blueprint for each graphic, we encourage you to get creative and really make them your own! Add, delete, enlarge, shrink, rotate, arrange, and overlap as you see fit.
Make Your Own Cards (Unbranded)
Using this unbranded template, you can edit these designs by adding images from pages 6–8 to make a unique graphic featuring the playful activities. While we have provided a blueprint for each graphic, we encourage you to get creative and really make them your own! Add, delete, enlarge, shrink, rotate, arrange, and overlap as you see fit.
Social Media Post Copy
Below are sample posts you can use on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn or Instagram. Feel free to use the graphics as a group or unveil them one-by-one in a series. We have also included hashtags that you can add to your posts.
Introducing kids to a healthy diet early supports their growing bodies and developing brains. Discover new ways your family can incorporate fruits and vegetables into your daily meals and snacks!
Good nutrition supports healthy growth and brain development. Incorporating fun activities can help make kids excited about new tastes and textures. Check out some fun activities that your family can try today!
To ensure our kids grow healthy and strong, you can use fun ways to incorporate canned, fresh and frozen fruits and vegetables into their meals and snacks. Here are a few of our favorite playful activities that kids will love.
#DYK kids may need to try foods up to 10 times before knowing if they like it or not? Incorporating foods with varying textures and flavors makes trying new foods exciting. Here are a few of our favorite activities.
Hashtags
#EarlyNutrition
#PickyEating
Newsletter Copy
The research is in: Good nutrition supports healthy growth and brain development. For many families, incorporating fruits, vegetables, and healthy drinks into daily diets can be a challenge. Many of these flavors, shapes, and textures can seem new to kids who haven’t given them a chance yet. So, how do parents and caregivers get these important nutrients onto their kids’ plates every day?
When you’re incorporating fresh, frozen or canned fruits and vegetables into your daily meals and snacks, these playful activities can help make these healthy foods more exciting to try. From creating a funny face with broccoli, carrots, and cucumbers to making drinks pop by adding a vibrant fruit to a glass of water, the creative possibilities are endless!
Check out these fun activities that you can start as early as today with your kids and watch the smiles appear at the dinner table, at the park, or wherever their next meal or snack is.
Newsletter Header
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
1000 Days
CDC Resources
Good Nutrition Starts Early Landing page
Tips to Help Your Picky Eater Landing page
Picky Eaters and What To Do Landing page
Rethink Your Drink Landing page
Healthy Eating Research Resources
Healthy Eating Scenarios Tip sheet
Healthy Drinks, Healthy Kids Website
Healthy Drinks, Healthy Kids Tips for parents and caregivers