Why is my child a ‘picky eater’?

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Approximately 25% to 35% of toddlers and preschoolers are described as being a poor or ‘picky’ eater. For children who have difficulty eating a variety of textures or colours and may be referred to as ‘picky’, it should be noted that there is much more that goes into eating behaviours than simply ‘disliking’ foods. Eating is an incredibly complex sensory task, because the sensory properties of food constantly change between each bite you take, as well as during chewing and swallowing. This blog will highlight how individuals can support their children to develop their sensory tolerance for different textures and colours in a safe way, and reasons why children may have sensory sensitivities.

The steps to eating

Eating is so much more than putting a piece of food in our mouth and chewing and swallowing – there are in fact so many steps that children need to take before they get to this point. These steps include:

Tolerate the new food being in front of you and in the same room as you
Interact with the new food using a utensil to pick it up, move it around, put it on your plate
Smell the new food in the room, on the table or on a plate
Touch the new food with one finger tip, with lips, teeth or tongue
Taste the new food: lick lips, chew and spit, chew and swallow
Eat the new food

Children learn new skills more effectively through play. Therefore a child should be invited to play with a supported adult through this series of steps based on the child’s interest, comfortability and engagement with the food. If a child indicates discomfort or distress during the food play, the adult must back down the steps to support the child to regulate. This ensures the child has agency over their interactions with the food. There are many ways to develop a child’s tolerance for new foods by following these steps in a safe, controlled way.

How to encourage exploration of new foods

Traditionally, children have been told, ‘don’t play with your food’. However, challenging this belief and in fact embracing messy play can encourage your child to explore new textures and tastes in a safe way. It is very important when exploring new foods and textures to always let your child direct their interactions and exposures to the food.

In line with the above mentioned steps to eating, you can:

If the food is a wetter texture, such as fruit or rice, place it inside a ziploc bag to let the child play with it. This allows the child to interact with the food without experiencing the wet texture.
If engaging with a wet or sticky texture, ensure you have wipes or a towel nearby to utilise if the child becomes uncomfortable with the food on their hands.
For foods such as pasta or noodles, encourage the child to interact with the food when uncooked, for example by snapping noodles or threading pasta beads onto string
Allow the child to play with the food in a sensory bin where they can play with it with different toys that may further foster their engagement. For example, burying toys to find in a rice bin, or water tray.
Consider using food dyes if the child responds well to visual stimuli.
Encourage the child to touch the food with different parts of their body and describe how it feels.
Encourage the child to consider how the food may sound when playing with it.

How developmental delays or disabilities impact children’s eating?

There are many reasons why children with disabilities or developmental delays may have difficulties with eating.

If a child has difficulty with their oral motor skills, due to low tone or poor strength and coordination, for example they may find it physically challenging to complete the physical steps required to chew and swallow food. Additionally, low tone in the mouth can pose risks for choking, which can create adverse experiences for children when eating foods. A child may have difficulty with their fine motor skills, including strength, dexterity or coordination, which may impact their ability to use a utensil or even hand-feed themselves.

Children with disabilities commonly have differences in their sensory sensitivities, which can translate to rigidity in food intake and difficulty exploring new foods with different colours and textures. Additionally, paediatric feeding disorders, such as ARFID (avoidant restrictive food intake disorder) can be directly related to an intolerance for certain foods and textures.

Children who have difficulty eating, either due to physical or sensory challenges, may need to receive some or all of their nutrition through an alternative method, such as a PEG (percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy) tube or a nasogastric tube. It is important to consider how this may have implications for the way children with disabilities or developmental delays engage in eating, due to the social aspect of eating meals and eating out within our society.

Who do I see if I have concerns?

At Strong and Courageous, we support families to better understand a child’s strengths and provide effective evidence-based interventions to support a child’s development. Whilst every child’s eating journey and the foods they have the potential to learn to eat are different, our occupational therapists are specially qualified to help identify reasons as to why a child may have aversions to food, and address it through a variety of modalities.

Additionally, Occupational therapists, Speech therapists or Feeding therapists specialised in SOS feeding training may be well prepared to support your child to eat.