Kids eat in color! The Skittles commercial really got it right with their slogan ‘See the rainbow, taste the rainbow.’ What’s great about summertime is there can be amazing opportunity to have fun with the rainbow and food. Choosing some fruit and veggies that fall into each color gives kids the experience and creativity to try new things. At Lemond Nutrition, I love to work with families on some FUN ways to encourage your child to try new foods or ones that aren’t on your kiddos preferred list.

Here are a few of the tools you can try!

Make a picture of a blank rainbow and utilize coloring/stickers to fill in the colors as you eat a food in that group.
Make a fun/silly face out of cut up fruit/veggies.
Get your kid involved in the grocery shopping or prepping of foods. You’d be surprised how quickly they will jump in!
As you are walking through the produce section talk about the colors you see and gauge their interest in trying something new. If you can, let them pick out a few things to take home.
If your child loves mandarin oranges, see if they would be interested in trying a different variety of orange like Sumo or Blood oranges. This is a tool you can utilize with different fruits/veggies as well.

Here are some examples of different foods from the rainbow:

Red: Cherries, watermelon, red bell peppers, tomato

Orange: Baby sweet orange bell pepper, oranges, cantaloupe, mango

Yellow: Summer sweet corn, banana, lemon, pineapple, yellow squash

Green: Celery, cucumber, zucchini, kiwi, green grapes, avocado

Blue/Purple: Blueberries, blackberries, purple carrots, eggplant, figs

Food can be such a fun thing to explore and enjoy! We are very lucky to have such a broad variety of options available to us, especially in the summer season. Enjoy trying new things with your little one(s), what they like may just surprise you!

Written By: Brooke Sinclair-Haggard, RDN, CNSC, LD