Getting kids to try new foods is not always as simple as, “just take one bite.” Appearances, tastes, smells, textures, temperatures, and names can all be intimidating when exploring new foods. Making mealtime more enjoyable for both you and your child is important. Below are a few nutrition strategies that can help your child develop a positive relationship with food and mealtime:

 1. Create a Routine

Serving meals at the same time everyday can reduce stress and provide consistency in your child’s schedule! When serving new foods at meals make sure to pair it with a child’s preferred or favorite food.

 2. Make Eating Fun

We always hear “don’t play with food,” but this can be a great way to explore new foods. Try painting with sauces, using veggies or fruits to make faces, using cookie cutters to cut sandwiches and other foods into fun shapes, or creating a sensory bin to explore.

 3. Story Telling

Have your child pick out new foods to try at the store and then read about them, talk about them in a positive way, and then prepare the foods together. If your child does not eat them, that is okay, becoming familiar with new foods in a low-pressure, positive way eventually can help your child become a more flexible eater.

 4. Make Small Steps

Slowly explore the new foods by having your child first tolerate it in their direct space, and then move on to touching it, smelling it, “kissing” it, licking it, and eventually tasting it.

 5. Offer Choices and Control

When preparing food for mealtime, involve your child in the decision-making process. Give them a choice between two vegetables or offer them five choices and have them pick two. For example, offer pasta or rice, broccoli or carrots, and chicken or ground turkey, and have them build the meal.

It’s been said that a child may need to be presented with a new food 10-15 times before they will eat it. So how can we make the most of these presentations while spiking a child’s interest in the food? Here are some ideas:

Present foods in small amounts

• When there are large amounts of foods or several different types of foods on a child’s plate, they are likely to feel overwhelmed and anxious. 

Place an “All Done Bowl” on the table 

• This concept of your child being able to place unwanted items in the “All Done Bowl” reduces throwing unwanted items on the floor, but also encourages your child to touch the food item! 
• Once your child is comfortable touching the food item to put into the “All Done Bowl,” you can ask them to give the item a kiss goodbye before they discard it. This gets the food item moving closer to the mouth! 
• Once your child is comfortable kissing the food item goodbye, encourage them to give it “one little lick” before placing it into the “All Done Bowl” 
• Once your child is comfortable licking the food item before discarding, encourage them to take a small bite and spit it out into the “All Done Bowl” 
• Keep in mind your child may skip some of these steps on their own or may need to stay at a given step for several presentations of the food 

Talk about foods, their properties, and their benefits for your child’s body

• Ex: Carrots: “Carrots are orange. They are crunchy. Carrots help our eyes to see well!”

Present foods in different shapes 

• Use cookie cutters to cut foods into fun shapes. You can find “small shape food cutters” on amazon! 
• Cut foods in different ways. Ex: Present cucumbers cut into sticks as well as cut into circles

Present foods in different consistencies/textures 

• If your child doesn’t like food, it very likely could be because of its texture. Try presenting the same food in different consistencies to get your child used to the flavor. 
• Ex: Apple Options
• Full apple with skin 
• Full apple without skin 
• Apple slices with skin 
• Apple slices without skin 
• Apples cut into bite-size pieces with skin 
• Apples cut into bite-size pieces without skin 
• Pureed apple/applesauce 
• Thicker/chunkier pureed apple/applesauce 
• Apple juice 
• Add apples to a smoothie 

Offer dipping sauces 

• Dipping sauces are great incentives to get your child to eat a food or at least lick it to get the sauce off!
• Suggested sauces: 
• Peanut butter 
• Nutella 
• Hummus 
• Ranch dressing 
• Ranch dip 
• Ketchup 
• Vegetable dips 
• French onion dip 
• Greek yogurt 
• Barbecue Sauce 

Present with different seasonings 

• Play around with different seasonings as well as the amount of seasoning on presented foods! Just like adults, some children like more flavorful foods while other children like more mild foods. 

Play with foods

• While we do want children to eat their food, playing with their food does get them closer!
• Play ideas:
• Pretend to feed foods to your child’s favorite characters 
• Pretend foods are train whistles 
• Pretend foods are people, cars, animals, etc. and act out play routines 
• Sing songs with food 
• Have your child pretend to be various animals while eating/trying foods. “How would a dinosaur eat that cracker?!” 
• Have your child help you prepare foods 
• When preparing meals for your family, have your child help. Children are more likely to try a food item that they took part in making!   

Have your child help you prepare foods 

• When preparing meals for your family, have your child help. Children are more likely to try a food item that they took part in making!