Strategies for Picky Eaters in the Classroom
Have you experienced picky eaters in your class?
Then you know the challenges in ensuring that children receive adequate nutrition while they’re under your care!
Facts About Picky Eating
Picky eating is when children are unwilling to eat familiar foods or unwilling to try new foods.
- Common during early childhood (14-50%) for a variety of reasons
- Some children are more sensitive to textures and smells of foods which can lead to picky eating
- May also be learned behaviors from selective eating habits modeled by their families
- Correlated with lower intake of fiber and essential vitamins
- Associated with continued picky eating in later childhood and even into adulthood
- Did you know? Picky eating can be stressful for both the caregiver and the child!
Picky Eating in the Classroom
There are many situations in an early childhood classroom where students can exhibit "picky eating" behavior including:
- Community snacks in which all students eat the same food items
- Lunchtime in which students eat food provided from school or even from their own lunchboxes
- Cooking lessons in the classroom
- Food preparation activities
Tips for Picky Eating in the Classroom
- For community snack:
- If you request bulk snacks from different parents each week, request food items that you know are common to your students
- Design your classroom to allow for children to serve themselves or help in prepping for snack
- For cooking lessons & food prep activities:
- Encourage the children to taste the foods by taking at least 1 bite
- Ensure all the students are able to participate in the food prep - children who are involved in the cooking/prep process are more likely to try the foods
- For lunchtime at school:
- Wait to offer juice/milk before the child starts eating
- Encourage the child to take a few bites of their food
- Discuss with the child's parents to send or order foods that are common and liked by their child
Teacher Tips to Improve Picky Eating
- Be a good role model!
- During snacks/cooking lessons/food prep activities, let the children see their teacher eating the foods
- Children often require repeated exposure to certain foods before they are willing to taste the foods
- Be patient with the children and provide opportunity for those foods to be reintroduced in the classroom
- It is important not to force a child to eat or trick them into eating foods
- Try not to verbalize to the child that they are a "picky eater"
- Note: Talk to the child's parents about what foods they are being "picky" with in the classroom in order to gain support from parents to encourage the child to eat these foods at home.
Picky Eating Scenario
What would you do in this scenario?
Drag the statement you think fits best into the blank area