Summertime: The Perfect Time to Get Your Kids to Eat Their Veggies

Are your children picky eaters? It’s a pretty common problem that most parents deal with at one point or another. Did you know that there is actually a best time to get your children to learn to like vegetables, though? It’s true! If you’ve given up on trying to get your children to eat their veggies, this summer is the perfect time to change that. Here’s why and how.

1. Veggies Taste Better in the Summer

Veggies that have been flown half way around the world to sit on the supermarket shelves in the middle of winter simply don’t taste as good as fresh, local veggies that have been harvested recently. In fact, for some veggies, the tastes barely even compare. If you are going to convince your children to eat something, convince them to eat something good!

2. You Can Visit the Farmer’s Market

The best place to find the freshest fruits and veggies? The farmer’s market! We love taking our boys bike riding to the local markets in the summer to see what types of yummy foods all the vendors have to offer. Take your children and let them pick out something new and interesting, and they just might be more likely to eat it, having chosen it themselves.

3. You Can Grow Your Own

Better yet, why not start a garden and grow some of your own veggies yourself? Gardening is a great way to teach your children important lessons about science and the environment, and your kids may be more willing to try something that they’ve spent hours helping grow themselves.

4.  The Kids Can Help Prepare Them

If you really want to get your children invested in their own food, why not let them help prepare it? School nights can be busy, and there isn’t always time for the kids to help with dinner. With summer nights lasting longer and longer, however, summer grants much more time for teaching kids to cook and enjoy their yummy creations. Mix it up, make it fun, and let them help.

5. You Can Try New Recipes

Not only do long summer nights give more chances for kids to help, but they offer more time for you to get creative in the kitchen as well. If your children don’t like their veggies steamed, look up a new recipe online that uses the veggies in a new and interesting way. Your kids just might like their veggies if you find just the right recipe. And summer time is the perfect time to experiment.

If your children are picky eaters, the worst thing you can do is to simply make them separate meals and give in to their picky ways. Instead, you really should try and try again to get your children interested in eating a wide variety of yummy and healthy foods. No matter how much your kids have fought you in the past, summer is the perfect time to give it another try. You might be surprised!

Are your kids picky eaters? What strategies have you tried so far?