9 Tips for Introducing New Foods At Meals With Picky Eaters

Introducing new foods to children, and especially picky eaters, can be a challenge for many parents and caregivers. Whether it's a texture issue, a fear of trying new things, or a strong preference for a few select foods, getting picky eaters to expand their palate can be a daunting task. However, introducing new foods at meals doesn't have to be a battle. With a few tips and tricks, you can create an environment that will help encourage picky eaters to try new foods and make mealtime a positive experience for everyone involved.

1. Have your child help prepare and cook the food.

Cooking together provides your child an opportunity to interact with the new food in a fun and low-pressure way.

Cooking with your child is a fantastic way to get them to interact with new foods. When children interact with new foods, they gain an exposure with the food. The more a child is exposed to a food, the more likely they are to eventually eat it. Through cooking, they are also exposed to the sensory properties of the food by interacting with it, which helps them prepare their sensory system for how it might feel in their mouth. Interactions with the food include touching, smelling, cutting, stirring, pouring, and mashing. This can be as simple as having your child help place the food in the serving bowl, to them being your sous-chef.

By having your child cook or prepare the new food with you, it presents the opportunity for low-pressure interactions with the food. Since there is an inherent understanding that your child is not expected to eat the food while preparing it, this creates a low-pressure environment that may actually result in them tasting it.
Children are also more likely to try a new food that they helped prepare because they feel proud of it. They may not yet, but it increases the chances! 

Use a step stool like this, and child-safe cutting utensils, with adult supervision.

2. Serve a small portion.

For a new and non-preferred or highly non-preferred food, plan to serve much small portions than for preferred foods.

Depending on how unfamiliar or new the food is, or how your child typically reacts to certain types of food, plan to serve a much smaller portion to help it seem less overwhelming and more approachable. When we serve a large portion of a new food, children can become overwhelmed with the amount they think they have to eat and shut down. Think one small piece of broccoli, a single blueberry, or a 1 strip of red pepper. Serving small portions of new and non-preferred foods can also help avoid food waste.

You can even use a “learning plate,” or a small second plate you place next to your child’s plate, if your child is not able to tolerate the food directly on their plate. 

3. Be a role model by eating the food in front of your child, incorporating as many family meals as possible.

Just as children learn to do anything, they learn to eat by seeing it modeled for them. By eating together as a family, or at least as the same time as one parentt, you are able to show your child how to eat the new food (maybe they have no idea how to even approach corn on the cob and need to see mom or dad try it out first), as well as to help them see that the food is safe. Eating together as a family, and serving the same foods to the whole family, also helps establish the positive social and cultural nature of meals. 

4. Describe the sensory properties of the food.

Use descriptive words to describe sensory properties of food.

Instead of using subjective words like “good” and “yummy,” use descriptive words to describe the sensory properties of the food. This includes color, texture, shape, temperature, and taste. For example, describe mashed potatoes as, “Soft, creamy, salty, and buttery, and they taste like french fries,” or describe a carrot stick as, “Orange, crunchy, stick shape, Cheetos are orange crunchy sticks, too.” This helps children start to understand the food, make it more familiar and less scary, predict what it might feel like in their mouth, and relate it to foods they are familiar with.

5. Reduce any pressure to eat the new food.

Reducing pressure actually has the effect of encouraging children to try new foods more willingly. When children feel like the spotlight is on them, they are less likely to try something new. When we tell a child to eat a food, or ask something like, “Can’t you just try it?” we set our child up again to say, “no,” and seek control of the situation by refusing to try it. Think about a food you don’t like. Would someone insisting you take a bite, holding it up near your face, or worse, touching it to your mouth, make you want to eat it? Providing a low pressure environment will go a much longer way than forcing children to taste foods. Sure, telling them they have to eat it in order to get dessert may get them to eat it this time, but the child now has a negative experience of being forced to eat the food, which will make them less likely to eat it in the long run (all while putting dessert on a pedestal).

