Making food fun
When you are experiencing periods of selectivity or food refusal, whilst often there isn’t much we can do (other than be consistent), sometimes, increasing interest is all that is needed.
Our little people are very simplistic in their motivation to eat – if they are interested/hungry, they will eat, if they aren’t hungry or there is some sort of barrier there, they won’t eat. Oftentimes, our little people can lack interest in food and this is the barrier. They love to learn through exploration and we can extend this to food. If we can get out little ones engaging and playing with food, this will eventually lead to them eating food. We can increase engagement and curiosity/interest in a food in a few ways:
Have meal time be a moment of connection – we want the table to be somewhere our little people want to be. Have it be a time of connection, interaction and a moment of calm in your day. Eating with your little one is also super reassuring for them as they see you eating and enjoying food, giving them the green light to also eat and enjoy food.
Make food fun – sometimes changing up the way we serve foods can be really helpful to generate interest, in even our littlest people.
Dippy eggs
Using dips - get them to dip veggie sticks, pieces of meat, fruit into hummus, nut butters, guacamole, yoghurt, cream cheese, tomato sauce
Try different shapes - stars, circles, faces
Use sprinkles on top of food - get them to sprinkle onto their meal (shredded cheese, desiccated coconut, nutritional yeast, chia seeds, breadcrumbs)
Bring bunny/a favorite toy to the table and get them to feed the toy a bite, then ask if they themselves would like a bite too
Introduce utensils for exploration with using a fork to “stab” or “spike” and spoons to “scoop”.
Describe the food – try to talk about the food in terms of function and features. Is the food crunchy? What does it sound like when you take a bite? Green food helps fight off sickness. Does the broccoli tickle your tongue? What color is the food? Chicken makes our muscles strong.
The ultimate goal is to have our little ones enjoy being at the table and enjoy food – whilst it can be a little more effort to be more creative in the kitchen, it is worthwhile when your little one eventually engages with a food.