Feeding Therapy Experts Share Tips for Picky Eaters

Fortunately, feeding therapy experts have helped countless families navigate these challenges. Whether your child is a mild picky eater or struggles to eat anything outside of a narrow range, the right strategies can make a big difference. Below, leading specialists share their top tips to help your child become more comfortable with new foods.

Understand the Root of Picky Eating

Before jumping into tactics, it's important to understand what causes picky eating in the first place. For some children, it’s a behavioral habit. For others, sensory processing issues or oral-motor delays play a major role.

According to licensed feeding therapy experts, common causes include:

• Sensory sensitivity to textures, smells, or colors

• Negative associations with food due to past choking or vomiting

• Delays in oral motor development (chewing/swallowing skills)

• Anxiety or control issues at the table

• Medical conditions like reflux or allergies

Knowing the root of your child’s feeding challenges helps you choose the right approach and determine if professional feeding therapy services may be needed.

Tip #1: Avoid Pressure at the Table

One of the most important strategies shared by feeding therapists is to remove pressure from mealtimes. That means no pleading, bribing, or forcing bites. Pressure often makes picky eating worse, not better.

Instead, create a relaxed, positive environment. Offer new foods without expectations. Let your child observe, touch, and explore at their own pace. Building trust around food can lead to more curiosity and eventual acceptance.

Tip #2: Build a Consistent Mealtime Routine

Children thrive with consistency. Having structured meals and snacks at regular times helps regulate appetite and reduces grazing between meals. Routines also send a signal that eating is a priority.

Feeding therapists recommend:

• Eating together at the table as a family

• Turning off distractions like screens

• Using positive language about food (no shaming or negativity)

Over time, these habits create a sense of security and predictability—key ingredients for expanding a child’s food variety.

Tip #3: Start with Small Sensory Steps

For extremely picky eaters, even seeing a new food can trigger discomfort. Feeding therapists suggest breaking the process into small sensory steps to avoid overwhelm:

1. Let your child look at the new food

2. Encourage them to smell it

3. Invite them to touch or poke it

4. Move toward licking or kissing the food

5. Eventually work up to a small bite

Celebrating each small success builds confidence and reduces fear around unfamiliar foods. These steps are part of many structured feeding therapy services designed for sensory-sensitive children.

Tip #4: Use Food Chaining Techniques

Food chaining is a proven strategy used by feeding therapists to gradually expand a child’s food variety. It involves introducing new foods that are similar in texture, flavor, or appearance to foods your child already accepts.

For example, if your child only eats plain crackers, you might try:

• A slightly different brand of crackers

• Toasted bread with a similar crunch

• Soft tortilla chips

• Moving toward softer textures over time

These gradual changes allow the child’s sensory system to adjust with less resistance.

Tip #5: Make Mealtimes Fun and Playful

One of the most effective ways to reduce anxiety around food is to bring play into the experience. Many feeding therapy experts incorporate games, songs, and food-related activities into therapy sessions.

At home, you can try:

• Cutting food into fun shapes

• Creating food art on the plate

• Playing pretend games like “taste testers” or “food scientists”

• Letting your child help in cooking and food prep

Engaging the child in a non-threatening, creative way helps build positive food associations.

Tip #6: Involve Your Child in Food Decisions

Giving children a sense of control at mealtimes can reduce power struggles and increase willingness to try new things. Offer limited choices like:

• “Would you like apples or bananas today?”

• “Do you want your sandwich in squares or triangles?”

• “Would you like yogurt in a cup or bowl?”

These small decisions help picky eaters feel more secure and involved in the process.

When to Seek Feeding Therapy

If your child has a very restricted diet, refuses entire food groups, gags frequently, or mealtimes are a daily source of stress, it may be time to seek help. Professional feeding therapy services can provide customized strategies and structured interventions.

At My Favorite Therapists Tampa, the team of skilled feeding therapy specialists offers:

• In-depth evaluations

• Sensory and oral-motor therapy

• Parent training and support

• Proven strategies for picky eating

Their child-friendly, evidence-based approach empowers families to make real, lasting changes in their child’s relationship with food.

Final Thoughts

Picky eating can be frustrating—but you’re not alone. By following expert strategies and knowing when to seek professional help, you can make mealtimes more manageable and even enjoyable.

Whether you're just getting started or need more intensive help, working with trained feeding therapy experts can make all the difference. If you’re in the Tampa, Florida area, consider exploring the specialized feeding therapy services offered by My Favorite Therapists Tampa. Help is available—and so is hope for happier mealtimes.