“Eat your veggies! Mmm yummy, I love this, you’re gonna like it! Take a polite bite.”
Dinner time can be the same old (headache) game.
You serve this that and the other thing, and all they’ll touch is the banana and the cheese.
It drives you nuts! You’re stressed about their nutrition and you have no idea how and when things will change.
Picky eating is such a confusing and frustrating part of toddler mom life.
And it can be so painful to deal with, day in and day out.
But know this – with some TIME, a CALM, COOL, COLLECTED APPROACH and some super simple FOOD ACTIVITIES, you CAN help your toddler navigate from picky to adventurous.
It’s important to remember that it will take time, as most learning does. You will begin to see what speaks to your toddler and what makes the biggest impression on them. Typically after a month of incorporating food activities, families see noticeable change in their picky eater.
First, this is the mindset that will help you:
- We are where we are with their picky eating and I am not going to let myself be overcome by stress because of it.
- I am not defined by my toddler’s picky eating habits.
- They need my help getting comfortable with different foods. And with time and activities, they WILL get more comfortable, therefore they’ll eat more variety.
It’s not about you. You are not failing as a parent. You do not need to feel bad about yourself as a mom if your toddler is picky. Release yourself from those stress-causing thoughts, and focus your energy instead on little tweaks at play time, that will help teach your toddler about foods so they can get more comfortable with them.
You don’t deserve to feel poorly about yourself. Instead, feel empowered to do some food play.
It’s also helpful to think about what triggers your upset toward your toddler’s picky eating. If it’s nutrition for instance, you can speak with your pediatrician to check in on how your child is tracking on the growth chart. If they are tracking well, take that as some relief and reassurance to worry less about their nutrition. And in the meantime, you can start introducing more variety as you start to see changes from food activities.
Ok, for the activities, think of it this way:
We’re going from A to Z with this mindset and approach. And your toddler can’t get to Z without going through all the other letters, first. In other words, it will take more than a few days to see change.
Like exercise for weight loss or therapy for anxiety, regular ‘sessions’ of food activities will add up to noticeable picky eater change. Think about how you can fit these food activity ‘sessions’ into your regular play time.
Remember how your toddler was shy and nervous when they started going to daycare? Now they’re outgoing and eager to go right? Well they too, can evolve with their eating, given the same opportunity of regular, low-pressure exposure.
And what is more low-pressure than play that they’re interested in, right?
So, forget focusing on the bites at the dinner table that research tells us makes for even more severe picky eating, let’s step away from the dinner table completely, and do some play.
Here’s how to do some food sorting play:
Bring some different foods into their play room each week. Cut some in pieces and leave some whole. Take 5-10 minutes to sit and play together. Tape some construction paper on the table and tell them to sort by:
- SHAPE
- COLOR
- TEXTURE
- CATEGORY (fruit/veggie).
Have some books with pictures of real food around so you can read those together at story time and draw connections between foods you’ve been playing with and foods in the book.
{Related: Learn about The Picky Toddler Challenge, a comprehensive 4 week food exposure plan that includes activities and strategies that you follow along with at home.}
Give them prompts and have them:
- SORT BY COLOR
- STACK
- PRETEND COOK
Let them grab at and handle the foods as they would toys. Cut some in pieces and leave some whole
While meal time is part of their every day routine – new and different foods are not and toddlers, as we know, don’t do well with new and different.
The same goes for food.
And when do our toddlers do better? When they GET USED TO something. When they GET COMFORTABLE with something.
There’s an actual scientific term for food fear it’s called food neophobia. It’s common in toddlers and food activities can help you help them overcome this fear.
