3 Things To Try For Fussy Eaters
First I want to start off this blog by saying:
you are not a bad parent because your child doesn’t eat vegetables.
How good of a parent you are is not determined by your child’s diet.
So now that we are all on the same page (hopefully guilt free), let’s dive into some background.
If you are reading this, you likely have experienced some of the following things:
Your child likes a food one day and the next it is their worst enemy
Your child breaks down at mealtimes
You breakdown after mealtimes
You and/or your child enter mealtimes stressed
You have tried hiding veggies in foods but your child noticed and now refuses to eat that food
Stress around your child’s growth and nutrition, so you started them on a kids multivitamin
You are not alone in these experiences or feelings. Many parents I have worked with have experienced a combination of those things listed above, but the most common one is #4. Stress around mealtimes is a terrible cycle and shuts off your child’s appetite – story for another blog!
So here are my top three tips for fussy eating.
1. Change your mindset – this is a marathon, not a sprint.
This change in how you think about fussy eating will change how you approach the dinner table – you guessed it, less stressed. No, your child’s fussy eating is not just because you are stressed and NO it is not all your fault. Fussy eating is a culmination of multiple factors, and parental stress (which stems from them not eating well in the first place) is one of those factors. When your child doesn’t sense you are stressed, their stress and hence appetite are better, and they have a higher capacity to manage new foods.
Think marathon – your child has the rest of their life to explore foods, and most kids’ diets are nutritionally adequate (obviously with some exceptions). My 27 year old brother in law only just started to try berries after swearing he didn’t like them!
Lowering stress levels is great but alone may not be the only thing that will help your child’s eating – see below.
2. Expose, expose and then expose 10 more times.
Consistency in exposures is really important to get a child acquainted with a new food. Research shows that it takes a typically developing brain at least 10 exposures to become familiar with a food and then further exposures to determine if we like it or will add it to our regularly consumed list. A lot of parents I work with may try a food once and then feel disheartened and give up when their child inevitably doesn’t like it. Try, and then try 10+ more times with the same food.
3. Embrace spitting!
Mealtimes can be a great place to get those exposures in. Use a small amount of a family meal or a new food and put it on your child’s plate. Don’t worry if they don’t eat it – they likely won’t on the first time. But can they:
- Touch it with their cutlery or finger;
- Smell it;
- Lick it;
- Bite it and spit it?
Work your way up those steps and yes, allow them to spit into a napkin or scraps bowl! It empowers your kid to be in control of how far they want to go with that food.
I hope this was helpful for you and has given you some things to try at your next mealtime. You may have tried some of these already, or are consistently doing these things and seeing no progress. Feel like this blog wasn’t as helpful as you were hoping for? Maybe you need more support. Book in an initial consult or feeding assessment by emailing orangefeedingclinic@gmail.com or calling 6362 9806 for more information, or using our online inquiry form.
