Picky Eating
By: Dr. Hayley Pedersen
Does your child struggle with selective eating? Perhaps this may be getting in the way of your family meals or your ability to pack school lunches. Selective or “picky” eating is familiar to many families of young children.
Here are 4 tips to support your child’s variety of foods that they will eat:
Link new or non-preferred foods with foods your child likes. For example, if your child likes spaghetti and you would like them to eat broccoli, serve a portion of broccoli and let them know a certain amount needs to be finished before they can eat their spaghetti. This works well if you can pair the new food with a food they really like. You can also have your child switch their bites (one broccoli, followed by a bite of pasta, then repeat).
Slow and consistent is the way to go! When trying a new food, kids need repeated exposure to the food to help it become a part of their food palette. For one week, you may set a goal for a certain food, and serve that food every day. The next week, you can add in another new food while still maintaining the food from the first week.
Set manageable goals. When serving a new food, set a small goal that will help your child feel successful. At first, a few bites may be all you are looking for. The next day, you can increase what the “goal” is. Use a motivator for your child to support them feeling accomplished and successful (such as an extra 5 minutes of TV time or play time for meeting the goal).
Make food fun! Have your child choose a “color” food for the week for their “challenge foods” they would like to try. Based on the color they choose, offer them a few options of what could fit your nutrition goal for them (yellow could mean banana, corn, zucchini squash, etc.)
If your child struggles more significantly with selective eating to the point where you are worried if they are meeting their nutritional needs, visit your pediatrician. We have a number of professionals at The Child and Family Connection who can more intensively address picky or selective eating.
Please contact us at 949-236-6155 or at drhayley@thechildandfamilyconnection.com to learn more! Visit our website www.thechildandfamilyconnection.com to learn more about our services and how we can best support you and your family.