Making Mealtime Fun

Who’s taking home the gold?! 🥇

Comment below which medal you would win if feeding a picky eater was an Olympic sport! Let’s see how high we can get this medal count 👏🏼

As a pediatric occupational therapist and feeding specialist, I work with families who are in the trenches of picky eating.

I know that sometimes, it feels like the hill is too high to climb. The light at the end of the tunnel is so dim and you just want to give up. I see you and please know that your efforts are so worth it.

I know the progress is slow. I know it’s not a quick fix. I know it literally feels like a marathon. But hear me when I say, you are a champion and if I could hug your neck and place a gold meal around it, I would ❤️😉

If no one else tells you today, you’re doing a great job and I’m proud of you!

Can I be honest for a sec? This morning was discouraging. It was heartbreaking. And I’m still trying to process it all but thought this was a good first step.

This morning I had an evaluation to assess a child for feeding difficulties. The client’s mom reported that she has been to multiple hospitals and feeding clinics looking for help, answers, and care, and all she has gotten was a whole bunch of “professional opinions” that her concerns are not valid and her lived experience doesn’t matter.

Long story short, she came to me seeking support, guidance, and help with her child’s feeding difficulties.

As a pediatric occupational therapist, feeding specialist, and a healthcare professional with a Doctorate degree, I have had a lot of training in my field.

That being said, I will never claim to know it all and am constantly looking for opportunities to further my knowledge and training so that I can best support my clients and families with the most current, effective, evidence based practices.

And one thing you will NEVER hear me say is that I am an expert on your child. Because it will simply NEVER be true.

As a parent/caregiver, YOU are the expert on YOUR child. You are the person who has been with that child from the start. You are the person who is with them every day. You are the person who has the privilege of raising your child in each and every season.

As a pediatric occupational therapist, I am an expert in helping children be more successful with feeding, sensory processing, self care skills, fine motor skills, gross motor skills, social emotional skills, and the list goes on.

But I will never be the expert on your child.

All this to say, PARENTS are PARTNERS when it comes to their child’s success with therapy and any other healthcare service.

Parents, if you are not valued as a partner, seen as a vital role in the treatment of your child, and if your voice and opinions are not being heard, please go somewhere else where you will be viewed and valued with the importance and respect you deserve.

Healthcare providers, if you think for a second that just because you are an expert in your field, you are expert on the child… you’re wrong.

Sensory-friendly picnic?! As a pediatric OT and feeding therapist, this is speaking my ❤️ language!

Thanks to I will be helping kiddos make a cute picnic themed craft during this fun event!

So thankful to have two moms in my community start an amazing business like with passion from their own lived experiences to support families and children with sensory processing differences.

I’m super excited to be apart of this event and even more excited for what’s to come at ❤️

I’ve never had a hotdog macaron on my list of 4th of July must haves but now that I do, I don’t think I can ever go back! 😍

Thanks to for the cutest and most delicious 4th of July treat!

I hope everyone has a great day celebrating our freedom with fireworks, hot dogs, and maybe even macarons! ❤️🤍💙

Want to know what you’re doing next Tuesday?!

Taking your kids to the Plushie Picnic! 🧺

Join me at Barkley Squre in Park Place for the most fun morning all for FREE!

I will be helping your littles make a mini charcuterie board that they can enjoy with their favorite stuffed animal for the plushie picnic!

will also have a photo booth set up so your child can take a picture with their plushie!

Thank you to for putting on this amazing event with the Pinwheel Club! I can’t wait 👏🏼

Get ready for this! 🥳

Friday, June 28th I will be joining Dr. Kirsty Porter for an Instagram live to talk about fun food play ideas to do with your kids this summer!

Don’t miss your chance to hear about different activities you can do with your picky eater to help them learn about new foods in new ways.

You’ll want to put this on your summer bucket list ☀️

KC don’t miss these exciting events coming up! 🥳

Saturday, June 22nd 11am-7pm

- I will be a vendor for the Corks & Canvas, Barrels & Crafts event Downtown Blue Springs, MO.

