Mealtime Strategies
You’ve probably seen it—brands marketing bulldozer forks and Candyland-style plates to make mealtimes fun. But does playing with food actually help picky eaters try new foods? Research shows that while play can be a great tool, it doesn’t always translate to eating. In this post, we dive into what really works to help kids move from just interacting with food to actually tasting it!
Getting kids to try new foods can feel like an uphill battle, but the secret to success might not be what’s on their plate—it’s how they think about it. Last summer, while teaching my daughter to ride her bike, I discovered how a growth mindset can turn resistance into momentum. In this post, I’m sharing the simple steps and mindset shifts that can make all the difference at mealtime. Small steps really do lead to big wins!
The holiday season is upon us, and a number of festive holiday dinner opportunities are quickly approaching. Whether your family will be celebrating Diwali, Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, Christmas, Kwanzaa, Lunar New Year, or another special holiday event, you may be wondering how to best plan to make this day special and inclusive for your neurodivergent picky eater. Today, let’s dive in and figure it out together!
Want to introduce new foods to your child with autism or ARFID? Not sure what to offer that would actually lead to success with your very picky eater? Get food ideas for picky eaters, and learn how to come up with food swaps of your own to expand your picky eater’s diet.
It’s not fancy, it’s not expensive, it’s not even that novel, but it is the one picky eater tool that I use and recommend for every, single ASD family that I work with. I’m not blowing smoke when I say that this is THE TOOL that I think every picky eater mom needs to have in her arsenal. It’s the thing as a feeding therapist that I would be lost without. Click the link to learn more!
When kids don’t sit down for mealtimes, they lose their focus on eating, and it can take them a long period of time to finish a meal. When this happens, parents often resort to leaving food out or available for long intervals of time. Unfortunately, extending mealtimes can be problematic for picky eaters. It takes the edge off of your honey’s appetite, it makes them fussier about coming to the table, and it really mucks with your efforts to help your kiddo try new foods. So, what can you do instead? I recommend teaching your honey to sit at the table for meals. Click the link to learn how.
Very often, I meet parents of children with autism who tell me their honey’s favorite foods are cookies, crackers, and candy. They wonder how to expand their picky eater’s diet and how to get them to try new foods.
In fact, just the other day, a mom asked me: Is serving junk food better than serving no food? She went on to explain that junk food seems to be all her son will eat.
My answer: It doesn’t have to be all or nothing. If your honey’s favorite foods are cookies crackers, and candy, and you’re looking for some ideas on how to expand your child’s diet, this blog post is for you.
Wish you could take the stress out of mealtimes? Wish you had a rule book for what to do as you sit down to this meal? Well, here’s the next best thing - my 8 things you can do to ease mealtime stress with your picky eater. I’ll cover what to say, how to start the meal off on the right foot, how to respond to behaviors you don’t like….and more.
We all know that using small rewards can have a big pay-off in motivating kids to learn and exercise new skills. I know so many families that used M&M’s to help teach toileting. In our house, Elmo songs helped us encourage hair washing (a dreaded reality of taking a bath!). I grew up earning a small allowance for doing household chores. …the applications are endless.
Repeated exposure—not just one bite—is the key to helping kids like new foods. Backed by decades of research, this post explains how kids learn to enjoy new foods and introduces a printable story that teaches them how. Perfect for parents and feeding professionals alike.