Picky eaters refer to anyone who eats only eat certain foods or will refuse to try any new ones. This is very commonly be seen in children, who will only eat basic foods rather than trying various foods. There are many causes for this and in many situations, your child will grow out of it. In some children, their sensors are extremely sensitive, making them hypersensitive to sights, textures or smells of foods, which can impact their decisions to try new ones.
Picky eating grows into a problem when kids become undernourished and eat so minimal, that it affects their daily life functioning.
At SpeechAim, our specialist staff can work with your child in order to introduce a range of more food choices in their diet in order to improve overall health and growth. Our treatment can be particularly designed for children, in order to keep it engaging and fun.
Before considering therapy, we advise a range of strategies to try and apply within your home. An essential part of helping children who are picky eaters is to break down barriers slowly. Exposure of particular foods is important which can include touching the food, smelling the food etc. Most of these are simply strategies that have proven to be highly effective at the dinner table:
Try to introduce a few of these throughout the weeks to see if your child will begin to try new foods. While they do not need to try all new foods, a sign of 2 to 5 attempts is good. However, during this time period it is also a good idea to look for any bad signs. For example:
While all of these on an odd occasion are normal, it is important to look out for them occurring multiple times within a short period.
At SpeechAim, our highly skilled and knowledgeable specialists can help your child to try a range of new foods.
Using specially tailored programs designed for your child, we can help your child to understand new foods as well as the benefits that come with them. With only a few therapy sessions, we aim to have your child trying various new foods both at home and during our sessions. Whether your child is more open to discovering new foods or your child is incredibly resistant, we aim to offer the proper support in order to break down those avoidant food habits. We want to work to a point in which trying new foods is no longer an issue for your child, but something they actually enjoy!