- Your child will love getting to create their own fruit themed sensory bin and making mealtime fun tool box!

- You will love the Fun with Food card deck and snack mats with food play games and activities to help your child learn to like new foods 🙌🏼

Tuesday, July 2nd 9am-11am

- I will be a vendor at the Pinwheel Club’s Plushie Picnic at Park Place in Leawood, KS

- Your child will have so much fun getting to participate in a fun food activity and share a picnic with their favorite plushie!

I hope you’re looking for the nearest pen because you need to put these events in your calendar ASAP 😉

This week, I evaluated a child for feeding concerns. At the end of the evaluation, mom asked me if she caused her child to be a picky eater because she did purées instead of BLW.

My answer… absolutely not. Because the vast majority of the time, parents do not cause their children to be picky eaters.

Starting with purees doesn’t cause your child to be a picky eater any more than starting with BLW.

Why? Because almost every picky eater that I work with used to be a great eater until they didn’t.

Parents tell me all the time that their child used to eat anything and everything but now they can count with their hands the number of foods that they’ll eat.

So what actually causes picky eating?!

There are many underlying factors including a child’s:
- organ systems
- oral motor skills
- sensory processing skills
- learning history/style/capacity
- development
- nutritional status
- environment

Notice how parents isn’t on the list 🙅🏼‍♀️

So, note to parents: take the weight of the world off your shoulders. It doesn’t matter if you breastfed or bottle fed, did purées or BLW, fed your child organic or nonorganic, and the list goes on and on.

Your child is a picky eater because something in THEIR body isn’t working correctly. Not because of something YOU did or didn’t do.

IT’S OFFICIAL 🥳

I have been working on a HUGE collection of picky eater placemats and they’re finally available today!

CURRENTLY ON SALE FOR 50% OFF UNTIL JUNE 1

Click the below to be taken to my Etsy shop where you can purchase the snack mats!

https://makingmealtimefun.etsy.com/

Information about the products:

- Each snack mat is a digital product available for download immediately after purchase

- Each snack mat is designed to be printed on a standard 8.5”x11” paper and laminated or slid into a clear sheet protector to allow for multiple uses

- Each snack mat comes with 6 food play ideas corresponding to each of the 6 main sensory steps to eating (visually tolerate, interact with, smell, touch, taste, eat)

- The food play ideas are unique for each snack mat design, with many food play ideas inspired from the Fun with Food card deck

- There are 16 different themes of snack mats to choose from (9/16 themes are pictured above)

- Each snack mat theme comes with 10-26 snack mat designs, depending on the resource (prices vary accordingly)

*Note: if you are interested in using the snack mats but aren’t sure if they will work well for your picky eater, I have created 10 Bible Story snack mats with food play ideas, Bible stories, and Bible lessons that are available to download for ONLY 50 CENTS 🙌🏼 (snack mats shown in the last picture)

This way your child can have fun not only learning about new foods using the snack mats, but most importantly they can have fun learning about Jesus ❤️

As I continue to create more feeding resources just for you, it would mean the world if you could favorite my shop on Etsy or follow me on Teachers Pay Teachers!

Click the link below to read a blog about the benefits of food play!

https://nutrition4kidsni.com/how-to-overcome-picky-eating-10-benefits-of-food-play-for-kids/

🎉 Struggling with picky eaters? Discover the power of food play! 🍎

As experts in children's nutrition and occupational therapy, we’ve seen firsthand how turning mealtime into a playful experience can transform fussy eating habits. From enhancing sensory exploration to building positive food associations, food play has incredible benefits! 🌟

Read our new blog to learn 10 benefits of food play and how it can help your little ones develop a healthy relationship with food. 🍽️👧👦

Plus, practical tips to make food fun at home! Ready to conquer picky eating? Dive into the full blog linked in bio. 📲

🚀 Let’s make mealtime fun and stress-free together! Share your food play stories in the comments and tag a parent who needs to see this! 🌈✨

Save this post if you want to have a fun and intentional summer with your picky eater ☀️

All of these activities will help your child engage with new foods and mealtime experiences in a play based and purposeful way!

