diets for super picky eaters

hey everybody! manny from the way i dad and today i want to talk to you about the difference between a picky eater and a problem feeder. now if you have a toddler you know that

diets for super picky eaters, sometimes meals can be a struggle but when is your child's fussiness an actual concern. that's what we're going to talk about in today's video and if you stick

around to the end i'll also give you my top 5 tips of how to handle these picky eaters and our top three toys for making mealtime fun. ok. what about this one? first let's take a look at the difference between a picky eater versus a problem feeder. picky eaters are going to have at least 30

foods that they will eat consistently. they will also lose foods due to burn out but they will typically regain these foods after two weeks or so. they also tolerate new foods and can touch or taste them even if they do it begrudgingly. and they will eat with the family but occasionally they'll eat something completely different than

everybody else. a problem feeder on the other hand is going to have less than 20 foods and they don't regain these foods after they burn out on them. which means that they are dwindling down their already low numbers. these children will also have fits at the site of new foods which often leads to choking and gagging and coughing during these meals and then

having bad experiences associated with those foods. these children will also refuse entire categories of foods like mushy and crunchy and most of the time these children won't eat with the family at all and you more frequently have to make something completely different for them. now these four are red flags and they're what made our pediatrician

refer us to a feeding therapist. and i'm actually glad that we did. our toddler has gotten a lot better since implementing these tactics during mealtime. now whether you have a picky eater or a problem feeder, here are five tips to keep in mind when you're trying to get your kids to eat. tip #1: don't let them graze. your

child should not be constantly munching throughout the day. instead they should have five consistent meals a breakfast a snack a lunch a snack and then a dinner. by not letting them fill up slowly throughout the day with those snacks they are going to be more likely to be hungry for those larger meals and more likely

to eat what you put in front of them. tip #2: give them some variety. now it is easy to get excited when your child starts trying new things again but there is a systematic process for introducing new foods. this process is called food chaining. theres two ladies on instagram, i'll go ahead and link them below. the first one

is slpmomma219 and the other is chikidsfeeding. they have really good examples on their blogs. you should go check them out. the easiest way to do this is to take one of their preferred foods and change a small aspect of this. so here's an example let's talk about pancakes. blueberries?right. -no. no. doughnuts.-okay. so we take pancakes and then we take

that original recipe that we've been using and maybe add blueberries to it and then from there we move over to a blueberry pancake that uses sweet potato. and then from there we moved to a different shape, and then a different color. and then at the very end we'll switch from pancakes that are made out of sweet potatoes that are the shape of

dinosaurs with blueberries in them to muffins. so you have to be really systematic on the way you do this. tip #3: let them help. allow your kids to help you in every step of the process. from picking the ingredients to mixing them together and then cooking them and serving that food. this step allows them

to take ownership of the meals that everybody is preparing and it should increase the chances of them eating at the table as a family. this will also decrease the chance of them wanting something different from everybody else. tip #4: acknowledge the child when they eat something different. for this i

mean be very specific about their praise. don't say things like "wow! good job! you're such a big boy for eating that carrot." instead you should say things like, "wow. i really like the way you eat that green bean or i really like the way -you eat that carrot that you're- - i'm not a carrot.-and your eyes and your stomach are really gonna appreciate that later. and then this

allows you to explain to them why different food groups are so important to your body. and tip #5: have fun. don't make mealtimes such a big stress ordeal. believe it or not your kids can pick up on that. let them play with their food and mush it around the table mix it around on their plates. understanding the

texture of these new foods is a key concept in your child accepting these new foods is something they want to eat. while they're eating these foods you should probably also point out things like, "oh this food, this tomato sauce is really spicy. it tingles on the back of my tongue. oh this meatloaf that mommy cooked is

really hard to chew with my front teeth. i have to use my back teeth like a dinosaur." right? how do dinosaurs eat?*makes gnashing sound like dinosaur* and finally as an added bonus, make sure that you set a good example. your child is not going to want to eat veggies if you're not eating veggies. they're not going to want to eat those sweet potatoes if they've never seen you eat

sweet potatoes. so if you're not trying anything new they're not trying anything new. there's tons of great products out there to make mealtime more fun but there's three in particular that we want to share with you today. when it comes to setting the table we bought the boys little me dress up plates. they're fun

little versions of themselves and they allow the boys to take the food and use it as clothes for their little selves. okay so for utensils there's actually two. for lb, our toddler, we like these super sporks. they're from a company called fed and they're fun to use and they even have this chopstick action. so not only can they scoop and poke but they can

also just use the feet to pickup noodles. and i thought that was really fun. now our one-year-old is just starting to learn how to use utensils so for him we really like these numnum spoons. they're called gootensils and the great thing about them is he can dip them in the food and pull them out and doesn't have to do any scooping all the

food gets caught right there. can you see that? so it's actually a really great design you can dip it in his yogurt you can dip it in his oatmeal and you can get food out of the bowl. one of the things that we learned about in feeding therapy was that there are steps to eating foods and they involve looking and feeling the texture of the food learning how they

feel against our skin and our cheeks and our tongues and then eventually ingesting that food. when the child is done having that food on their plate they would take the food and put it in and all done cup. well the monster milton takes the place of that all done cup and other great thing is that milton helps them

understand the texture and feel of these foods. you can get the kids to try new foods through sharing with milton. you can give him one bite and the kid has one bite and it's a back-and-forth and the whole time they're learning about how the food feels when they touch it. and the great thing about this is they are more likely to try it later.

the other great thing about milton is he's got these great teeth on for trying new foods so when you're done eating you can take them to the bathroom with you and brush your teeth but that's a topic for another video. well i hope this video helps you out and remember i am not a doctor if any of the things that i mentioned today sound like

your child please go see your pediatrician and get a referral. that's what they're there for. my wife is going to take over on wednesdays and give you quick recipes that are fun to try out with your children so make sure you stick around. see you guys next time! bye!