Picky Eating Problems? Tackle your Toddler’s Mealtime Challenges

If you’re raising a toddler, picky eating can feel like an everyday battle. You know the routine:

• You spend time making a family dinner, only for your toddler to refuse everything on their plate.
• You whip up a “special meal” just for them, but they still won’t touch it. (Even though they happily ate that same food for two weeks straight.)
• You’ve bookmarked every Pinterest page on picky eating & tried every cute animal-shaped food trick in the book.

Now, you find yourself letting them to eat while watching a video on your phone, or worse, spoon-feeding your three-year-old. The cycle feels endless. It’s no wonder parents feel tired and frustrated. Kids can be picky eaters, and everyone has their own food preferences. But how do you know if it’s just typical picky eating or if there’s a deeper feeding issue at play?

Identifying Picky Eating vs. Feeding Problems

Picky eating is common, especially in toddlers as they explore their independence and develop food preferences. Once you’ve ruled out any medical factors, if your child is eating at least 20 different foods but is selective about the types, it’s likely just picky eating. With some effort, picky eating can improve.

However, If your child consistently refuses entire food groups, has trouble chewing or swallowing, or if mealtime becomes a source of anxiety for both of you, it may indicate a feeding problem. Signs of a feeding issue include your child:

• Eating fewer than 30 different foods
• Not reacquiring foods after a break from them
• Experiencing meltdowns when new foods are introduced
• Refusing entire categories of food textures or nutritional groups.
  • (Like chewy foods, meats, vegetables, or soft cubed foods)

This is considered a problem feeder. The good news is that with the right support, improvement is possible! It’s just going require more work.

Support for Mealtime Success

Don’t feel discouraged if you’re dealing with a problem feeder—help is available! Fun fact: Did you know there are 32 steps to feeding, and that eating isn’t even the first step? The Sequential Oral Sensory Approach to Feeding (SOS) is a nationally recognized program which uses a systematic hierarchy to help children reach the ultimate goal of eating a diverse range of foods. A trained professional can guide caregivers through this process, paving the way for success in introducing new foods. And the best part? It actually works!

Meals can be happy!

By using a combination of individualized programming tailored to your child’s needs, a trained Occupational Therapist can help your child to explore a variety of new foods, transforming mealtime into a more comfortable and enjoyable experience for everyone!

If your child is struggling during mealtimes, it may be time to reach out to your medical provider to exlpore options. A trained Occupational Therapist can help you to understand your child’s unique feeding needs and facilitate a better conneciton at the dinner table. To learn more about how we can help here at Therapeeps, please complete our intake form.

Photo by Tanaphong Toochinda on Unsplash