Helping Your Picky Eater Enjoy Food: 3 Creative Ways to Explore New Fo

If you have a picky eater, you know all too well how difficult meal time can be. Bit by bit, every bite turns into a battle and every meal becomes a drawn-out negotiation.

You might even begin to worry that your child isn’t getting the nutrients they need—which only adds more stress to the table.

The key to overcoming picky eating is building familiarity and tolerance for new foods. On average, it takes between 8-20 exposures for a child to accept a new food (though, that number will vary from child to child).

An “exposure” is any time your child is invited to explore a food—and that doesn’thave to mean eating it! Every time your child engages with a food’s color, texture, smell, or even sound, they experience valuable sensory input that will help them be more likely to try the food later on.

Here are some creative, low-stress ways to invite your child to explore new foods, build familiarity with them, and maybe even take some bites!

🎨 Get Creative (& Embrace the Mess)

Who said food is only for eating? Sometimes, we need to get a little creative (and silly!) to win over our picky eaters. One simple way to do this is by letting your child play with their food, arts & crafts style!

Chop up some broccoli florets, place them next to some washable paint, and let them “stamp” a beautiful picture with the broccoli!Or, place out a few dips or sauces they’re hesitant to try, and let them “finger paint” a picture for you.

It might seem silly, but sensory exposure to a food that feels unfamiliar can make all the difference the next time they find that food on their plate.

🥗 Leverage their Curiosity & Desire to Help

Two things we know about kids: They love to help, and they love playing with new tools and toys. To a child, regular cooking utensils look like toys!

You likely have tools around the house they already find interesting, like an immersion blender, can opener, cookie dough scoop, or salad spinner. With appropriate supervision, let them experiment with some of the tools you have lying around to touch, chop, blend, and mix the food.

Or, to take it a step further, you can invest in a few kid-safe tools for chopping and prepping food (like this toddler-safe chopping tool set!). Then, invite them to help you prepare some of the foods they aren’t sure about.

The Snack Spinner has made a huge difference as a snack and meal time tool for parents of picky eaters, because it feels more like a toy than a snack container! Kids get to push a big, colorful button to spin their snacks around and independently choose what they’d like to eat from what you prepared.

It’s a great way to make food fun again,without adding any pressure.

🌈 Lean Into Their 5 Senses

The first of the five senses that comes to mind with food is, of course, taste. While some kids will taste new foods on the first try, others might find it helpful to use their other senses to get familiar with their food first.

This can be as simple as conversation at the dinner table, where you talk about the food you’re serving in terms of the 5 senses:

“This one has a strong smell! Can you sniff it?”

“Look at this one—it has a bright color! That means it’s full of good nutrients for our bodies.”

“Ooh, I bet this one makes a big crunch. Let’s see who can crunch theirs the loudest!”

You can talk about the qualities of a food—like its flavor, texture, scent, or color—without pressuring your child to take a bite before they’re ready.

❤️ Be Patient With Them (& Yourself)

Having a picky eater is frustrating, and takes a lot of grace (both for them, and for yourself!)

The journey won’t be perfect, but remember that it’s a marathon—not a sprint. Every child moves at their own pace, and every little exposure to a new food is a win!

Here are some more resources that have helped other families of picky eaters: