Strategies To Start Using NOW To Help Your Picky Eater

In Sensory Processing Disorder, Nutrition, and Picky Eating, I left you with a cliff hanger. This is part two... real life strategies to help your picky eater expand variety, and address structure and expectations around mealtimes.
Spoiler alert... all of the suggestions are things YOU (the parent/caregiver) can do starting today. They are not quick fixes or even "easy" but they are straight forward and achievable with consistency. You can do it! As always, reach out if you need more help or suggestions.
Be sure to catch PART ONE if you haven't yet!
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[@AparnaMuktibodh]

Thank you for this video. My boy is an extremely picky eater and feeding him takes up half my mental energy every single day. Up until 18 months of age he would ONLY drink milk. He absolutely would not eat solids. It took a lot of mental acrobatics on my behalf to stop this preference for milk and move him to solids. I did this with the aid of TV. He did start eating but he only eats two meals a day and that too only with his favourite nursery rhymes playing on TV. He's 2 years and 8 months now and still doesn't eat food on his own because if I put a plate in front of him, he will not touch it. If I want to ensure food enters his system I have to spoon feed him myself - both lunch and dinner taking one hour each.
For evening snack I put a few items of different textures on a plate (a mix of new and familiar foods) and place it in front of him so that he can somehow come around to eating something, whilst he is playing. The plate remains untouched.
Could you please suggest how to get a child totally not interested in eating to start eating meals by himself? I feel I have to jump through a lot of hoops to get this basic thing done each day and it is stressful. He has been diagnosed with SPD and for pandemic-related reasons I haven't been able to get a therapy routine going for him.

[@ottimewithcasey9891]

Hi! I totally understand what you mean when you say it takes so much energy on your part. Feeding your child is emotionally and mentally stressful and your child's limited diet makes that even more so! I highly recommend getting a full work up from the pediatrician to ensure there is nothing medically restricting diet as well as to rule out any other issues. I'm not sure where you are located but perhaps therapy is an option now? A resource that may be helpful now if therapy isn't possible is through Kids Eat in Color in her Better Bites program. It is a paid program that works to support extremely picky eaters. I also recommend Solid Starts for their videos and guides on picky eating. While both of these resources may get you started, I think having another professional you can meet with in person or virtually would be very beneficial. Routines can be hard to change but they CAN be changed. I don't know your child but some things I would try if working in a similar situation would be to slowly move more distance between him and the screen, and slowly turning the volume down (tiny changes over days) if he notices he can't hear, put the sound on a speaker or something that he cannot see the screen. This can be an attempt to move away from screen and listening, to just listening. We need him to be actively involved in mealtime to be able to move toward eating by himself. I hope this is helpful in some small way!

[@AparnaMuktibodh]

@@ottimewithcasey9891 Thank you so much for taking out the time to respond in detail. I'll check out the resources you've mentioned. We have recently moved to Australia and I am looking to get my boy started in OT here, but it's a long waiting period. In the meantime, meals continue to be a source of stress, especially if we are traveling and his routine is disturbed. I'm still amazed at how indifferent he is to food! I'll try lowering down the volume idea and moving him away from the screen bit by bit. Gotta do it gradually, like you say, or there'll be a lot of resistance. Thanks for the suggestion, you've been very helpful. :)