How to get through the holidays with a picky eater!

Are you wondering how to get through the holidays with your picky eater?  With picky eaters, a time that is typically enjoyable and social can become very difficult.  It can be stressful to think about justifying your actions to other people in the family who aren’t with your child much.  With the already added stress of the holidays, thinking of what you are going to do/say can be extremely overwhelming.  As a feeding therapist, I am often told that parents feel judged when their child is a picky eater.  They are often told, “Well if you just ____, they would eat”.   Parents do what they feel is best to help their child to continue to grow and develop as well as maintain their relationship with their child. This is important to remember! No parent wants their child to be picky and all parents worry about nutrition. To help with decreasing the stress with the holidays, here are a few tips to help get through meal times with your little ones!

1. Continue to offer them the foods that are around, but do not force them to try or eat any. By continuing to expose them to new foods, the newness goes away and they may feel more comfortable to try them. Even if they have tried it in the past, that does not mean that they won’t try it again!
2. Have them help make the foods and/or set the table (without forcing to eat). This will continue to get them close to foods they do not eat, but takes the pressure away of having to eat them!
3. Talk about the foods that will be there and what they are like (e.g. taste, texture, smell, look). This will help them to know what to expect if they do decide to try it! The unknown is scary!
4. Compare these to their foods. This can help them connect that they like crackers that are salty and crunchy, maybe a new fried bread is salty and crunchy and they may like it, too.
5. When the meal is done, they can help clear the food and put it in containers or put in the garbage. This is a final “goodbye” to the foods and can be very calming for kids! It also gives them another exposure to it!

The biggest piece with feeding and feeding therapy is continued exposure, but decreased pressure for eating it.  The more a food is offered, the less “new” it is! Even if they have not liked it in the past, that does not mean it has not changed and they may like it now. Repeated exposure is a good thing! Remember that meal times are supposed to be enjoyed, so talk about the foods and about what the holidays mean and try not to focus on what is being eaten at these meals!

If you feel that feeding therapy may benefit your child or have questions about feeding therapy, see our previous feeding blogs or reach out to our therapists who are happy to answer questions!

Happy holidays!!!

Amber