Helping Picky-Eaters Survive the Holidays
Did you know that exposing children to new foods, even without them having to taste the food during that exposure, can increase the chances that child will try the food in the future?! Those kids we might call “picky-eaters”, who fear new foods or have adverse reactions to trying new foods benefit from multiple exposures before acceptance of a new or less familiar food.
Exposures of foods can happen in so many ways - through books, in movies or shows, through sensory exploration, and in play!
Here’s the thing…
With all sorts of holidays right around the corner, your child is likely to be in a place of being presented with some less familiar or less desirable foods.
How to help picky-eaters as we approach the holidays:
Ensure that you have safe, preferred foods available to them. The holidays can be overwhelming - new places, new people, new sounds, and so many new smells. If your child is reluctant to try new foods at home, they’re going to be even more reluctant in a new environment. Have foods that are well known and familiar to them.
Try exposing them to food(s) before the big event! (See our example below for how we explored sweet potatoes in preparation for Thanksgiving).
At events and new environments, no pressure to try new foods. If your child can tolerate it being on their plate (a very small amount!), then go for that. Otherwise, choose to pursue this goal at another time.
Have your child be a part of preparing a meal with NO expectation or pressure that they eat it. They can explore the ingredients by cutting them with child-safe knives and mixing ingredients together. This is a great opportunity for them to become more comfortable around less familiar foods.
Need some ideas for how to explore new foods? Here’s a couple ideas:
Paint with them!
Use carrots as paintbrushes!
Turn your sweet potatoes or russet potatoes into stampers user cookie cutters (trust me on the cookie cutters - makes it so much easier to make fun stamp shapes).
Paint a slice of bread using milk and food coloring! Mix together a little food coloring and milk, then use paintbrushes to paint designs on the bread. Remember, you don’t have to eat it, so if it’s soggy, it doesn’t matter! But if you want to eat it, throw it in the toaster at the end to get it a little crispy!
Build with them!
You can turn anything into something to build with.
We used nutella and graham crackers to make a Halloween house.
You can cut up slices of cucumbers and toothpicks to make a tower!
Use pieces of rolled up bread to make a “log cabin”, held together with peanut butter, Nutella, or cake frosting!
Turn them into a fun drink!
This Cucumber Cooler drink came from the Adventures in Veggieland Book by Melanie Potock (highly recommend!) and was a huge hit!
Need additional ideas? Follow along with our adventures on Instagram to catch therapy in action or reach out for a consultation call!
