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Picky Eater Strategies

(adapted from Schneider, 2001; SPD Connection, 2008)

Is your child a Picky Eater? Here are some proven strategies for helping a young child try new ideas for trying new foods.

Before eating, make sure your child is properly positioned; sitting up straight without slouching. You can use bolsters, pillows, or whatever position works best. An OT or SL T can help you with this.

  • Allow your picky eater to explore and play with food. This will allow him to experience different textures through the tactile system. Due to oral hypersensitivity, a child will feel "safer" exploring textures with his hands first, rather than his mouth. Less threatening and leads to a better overall response.
  • Grind up "real" family meal foods. The texture may be better tolerated and she may enjoy new flavors. Adding a favorite condiment to the ground food may make it more palatable and "smoother".
  • Serve vegetables and fruits in different ways than you usually prepare them. Serve raw broccoli rather than steamed or cooked apples rather than raw. Experiment with what is pleasing to the eye, ear, nose, palate, and fingers. .
  • Condiments can add flavor to foods, but watch the fat sources. Placing condiments in pre-measured containers can be fun and a monitor for the amount of condiment used. Eventually you can begin fading out the condiments, using less and less, each time as he begins to get used to the food.
  • Serve foods in a portion-plate with its own sections for each different food or use a small bowl or cup for each food. Perhaps the child responds to red, but your dinnerware is white. Incorporate all the senses into the meal.
  • Food may look appetizing, but the smell of the food is immediately repulsive. Try strong, clean food smells prior to taking a bite of food (e.g., citrus, apple, peanut butter, etc).
  • Once you find a particularly successful food, try introducing similar foods. For example, if your child likes a particular style of pasta with tomato sauce, try a new shape, texture, or flavor of pasta with tomato sauce that has herbs and cheese in it. If your child likes specific colors of foods, try spinach or beet pasta.
  • Food time is not fight time. The goal of having a meal is to have a dining experience that is pleasant and encourages more terrific meals. This is a good time for distractions from the tenseness of getting the food on the plate to his lips. Add conversations, favorite stories, poems, pictures, songs, relaxing music, a toy he can hold or squeeze, just try it and see what works.
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  • You may wish to set up a reward system; use tokens, stickers, etc., and reward your child for trying a new food (even if he gags or can not eat more than one bite). He can then trade them in for a new toy, or any kind of reward you set up. This is NOT for all children and families. Find a reward system which works for both you and your child that will encourage him to try new foods, tastes, and textures. Once you find a food, get him to eat more of it and begin gradually adding it to his usual repertoire.
  • Textures can be friend or foe at meal time. Picky eaters with oral defensiveness may be able to tolerate one or two food textures or temperatures. Make sure you try to introduce new foods to ultimately include: hot, cold, and neutral temperatures for food and drinks, pureed food, smooth, chunky, hard, soft, crunchy, "slippery", sticky, and mixed textures, There are many thicken agents on the market to add bulk while increasing texture.
  • Oral stimulation continues when brushing a child's teeth. Start by brushing the tongue and cheeks with just tap water then brush teeth normally. Use regular or vibrating toothbrushes (if tolerated).
  • Infants or toddlers can bite on vibrating, textured, and frozen teething rings and toys.
  • Give your picky eater half of a homemade tea or fruit juice freeze pop before she tries a new food. The cold will help numb and desensitize the mouth.

For Oral Aversion

  • During non-meal time, use oral massagers on lips, insides of cheeks, palate, tongue, and gums. An OT, SL T, or dentist has many resources for these oral massage items. Finger brushes and spongy oral cleaners (flavored or unflavored) can also be used.
  • Using therapeutic chew toys throughout the day may help build oral tolerance. Hard tubinq (offered by an OT or SL T) may be used at various temperatures. Flavors may be added to entice the use of the device. Some hyperactive children are calmed by sour tastes, so dipping the device in pickle brine or lemon juice may help.
  • Rub and massage the child's face, lips, and cheeks with cloths of various textures and fabrics to gradually decrease sensitivity. Begin with materials such as satin and silk, move on to soft cotton, then baby washcloths (smooth side first. then rougher side), and ultimately increasing to rougher, regular family washcloths and towels.
  • Give lots of praise for any attempt to try a new food, even if eating the food did not occur. Perhaps he smelled it. tasted it on the tip of tongue, chewed it. but spit it out - it was still a new food experience.

For Older Children

  • Taste test some new foods. Give her a choice of two new foods to try. Let her know she only needs to eat one bite to see if she likes it. Thank her for trying, even if she vomits after the taste test. It is important you give the test food first while she is most hungry and while there is less food in her stomach in case she gags. Also, find out the best time of day for your child to try something new (e.q.. breakfast, lunch, snack, or dinner), when is she most agreeable, hungry, willing, awake, etc.
  • As your child gets older, increase their responsibility in helping to make your meals. Taking part of the meal creation will increase the likelihood that the child will eat the food presented. Even young children can prep vegetables and create snacks.
  • Insist that your child take a "polite bite". In many social situations, hosts will be offended if a child announces their refusal to eat a meal (imagine Grandma having cooked a Thanksgiving dinner for hours). Teaching our children this very important social grace will help ease frustrating meal conflicts. If, after the polite bite (or two) is taken, the child can either be excused from the table or perhaps eat something else that is acceptable to the parent and child.