Hot Topic Blog - Feeding, Eating, & Drinking

APPROPRIATE FOOD PLAY TO ENCOURAGE YOUR CHILD TO EAT

No matter the reason behind a child's food aversion or picky eating, food-play is usually recommended as part of the solution. Most of us can remember being told to stop playing with our food when we were kids, but what were we actually doing way back then? How do YOU play with your food?

I like to think about food-play like any other kind of play. When we play with toys, we can build something, we can take toys apart and use the smaller pieces, we can pretend with toys, or we can use toys as pieces in games where we make up the rules.

That's how we play with food, too. We can build with food. We can take larger pieces of food apart into smaller pieces, we can pretend with food, and we can use food as pieces in games with rules. These categories of food-play can be a guide for you to make up your own food-play activities. Click on the links in this paragraph to read more about each type of activity. Happy food play!

About the Author

Kim Humphrey is a speech-language pathologist in Austin, Texas who specializes in pediatric feeding therapy. She has “shared many frustrations, heartbreaks, milestones, and successes with children and families dealing with feeding disorders and picky eating.” In her blog, she shares “activities from years of feeding therapy sessions” that she hopes parents and others will “find fun and helpful.” Kim’s blog is called Learn to Love Food: Food-Play Activities for Picky Eaters. You can email Kim with questions at info@learntolovefood.com.

Permission

Kim Humphrey (the owner of this article) granted permission to Ages and Stages®, LLC to print it.