26 ideas for 2026
1. Seek help if you need it
2. Share not stare, eating with your child
3. Use positive words around food (think reading)
4. Help your child be confident, demonstrate belief they can eat new foods
5. Involve your child as much as possible around food
6. Offer new foods as well as accepted foods
7. Offer new foods consistently even if refused
8. Offer food choices
9. Give your child autonomy in places that don’t matter, like choosing the plate
10. Be in charge in areas that do (eg. deciding what’s served and when)
11. You are the parent you set the tone and make the rules!
12. Make meals relaxed and pleasurable
13. Have fun with food
14. Mess is often a positive (for them!)
15. Remain calm (even when they drive you crazy)
16. Ensure they are sitting comfortably, back straight, feet touching the floor
17. Make slight changes to foods to prevent rigidity
18. Home-made is best (uniform processed foods impede progress)
19. Slight food difference prevents boredom and dropping foods
20. Praise for eating is best if casual and indirect
21. Offer praise at the table (not about eating) so dinner is a positive space
22. Empower them to eat intrinsically by reading their hunger cues
23. Snacks are often the enemy of good meals, hunger is your friend
24. Eating after dinner can affect dinner
25. Limit liquids before meals that can fill up precious tummy space
26. Teaching your child to eat does not have to be difficult or miserable, demonstrate that!
Judith, MA Cantab (Cambridge University), MSc Psychology (first-class honours), is working on a PhD, is an AOTA accredited picky eating advisor and internationally certified nutritional therapist. She works with 100+ families every year resolving fussy eating and returning pleasure and joy to the meal table.
She is also mum to two boys and the author of Creating Confident Eaters and Winner Winner I Eat Dinner. Her dream is that every child can approach food from a place of safety and joy, not fear.
Learn more about Judith here: https://theconfidenteater.com/about/