picky eater toddler ideas

Overwhelmed By Picky Toddler Advice? Focus On These 2 Key Healthy Tips For Picky Eaters First

this article may contain affiliate links which means we get a small commission for anything purchased from this post or site

Overwhelmed By Picky Toddler Advice? Focus on these 2 Key Healthy Tips For Picky Eaters First

toddler picky eater phase

Top 2 Healthy tips for picky eaters

Information overload is such a huge thing these days with so much accessible information right at our fingertips, at any given moment. Plus, everyone in the world is sharing their ideas and points of view, experiences, strategies and ideas.

I personally love it. I also get overwhelmed by it. I get crippled by it and sometimes, when I’m trying to learn something new – I gather gather gather and don’t implement.

Can you relate to that at all?

If that is how you are feeling with handling and helping change your toddler’s picky eating, I want to encourage you to not read one more thing today about picky eater toddler ideas today. In fact, not one more thing for the whole week on tips for picky eaters, and instead choose to focus on these two healthy tips for picky eaters only:

Read this next:

12 Things You Can Do If Your Picky Eater Doesn’t Like Meat (Yet) 

How To Use Food Chaining To Expand Your Picky Toddler’s Diet

5 Things You May Be Doing That Are Making Picky Eating Worse

1) Make each meal this week about relaxing, hanging out, talking with one another about something fun or funny. Avoid talking about the food or commenting on any intake, bites, eating or tasting.

 

When this is your priority, you will begin to act differently at meal time and how you act will affect how you experience mealtime, which will allow you less stress. Likewise, your toddler will feel your energy and not feel the pressure or desire to engage in a power struggle because you are not commenting on intake, bites or eating. This is a powerful part of the psychology of picky eaters. 

Prioritize not being stressed at mealtime, despite the information your brain is feeding you. Quiet those thoughts. 

Sharing control and letting go in the moment might feel strange to you if you are used to being concerned with your toddler tasting something new at every meal, commenting on their eating, and focusing on them eating enough each time the sit to eat. 

But, the truth is, we can take a step back from those habits and create new habits. Ones that cause us less stress and help our toddler become less picky eaters. Yes! And it can feel counter-intuitive, but let me tell you it has worked for me, 20+ times over, with mild to extreme (gag at even the sight of a new food) picky eaters! And it starts with our dinner table vibe…

What we want to do first, is look at your toddler’s intake over the span of a day or week, rather than at each single meal, so you aren’t stressing over that. Because, much of what you are worrying about is if your toddler is getting enough food, am I right? Here’s the thing, toddlers don’t need much portion-wise at each meal, and are often snacking throughout the day and usually, get the protein they need with 2 cups of milk. Likewise, giving them too much is overwhelming and pressuring them to eat is uncomfortable, clams them up and frustrates them and you.

If it helps you, you can reflect on what your toddler eats through the day and calculate what they are getting. 

Knowing this and being reassured that they are getting a mix of food in their diet, will allow you to step back and reclaim some calm and joy at mealtime. If you need to, for now, add more foods they like into their meals so they are getting more. 

 


Want guided help with your picky eater? Join 100+ other moms for the free picky toddler at-home challenge! Do it at your own pace!

See how it works below!

toddler won't eat vegetables

 

 

1) get your toddler helping you do *one* piece of food prepping, each day. Maybe they break the tops off carrots while sitting at the island with you, maybe they choose the plates and cups to set the table, maybe they DIY their own beef, cheese and broccoli sprinkle burrito.

That’s it. Focus on these two things *only*.

Getting your toddler hands on with new foods, without any pressure of eating them, just feeling them, learning about them, in control of them, exploring them, this makes a HUGE impact on picky eater toddlers because they are experiencing new foods in a relaxed, fun, low-pressure setting. And when they are relaxed, they are open and willing. Soon, they will get curious and sniff, lick, taste! On their own terms, because they have the intrinsic desire to do so, rather than any outside pressure. More psychology of picky eaters for ya 😉

Figure out how to add these 2 things into your routine, regularly for a month. All the while, continuing to feed your toddler what you feed them now (with that cool as a cucumber vibe we talked about earlier – you can do it!!)

What will happen? Are you curious to see? I’m telling you, I’ve been delighted and in awe 20+ times over with how even extreme picky eaters reacted to doing these 2 things here at my Montessori-inspired daycare & preschool!

I want you to trust that these healthy tips for picky eaters work for making real change with picky eating when done consistently over time, and get into the mindset that you will be ‘running a test’ to see what results you get from doing them.

Let’s uncomplicate things, set healthy boundaries with the advice we take in, and slowly and continuously implement something for at least a month, and then re-evaluate if it is giving us the results we seek.

This weekend, let’s just start by adding these 2 things into our routine.

Check out these helpful toddler books about new foods:


Want a FREE instant download of my Transforming Picky Eating Cheat Sheet? Drop your name & email below! We never spam.

A step-by-step start guide to help you start seeing change with your picky toddler within 1 week!

 

Picky eater toddler final notes

Once you’ve done that for a month, take a look at starting to layer this ‘food chaining‘ strategy into your mealtimes too. It is a method used by many feeding therapists and the like, and it is simple, works off of the foods your toddler already likes and is slow, steady and effective.

For my exact 4-week plan on transforming picky eating, consider signing up for my FREE Picky Toddler Challenge. This 4-week plan is delivered to your inbox and can be done at your own pace. You CAN have less power struggles and less stress-filled meals with your family, sooner than later!

Or, you can also download a FREE Picky Eating Start Guide here. Either way, know that you have some free resources at your fingertips that will help your family have more enjoyable mealtimes with your little one!

Read this next:

Toddler Won’t Eat Vegetables? Here’s What To Do

Constipated Toddler? Try These Meal Ideas & Food Switches For Fast Relief

Want a FREE instant download of my Transforming Picky Eating Cheat Sheet? Drop your name & email below! We never spam.

A step-by-step starter guide to help you start seeing change with your picky toddler within 1 week!

Are you going to give these two steps a go for a month??

You can follow me on instagram for more picky eating content!

 
Xx Poppy

more helpful picky eating posts:

Find Trusted Sitters In Your Area Or Earn From Home!

X