Five Ways to Encourage your Picky Eater to Try New Foods
(Including 5 Not So Scary Food Changes & a Free Worksheet!)
Does your child run from the table, dump their plate, say “no,” or tantrum when they see new things at mealtimes?
Do they ignore the new foods you’ve served, push away your flying airplane bites, or turn their cheek at the spoons you present?
If you’re nodding your head yes, you are, unfortunately, in good company. Introducing new foods to kiddos on the spectrum can be TOUGH. It can cause fear, anxiety, or even challenging behavior. So much so, that in an effort to keep the peace in your home, you may have given up trying.
That’s why, today, we are going to talk about 5 little ways that you can encourage your picky eater with autism to try new things. Ideas that will push your little person to grow without pushing them over the edge.
Let’s Get Started
The first step in this strategy is to identify a food that your child already likes to eat. Hopefully, you have a good handle on your kiddo's favorites, though transient or few they may sometimes seem. If you don’t, head on over here for support with creating a food list for your kiddo that will simplify your life, your grocery list, and your meal prep.
Once you’ve identified a food your child likes, we are going to apply 5 ways that you can change it up to make it a new food. So, with that, let’s be clear. This isn’t like transforming your child’s plate of crackers into broccoli. We are going to take a “baby steps” kind of approach to altering a food your child currently likes to support them with getting their body used to something different. The goal is to encourage your picky eater to try something in a new way - and with less resistance, anxiety, or fear.
I want your child to be able to approach their plate, see a favorite food that has been altered, but not go into a fight or flight kind of reaction mode.
I also want them to KNOW that their favorite food has been altered or switched up in some way. I do not want this to be like grandma sneaking cauliflower into the mac and cheese! If your child doesn’t know that the food has been changed, you stand the chance of them feeling tricked and not trusting when they are being offered their favorite food in the future.
So, if your child can’t visibly tell that the food is different, just go ahead and tell them. You can say, “this is a new mac and cheese,” or “we are trying something different today.”
OK, now that you’ve selected a food and know the basic game plan (i.e., we are altering a favorite food and keeping your kiddo in the loop), let’s talk about these 5 little ways we can change up your honey’s food.
Oh, and feel free to grab a kid-friendly worksheet with these 5 ways right here.
1 Change the Shape
Whip out the cookie cutters or get creative with your knife skills. The first option is to change your child’s food by simply making it look different. If your kiddo is used to PBJ in squares, try triangles. If your little person likes their carrots sliced into sticks, try cutting them into circles. If your sweetie always eats banana muffins, bake the muffins into a loaf, and serve slices. However you go about it, just change it up.
This option is a beautiful first step for kiddos on the spectrum who are particularly rigid or extremely sensitive to change, but any picky eater can benefit from this little nudge toward being more flexible with their foods.
2 Change the Delivery
Option 2 is to change the vehicle your child uses for their food. This could mean serving a favorite food in a bowl rather than the container you bought it in (e.g., a yogurt cup). It could also mean serving the food on top of another preferred food (e.g., favorite cheese atop favorite cracker). Finally, this could be using a preferred solid food as the spoon for a preferred puree food (e.g., graham cracker stick as the spoon for applesauce).
If changing the delivery is tough for your kiddo, you might want to get in the habit of doing this. Additionally, you can go easier on this one by offering the food both the usual way AND the new way. For example, offer the graham stick and a spoon in the bowl of applesauce. Your child gets exposed to the change and can choose what’s comfortable.
If you are putting one food on another, like peanut butter on bread, you can make it easier by being mindful of the ratios. For example, you could try a tiny dot of peanut butter to a quarter slice of bread. (Just remember to make sure your little one knows that the dot is there!)
3. Change the Brand
Just like it sounds, this one is all about changing up product brands. Maybe you religiously buy a certain kind of bread, so, it’s all your child knows - or - maybe the brand your child is used to is the only one they will accept. Either way, try loosening things up and get into the habit of bringing home a couple of brands. This could be as simple as getting the store-brand instead of - or in addition to - the big-name brand.
When it’s game time, you can set the stage by saying some of those helpful phrases: we’re trying something different; momma wants you to get your body used to seeing something new, etc.
Don’t forget, you can choose to offer the familiar and the new brand at the same time to ease your kiddo into the change if you know that trying new brands is a challenge.
4 Change the Flavor
This is a bigger switch-up than those before it, so, if you’ve already tried some of the earlier food changes with success and want to take things a step further, this is for you.
Consider the food your child already loves and think of another flavor or type of the same thing. Some examples:
If your honey loves mild cheddar, offer medium cheddar.
If your honey loves strawberry yogurt, try mixed berry.
If your honey loves peanut butter, mix it up and serve almond butter.
If your honey loves yellow goldfish crackers, get the colored ones.
If your honey loves applesauce, think about strawberry sauce.
If your honey loves chocolate milk, offer strawberry milk.
Again, the idea here is to give a gentle nudge toward something new, so, try to get the new product in the same brand or packaging as the familiar one. As always, make sure your little is aware that this is a new flavor before the first bite. And, like with other strategies, you can serve both the familiar favorite and the changed-up version at the same meal so your child is exposed to both and can make a choice that’s within their comfort zone.
5 Add a Hint of Difference
So maybe you just read option 4 and you’re thinking, “Whoa, whoa, whoa,” I’ve already been there, and right now, that’s way too hard for my kiddo. That might mean that for your honey, we want to think about adding just a hint of a difference to their favorite food. This could look like stirring a tablespoon of strawberry sauce into the applesauce or mixing 2 nut butters together. It might mean adding a sprinkle of cinnamon or chia seeds onto toast or adding pepper to the mac and cheese. These little tweaks that add a tiny note of change to your child’s food may still be detectable to your picky eater, so, go slowly and again, make sure they know their food is changed. As they get used to that little bit of change, you can slowly increase the amount you alter the food. So, if you stirred 1 tablespoon of strawberry sauce into the applesauce, over time, you could be stirring in 2 tablespoons and then a quarter cup until you have a 50/50 ratio, and then a 75/25 ratio, and so on.
You can do this!
Whether your picky eater is a master of avoiding new foods or runs the other direction at the sight of mealtime changes, you now have 5 little change-tools in your back pocket. By starting with foods that are already in your honey’s comfort zone, you can help your kiddo to grow into a more flexible eater. With time and persistence, these subtle changes will expand your child’s diet while keeping some of the usual resistance, or maybe fear and anxiety, at bay.
And don’t forget to download the worksheet to keep these 5 change strategies top of mind!
This is not medical advice and is provided for educational purposes. As I describe here, a thorough assessment by a team of professionals before making mealtime changes is best practice.