Which idea sounds like the most fun for you and your child? Let me know in the comments!👇🏼

Save for later❗️

What are some common choking hazards for kids and how can we make sure we’re serving appropriate foods in appropriate sizes?

Some top choking hazards include:

1. Tortilla chips
- instead, serve softer more dissolvable chips such as veggie straws and Cheeto puffs

2. Whole grapes
- cut the grapes in quarters before serving to your child

3. Whole nuts
- serve chopped nuts instead

4. Cheese cubes (and string cheese)
- serve shredded cheese or pull the string cheese apart into smaller pieces

5. Popcorn
- serve puff corn (Pirate’s B***y is often a picky eaters favorite!)

6. Hot dogs
- cut the hot dog into quarters before serving it to your child (no need for a bun!)

7. Hard/chewy/round candy
- avoid candy or serve small pieces like chocolate chips

8. Hard, raw vegetables
- shred, chop, or quarter the veggies before serving them to your child

If you’re concerned about choking hazards for your child, I always recommend taking a child CPR class so you can feel equipped and prepared.

I also recommend parents download the free app. This is an AMAZING resource that tells you how to serve every food to your child in appropriate sizes and textures depending on their age. 10/10 recommend checking it out!

During every feeding evaluation, I ask my families how long their mealtimes typically last.

While the answers I get vary considerably, I usually recommend mealtimes last between 10-30 minutes.

Children have a limited attention span so it is important we don’t expect them to sit at the table for an extended period of time.

However, we also want mealtimes to last long enough to give our children the opportunity to eat their foods and also learn about new foods.

I typically find the sweet spot to be between 15-20 minutes for mealtimes.

If your child has a hard time sitting at the table for at least 10 minutes during mealtimes, I would consider the following things:

- does your child have too much energy and is constantly getting up from the table to move their body? Then have them do heavy work activities before the meal

- does your child feel overwhelmed when they get to the table and see a lot of new foods, making them wish the meal was over before it’s even started? Then have them come to the table with an empty plate and allow your child to serve themselves the food using family style serving

- does your child constantly ask when they can get up from the table? Then set a visual timer so your child can keep track of how much time is left for the meal

OR

If your child has a hard time eating all of their food within 30 minutes and mealtimes keep dragging on, consider the following things:

- is your child distracted by watching tv or playing with toys during the meal? Try to limit distractions during mealtimes and keep the focus on the food

- are you serving foods that are too difficult for your child to chew and manage? Consider your child’s oral motor skills and serve them more appropriate foods they can eat more efficiently

- is your child having a hard time using their utensils or drinking from a cup efficiently? Then practice using utensils during sensory play and offer your child cocktail forks or easier to use kitchen tools during the meal

Was this helpful? Follow for more picky eating tips!

Happy Mother’s Day 🌸

Just a reminder that you’re an AMAZING mom no matter how, what, or how much your child eats.

I pray you feel loved and celebrated today!

How do I get my child to eat a new food?!

Step 1: by realizing there are 6 big sensory steps to eating and that it’s not as simple as just taking a bite

Step 2: by making mealtimes fun by using the Fun with Food card deck to help your child work up those steps to eating

So what is the Fun with Food card deck?!👇🏼

A resource created by me (a pediatric occupational therapist) and Dr. Kay Toomey (a pediatric psychologist) to help picky eaters learn to love new foods using a play based and evidence based approach.

