Beyond “Just Try One Bite!”: 5 Approaches to Tackle Picky Eating

Getting your picky eater to try a new food can be tough. A simple weeknight dinner can turn into a full blown melt down if you push it a LITTLE too far with picky eating.

Most parents I work with find themselves repeating the same old line …. “Just try one bite!”. A couple variations of this I’ve heard is “take one polite bite” or parents requiring at least one bite of food as a kid’s ticket to leave the dinner table.

This leaves parents feeling overwhelmed and powerless at the dinner table. At the same time, these repeated phrases hold no weight to our picky eaters. That’s why all parents need to be equipped with real-life phrases that will help food introduction run smoother. 

Meal-time Language for Picky Eating

The common theme amongst these phrases is that they accomplish two things – removing pressure and peaking interest.

1. Remove the pressure: Intentionally or not, parents can create pressure around food introduction. Whether it’s from our body language or verbal demands, it’s easy for kids to feel overwhelmed with the sense that they need to obey or perform. Let alone, there might be an unknown scary new food in front of them.

An environment of stress coupled with a fear of the unknown. The perfect storm for a complete shutdown of their ability to process information (what we see on the outside as a “meltdown”). Therefore, all of these phrases below are intended to have the opposite effect – remove the pressure for your child to “perform” or “obey”.

2. Peaking Interest: Sometimes even the fanciest recipes or silliest food shapes are not enough to entice our children into trying a new food.

We need to spark their sense of curiosity and adventure – the two skills they are using all day within their play. 

Of course, we have to mention that parent-modeling must be used before any of these techniques will work. That means YOU eating a variety of foods WITH your child at the dinner table makes them most likely to try new foods. This parent-modeling makes kids feel safe around new foods and is subconsciously teaching them what a well-balanced plate is supposed to look like. 

Picking Eating Strategies & Phrases

1. Encourage touching the food 

Any exposure is good exposure! For picky eaters, fear of an unknown experience is driving their distaste for food. It’s not that they always think the food will taste bad – but putting a new food in their mouth is like taking a leap of faith off a cliff. Too much “new” at once.

To make the experience a little less overwhelming, simply touching the food gives them a sense of the food without having to commit 100%. 

Some creative ways to encourage touching a new food is:

“This feels like play-dough to me. What does it feel like to you?”

“Wow this feels more slippery than I was expecting. What do you think?”

“Does this food make a sound when you touch it?”

“What does that food feel like between your fingers?”

2. Encourage Smelling the food

Similarly with touching a food, smelling food is the next step in breaking down the sensory experience. This also gets the food physically closer to them which can help break down some barriers.

“I wonder what that smells like. Can you tell me?”

“What does the smell of it remind you of?”

“This smells like ___ to me. What do you think?”

3. Encourage them to play with their food

I know this sounds a little counter-intuitive, but I’ll say it again – any exposure is good exposure! 

Like I referenced before, the goal is to remove pressure and peak their interest. And play/imagination is the definition of low pressure and peaked interest. So get creative and join the play with your kids! 

A couple examples of this include:

“Do you think you could brush your teeth with this?”. Extra tip – use any dips or sauces as “toothpaste” to add to the fun! This wonderful tactic comes from @feedingpickyeaters who is a WEALTH of knowledge over on instagram. Give her a follow for even more strategies for picky eating!

“Let’s pretend we are [child’s favorite animal] eating grass”

“Can you be the chef serving me my meal? Do you want to taste test it as well?”

4. Use a toothpick to eat your food and DON’T SAY ANYTHING

This one is incredible. I’ve seen it work SO many times. And there’s one simple reason – kids want what the adults have.

 Kids want the new, the novel. And their curiosity is heightened when they are given less information about the “cool new toy” being used at the dinner table. Almost EVERY time, the picky eater will ask to also use a toothpick for their food as well. 

This tactic works great to get your child to eat more in general, but also makes them more likely to choose foods that they don’t often go for.

5. Ask your child to be involved in the recipe creation

If you are sitting with a picky eater at the dinner table and have tried ALL of the above strategies, it’s time to call a brainstorming session. Include your child in this! Break the fourth wall and call attention to the food that’s being avoided! Of course – in a non-threatening way. 🙂

A good example of this is:

“Alright, lets hold a brainstorming session together: operation sweet potato. How should we make the sweet potato so it will look tastier? Should we add cinnamon? Maybe cover it in chocolate?” (get crazy – it grabs their attention).

Agree on a method or ingredient that you will add next time you make the unwanted food. Even if it’s crazy or seemingly unhealthy, we are accomplishing the mission of getting them excited about food.

“Great, glad we have a plan. Can you make it with me for dinner this week?”

As a last reminder, I cannot emphasize enough that as parents – take some weight off of your shoulders! Proper verbal strategies, like the ones above, are helpful – but should not be a source of additional stress at the dinner table.