Picky Eating in Children

Do you have a picky eater?

Me too!

Picky eating is often seen as children being difficult or defiant.

Picky eating is actually linked directly to anxiety. Children select their ‘safe’ foods that they know they like and enjoy. Typically these foods are less nutritious and highly palatable choices.

As parents, we often inadvertently make picky eating worse by the way we speak and behave around food.

If we think about picky eating through an anxiety lens. The only way through anxiety is - through it.

Ways we can support our children to expand their safe foods:
🍏Make sure we are eating them too - children need to see that the food on their plate is safe to eat. Seeing their important role models eat the same foods is reinforcing in the brain that the food is safe.
🍎Remove expectations - put it on the plate not expecting them to eat it. That way, you aren’t disappointed if they don’t. They pick up on your emotions!
🍏Keep serving variety - when they request safe foods, provide half a serve with half a serve of a more nutritious option.
🍎Boundaries - strong boundaries make children feel safe. ‘We have nuggets on Fridays, on mondays we are having ___’. A consistent food routine for a while will provide structure, predictability and safety.
🍏Consistency - just stick to the plan. Exposure, exposure, exposure! If you give in, you will have to start again. Just keep going. Keep serving it.

It might be an incredibly slow process. It might consist of going from 6 nuggets to 5.5 and one slither of carrot and slowly building. But the more you do it, the more exposure for the anxiety brain the safe the brain feels to move through it.

Picky eating is combatted through EXPOSURE!
The more you only serve safe foods, the more you are inadvertently increasing anxiety and increasing the picky eating in the end.

Comment below with any food wins you’ve had with your children ⬇️⬇️