Some of my favorite games and activities included in the card deck are:

1. Visually tolerate: Make a slide
- Prop a cookie sheet or cutting board so it makes a slide. Have your child watch as you roll a new food down the slide

2. Interact with: Crab Claws
- Have your child use tongs as pretend crab claws to pick up new pieces of food

3. Smell: Puppy Dog Nose
- Have your child pretend to be a puppy dog by barking, panting, and smelling a new food using their puppy dog nose

4. Touch: Achoo!
- Have your child pick up a new piece of food and balance it on their head. Then have your child pretend to sneeze while the food falls back onto the table

5. Taste: Bite and Spit
- Have your child take a bite of a new food then try to spit it into a cup to score a point. Whoever gets the most points wins!

6. Eat: Mouse Nibbles
- Have your child take a small bite of a new food and chew it like a mouse by only using their front teeth

Children learn through play! So if you want your child to learn to like new foods then guess what?! You have to encourage them to play with the food! 🤯

Buy your copy of the Fun with Food card deck today and make mealtimes fun!

Resource:

Why our approach. SOS Approach to Feeding. (2023, October 3). https://sosapproachtofeeding.com/why-sos-approach-feeding/

What if I told you eating is the hardest activity that kids have to do?

It’s true!

As adults, it’s common to think that eating is easy and that it just comes naturally. So when we don’t understand the big picture and see all the skills that are required for eating, it’s easy to get frustrated when dealing with our picky eaters.

Eating is way more complicated than it may seem, being the only task that requires all of our sensory systems, organ systems, and muscles to function properly and simultaneously in order to be successful.

In fact, it takes more than 30 muscles all working together just to be able to swallow food 🤯

Not to mention, tolerating the sight, smell, touch, taste, and sound of chewing food. As well as realizing when your body is hungry and full (interoceptive sensory system), being able to maintain a balanced, upright posture during mealtimes (vestibular sensory system), and knowing where your body is in space to coordinate appropriate motor movements (proprioceptive sensory system).

All of these factors are important to consider when it comes to mealtimes, while also recognizing that our digestive system, endocrine system, respiratory system, immune system, cardiovascular system, musculoskeletal system, nervous system, and urinary system all impact feeding.

So, the next time you wish your child would just eat their food, take a step back and remember that eating is not easy!

Reference:

Why our approach. SOS Approach to Feeding. (2023, October 3). https://sosapproachtofeeding.com/why-sos-approach-feeding/

Our words matter!

Whether we realize it or not, the things we say to our children during mealtimes can help or hurt their picky eating.

If I had a picky eater, I would never say these 3 things…

1. Just take a bite
- though I realize this statement comes from a place of trying to help your child learn to like a new food, it’s actually super unhelpful. Why? Because there are 32 steps to eating and guess what… eating a food is the last step. Instead of telling your child to jump all the way to the finish line, model fun games and activities with the food in a no pressure way.

2. Take three more bites and then you can be done eating.
- Did you know that when parents pressure their children to eat certain quantities of food, this actually leads to increased picky eating?! As parents, our job is to decide when we eat and what food is being served at each meal. Our child’s job is to decide if and how much they eat.

3. If you don’t eat it, you can’t have dessert.
- Although you might think that rewarding your child with one of their favorite foods for eating a new food is a good strategy, it actually completely backfires. Why? Because this puts dessert on a pedestal as if it’s something that has to be earned. It teaches children that if I just eat this “bad/yucky food” then I can have the better food. If dessert is on the menu, then it’s on the menu for everyone regardless of what they do or don’t eat during the meal.

Were these tips helpful? Follow for more picky eating tips!

10/10 do not recommend sneaking in new foods to your picky eaters preferred food.

So what can you do instead?!

I recommend serving your child’s preferred food WITH the very similar but different new food. For example, giving your child two small bowls of mac-n-cheese (one is your child’s preferred food and the other is the hidden veggie mac-n-cheese)

Then, I recommend using as vague of language as possible. “This bowl has your favorite mac-n-cheese and this bowl is almost the same but has something slightly different. I wonder if we can be food detectives and figure out how these are similar and different.”

Do you have to explicitly tell your child that this bowl of mac-n-cheese has vegetables in it? Nope! (We both know there’s no chance of them being interested in the new food if that was the case)

BUT is it a good idea to tell your child ahead of time that it is different than their preferred food rather than hoping they don’t notice? Yes.

