Avoiding & Navigating The Dreaded Picky Eating Phase

This blog post was written by the Infant Insights team of baby experts. The team consists of OT, PT, SLP/CLC, and sleep consultants excited to help you understand your baby and enjoy this stage!

Picky eating is something a lot of parents fear (even myself!), and it’s something A LOT of parents deal with! If you’re in the trenches of picky eating or hoping to prevent it altogether, you’re definitely in the right place!

Picky eating is really defined simply as a preference for certain foods and textures and a refusal to eat foods that fall outside of the child’s preferred criteria. While picky eating is normal to some extent, extreme picky eating can lead to mealtime battles, frustration, and concerns about nutrition. But the good news? There are ways to help prevent picky eating from your baby's first bite and even proven strategies to navigate picky eating if you find yourself there! 

So, How Do We Avoid Picky Eating?

Picky eating is often not entirely avoidable, but we can lower our child’s risk of becoming picky by keeping a few things in mind:

• Start solids at the right time – Our baby is more likely to accept new foods between 4-9 months, so we need to be ready to offer a variety of foods and textures in this age range to prevent picky eating later on.

• Offer a wide variety of foods – From the very moment our child starts solids, we should introduce as many different foods as possible (think 100 foods before age one!). The more variety, the lower the chances of picky eating. For a complete Solids Introduction Plan, join Bloom by Infant Insights.

• Keep exposing your child to foods (even if they don't eat them!) – Continuously introduce undesired foods to your baby and child, even if they don’t eat them. Research suggests it can take up to 10 times of food exposure before a child is even willing to touch a new food. Picky eating can also get worse when parents stop offering foods that were initially rejected, so keep offering!

• Avoid pressure – Allowing your child to eat the portions they desire without feeling shame or pressure to eat on demand helps reduce avoidance and picky eating. Pressure can actually reinforce picky eating behaviors and make mealtimes stressful for everyone. Avoid staring at your child during mealtimes, and try to be as relax as possible to help their accept the foods you desire for them to eat.

• Stay calm – Even when your baby or child doesn’t eat what is offered, it’s important to remain neutral. Negative reactions can contribute to more picky eating habits as kids pick up on our stress and emotions around food.

What If My Child is Already a Picky Eater?

If you’re already dealing with picky eating, don’t panic! Here are some strategies to help navigate it:

• Make mealtimes positive – Keep a relaxed and fun atmosphere at the table. Picky eating can get worse when mealtime becomes a battle. 

• Offer choices within limits – Giving kids some control can help ease picky eating tendencies. Offer two healthy options and let them choose. Toddlers and kids LOVE choices.

• Eat together – Modeling healthy eating habits is one of the best ways to encourage kids to try new foods. Picky eating is often lessened when children see their parents enjoying a variety of foods.

• Try new presentations – Sometimes, it’s not the food itself but the way it’s presented. If a child refuses cooked carrots, try serving them raw, shredded, or with a fun dip. You can also make fun presentations with how things are plated (silly faces on foods, etc). Yummy Toddler has a book with great recipes for pickier eaters!

• Make it routine – Serve meals and snacks at consistent times so kids come to the table hungry but not overly hungry. Picky eating can worsen if a child is grazing all day and isn’t motivated to eat at meals. 

• Be patient – Picky eating isn’t fixed overnight. Consistency is key, and over time, many picky eaters grow out of these tendencies with the right approach.

Picky eating can be frustrating, but it’s important to remember that it’s often just a phase. Whether you’re trying to prevent picky eating or working through currently, patience, persistence, and a positive mealtime environment make all the difference. By staying consistent from first bites, we can help our kids develop a healthy relationship with food from infancy & beyond. For picky eating support, be sure to chat with the solids specialists inside Bloom by Infant Insights!