HOW TO GET A CHILD TO TRY NEW FOOD_ Feeding Therapy Tips for Parents to Use At Home (Picky Eaters)]

Hey guys, it's Kelly Meyer, licensed and certified pediatric speech-language pathologist, and welcome back to The Speech Scoop. So I'm here to give you your scoop. This is actually not my filming day at all, which is why I'm not even wearing makeup to work today, but that's okay. The information was just going through my brain this morning and I was like, I need to share this information with parents. So a lot of times, I'm just going to dive right into it. Make sure to follow The Speech Scoop on Instagram and also check out our Teachers Pay Teachers resources that you can download for free. Also, we have a really great new fall verbs and nouns resource that you can do with your child at home. But anyways, okay, diving back into it. I've got all the links down below for all of our resources and make sure to like us on Facebook because I post on there regularly and you can also see a lot of my therapy tips, strategies, and techniques that I'm using here in the office. Okay, so back at it. A lot of parents are very concerned about feeding with their child. So if a child has a limited food inventory, if they have texture inversions, all types of feeding difficulties seem to be comorbid along with speech and language delay, diagnosis of autism, other diagnosis that are that are could be sensory related. So a sensory processing disorder or if your child receives OT and they weren't able to pick up little things or they didn't like the texture of blueberries and stuff. And so I'm going to give you my top 10 strategies that I always go through with parents during their first session. So number one is this is a fun fact that a lot of parents don't even know is that a child has to be offered a food between 10 and 15 times before they will often even consider eating it. So if you're offering your child a food one time and they're not taking it or two times and they're not interested in it, they're not interested in touching it, that is within a normal developmental period. That is a normal number of trials. So really you would have to offer your child the food 15 different times or more than for us to consider that your child doesn't like that food or isn't interested in that food. So just keep that in mind is that you can always offer it in different shapes, different colors, different dips. With peanut butter and jelly you could make a peanut butter sandwich if that's what your child likes. You could offer a fluff dip. You could offer Nutella. You could offer jelly, strawberry preserves. You could have them dip it in or you could just spread a tiny thin layer on it instead of clumping it on there like our normal peanut butter and jelly sandwich when we're picturing it in our head. And so that's my first tip is you can you can cut things in different shapes. Star, circle, carrot strips, carrot circles, cucumbers. So my second tip is make sure that you're fostering a positive feeding environment. So you know if your child is averse to coming to the table why is that? Sometimes I'll see that a child will take play-doh or whatever the food is that we're working on and they'll run away from the table and will sit at the back of my mat or at the back of my room. Kind of they need to be alone because it's overwhelming for them to be at the table with the pressure of touching or seeing or eating the food. And so we definitely want to foster a positive environment. Make sure the table is fun. Do preferred activities at the table or if that's not where you want to offer food then make sure that wherever you're offering food if it might be on the coffee table. And I always recommend leaving food out so that your child has continued exposure. Maybe they'll begin to play with it. I also have this kitchen play set which it looks realistic which is why I love all my kids love to play with this. I love to use their food to put it on here without any pressure of them even touching with their hands. They can stir it in the cup. They can dump it in and out. They can see how the muffin maybe crumbles. Also kids are more likely to accept carbs and crunchy foods because they they dissolve faster in saliva. So it is easier for a child to process in their mouth. And also those are types of things that packaged food it's the same consistency every time. It is the same texture every time. It's not you making mini muffins which sometimes they might be burnt. Sometimes they might be dry. Sometimes they might be sunken in the middle. They're the same every time. So try different packaged foods where your child knows what to expect. And so they probably are more willing to take that. Whereas a blueberry sometimes they're big. Sometimes they're small. Sometimes they're bad. They're squishy. Sometimes they're sweet. Sometimes they're sour. So there's so many different you know there's so many different flavors textures consistencies. It's really a surprise every time you eat a blueberry right. Well with a child with you know who's new to accepting new foods that's not fun for them to like never know what to expect whenever they're eating a new food. So you really want something that's consistent which is why packaged foods especially carbs are usually the easiest ones that I will begin to offer. Also tip number three make sure these are foods that you are eating. A child is fifty five percent more likely to try a food if you are eating it. So I almost never do a feeding session where I'm not eating the food. So make sure that it is a food that you want you know your child to eat that you also eat. So if you're eating if you don't eat cucumbers don't send cucumbers for feeding therapy or don't try to get your child to eat cucumbers okay. So like they need to be eat they need to be seeing the foods eaten. The foods that you want them to eat you need to be eating because again they're 55% more likely to try a food or to eat a food or to tolerate a food if they see others doing it. So that is definitely tip number three. I'm just I put some painters tape up on the wall. Make sure to follow the speech group so you can see how I did this. And then I just had a child like pick up Cheerios and we were putting them on the wall. I never said eat it. Then they eventually started smelling the Cheerios like sometimes I'll just model oh these smell good. Sometimes I'll be like mmm on and we're just modeling different fun sounds. We'll pretend to take a sip out of our little kitchen set which I'll put the link to down below. But the pressure of eating it is not I'm not like eat your Cheerio eat your Cheerio. Then we did play-doh. We put a spaghetti string and uncooked spaghetti string and then I had them put the Cheerios on and then these are two and three different exposure opportunities. Then we put the Cheerio in glue that was on a paper plate that was taped onto the wall. So again just interacting with the food making them more comfortable touching it smelling it. Maybe eventually they lick it. Sometimes I'll just model lick and then I put it on. But I never asked them to do that because I don't want to to put pressure or demands on them because they will immediately not want to do that. Because that's human nature right? If somebody tries to make you go on a diet then you're like I'm not going on a diet. And so you really have to find that intrinsic motivation of your child to see like oh this is actually fun touching the Cheerios and putting them on. And mom's not making me eat this. This is great because eventually maybe your child will