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ANY small step is a HUGE win! Over the years working with children with Selective Mutism, eating and drinking difficulties and communication needs I have come to realise first hand that any step is a step forward.

Experience (and research) tells us that it can take a child at least 20 exposures to a new food to feel comfortable enough to explore and learnt with it – especially for our picky eaters!

So how do we create these exposures in the most fun (and easy) way with a few tantrums as possible!!???

So, you’re thinking…. What’s this about fajitas? But my kid doesn’t eat chicken/onion/spice/peppers/insert your child’s yuk food here….. 

What I’m going to tell you is going to take the pressure off YOU at mealtimes. It’s going to make mealtimes more enjoyable! It’s going to remove the need for you to nag your kids to eat at the dinner table and liklihood is, it’s going to turn some of those YUK foods into LEARNING foods and eventually into LIKE or even LOVE foods!

Picky/fussy eating can be a normal part of childhood development. Starting around 15-18 months of age when your little one is beginning to develop a greater sense of autonomy and lasting through the toddler years. During this period children may refuse foods, frequently change their preferences and/or eat limited amounts or varieties of foods at certain times (Wolstenholme et al, 2020).

There is a huge spectrum of “picky-eating” that ranges from children who are selective about their food choices e.g. they may refuse certain vegatables and/or they may love something you make one day and out-right refuse it the next; To children who may gag at the sight of certain foods and/or eat a highly restricted range of foods that seems to be increasingly decreasing!