Doing this builds trust and helps your child to be more interested in learning about the new food.

Questions about this? Let me know in the comments below! 👇🏼

This is your chance! 🤩 Nutrition4kids Children's Dietitian

On Friday, April 19th I will be doing an Instagram live with Kirsty Porter all the way from Northern Ireland! Join us to learn about all things food play!

I will also discuss how the Fun with Food card deck can help your picky eater learn to love new foods!

Tune in this Friday at 2:00 pm CST (8:00 pm UK time)

Does this surprise you?!👆🏼

According to research…

- “Parental pressure to eat specific volumes or specific foods at 4 years predicts fussy eating at 6 years”

AND

- “Higher levels of parental pressure are associated with lower levels of child intake and weight; and higher ratings of child ‘pickiness’.”

So, INSTEAD of pressure, choose PLAY! 🥳

As the parent, your jobs during mealtimes are to:
- choose what foods are being served
- choose when mealtimes are
- choose how you model having fun with foods!

Your child’s jobs during mealtimes are to:
- choose what to eat
- choose how much to eat
- choose how they interact and play with new foods

If you’re ready to ditch the mealtime battles and actually help your child learn about new foods in a play based and evidence based way, check out the Fun with Food card!

This product contains 99 games and activities to help your child work up the steps to eating and learn to love new foods!

Available on Amazon using the link below (or click the link in my bio)

https://amzn.to/3si7MvX

References:

Jansen, P.W., DeBarse, L.M., Jaddoe, V., Verhulst, F.C., Franco, O.H., & Tiemeier, H. (2017). Bidirectional associations between child fussy eating and parents’ pressure to eat: Who influences whom? Physiological Behavior, 176, 101-106.

Ventura, A. K., & Birch, L. L. (2008). Does parenting affect children’s eating and weight status? The International Society of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity, 5, 15.

Read this post to learn about the benefits of food play and how the Fun with Food card deck can help you picky eater learn to love new foods!

To purchase the Fun with Food card deck, click the Amazon link below!

https://amzn.to/3si7MvX

I see parents making this mistake all. the. time. And I get it, you’ve spent so much time and effort helping your picky eater get comfortable with a new food and they FINALLY decide to take a bite! You could shout with joy, I know! 🥳

BUT here’s the thing… as long as it took your child to work up the steps to eating with that new food is likely as long as it’s going to take for them to know whether or not they actually like it.

So, after their first bite of a new food, it can feel like a lot of pressure to be asked whether or not they like it.

What are more helpful things you can ask instead?!👇🏼 Save this post so you can use these questions in the future!

- I saw your teeth take a bite! Did that food sound crunchy or quiet?

- Does that food have a big taste or a little taste?

- Does that food taste sweet or salty/sour/spicy…?

- I saw you chew that food on your front teeth like a mouse! Did it sound crunchy or quiet?

- I saw you chew that food on your back teeth like a lion! Did it sound crunchy or quiet?

For older children, I like to use a rating scale. So, instead of asking a black and white yes/no question like, “do you like it?” I will ask them to rate the food on a scale of 1-5.

Then, after whatever rating they give, I will ask them how they think we could change or add something to the food to make it taste better and move to a higher rating.

Maybe we could add a sauce, try it hot or cold, add some seasoning/spices, try it with a preferred food, etc. The possibilities are endless but the goal is to help your child problem solve how they can learn to like new foods.

It’s ok if your child tries a new food and doesn’t like it right away! But giving them time and lots of opportunities to figure out whether or not they like the food in the future AND helping them to problem solve how their body can learn to like the new food is key 👏🏼

How cute is this Easter bunny?! 🐰

Made this as part of the by

Such a simple way to make foods more fun this Easter!

Do you have any favorite Easter traditions or Easter foods you make with your kids? Let me know in the comments below!👇🏼