HOW TO GET A CHILD TO TRY NEW FOOD: Feeding Therapy Tips for Parents to Use At Home (Picky Eaters)

Kelli Meyer M.Ed, CCC-SLP Certified & Licensed Pediatric Speech Language Pathologist
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It's Kelli, Welcome back to my channel! I hope these videos are helpful for working with your little ones at home! Leave a comment below with your questions, comments or video suggestions!

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FUN FACT: When presented with a new / unknown food, a child may take up to 10-15 times of exposure BEFORE they will consider trying it!

1) Continue to offer your child new / unfamiliar food / leave it out for continued exposure / desensitization

2) Offer food in altering colors, shapes, sticks, circles, half circles, with different dips, different brands, food with skin on, or food with skin off, etc

3) Be sure to foster a positive eating/mealtime environment. Observe your child's interaction at the table - do they immediately run away from it? Are the demands too high at the table? Is a mealtime experience too overwhelming for a little one just learning to eat?

Ensure that your child ENJOYS sitting at the table / under the table / in the highchair, & enjoys eating their preferred foods PRIOR to offering new / unknown foods that may be stressful or overwhelming for a child, and therefore, create a negative association with meal time

5) Use a kitchen play set to encourage play!
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6) Begin expanding food inventory by offering crunchy carbs and packaged food first for improved consistency and expectation when eating, in addition to the carbs breaking down in saliva faster. Inconsistent foods: fresh fruits, home made cookies/muffins.

7) Ensure that YOU are eating the food WITH your child. Model, model, model. Make FUN and YUMMY sounds - "mmm, mmm, mmm. Yum! Ah!" etc
** A child is 55% more likely to TRY a food if they see a parent, sibling or caregiver eating it

8) Remove expectations and pressure of eating the food, begin with PLAY activities FIRST - put painters tape on the wall, offer a FEW cherrios (anything else) on a plate and model simply picking it up and putting it on the wall / tape. Stick an uncooked spaghetti stick into playdough on a paper plate and put cherrios/fruit loops, any other circular foods on there. Play FUN music in the background. Continue exposure & playing with food without expectations

9) Ensure your child has an appropriate rotary/munch chew pattern. See a feeding specialist or SLP if you are unsure.

10) Try not to directly reward your child for taking bites of non-preferred food in exchange for a bite of preferred food. When we try to RESTRICT something, they simply want it more. Change your language if you use this approach to encompass the message of "the sooner we finish our dinner, the sooner we can have our Saturday desert!" *set up a schedule (visual if possible) and provide desert on certain days of the week. Offer the non-preferred foods (lets say carrots - in circles, half circles or sticks, only 1 of each choice, on a plate with a SMALL amount of different options of dips to try at dinner - use small plastic containers (peanut butter, ranch, etc) Offer the small 3 carrot option at dinner and ask your child which one they like and talk about which one you like! Model eating the carrot at dinner while making fun sounds! If this is the first 10-15 times your child is seeing a carrot, there is no demand to try the food. Offer a "no thank you" bowl if your child would like to remove it from their plate (this encourages a natural and easy way to communicate that they are not yet ready to try the food, and decreases refusal / trantrums related to mealtime by your child having control of the situation and also encourages them to touch it in order to move it from one place to another.) Continue to offer the carrot options and contiue modeling eating them, smelling them, making them in "ants on a log" or feeding them to brother, sister, stuffed animal, etc. Target "let's eat our carrot so we can get to desert faster!)

What we want: A LONG TERM, long lasting meal time enjoyment and fostering a healthy and positive relationship with food.

What we DONT want: to force a child to eat a food or over-reward for eating certain foods in order to get a more preferred food, which can foster a negative relationship with food.

11) Name all foods being offered in a FUN or EXCITING way

12) Involve your child in the food inventory process by letting them CHOOSE from pictures of foods that you'd like to add to their inventory.

13) Offer very SMALL portions at first, mixed in/on the same plate with preferred foods. Put foods in FUN silicone baking cups!