10 Sensory Feeding Tips for Picky Eaters
Picky eating… it’s the bane of most parent’s existence. The thing that keeps families from enjoying a meal together. The thing that makes parents question their cooking abilities and worry about whether or not their child is getting the proper nutrition needed to grow and develop! While most kids are picky about certain food items or show a preference for specific foods (chicken nuggets anyone?), when your child has less than 15 foods in their repertoire you might begin to worry about how to get them to just TRY something new!
While sensory feeding problems are complex issues that are often best addressed by your doctor and occupational therapist, there are some practical, easy techniques that anyone can try to help their child explore new food options! Here are 10 tips for addressing sensory feeding picky eating!
Heavy work
We occupational therapists LOVE what we call “heavy work.” These are activities that give the whole body, firm, regulating input. It might sound weird to have your child do animal walks down the hall, or crash on a crash pad before a meal, but these activities can be very regulating for the brain. And a regulated child is less likely to experience anxiety and dysregulation during a meal. Make sure that your child is participating in the activities in an organized way (not just bouncing from here to there at random). Give them a target to hop to, or ask them to pick up toys while lying on their stomach on a scooter board. Try wall push ups, helping to carry a heavy grocery bag, or going for a bike/ scooter ride before lunch. All of these activities are regulating and can help your child’s overall well being!
2. Encourage playing with different textured foods outside of meal time
Some kids will not even touch or be in the same room as a non-preferred food, let alone take a taste. If your child is having difficulty just interacting with a specific type of food, make it into a game (with NO pressure to taste or even touch the food near their face). Drawing in mushy textures like yogurt and apple sauce can help to desensitize your child to mushy, sticky food textures. If your child is apprehensive about touching the food with their hands, try using a carrot or pretzel stick as a barrier between the skin and the food or drive your toy cars through the “mud” of chocolate pudding. It’s important for children to be exposed to a variety of textures in the environment (both during meals and outside of meal time) in order for their brains to get used to the feel different textures. So make a play date with some pudding and get messy!
3. DON’T force your child to taste a food they don’t want to try
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As I mentioned in the last point, some kids are SO averse to certain foods that they refuse to even be in the same room as it. Eating is a very complex and personal activity. We all have a right to determine what enters our bodies and food is no different. Forcing a child to try a new food against their will is more likely to harm your relationship with your child, and cause them to turn away more foods, than it is to get them to like it. So never force your child to eat something that they truly don’t want to try.
Instead of forcing them to taste it, encourage your child to interact with the food in other ways. Smell the food, look at the food, tolerate sitting at the table with the food present, touch the food with your fingers, but tasting should be the last step in this process. If your child is verbal, ask them to describe the food. What color is it? What sound does it make when you drop it on the plate? Offer the non-preferred food along with neutral foods and allow your child the choice of what foods to eat. Interacting with the food in a non-threatening way and allowing your child to have the freedom and autonomy to decide which foods they eat will help give them a better sense of power over their own choices, help them to feel safe, and decrease the risk of negatively impacting your relationship with your child during meal times.
4. Present the non-preferred food alongside a neutral food
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Studies have shown that people (adults included) need to be exposed a food over 20 times before they truly know whether or not they like it. That being said, most of us adults are typically well versed in the foods we like and those we don’t. Children on the other hand need much more exposure to new foods. While they may be encouraged to taste new foods, if your child is severely averse to a new food, present the food alongside a neutral food (NOT a highly preferred food) and offer them a choice. If your child will tolerate having both foods on the same plate, even better. I usually recommend to my families that they have a second “don’t want it” plate or bowl (or even a paper towel will work). This plate empowers the child to be able to choose what they want, while also encouraging them to interact with the food by touching it. The purpose of the plate is to get your child to touch the non-preferred food by moving it to the “don’t want it” plate. As I mentioned above, immediately tasting the food is not always the most appropriate course of action. Some children need to interact with the food in other ways before they are willing to taste it and moving the food with their hands (or a utensil) gives them the opportunity to do so.
5. Involve your child in the meal preparation process
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Meals are meant to be social activities, so cooking together offers many benefits! By including your child in the food preparation process they can take some responsibility for the meal as well as have more buy in to eating it. Even small children can help with simple meal prep, such as tearing apart lettuce leaves for a salad, washing tomatoes, or emptying a can of beans into a bowl. During OT sessions I’ve had kids help me to make English muffin pizzas to encourage them to touch the cheese, scoop the sauce, and then they have the freedom to put whatever they like and however much they like of each ingredient onto their personal pizza. Giving your child more control over their food choices will empower them to make those choices on their own. When you include them in the cooking process they get to see how the foods are transformed and get the tactile input they need to interact with a variety of ingredients. You may need to start slow (depending on how severely picky your picky eater is), but in the long run, with consistency, your child should grow to tolerate and maybe even want to explore different food options.
