A Dietitian’s Ultimate Guide to Picky Eating

The reasons why a child between the ages 2-5 refuses to eat might surprise you. The good news is, making a few simple adjustments can change everything!

Holiday mealtimes can challenge picky eating tendencies for kids (and you!), especially when things aren’t feeling normal to begin with! So what can you do? How can you bring the joy and make holiday feeding and mealtimes positive? Here’s how to create a positive holiday feeding experience for your picky eater during a pandemic.

There is NOTHING worse than feeling as though you’re failing at feeding your baby, toddler or child. As parents, ensuring our kids are well-nourished, growing and developing properly is just part of the gig! Right?? So, when your child refuses to eat or try new foods day-in and day-out, or worse, is also underweight—it can feel awful and defeating.

Picky eating is 100% normal. Normal and insanely frustrating, that is! I understand this frustration first-hand, as my youngest is refusing most nutritious foods right now, at least it seems that way some days.

When does picky eating become extreme? Here's how to differentiate between ‘typical’ and ‘extreme’ picky eating and what to do as a parent.

When picky eating rears its ugly head, parents often negotiate with, bribe, coax, and micro-manage their kids at meals. Although—in the heat of the moment—these tactics are tempting, we now know that they don’t work very well, and can even enable picky eating. Instead, here's one easy change that will help right now.

All of a sudden, your once perfect eater has started to become a picky eater. What gives? Who is this child and where did my great eater go? If this sounds like your child, you are not alone! Here’s what to do when your great eater seems to have turned into a picky eater.

Here are three common parenting strategies I often witness and have tested myself that DON’T work (and often perpetuate the problem) and three strategies that can transform mealtimes from dreadful to peaceful.

A meal that is happily gobbled up one day could be completely rejected the next, and willingness to taste a green or red vegetable could switch on a dime depending on the time of day, mood or environment. This type of “picky eating” is all normal. Erratic and unpredictable are two terms that I use often to describe my kids’ eating, and I know I’m not alone.

There’s one strategy, however, that works like a charm to get my kids excited to come to the table and eat (and will likely work with yours too), and it’s really simple. Read more to find out!

Many parents feel as though mealtimes are out of their control — they harp and fight with their kids to eat certain foods, yet ultimately, their kids are in charge. In my nutrition counseling practice, I often meet with worried and frustrated parents of “picky eaters” who describe scenarios of their kids orchestrating meals, while they scramble to appease them, hoping they’ll ingest some nutritious food. Here's the strategy that will change all of this.

Snacking gets a bad rep for kids. Snacking is not something that we should give up or phase out. In fact, young kids require more frequent eating opportunities than adults do because of their smaller-sized stomachs. And the problem isn’t necessarily the types of snacks that are offered (although snacks do tend to be less nutritious, especially when coming from a box or package). Here is the actual issue. Read on to find out.

Sitting down to dinner can seem like a daunting task if you have a fussy eater. As a Mom of little ones, even the task of making a healthy balanced meal can seem challenging enough, but when your child refuses to eat it, you might wonder “why do I even bother?!” I’ve been there, and I understand how frustrating it can be. Ready for the game-changing question?

Ready for some real life confessions? Here's a dietitian mom’s advice for getting kids to be a little more adventurous at mealtime. The picky eating struggle is real!

Change how you feed your kids with these dietitian debunked myths! Here are five common kids nutrition myths that parents need to ignore, and what to do instead!

I’ve had many clients who are tired of feeling like a chef in a restaurant, trying to please the needs of different eaters around the table. There are some thing you can do to ensure everyone enjoys the same meal. But first, let’s look at why offering separate meals for your kids isn’t such a good idea. Here’s why being a short-order cook might perpetuate picky eating habits.