Why Won’t My Toddler Eat? Top 5 Picky Eating Q and A

Free Workshop

Increase Talking &
Decrease Tantrums

in Young Children with

Autism &/or Speech Delays

If you haven’t had a chance to listen to last week’s rebroadcast with Dr. Keith Williams, of the Hershey Medical Center Feeding Program, go back and check that out. Kelsey General is joining me for another round of top 5 questions. We are talking all about picky eaters and common feeding problems for children with autism.

How to Get My Picky Eater to Try New Foods and Let Me Feed Them?

As always the first step in the Turn Autism Approach is to assess. How is your child’s growth? Are they meeting height and weight milestones? In addition to these questions, keep a three-day food diary to monitor consumption, complete the self-care checklist (found in my free book resources), and create an Easy-Medium-Difficult list based on what your child will eat. Remember that this is a long game and you won’t go from Doritos to broccoli overnight.

How Do I Get My Child to Sit at the Table to Eat?

Where is your child when they are eating? If they are eating mobile snacky foods around the house, that has got to stop. Start by serving all meals and snacks at the table to eliminate all-day grazing. To encourage table sitting, begin with foods from their easy list of foods they normally eat while walking around. Are they discouraged by the look of the food at the table? Kids often get used to colors and packaging, try serving foods from non-see-through, generic containers to break these associations. Just like any other new behavior, use reinforcements as your building and pairing the table.

How to Wean From a Bottle and Teach Drinking From a Straw and Open Cup?

Children over the age of 1, definitely before 2 should be weaned from a bottle and pacifier. There are many problems bottles and pacifiers can cause, not just with feeding but with speaking and oral development as well. Start by eliminating free access to bottles and use during set designated times each day. What are they drinking out of the bottle? Is it necessary nutritionally? If it’s not, eliminate it and begin teaching open cup and straw drinking, an important skill to be mastered at 18 months. Cups like the “Honey Bear” are great for teaching and encouraging straw use because you can squeeze the liquid to the top of the straw.

How Can I Prevent and Fix My Child From Eating Non-Edible Items?

This is a big concern for safety. Eating non-edible items is known as Pica and is a medical condition. Determine what types of non-edible items your child is drawn to eat and remove their access to them. There are often underlying causes and motivations for Pica. Questions to consider when addressing this are, when does my child eat these non-food items? What foods is my child eating? Could my child have a nutritional deficiency? Seek evaluation and medical attention for Pica related concerns.

How Do I Get My Child to Use Utensils and Eat?

Using utensils is an important and necessary skill but it is not the number one priority if you are still experiencing picky eating and other feeding problems. Seek solutions for the above questions and eliminate picky eating concerns before tackling teaching utensils. If your child is eating normally but not using utensils yet, start with basic skills. Scooping with a spoon is the first skill to work on, start with smooth thick foods like yogurt as you build the skill before working up to thin foods like soup. If your child isn’t tolerating that, try teaching the motion and skill with easy favorite foods like dry cereal or chips for practice, always prompting from behind. After spoon use is mastered, you can move on to fork use and later eventually kid appropriate knife use for older children.

Kelsey and I are really loving this series for recapping important info with common concerns and new knowledge, we hope you are too! Be sure to leave us feedback wherever you listen to podcasts!

Why Won't My Toddler Eat?: Top 5 Picky Eating Q and A

You’ll Learn

  • The top 5 picky eater and feeding problem questions.
  • How to feed picky eaters.
  • What to do when your toddler won’t try new foods.
  • How to encourage sitting at a table for meals and snacks.
  • How to wean from a bottle and promote open cup and straw drinking.
  • What to do when you have a concern about Pica?
  • When is it appropriate to teach utensil use and how do you get started?

Resources

Free Workshop

Increase Talking &
Decrease Tantrums

in Young Children with

Autism &/or Speech Delays