Try It Out Technique: Let’s Talk Eating New Foods! How in the world do I get my child to eat new foods that are nourishing?
Try: 1. Without any notable attention on your child, VERY nonchalantly place an item of food in-front of them -without saying anything. ;-) 2. Grab some of that same food for yourself, and position yourself so you are ever-so-slightly in their line of vision. 3. Now go to town eating up that yummy food… Mmmm :-) not in a very BIG or LOUD way… just ever-so-slightly expressive of your delight! (Sometimes I even position myself about 3-4ft BEHIND my son or a child I’m working with, and just allow them time to explore the food.)
TRY this ALL WEEK long, throughout the week with a variety of foods.
If your child looks at it- wonderful!
Touches it- wonderful!
Eats it-wonderful!
If they ask for more- WONDERFUL!
The idea here is often times there can be so much focus on eating something nourishing that our children can feel that ‘loving urgency’ that all parents have felt at some point or another- and then right on cue our children dig those cute little heels in.
With children on the Autism Spectrum, the COMBINATION of all their PHYSICAL and SENSORY challenges can make eating new foods difficult for them (physical limitations, taste, texture, smell, etc.) Often when our children sense that bit of ‘loving urgency’ from us to change their diet, these challenges can intensify and create resistance to new foods .
We want to create a NEW PLATFORM FOR EATING… think of this as your way of “starting over” with FOOD. Little by little your child will be more willing to try out the food you hope to get them to eat.
One little Try It Out Technique for you on this journey :-)
Much love to all! xx
