Enticing the Picky Eater

Having a picky eater can suck the joy out of mealtimes for everyone and makes eating outside the home a constant challenge. Putting the fun and the joy back into eating really helps and there are many ways to do this:

1. A Change of Scenery: A designated eating area can become synonymous with food failure. Moving to a different place can reset expectations. Try eating outside or on a picnic rug inside.

2. Swapping Meals Around: Snacks and breakfasts are often easier than main meals as they contain favourite foods. Since lunch or dinner can have negative connotations, swap and have breakfast foods during the day or snack foods at night.

3. Use Different Containers or Serving Equipment: New experiences and curiosity about food is positive. Serving pasta in a Chinese take-away carton, or using tongs to grab carrots for the dip, for example, is changing the emphasis. Children’s chopsticks, large spoons or tweezers are fun eating utensils. Serving cereal in a cup, rice in the back of a truck or nuggets in the tea set are creative ways to spice it
up.

4. Put Food on Skewers or Cocktail Sticks: There are many child-safe options for skewers. Think 1970s with cubes of cheese, slices of sausage and pineapple.

5. Food Served in Smaller Bites: Use ice cube trays or muffin tins, filling the holes with different foods for a child to eat from. Great for snacks but can even be for dinner, too.

6. Use Fun Shapes: Create pancakes with cookie cutters to create dinosaurs or flowers, for example. Then use vegemite,chocolate chips, raisins, etc. for decoration. Metal cookie cutters can turn fruit and vegetables into shapes. Cut spinach into letters using scissors.

7. Make Pictures: Pastry and dough can be moulded into a “J” for a child, or maybe the letters of their favourite sports team can be created. Even simple objects like a wand will spark a picky eater’s curiosity and comfort toward a food.

8. Food Art: This does NOT have to be complicated! A simple face or a basic car will suffice. If we do the food art, we are changing up the food and generating new interest. If a child is creating, they are interacting and focussing on the food.

9. Pretend Play: Play restaurant with an adult serving the child. This changes the atmosphere and often leads to delight. Alternatively, adults can be the guests with a child serving.

10. Positive Messages: Draw on fruit peels, such as the outside of a banana or mandarin. Put paper messages in the lunchbox or use icing or sauce to create a letter or a pattern on a food.

11. Get Messy: Pictures from yoghurt or pudding, painting with spices, sticking hands into jelly or squirting from pouches can all be fun and entice even the pickiest of eaters to take part.

12. Add a “Treaty” Ingredient: Adding chocolate chips to pancakes or jam in the yoghurt is just one positive way to support a child to eat more comfortably and joyfully.

13. Create the World’s Smallest or Largest: Tiny pizzas or burgers involve a child on a fun level. It’s also easier to contemplate eating something tiny. Conversely, we can create the world’s largest of a food, like a pancake, and thenshare it altogether.

14. Naming Rights: Maybe they’ll call it, “Jamie’s Jam” or “Mia’s Mango Smoothie.” Any time a child feels they have an investment, it’s a positive thing, so give them some simplistic ownership by allowing them to name their food  creation!

15. Fondue: Even adults love fondue! You don’t need a fancy machine, either. It can be savoury with cheese or pasta sauce or something as simple as ketchup. For a sweeter option, use chocolate sauce, honey or softened peanut butter. Perfect as a shared meal or dessert choice.

16. Dip It! Set up a dipping tray with a variety of dips, along with foods to put into them. To take it to the next level, think cubes of apple on a stick to dip into yoghurt and then add sprinkles. For a meatier choice, think sausage to dip into ketchup and then add grated cheese.

17. Eat Like A…: For young children, pretending to eat food like different characters is especially fun. Examples include eating like a dog, dinosaur, or a monster. Adults initiating the fun is even more encouraging to them! For children with older interests, adults role playing eating like a favourite character can be viewed as fun or “cringy,” but either way, it still gets their interest!

18. Other Interactions: Away from the table, there are also ways to interact with food. Carrot bricks for the truck, spaghetti plaiting, or threading sweetcorn to make a bracelet. For the super ambitious, you might even attempt creating a world
map from peas! Spending time engaging a child around food in ways that do make it more fun and less routine is always valuable. Dedicating some new energy can often support a picky eater
to build a new level of enjoyment around food.