It can take a typical child upwards of twenty times being exposed to a new food before they are willing to taste it, and even more exposures before they are know if they like it. Sometimes, it can feel like all we do is expose our kids to new foods and they keep being unwilling to take a taste. Here are three fun new methods to keep up food exposures in novel ways that will keep kids engaged and excited about new foods!
1. Power Up Colorful Pancakes
After making pancake batter, put the batter in a blender with a novel food. These can be foods typically seen in pancakes, like blueberries, or something completely new, like spinach or carrots. This will change the color of the batter without changing the texture with a new food. Bonus points if your kiddo will drop the foods into the blender and turn it on.
2. Sandwich Scavenger Hunt
Tell your kiddo that you are hiding a new vegetable inside their sandwich. They don’t have to eat it, but they need to search through the sandwich with their mouth. The first one to find the new vegetable wins!
3. Food Scrap Soup
Nothing is better for low pressure exposure than letting your kids do their own “pretend” cooking. All you need is a pot of water, a kid safe knife and some vegetable scraps. While you are doing your own cooking, save the scraps and ask your kiddo to make you some “soup” that you can then feed to all of their toys. The kids are motivated to touch and play with new foods, with no pressure to eat them themselves.
As always, we never want to “trick” kids into eating foods that they don’t like, as this can cause a break down in trust and ultimately lead to less food intake. Make sure your kids know what you are putting into their food each time you try something new and let them participate whenever possible. Try these activities at home and tag @InspiringTalkers to let us know how it goes!