At Feeding Futures we talk a lot about food exposures. One day, my business partner (and sister) Laurie lovingly said to me, “Do people even know what food exposure means?” She went on to say, “Sometimes you talk too much like a therapist, clients need a list of food exposure examples”. And she was right….so I went to work on this article.

Good food therapy should address the fear and anxiety kids have with food. In our 12 Week FEAST Picky Eater Program we start by helping parents remove all the food pressure so that kids can begin a new relationship with food.  When we take care of the food anxiety, we see improvements in eating.

We tell parents to stop using the Killer B’s – Begging and Bribing kids to eat. So the next question is understandable – “If I’m not putting new foods in front of them and pushing them to try it, what do I do to help my kid eat?”  It is a very good question and the answer requires parents to take a shift in thinking.  We are comfortable pushing our kids to eat, it is how many of us were taught to eat.  But it doesn’t work for all kids. I say this everyday  – “If it was that easy, we would not have any picky eaters”.

Part of our solution is giving parents food therapy tools through a ‘prescription to play’ and fully explore food. The message to our clients is this: no matter the age or functioning ability of your child, food-themed play is the pipeline for successful real food experiences.

The fun food activities you can do are literally endless, here are just a few.

Imaginary Food Play

We love play food and there are lots of great kinds to choose from. There is plastic, cloth, felt or wooden. Because of children’s wonderful imaginations, play foods can be very powerful food therapy tools. Get your kid some play food and encourage food play. One week your playroom can become a restaurant, the next week a supermarket. The opportunities to help re-build your child’s relationship with food through imaginary play are limitless. Want your kid to eat eggs? Make sure there are eggs on the menu at the pretend restaurant and order them. Then ham it up and rave about how delicious they are.

Cooking and Baking

Kids love to help in the kitchen, even kids with food issues. The wonderful thing about cooking and baking is that it can also be a sensory activity, helping children get comfortable with smells, textures and colours of foods. Bang for your buck – cooking can give you the best use of food exposure time. How many ingredients are in that muffin or smoothie recipe? Well, the number of ingredients is the number of food exposures your picky eater will get when he is busy in the kitchen. And the chances of a kid eating the food they baked or blended or buttered is 10 fold better than if a parent pulls out the Killer B’s of Begging and Bribery.

Foraging for Food

There are so many great things that can happen in a food market, here kids can touch foods, smell, talk and think about food. Yes – even thinking about food is a powerful mental exposure activity. A happy stroll through the farmer’s market or grocery store can help set the stage for learning to love a new food. We can also add gardening to this list of exposures. When kids see where food comes from – the ground (not a store), wonderful things can happen. And the added benefits of getting dirty in the sunshine will help calm neurology and ensure  you have the best day ever with your kid.

Playing With Your Food

Playing with actual food is a big part of how we all learn to eat. But when you have a sensory issue as a baby, playing and exploring food can be hard. A big part of food therapy is sensory and messy play.   And the very best way to do that play for a picky eater is with food. So think about sensory bins with rice, beans, peas or oats. There is eatable playdough, pudding painting, pasta jewelry, making art with potato stamps and making fun art scenes with food. Your kids will be so motivated to be around food that they won’t even realize it is therapy.  Want to know how to make coloured rice?  Click Here

See how easy it can be! These are just some places to start with play based food exposures. An added bonus would be to add things that your child loves to some food play. Think about how powerful it would be for your Mindcraft loving child to help make Mindcraft Muffins. Get creative and add lots of fun. And take lots of pictures, then tack them up where your kid can see them. It is a visual reminder of how awesome they are and will keep them motivated.

Take a look around your child’s life. Look for food experiences where there is no anxiety. And that often means away from the dinner table where there are many levels of anxiety – food anxiety, social anxiety, sensory anxiety and often many, many memories of ffood failure. There is magic in parent directed play. When parents help support a new relationship with food, kids are able to lower their food based anxiety and try new things.

So add some fun with food and see what happens….I bet your kid’s newest food is closer than you think.

Lisa Pinhorn
Co-Founder of Feeding Futures
feedingfuturesnutrtion.com
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