5 Sensory Tips for Picky Eaters

Picky eating is extremely stressful for everyone involved! As pediatric occupational therapy assistants, we have worked extensively with children of all ages and abilities on their feeding goals. We're here to share with you our top 5 strategies for picky eaters. We're going to break down the difference between a true picky eater and a selective eater. Check it out and let us know if it was helpful for you!

📚 Table of Contents 📚
00:00 Introduction
01:04 What is a Picky Eater vs Picky Eating "Phase"?
03:16 Picky Eating and SPD
04:52 What is a True Picky Eater?
09:07 Go Slow & Make it Fun!
12:59 Touch the Food
13:42 Help Meal Plan, Shop & Cook
14:53 Help with Clean Up
16:05 Messy Play Games

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🔗 Links 🔗
Download the Free PDF!

All Things Sensory Podcast Episode 12: Feeding and Meal Prep with Your Sensory Child

All Things Sensory Podcast Episode 132: Picky Eating Strategies with McKenzie from @playingatyourplate

All Things Sensory Podcast Episode 183: Picky Eating with Jenny Best, Solid Starts

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[HarklaFamily]

If you enjoyed the video and want to dive deeper into Sensory Diets, make sure to check out our full course on understanding and creating sensory diets! 👇

[CeeLouSyd]

Thank you so much for this information, I'm so grateful to have found you! My now 9 year old son has struggled with specific foods, and if he eats them he will throw up. Blueberries, peaches, etc. I've never tried to force him to eat them, instead I just trust him to try when he's ready. Thank you for all of this!!

[anni]

Picky eaters is partly a natural stage. Thank you 🙏.

[adorablecats]

You two did an excellent job teaching this information. I learned so much, especially about playing with your food. 😂 How fun. I’m actually working with someone right now who’s not eating very many foods and this has been so helpful. Thank you so much.

[dianewilson]

Wow. This video is so helpful. Im excited to try some of these with my kids.

[honeyboo]

You gained a new sub. I do offer non processed, mostly healthy foods. I don't force her. Ordered a stamp kit for fruits and veggies to make it more appealing. Engage her in making snacks, salads, and soups since I stopped propper cooking. It's a waste of time and energy, just for myself. We eat together since it's shared time, and she hopefully at least tries something else.

[AveW-lt]

I really appreciate the information and will try out your tips

[cherrysweet]

My 2 year-old gets very upset when I put other foods that she doesn't like on her plate. She will get up from her seat run straight to the wall and start banging on it or she will run to her books and start tossing them down screaming. I have recently put on shows with characters she likes that have fruits and veggies in their videos and I noticed she has become a little bite more curious when she sees those ones in the house so I'm definitely going to see if she will help me take them out of the bags and put them in the fridge. She is curious with the things that are on the inside of the fridge door but it never dawned on me to put fruits or veggies on the door or to try to get her to touch whats in the bag to help me put them in the fridge so thank you for this video! 🤗

[honey_bee_]

Any reason why you don't mention ARFID? My daughter has that and she is terrifed of fruits mostly. Just curious because it seems very relevant for parents to also consider. I hadn't heard about the disorder until our pediatrician brought it up last year. Thanks!

[evabalancier]

How do you differentiate between picky eater behavior wise or sensory wise? How long does it take to say it’s a phase? If it’s getting worse since year 1 and not at year 2.5 we are down to 2 foods for meals and 3-5 for breakfast is it sensory? He was eating everything up to the year.

[KathehFIT]

Yeah I have 7 year old with autism and with adhd and 4 year old possibly with some picky eater components

[pancakey]

"always provide less preferred food w preferred food" won't that be wasting food? how do poor families who struggle to make ends meet deal w picky eating? would you advise them to let the kids play w the food and then straight to trash? this is my struggle. truly seeking for advise... i hope i get a response

[jpistheguyjesusloves]

God bless y’all <><🙏
✝️ = ❤️😀☮️