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Creative ways to help a fussy eater – 2

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Creative ways to help a fussy eater – 2

Making food fun, interesting and about more than just eating is a great long-term strategy.

Building more comfort around food is always the end goal. If a child is unwilling to try new food, anxious at mealtimes or is not adding things to the menu, then supporting them to be more relaxed and positive around food really helps.

None of these are magic bullet ways to stop fussy eating or things that will miraculously have children happily eating the family meal. They can though help you approach food in a new way and in turn, teach your child to do the same.

Many of them are appropriate for children of any age but may have to be adapted to suit. Even if you have teens, there are activities that can be a win for them too!

Creative ways to help a fussy eater

1. Shopping – food shopping may sound stressful and/or a boring thing to do with children, but it doesn’t have to be:

i) Supermarket – involving children in the shopping can change the dynamic. Rather than dragging them unwillingly around the store, if we empower them it can be a totally different experience.

We can give them their own shopping list. If they are pre-reading we can glue pictures. If they are older, perhaps they have input into what goes on the list. Having your own basket or trolley can be a game-changer.

ii) Farmers markets – seeing produce in its natural state is a positive. Browsing tables and seeing different greens and unusual fruit is as good experience.

iii) Experiential – berry or other fruit picking can be so much fun. It doesn’t mean your child will suddenly eat apples or strawberries, but it involves them in food in a new way.

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2. Cookie cutters – getting the cookie cutters out to make fun shapes from food. We can use them for everything from sandwiches to pancakes, to mash.

Creating dinosaurs or letters may engage children in new ways. You can use raisins, sprinkles, corn, or Vegemite, for example, for decorating.

3. Dessert extravaganza – picking a special dessert from a recipe book or the internet can be a lovely way to build excitement around food and cooking.

Involving our child in choosing the dessert, making a list of ingredients, shopping and creating something special, gives them investment at all levels.

4. Food games – building comfort around food in general is helpful. The more comfortable we feel about a food, the more likely we are to eat it. Often it is easier to do this away from meals.

There are many food games, which would resonate for your child?:

i) Tic Tac Toe – noughts and crosses, is a fun way to handle foods. Cherry tomatoes, bliss balls or grapes could all make good circles. Carrot batons, potato sticks or slices of apple could all be crosses.

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You could either draw in pencil on some baking paper to make the board or build the frame from food too!

ii) Scavenger hunt – hiding food around the house or the garden. For older children you could have clues or a ‘treasure map’.

iii) Food bowling – setting up food pins to knock over and then either rolling small balls, marbles, or round foods at them. The pins could be cucumber or pear batons, for example.

iv) Soccer – nets at either end of the table with peas, for example, to push, flick or roll into them. Peas have never seemed so exciting or desirable!

v) Towers – building towers with anything from crackers to cubes of cheese can be a lot of fun.

vi) Food village – this can be as simple or complex as you’d like. Broccoli trees, a spaghetti sea, carrot bricks. Toy trucks, plastic animals and Lego people can be pressed into service.

vii) Mr Potato Head – we can use a proper potato and add eyes, ears, nose, and mouth from other foods.

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viii) Jewellery – slices of cut capsicum make great bracelets for small wrists, as do corn kernels threaded onto cotton. Or dried pasta or other hollow foods can become necklaces.

ix) Food animals – go crazy and create anything from ants to elephants. I love making simple butterflies, for example, from a blob of peanut butter and two potato crisps.

5. Serving vessels – changing up how we serve can be fun, it also creates interest. For children who are really food hesitant, just changing the way foods are presented or served can also be a gentle way to show change.

i) Plates – using different plates, or serving in Chinese take-away containers, glasses, dishes, jars, or bowls.

ii) Skewering – adding food to sticks or skewers (there are blunt ones for littlies).

iii) Random – putting food in ice cream cones, dolls teacups or the back of a toy truck, for example.

6. Portraits – making faces on pizza, pancakes, plates, or muffin splits. Anything round can become the basis for a face built from food.

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Joining in makes activities more fun, or it could be a great way to entertain other children on a play date.

7. World cuisine – picking a country of interest and creating a menu that uses traditional foods can be fun.

Even for the really food hesitant we can usually find something that is within their comfort zone. Most countries have a bread-based offering – flat breads, tortilla, roti, pretzels, or fry bread, for example.

Or maybe it’s a fruit or dessert that comes from that country.

8. Messy play – this may be a challenge for children who have sensory sensitivities, but we can always adapt things to suit our child. Perhaps touching certain foods with the fingers is challenging but they can use a fork or chopstick.

Perhaps it’s playing with pudding, jelly, rice, cooked pasta, or yoghurt. We can build pictures, for example.

9. Role reversal – a child can be used to playing a particular role at the meal table or around food. Changing that up can offer a new perspective.

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Perhaps they are tasked with feeding teddy, a doll or even a mum or dad who is not willing to accept food and has a little bit of a tanty!

Or maybe mum and dad sit at the table while their child serves the food and decides the ‘rules’.

10. Experiments – there are lots of fun, exploratory things we can do with food and it can be a great way to involve older children too:

i) Dough rising – there is something magical even as an adult watching something grow!

ii) Butter – you can make butter from cream. I have lovely childhood memories of aching arms but a definite sense of satisfaction!

iii) Colour changes – adding either food colouring or natural colours (like beetroot juice) – can make Hulk pancakes or Peppa Pig coloured yoghurt.

iv) Chemical reactions – there are a host of ways we can change the structure or properties of food using vinegar or baking soda, for example.

v) Heat – adding heat to anything from eggs to potatoes changes their texture, the way they look or the way they taste. This can be a new way to approach foods, from a scientific angle.

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All of these are ways we can draw our children into food experiences that gently build more of an interest and comfort around food. Eating new foods may be our end goal, but often small, gentle steps towards that works best.

 

Judith, MA Cantab, 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 is able to approach food from a place of safety and joy, not fear.
Learn more about Judith here: https://theconfidenteater.com/about/

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