6. Eat the same food alongside your child at meal times
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One of the biggest problems I have seen when working with picky eaters is that we expect children to eat the foods we present to them, while the adults are eating something else. Children do best when given a model of what is expected. If you want your child to eat broccoli, but you, yourself never eat broccoli, then that is an unfair expectation. By eating the broccoli alongside your child, you are demonstrating that the food is not dangerous and that it CAN be eaten. Present the foods for the meal on the table and then demonstrate serving yourself by scooping the foods onto your own plate. Then allow your child to serve themselves (with assistance as needed for scooping and such). Eat the meal together, at the table, without distraction. Turn the TV off, put away phones and tablets, and enjoy the meal together.
7. Avoid constant “grazing” and drinking milk between meals
If your child is a picky eater, the odds are that when they ask for a snack, you provide them with whatever you know they will eat to help hold them over between meals. The problem with this tactic is that sometimes, kids don’t actually know what it feels like to be hungry. When kids graze throughout the day or fill themselves up by drinking milk between meals, the odds are that, come meal time, they may not truly feel hungry. And if you’re not really hungry, you’re probably not going to want to try something new. While you always want to check with your child’s doctor to ensure that they are getting adequate calories in their day, limiting food options to only during meal times (and drinks to only water between meals) can help some children work up enough hunger to want to eat and even try new foods at meal times.
8. Present small amounts of the non-preferred food at each meal
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Many parents get frustrated when attempting to present new foods to their picky eater. They feel that it’s a waste of food and their kid will just never eat anything more than a specific brand of chicken nuggets, so why bother with other foods. One tactic that you can try is by presenting your child with small (I’m talking crumb size) amounts of the new food. Rather than placing a whole spoonful of rice on the plate, cut one grain in half (or smaller) and place it on the plate. You always want to give your child the autonomy to choose whether or not to actually ingest it, but present one tiny piece at a time to get them used to seeing the food on the plate. As they become accustomed to seeing the crumb, gradually increase the size to work your way up to one full grain, then add another grain, then eventually a teaspoon, and so on. While there is no easy, quick fix for sensory feeding issues, with persistence, patience, and understanding you can help your child to make progress in trying new foods crumb by crumb.
9. Choose one meal a day to work on sensory feeding skills
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While sensory feeding issues can feel overwhelming, and working on said issues seems even more overwhelming, you don’t have to force all of the rules at EVERY meal. If you’re strapped for time, choose one meal each day where you can devote extra time to sit down with your child and work on the introduction of new or non-preferred foods. We get it, some times you just need your kid to eat SOMETHING so that you can get to work or school on time. In those cases, quick fixes of foods that you know your child will eat are GREAT! But if you have more time at dinner, sit down together and work on 1 or 2 of the above suggestions each day (you DON’T need to implement all of the suggestions at the same time) to help gradually work on these skills without overwhelming your child (or yourself) with the work it will inevitably take to see improvement.
10. Make meals fun!
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When your child is a picky eater, meal times often become a fight. Rather than an enjoyable time of family bonding and nourishment, picky eating causes anxiety, discord, and frustration. The most important tip that I can give you in regard to meal times with picky eaters is to make things fun! Use cookie cutters to cut up fruits and vegetables into fun shapes. Have your child help you make the meal into a picture on the plate before placing it on the table. Make a game out of seeing who can eat 5 peas in 5 seconds, with no judgement necessary for those who don’t want to participate. Present the foods in new and interesting ways (cook the carrots instead of eating them raw or use a rolling pin to flatten the bread before spreading butter on it). Showing kids that new foods can be fun and delicious (because of course you’re modelling for them) will take the pressure off and introduce fun back into meal times. When kids feel safe and motivated to participate in family meal times they are more likely to try new foods than when they’ve been led to believe that food is stressful and sitting at the table makes mom and dad mad. So keep things light and introduce your child to all of the new foods that the world has to offer!
*While the above is a guide for how to introduce your child to new foods, here are other things to consider:
Consider the different sensory experiences involved in the food. Your child may be negatively reacting to the look of the food, the sound it makes in their mouth, the texture, the taste, or even the way it smells. So honor that and help them to cope with the challenge.
Some foods may be causing your child to experience pain (such as reflux) without your knowledge (and therefore they want to avoid those foods), so it’s important to communicate with your pediatrician to ensure that everything is ok.
If your child has a severely limited number of foods that they are willing to eat be sure to talk with your pediatrician or occupational therapist to find treatment ideas that will work for your specific child.
*The above article is for informational purposes only and is not a substitute for medical treatment from your doctor or occupational therapist. If you have specific concerns about your child’s picky eating, contact your pediatrician or occupational therapist.