try whatever the food is that you're working on. Number number I don't even know what number we're on four or five. Make sure your child can chew appropriately. So if you don't know if your child can chew then go see a speech therapist or a feeding specialist. So it could be occupational therapy whoever it is that you would like for your child to look at their chew pattern. If they're just shoving food in their mouth and they're swallowing that is not a chew pattern. So make sure that your child is actually able to do at least a bunch chew pattern to break down those solids before you're giving them anything that you can't swallow automatically. So apples number one choking hazard. Make sure you're not giving your child pieces of apple and then they're just swallowing it because that's definitely going to not break down in the saliva and it's gonna get lodged in the throat. So that's just a safety concern. Another tip try not to reward your child for eating something. So if your child loves ice cream just set up a schedule where maybe you have a Monday through Friday or Monday through Sunday or Sunday through Saturday whatever the week schedule is and then they have three ice cream cones they get to put it on whatever day and then those are just the days that they get ice cream cone. I don't like to do bite for bite because whenever we begin to restrict something that someone wants you end up wanting it more right. If you're on a diet you probably never wanted a piece of chocolate after dessert I mean after dinner and then now you're on a diet and you're like I would love a I would love a bowl of ice cream right because if something's not available if you're not allowed to have it then naturally that makes us want it more and so that's one reason why I don't like to do bite for bite like something that they like and also I want them to enjoy the experience and want the food naturally on their own instead of just being rewarded like then it's like they're doing something they don't like to get something that they do like and then that's the way that we're associating the food that we actually want them to eat and enjoy so that they will long time be able to eat it and enjoy it over time. I'm just making sure I'm hitting everything. Oh another fun tip that I always do is like for example a little friend of mine was recently introduced to peaches and so every time I would say the word peaches I would just say it like that oh would you like peaches and I would make it sound super fun and inviting and then that way it's like oh that sounded fun or that sounded good instead of like eat your apple eat your peaches I'm always like okay we're gonna do a bite of oatmeal and then a bite of peaches and so just making the word sound fun or being excited about whatever the food is that is another great tip. Also I love this is such a simple idea and then a lot of times people are like what a great idea and I'm like I know and so you just write down a list or get pictures or actually get the foods of a list of all the foods that you might want your child to eat and then let your child pick one that they want to work with and and then like if they choose the apple then maybe you know Monday they chose an apple and then maybe you do the apple Monday Tuesday Wednesday and then we rotate it out you say okay now our options are packaged mini muffins and puffs or you know the yogurt melts or whatever it is that you want your child to eat that you are eating remember make sure it's part of your normal routine or if it's rice or if it's beans or if it's like a tiny piece of chicken also try not to overwhelm with portions we want to make sure that we're offering food that maybe your child doesn't like mixed in not like you know it can mixed in as in like in the same plate not like on a separate plate like this is the food you like this is food you don't like we want to present all the food at the same time make sure our portions are very very small whenever parents send in you know tons of bags of carrots I usually take out one carrot two carrot at a time and I have two different plates and I you know mix up and do different things on one plate and then whatever it is that we're working on that I would like the child to touch lick smell eat take a bite of try whatever it is I'll just put one on there maybe in a different shape maybe a small piece big piece maybe it's you know cut in a triangle or in a stick form but to not overwhelm the child thinking oh my gosh I have to eat all of this like it's overwhelming especially if we're talking about a new food so definitely just one or two bites on the plate and if they touch it they touch it you can always offer a no-thank-you bowl and it's just like a bowl where a child just picks up whatever it is that they don't want instead of throwing it on the floor they can put it in the no-thank-you bowl and so that's a good way for your child to still have control over the opportunities and and still like getting that sensory input of picking something up and putting it down so I love that opportunity I love that idea we did the no-thank-you bowl making lists all right and so really the last thing that I want to say tip number 10 is focus on the long term so it's not like you know we're on a limited amount of time where you only have you know five days to get your child to eat an entire banana what we want to do is really make sure that we're fostering this positive eating environment maybe if your child feels safe and takes food to a tent that tells you that they feel safe in their tent and maybe we just put different types of food once we know their munch to pattern is appropriate they have an appropriate phallus transfer and that they can swallow maybe we just put little like new things in their tent whatever it is we just want to make sure that we're doing the best long-term thing for your child to improve their overall food inventory or texture inventory whatever it is because if you go on a crash diet you're gonna lose weight for sure but is that sustainable no is it healthy probably not is it gonna make you mad yes and so I always take these things into consideration whenever I'm trying to work on a new food or expose a child or just get them to even tolerate the food being around and we're going on a long-term approach here sometimes kids want to eat under the table because that's where they feel more safe sometimes they want to take it to the back of the room and and you know hide behind the door and that's okay too wherever we're at wherever your child is that meet them there don't force it create positive environments let them choose choices make sure to model eating continue to offer different shapes sizes dips and opportunities for your child to eat and then you know go for the goal go for the long term it's really a marathon it's definitely not a sprint make sure to speak with another speech therapist or you know if your child needs different they need a modified variance while study or whatever it is that your child might need make sure to speak with a feeding specialist or a speech therapist to get more information but those are my top 10 tips for working with your child on feeding at home hope this helps make sure to leave a comment down below and hit the thumbs up button and subscribe if these videos are helpful for you and your child this lets YouTube know that you guys like this content and again my name is Kelly Meyer just here to help you guys your parents out and I hope that this was helpful for you and good luck on your feeding journey see you next time