PICKY Eating: PICK Smart
Picky eaters have been frustrating parents in households across the world for years. This behavior often leads to temper tantrums and increasing anxiety in the home. When your child refuses to eat broccoli, it seems as if a war has started in your kitchen. Let’s start by defining our “picky eater.”
Picky eating has a broad definition. It varies between households as far as what defines your child as a picky eater. Usually, we are looking at a child with decreased or limited dietary variety and/or quantity of food intake. This behavior may present as a resistance to certain textures, colors, flavors and even smells.
A registered dietician or speech therapist may need to be consulted to assess for a specific cause of the behavior. For example, there are some texture sensitivities that may be cues of potential aspiration risk. Also, a contributing factor in the eating behavior may be if your child is on a certain medication that causes a decrease in appetite.
The “terrible twos” play a huge role in the age related behavior category. A child who’s two or three years old is making attempts at declaring their independence and they want to make the rules in almost any situation. Mealtime is no exception.
Here are some tips that are shown to be effective through research as well as some tools that I have created based on my experience…
- Musical/talking spoons and forks
- Fun cups (liquid glitter/popular characters)
- Bring out their Barbie Doll or Elmo and other favorites to sit on the table and act out dinner with your child. Some of these characters may come with coordinating plates that can make it even more fun and visually stimulating.
- Fun straws
- Use nametags for everyone at table to wear. You can even allow them to pick a new name for themselves to be called just during a particular meal so that they feel they are in playtime, acting out a fun persona.
- Decorate fun and personal placemats. The placemat can even have a scoreboard on it to keep tabs of their big bites!
- Use cookie cutters to make food shapes that are fun to eat and use fun names for food. Corn could be little nuggets of gold and a vegetable medley in a potato could be a treasure chest filled with goodies.
- Engage your child!!! Allow them to participate in the preparation of the meal. Children love to feel like they have a key role in events like mealtime. They can wash vegetables, stir mixes, or add salt. Simply choose a task according to age appropriate abilities. The more they participate in, the more they’ll want to eat their creations.
- A fun activity could be making aprons for everyone.
- On Sunday evenings, you can sit down with your family and create set menus for the week. Don’t forget to remind them that what they choose for Wednesday’s meal will be set in stone.
- Grocery shopping with you child can be a nightmare, however, lets turn this into something positive! Taking them to the store AFTER you have created your fun menu for the week avoids adding items to the cart that aren’t part of the week’s meal plan and makes the shopping almost like a scavenger hunt!
- Be cautious when using food as rewards throughout the day. You don’t want to create the association of food with praise; it can confuse the child PLUS fill up their tummies, which can explain why they aren’t hungry.
- Routine is another HUGE theme. Whether your child wants to admit this or not, they desire the stability of routine which makes them feel safe. Changing mealtimes from one day to the next can cause anxiety. A pre-meal routine is also a good way to settle your child into mealtime mode. Yelling that dinner is ready when your child is watching TV is probably not going to grab their attention. However, if you’ve prepared the meal together, then set the table as a family and wash hands...it eases them into their comfort zone and routine.
I hope some of these tips find their way to your home and your kitchen…and start making a difference today!!