Think back to preschool and kindergarten when we learned about the five senses. We learned that our senses are what we use to learn about the world around us. Well the same is true for how we learn about food. To start let’s review what the 5 senses are and tackle their role in eating one at a time: sight, smell, hearing, touch and taste.
SIGHT:
We all use our eyes to eat. How often do you hear yourself saying “wow that looks delicious?” It’s why there are things like deli cases and dessert trays. It’s why we think about the table we set or get a craving after seeing a commercial for food and restaurants.
You’re likely wondering what this has to do with kids. Well, kids are no different. How often do kids refuse something long before it’s ever touched their lips? It may be needing the crusts cut off of sandwiches or only eating a certain brand of food. It may be only eating off of one particular plate or insisting on a certain cup. Believe it or not it’s not just to make the adults in their lives crazy, it’s also because they have learned about foods by how it looks and often notice things we don’t.
Whether your kiddo has food preferences or restrictions based on SIGHT or not, here a few ideas to help.
- Serve all foods at a table/counter/highchair where the food can be placed out in front of them so they can look at the food.
- Remove all food from the packaging before serving it. Yes this means you put the yogurt in a bowl, you feed baby food pouches from a spoon, you take the cereal bar out of the wrapper, etc. This way your kiddo is looking at the food not the colorful packaging.
- If your kiddo is already hooked on brand specific items, try taking it out of the package in front of them or, even better, have them help.
- Mix things up a little. Cut sandwiches in triangle instead of rectangles. Use cookie cutters to change the shape of pancakes. Try cutting toast into strips. Break a cracker in half and then put it on the plate. Try a new brand or flavor at the grocery store. Avoid using the same plate/cup/utensil at every meal.
- Confession: my daughter would only eat from a yellow plate and cup from Ikea for the better part of a year and you’ve never seen a tantrum like the one she would throw when anyone else dared to touch the yellow dishes.
- Talk about it… of course a speech therapist is going to include talking with eating because it’s the perfect language rich environment. Include the name of the food, adjectives to describe it such as color or size, number of foods they have, category of food, quantitative concepts such as one/all/some/many, etc. The options are limitless and will be guided by where your kiddo is in their language development.
- Examples: “apple. You have apple. Mmm, apple.” “You have an apple. Apples are a fruit. Your apple is red and has seeds inside. Let’s cut the apple. You have half and apple and I have half an apple.”
- Be patient with yourself. Feeding differences don’t start overnight and they won’t disappear overnight. If you feel overwhelmed with where to even begin, choose one meal or snack per day to try these strategies. No one can run a marathon their first time putting on running shoes, first you’ve got to start with a jog.
One down, four to go. Stay tuned for our next sense… SMELL.
-Tricia-