6. Make sure the food is an appropriate shape and texture for your child’s skill level.

Is your child still on soft solids but you’re serving something difficult to chew at dinner? You can modify foods for your child to make sure they’re safe by cooking the food longer to make it more tender, making sure it is shredded or cut into the right sized pieces, or providing dips to make sure the food is approachable, as well as appropriate for your child to be able to eat safely. When children try to eat a food that is too difficult for them, they may end up having a negative experience with the food (e.g. gagging, choking), which can create negative associations with the food for children.

Are you serving a new mixed texture food like lasagna or tacos? Try serving the foods as single ingredients for your child (e.g. meat, toppings, shell all separate; lasagna noodle, sauce, cheese all separate), as children are more likely to learn to eat foods separately before eating them all together.

7. Do a food rehearsal.

Letting children play with food, especially at a snack time before it’s served at a meal, can help the food feel more familiar and give the child an opportunity to learn about the sensory properties of the food.

Serve the new food during a snack and encourage your child to interact with it in any way. This can include using a fork or knife to cut or poke it, using a cookie cutter to cut it, playing with it such as pretending it’s a toy car and driving it on the table, using it to make a silly nose or hat, or holding it in their mouth like a dog bone. Check out more fun ways to play with food. This helps children have another exposure to the food before seeing it on their plate at lunch or dinner, and can help them feel more comfortable with it. Being more comfortable means they’re closer to tasting it. 

8. Serve the new food alongside familiar foods, with at least one preferred food.

While it’s up to our children to decide if they’re going to eat the new food, it’s up to you as the parent to decide what to serve at dinner. This being said, it’s recommended to respect your child by serving at least one food that is preferred at the meal. If a picky eater is served all new and non-preferred foods, it’s likely the meal will turn stressful for them and you. Increased stress typically results in reduced appetite, whereas eating usually leads to more eating. If we help our child feel relaxed by serving a preferred food that they are able to start eating, it’s very possible it may lead to them tasting a new food. Check out the Division of Responsibilities for more information on this strategy.

9. If your child does taste the new food, think about what response from you they would respond to best.

Does your child respond well to verbal praise? Let them know you’re proud of them for taking a taste (just nothing over the top). You can also give verbal praise for any interaction they do with the food (e.g. Nice work touching it, those carrots feel warm). Does your child shy away from verbal praise or having the spotlight on them? Your child may do better with you actually ignoring their taste, and just continuing on with the meal as usual, such as talking about everyone’s day, asking them to pass you another roll, or talking about the foods on your plate.

If your child makes a face or negative response after tasting the food (e.g. “Ew yuck!”), you can say something like, “That was a big new taste in your mouth, your taste buds might like it another time.” 

Remember!

It is important to continue serving these new and non-preferred foods, even when your child rejects them. It can take 10+ tastes on different occasions before a child starts to accept a food. Check out more mealtime strategies here!

If you are concerned with your child’s feeding and picky eating, speak to your pediatrician and ask for a referral to a feeding therapist (feeding therapists have the title of speech-language pathologist or occupational therapist). Signs your child may benefit from feeding therapy include gagging, vomiting, and/or coughing while eating/drinking, difficulty chewing, rejection of foods, less than 20-30 accepted foods, little to no foods they will eat in certain food groups (e.g. proteins, fruits, vegetables), consistently needing a different meal than the rest of the family, and/or tantrums at the sight or presentation of new or non-preferred foods at the table or on their plate. In some cases, your pediatrician or feeding therapist may also refer you to a gastroenterologist (GI doctor), allergist, otolaryngologist (ENT doctor), or other member of a feeding team.

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This website and information on this blog post is provided for educational purposes only. It is not meant as medical advice, intended to replace a speech-language or feeding assessment, therapy from a speech-language pathologist, or serve as medical or nutritional care for a child. It is recommended that you discuss any concerns or questions you might have with your Speech-Language Pathologist, pediatrician, and medical team, and develop an individualized team plan specifically for your child.