Strawberries and Preschooler Health

Four medium-sized strawberries contain:

enough vitamin C to meet your preschooler's daily requirement!

1 gram of fiber

less than 2 1/2 grams of sugar

about 15 calories

Strawberries contain phytonutrients that may provide health benefits. Scientists have found flavonoids, anthocyanins, and phenols in strawberries. These compounds are thought to be antioxidants and may protect against cancer.

Strawberries may contain pesticide residue. According to the Environmental Working Group, strawberries are among the fruits and vegetables with the most pesticide residue. To help reduce you and your preschooler's exposure to pesticides, rinse strawberries before eating them, eat a variety of other fruits and vegetables, and consider buying organic strawberries, which should contain no pesticide residue. Or, plant some strawberries in your own 'organic' backyard for a convenient supply!

Preschooler Strawberry Activities

Find the Seed Specks. Point out to your preschooler the tiny seeds that cover the strawberry. Strawberries are unique in having the seeds on the outside rather than inside the fruit.

Visit a strawberry farm where you and your preschooler can pick fresh strawberries.

Strawberry taste test. Small and medium-sized strawberries tend to be a little sweeter and more flavorful than their giant counterparts. If you happen to find both a huge strawberry (usually from the supermarket and shipped in from a large farm) and a small strawberry (from local farms or your own garden), do a quick taste test with your preschooler. It's a good lesson that bigger isn't always better!

Preschoolers can prepare fresh strawberries for eating. Push up a stool or stand to the kitchen sink. Your preschooler can rinse each strawberry in water and lay them out on a paper towel to dry. Then an adult can remove the green caps and stems.

Use strawberries to flavor plain yogurt. Instead of buying strawberry-flavored yogurt at the supermarket, your preschooler can help flavor yogurt the fresh way!

Prepare frozen strawberries to make strawberry drinks. Strawberries 'go bad' pretty quickly. If you have extras, just rinse and slice them and pop them in the freezer. To make later use easier, lay strawberries on a baking sheet and freeze. When frozen, you can put the individual frozen berries in a bag and place back in the freezer.

Make a strawberry smoothie. Using frozen strawberries eliminates the need for ice! Just blend together 1 cup frozen berries, 1 cup of plain yogurt or cottage cheese, 1/2 cup of orange juice, and one or two tablespoons of honey for a yummy berry shake your preschooler can enjoy anytime of the day!

Make a strawberry soda. Place 1 cup of frozen strawberries and 1 cup of sparkling water or club soda in a blender. Blend until smooth. Add a couple teaspoons of honey for extra sweetness.

I'm Kati Chevaux, the Nutrition writer at PreschoolRock.com. Let's talk about how to how to help our preschoolers eat well and develop life-long healthy eating habits. Contact me with your preschool nutrition questions and healthy eating ideas.

Helpful Tips for Parents

• Breakfast is the most reliably linked meal to cognitive performance in school-age children. Prioritize a protein- and fiber-rich breakfast every morning.

• Family meals where everyone eats the same food are the most powerful eating behavior intervention available. Children whose families eat together have better diets across childhood and adolescence.

• Protein + fat + fiber at every meal stabilizes blood sugar and prevents the energy crashes that drive meltdowns, irritability, and inability to focus.

• Involve children in food preparation. Children who help prepare a meal are statistically more likely to eat it, even if it contains ingredients they previously rejected.

Frequently Asked Questions

My preschooler will only eat 5–6 foods. Is this concerning?

Accepting fewer than 20 foods is considered selective eating that may warrant attention from a feeding therapist. If a child eats 5–6 foods, is not growing appropriately, has intense anxiety around mealtimes or new foods, or has textures they physically gag on (not just dislike), evaluation by a feeding specialist or occupational therapist is appropriate. For children who eat 10–15 varied foods across food groups without significant distress, continued exposure without pressure is the recommended approach.

Related reading: See also our smoothie recipes guide and our handwashing guide for more ideas on this topic.

🎓 Skills Your Child Will Develop

• 💬 Vocabulary Expansion — Nutrition activities introduce rich vocabulary — nutrients, protein, fiber, harvest, ferment, season — expanding language range in a domain that connects directly to science, social studies, and health literacy.
• 🧁 Kitchen Science & Math — Cooking is applied chemistry and physics: watching bread rise, butter melt, or egg whites stiffen teaches cause-and-effect science while measuring cups and counting portions deliver authentic math in context.
• 🥦 Healthy Food Knowledge — Learning about different foods, food groups, and what nutrients do in the body builds the food literacy that supports a lifetime of informed, health-conscious eating choices.
• 📏 Early Math Skills — Measuring ingredients, counting servings, comparing quantities, and dividing portions makes cooking and eating some of the most authentic early math experiences available to preschoolers.

Preschoolers love strawberries - sweet, juicy, and vivid red. Like most fruits and vegetables, strawberries provide your preschooler with important nutrients and fiber. And since strawberries are one of the first fruits to ripen in the spring, celebrate the harvest season with strawberry activities and fun strawberry recipes.