I was talking to a lovely couple last week who are really struggling with their son and his picky eating. They got in touch because when they went away on holiday it really shined a negative light on his eating.
Often, when we’re at home, we make all sorts of accommodations for our child. This is a common mistake with picky eaters. Over time we stop even being conscious about how much we are compromising.
Being in a new environment, especially when surrounded by friends or relatives, suddenly shows us how far from “ideal” our child’s eating is.
Turning around that common mistake with picky eaters
Looking at this objectively, it also gives us an idea as to how we can accidentally hinder rather than helping our picky eater. My advice is always to ask ourselves “are we enabling, or are we supporting” in any situation regarding our picky eater.
Is what we’re doing enabling our child to continue being as fussy around food? For example, if we have a child that loves Cocopops and we serve that every morning, this reinforces their picky behaviour. Especially if they are able to eat Weetbix also, for example, but just prefer the Cocopops (who doesn’t prefer chocolate!)
As parents it’s easy to fall into a routine where we make our child happy, ensure they put something in the tummy and have firm favourites we revolve weekly.
What can we do to help our child?
1. Making our child happy is important and in fact, having them be comfortable around food is a core goal. But, there is a big difference between serving them foods that they are able to eat and only serving favourites.
It’s good to take a step backwards and look at whether we are focused on making them happy, but at the expense of variety. The less foods they tackle on a weekly basis the more narrow their diet can become.
2. Putting something in the tummy is again really positive. We want our child to get used to coming to the table and eating.
But, again we want to make sure we’re not giving in to demands for favourites just to get something eaten. I recommend experimenting earlier in the day with foods that are a little different, rather than at night, as we don’t want hungry tummies before bed.
3. Having the same foods on repeat. This is very easy for us as we know what to buy and we know it will get eaten. Unfortunately, this again reinforces our child’s need to eat favourites over and over again.
Introducing new or slightly different foods is really, really important for picky eaters. The more foods our child gets comfortable with, the more foods they will – over time – be able to eat.
Judith 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.