Tips for Picky Eaters
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I’ve been there, trying to get my children to try new food, only to be rejected. Sometimes I look at them and think to myself, are you eating enough? In most cases, they are or they catch up at some point in the day. Overall, my kids are pretty good eaters with occasional bouts of pickiness. When I say they are good eaters, it doesn’t mean that they are not weary of new foods or vegetables, but they do gain weight at a healthy rate with a decently healthy diet. Some may say we’re lucky, but I like to think it is from how we go about feeding our children. I think we’ve been through enough episodes of picky eating that I’ve been able to collect enough tips to share.
The story I’m about to tell about my son is probably one that is familiar to a lot of people. He was such a good eater from the time we introduced solids for the first time until he was almost 3. And just before his 3rd birthday, it was like he decided to be a picky eater overnight. I swear, it felt like all he would eat for a few weeks was toast with peanut butter. I know, it is not the worst food choice to eat over and over again, but the point was, he was narrowing his food options. What would happen if we didn’t have bread or peanut butter? What if he got bored of it? At that point, I felt like we needed to help him feel comfortable trying new foods again. We did get a lot of help from my son’s OT, but we also found suggestions on the internet and advice from other moms’ experiences with picky eating. I would like to put out there that if picky eating is affecting your child’s weight, health or well-being, it is always a good idea to consult with your child’s pediatrician. Sometimes it’s a team effort and there are lots of resources and professionals they can connect you with. But, if you are looking for some easy things you can implement at home for mild picky eating, keep reading!
Offer Variety
One suggestion made by a fellow mom is to never stop offering variety. This was especially hard for me in the beginning because I knew for certain, food would be wasted. I tried to offer at least 3 different foods with different textures during meals and snack times. It really helps to have plates with dividers to help remind you to fill those plates with different foods and help prevent different food groups from touching, which can sometimes bother some children. Some meal examples are pancakes, apples, and yogurt for breakfast or goldfish crackers, yogurt melts, and cut grapes for a snack. And just as expected, in the beginning, sometimes he would pick at one food at his plate, other times skip the meal all together. Against my natural instinct, I did not dig in the pantry to find an alternative food if he chose not to eat anything on his plate. Instead, I would offer him an earlier snack about an hour after his meal, so I knew we could try again fairly soon after. I reminded myself that it was my job to provide options that would be decently healthy, and his job to decide which foods and how much he would eat from those options. At times, it would worry me when he chose not to eat anything, but I wanted to trust the process and trust my child that he knows when he is hungry and when he is full.
Eat Together
Another thing that we needed to stay consistent about was modeling eating habits rather than putting pressure on our children to eat. We ate as a family, that way our children could see that we eat the same food and it looks like we’re enjoying it. This kind of no pressure modeling that we did taught my kids that if we put something on your plate that you just are not ready to try yet, it is ok to leave it there. That helped them know that they can eat what they feel ready to try on their plate without the pressure of having to eat the whole thing. We also did not have a negative or positive reaction when he decided to try a new food. It takes a lot to not celebrate when he decides to randomly try a vegetable, but I think any kind of attention puts a lot of pressure on him, so I kept the celebration silent and in my head.
Make a Safe Food List
Something that really helped ease our way while trying to introduce other foods is having a safe food list. These are foods that we know he loves and will eat, whether it is a snack or meal item. Putting 1 safe food on his plate per meal or snack, made me feel better because I knew he would likely eat something, and I think it would make my son feel better because it gave him a safe food to fall back on. In the beginning of this process, he would do exactly what I anticipated, and he would request seconds of slices of toast with peanut butter, but eventually, he ventured out and tried other menu items on his plate, whether he touched it, played with it, or ate it!
Make Food Fun!
Making eating fun was also something that helped prevent mealtimes from becoming a power struggle and an overall negative experience. I used these sandwich cutters from Amazon, so that I could make his little sandwiches into different fun shapes. It definitely kept him interested in his food. We started with his peanut butter toast and eventually branched out to grilled ham and cheese sandwiches. We tried to make mealtimes fun. It was ok to play with food, explore and just touch or squish new foods our kids have never tried without the pressure of having to take a bite or try it before leaving the table. We showed him that you could line up peas along his plate or use straws to blow yogurt bites across his tray. I know this sounds funny, but touching his food was a win and it was a step in the right direction because it almost always led to him having a little taste, even if it was a week down the road.
Smaller Portion Sizes
Now the issue with everything that we’ve done is that it looks like it wastes a lot of food. But, one thing you can do to prevent this is to not overstuff your toddlers plates. You want it pretty bare, like 1 cut grape in 1 compartment kind of bare when you are starting out. Presenting your toddler with more of a sampling plate rather than a full meal is a lot less intimidating if your toddler is a picky eater. Another perk of not overstuffing their plates with food is if they don’t eat a whole food item, you are not having to throw away a lot and they always have the option of asking for more. This allowed my son to dictate how much he wanted to eat and I needed to trust that he knew when he was full. This also required me to have a mindset change. Though it felt like I was just throwing food away, it was not a waste of food in terms of using the food as tools to help my child learn to eat different foods.
Involve the Kids in Food Making/Prep
As both of my children grew and wanted more autonomy over the food that they ate, I found that involving them in the process of preparing food helped a lot! This kind of involvement varied, but each time ended in some sort of eating success. Sometimes I would let them help me cut a soft fruit, such as a banana, for a snack with a little plastic Montessori kids’ knife cutting set from Amazon. Another time, I just set up a stool next to me and allowed my daughter to just watch as I layered lasagna, and to my surprise, she ended up eating lasagna for the first time! One time, I got really ambitious and had my husband help me set up a pizza making station for us and the kids to make our own mini personal pizzas. This was a big mess. But, also a big success!
Overall, both of my kids still go through waves of picky eating, but I tend to handle it better than I first did with my son. With our first bout of picky eating, it took about a month of using some of these tips to really see a difference in my son’s picky eating. Both of my kids still don't have the most diverse palates, but they do their best and they are occasionally ok with trying new foods. Though it seems like picky eating is something that everyone says is common and that it’s just a phase; it still doesn’t make it less stressful for everyone involved. I know it can cause a lot of anxiety concerning your child’s health and well-being, but I hope these tips help encourage your child to be open to trying new foods and get back to enjoying meals!
