Fussy eaters

Posted by Talking Matters on 27 July 2013

Sometimes children can be fussy eaters and reluctant to try new foods. There are many reasons why children may refuse certain foods including the way the food looks or the feel of the food on the child’s hands or in their mouth. Children might find certain foods more difficult to chew or think the food is boring or uninteresting. Children with special needs such as autism spectrum disorder can be especially fussy eaters.

Here are some ideas to encourage fussy children to eat new and different foods:

Involve your child in the kitchen

Involving children in the kitchen can be a great way to make them feel included and to spark an interest in their food. For children with motor control and planning difficulties, getting involved in food preparation can give their brains more time to think about eating and start planning and what the muscles of the body will need to do when the food is ready.

Allowing children to help in the kitchen can be as simple as allowing them to choose what shape or type of spaghetti to cook, or getting your child to put some chopped vegetables in a saucepan ready to cook. Children can also help gathering ingredients and equipment from cupboards, washing fruits and vegetables, measuring, mixing and adding ingredients, and if you are doing some baking children can help with rolling, kneading and icing. Older children might be able to help with chopping or grating foods as well. Be sure to supervise younger cooks in the kitchen and expect some spills and messes. Don’t forget to include children in the cleaning up afterwards and remember that good cooks of all ages need to wash their hands before they start cooking.

Give your child choices about what they eat

Like adults, children enjoy making decisions about what they eat and letting your child make small choices about their food can help them feel like they have some control over what they eat. You might include your child in a decision about what to cook for dinner (e.g. spaghetti bolognaise or chicken stir fry) or it might be smaller decisions about the ingredients. For example, your child could decide whether to have carrot or capsicum in the stir fry, or whether to have long thin spaghetti or macaroni with the bolognaise sauce. Giving children a choice between 2 or 3 options gives them some control but allows you to still cook and serve meals that your family enjoy.

Present the food in new and exciting ways

Start to think about how to present food in new and exciting ways, particularly if you are introducing new foods or encouraging children to eat foods they are reluctant to eat! This can include changing what you use to hold the food and what you use to eat the food. Ideas include:

Serving a small portion of the food in the corner of an ice cube tray
Serving a small portion of food in a large Asian soup spoon
Serving food in bowls made for dips and biscuits that are divided into sections
Using fun lunch boxes with compartments to serve meals, even breakfast or dinner at home
Using non-food containers to serve food such as test tubes, old jars
Using different knives, forks, and spoons or even try using something different to eat with like chop sticks!

You can also make food more exciting by changing the way you prepare or cook familiar foods. Ideas include:

Using food dye to change the colour of custards, sauces and yoghurts
Cutting sandwiches into different shapes using biscuit cutters
Looking for different brands, shapes and sizes of familiar food when you go shopping such as different shapes of pasta

It does not have to be expensive or time consuming, so start looking around for simple ideas to liven up meal times!

Give your child opportunities to change the texture of difficult foods. If your child does not like certain foods or will not try foods because they think it will be too difficult to eat and chew; look for ways to change the texture of the food. For example:

Adding extra sauces, custards, yoghurts, creams or gravies to food
Helping your child use a potato masher or rolling pin to mash, roll or crush food
Putting the food in a blender or a small food processor/chopper for a few seconds

If you are encouraging your child to try more difficult textures then let them add more sauce or change the texture of they food after they try at least a certain amount (e.g. 3 spoonfuls). You might also use the rule that any food your child chops, mashes, rolls or crushes then they must also eat it.

Allow or help children to serve themselves

Sometimes children can refuse to try food altogether if they feel there is too much on their plate and cannot imagine being able to eat all of it. Giving children some control over the amount of food that goes on their plate can make new food or food they do not like appear less threatening. You can do this by putting food in the middle of the table and allowing people to serve themselves, or you can let your child help you put food on everyone’s plates before you bring them out to the table. You can set rules around the minimum amount of food that must go on their plate but then let them decide how much more. For example, your child must put a least one tablespoon of peas on their plate but can decide if and how many more peas to have.

Try and make meal times fun and enjoyable! While everyone is eating, talk about the meal including the temperature, smell, appearance, taste (e.g. sour, sweet, spicy, etc.) and texture (e.g. crunchy, running, soft, smooth, etc.). Talk about what you like about the meal.

Age appropriate ideas for including children in the kitchen

Two-year-olds are learning to use the large muscles in their arms. They will enjoy activities such as:

scrubbing vegetables and fruits
wiping tables
dipping vegetables and fruits
tearing lettuce and salad greens
breaking bread for stuffing
snapping fresh beans

Three-year-olds are learning to use their hands. Try activities such as:

pouring liquids into a batter
mixing muffin batter
shaking a milk drink
spreading peanut butter on firm bread (This may be messy!)
kneading bread dough

Four- and five-year-olds are learning to control smaller muscles in their fingers. Offer them experiences such as:

rolling bananas in cereal for a snack
juicing oranges, lemons, and limes
mashing soft fruits and vegetables
measuring dry and liquid ingredients
grinding cooked meat for a meat spread
beating eggs with an eggbeater

Ideas for ways to include children of different ages in the kitchen comes from http://www.nncc.org/Curriculum/fc46_cook.kids.html

Talking Matters provides speech and occupational therapy services to children of all ages. To find out more about our speech pathology services click here. To find out more about occupational therapy click here.

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Fussy eaters

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