If you’re the parent of a picky eater, you’re probably familiar with the daily mealtime battles and worry about your child’s nutritional intake. But did you know that many picky eating challenges come from oral motor skill delays or sensory processing difficulties? If your child struggles to eat new or nutritious foods, feeding therapy can help them learn to eat, drink, and try new foods with confidence.
What Is Picky Eating?
Everyone has preferences when it comes to food, but picky eating goes beyond simple dislike. It is a consistent refusal to eat certain foods or try new foods due to the taste, texture, smell, or appearance of the food. Picky eaters may only eat food that is soft and easy to chew and swallow, or they may have a handful of meals they are willing to have and refuse everything else. This can lead to nutritional deficiencies and poor health conditions. It can also lead to mealtime meltdowns and stress in the family over trying to get a child to eat what everyone else is eating.
What Causes Picky Eating?
Picky eating is generally caused by oral motor skill delays or sensory processing struggles. Oral motor skills include the ability to chew and swallow food easily without choking or gagging. A child with poor oral motor skills may become a picky eater because they feel anxious about choking on their food.
Sensory processing involves the ability to tolerate certain tastes, textures, smells, or other qualities of food. A child who struggles with sensory processing may become a picky eater because certain foods cause them to feel distressed or overwhelmed in some way.
Signs of Picky Eating in Children
The most common signs of picky eating in children include:
- Refusal to try new foods
- Gagging or choking during meals
- Anxiety or distress during mealtimes
- Accepting only a limited variety of foods
- Meltdowns or emotional outbursts at mealtimes
- Poor nutrition and growth due to lack of variety in foods
- Refusal to eat foods if they are touching other foods on their plate
- Going hungry rather than eating unwanted food
- Demanding their preferred foods
- Refusal of entire food groups (meats, vegetables, etc.)
How Feeding Therapy Helps Children with Picky Eating
Pediatric feeding therapists work with children to help them develop their oral motor skills or ability to tolerate a variety of foods, depending on the child’s specific challenges. At Little Hands at Play, we have a specialized “feeding lab” where we work with children to help them build their tolerance and acceptance of new foods. Feeding therapy uses targeted exercises and play-based activities to help children develop essential feeding skills and create a positive relationship with food. Feeding therapists can also give you advice to make mealtimes easier for the whole family.
An Important Note About Picky Eating
Many parents of picky eaters are understandably worried about their child’s nutrition. However, it’s important to understand that severe picky eaters are not being stubborn for no reason—they have a specific challenge with food that causes them some type of distress. Getting angry, demanding your child “clean their plate,” or trying to discipline them over food may be well-intentioned, but it won’t help your child and can make mealtimes more stressful for your family.
If you’re worried about your child’s picky eating habits, the best thing to do is to speak with their pediatrician or a qualified feeding therapist. We can give you suggestions on how to manage mealtimes at home and work with your child to help them overcome their feeding challenges.
Schedule an Evaluation
If your child is struggling with picky eating, Little Hands at Play can help. Call us at (479) 226-3409 to schedule an evaluation with our feeding therapists today.
