When kids learn letters and shapes, they learn one letter/shape for the whole week. A great way to increase your child's food repertoire is to pick a food/fruit that they don't eat and introduce it on the first day with pictures, games, crafts, etc. On the second day, you could begin to cut the food, "explore" it with their fingers, kiss the food, etc. Each day progress as far as how far your child will go with the exploration until he/she is eating the food. Kids love to learn, so this approach is easy and will be fun for them to try new foods! Here are some ideas of crafts and fun things to do with foods:
- Paint with fruit (cut the fruit in half and use it as a stamper for the paint!)
- Colorful spaghetti (cook some different shaped noodles and put some paint in them, allow your child to play with them using their hands, kitchen tools, etc)
- Food towers (use their preferred foods to build towers, alternating every other layer with a non-preferred item)
- Make mom lunch (have your child help make YOU lunch using some of their non-preferred foods. This way, your child will have to touch and smell the foods, and then can watch you eat them)
As always, although you may be stressed out because your child is having a difficult time eating, don't become so stressed that you loose focus on the fact that mealtime should be FUN!
This is such a neat approach to a picky eater and sounds like it may be a great way to get my picky eater to build a curiosity about non-preferred foods. My three year old has a very limited amount of preferred foods and we have been looking to expand what he eats. (He doesn't eat noodles, hot dogs- or any meat, etc.) We took him recently to the Kennedy Krieger institute in Baltimore to have an evaluation and they have accepted him into their outpatient program but there is a three month waiting list. I have been hoping to do all I can at home to expand his eating and would welcome any suggestions you have that we could try. We have been following your blog and it is really such a great resource.
ReplyDeleteThe first step to getting any child to eat a new food is allowing them to explore. I'm sure they will teach you all you need to know at Kennedy Krieger, but if you want to get started I would say to try this approach with your kiddo and see what happens!
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