Are mealtimes stressful for you and your child? Do you worry about what to prepare or whether your child is getting the nutrition he needs to grow and be healthy?

If this describes your situation, you’re one of the many parents dealing with the same issue.

Feeding problems are very common, affecting about 25% of normal-developing children or about 80% of children with special needs.

Your child probably isn’t refusing food to be naughty or fussy. He might be lacking some of the skills necessary to eat all food textures (such as inadequate jaw strength) or his sensory system might be overwhelmed by the sensory properties of the food presented.

Sensory properties of food include its taste, smell, size, temperature, colour and texture. It’s not uncommon for children to gag at the sight of a food they are unfamiliar with.

Here are some things that you can start doing at home to help your child:

  1. Expose him/her to a wide variety of food. Just because your child only eats porridge doesn’t mean that you should only give that to him.

Children need to learn about different types of food by using all their senses. This means that seeing, smelling, touching and tasting a wide variety of food. This helps their sensory systems to slowly shift into accepting unfamiliar food. Your child doesn’t need to eat the new food the first time you give it to him. Consider it a success if he only manages to smell the new food. Try again the next day, he might just surprise you and give it a taste! A wide variety of food items also means your child gets to develop all his muscle strength and coordination.

  1. Do not force your child to eat. You may succeed in getting the food into your child but you’re teaching him to develop better avoidance strategies when he encounters food he doesn’t like. It also causes your child to associate feeding with bad feelings and stress, which makes him less willing to try new foods.

  2. Model good eating behaviours. You can do this by having your child look at other people enjoying their food at mealtimes. This can be easily achieved by making sure the whole family eats together at the table. Your child will have less opportunities to learn good eating behaviours if they are always fed alone.

  3. Think about your food choices. If your child is only eating soft food such as porridge and yoghurt and refusing all hard/chewy food, trying to make your child accept biscuits is setting him up for failure.

Try to expand his range of food based on what he currently accepts. Choose new food that shares at least one sensory property as something in his repertoire of foods.

For example, if your child likes strawberry ice cream, see if you can try introducing other flavours of ice cream or other foods with a similar texture such as frozen yoghurt. The goal is to constantly add new foods to his existing repertoire.

  1. Lastly, have patience! Feeding treatment takes time and perseverance.  The best thing you can do for your child is to not to give up. Remember, you are the best person to work on this problem. If you need help, consult a speech therapist. She will be able to advise you on what steps you can take to improve your child’s feeding.
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