Help Your Picky Eater in 3 Steps
Picky eating can be very frustrating! It leads to meal times filled with tension, anxiety, and often tears. But, all hope is not lost. Use the three steps below to help your little become more accepting of new foods:
Expose: Introduce your child to new foods in environments where there is NO pressure to eat (eg the grocery store, a farmer’s market, when gardening).
Explore: Help your child get to know the foods through activities. Allow them to help with cooking, have them add toppings to different foods, allow them to dip familiar foods (eg crackers) into new dips, etc.
Expand: Gradually make the foods more complex by adding new ingredients to accepted foods.
Here is an example of how these steps often play out: Say your child is adverse to vegetables, specifically potatoes and cauliflower. Take them to a grocery store or a farmers market. Create positive memories. Allow them to look at and touch the vegetables. Have them help you put the vegetables in the cart and wash them when you get home. At home make a sweet potato bar or mashed potatoes. Put out various toppings for your child to add. Include foods that they like and foods that they have not accepted (eg cheese, chocolate chips, and cauliflower). When adding the toppings your child will touch accepted AND unaccepted foods without a fight. Overtime your child’s guard will come down and they will go in for a bite of the potato or pop a cauliflower floret in their mouth.
If you have a picky eater at home and are in need of help, reach out to Green Light!
