Our feeding therapy team here at Bambini are so passionate about supporting our families to have positive mealtime experiences. Feel free to read our tips or learn more on our youtube clip by clicking on the image below!
Social Modelling: Teach the social experience of eating.
Eat together with your child.
Focus on the food and the experience, rather than cl
eaning up around them.
Talk about the food (colour, shape, feel).
Over- exaggerate biting, chewing and swallowing (discuss what you are doing).
Imitate your child to teach that they can imitate you too.
Involve your child in all aspects of mealtime (preparation, serving oneself, cleaning up)
Structure Meal and Snack Times.
Follow approximately the same time schedule for each meal.
Establish a meal routine e.g., have your child help to prepare and serve the food, involve the child in clean up.
Only present 3 foods on the child’s plate at a time to avoid them becoming overwhelmed.
Provide the child with at least one preferred food at every meal.
Provide a ‘learning plate’ on the table to allow the child to place foods that they are not ready to eat. These will be the foods you talk about and describe.
Ensure your child only snacks and eats at the set times to avoid grazing.
Reinforcement: Encouraging behaviours around mealtime.
Verbal praise works best e.g., “Nice looking at the carrot”
Reinforce all family member's appropriate eating e.g., “I can see your chewing Joey”
Reinforce child for ANY positive food behaviour e.g., keeping food on their plate, looking, touching, tasting
Touching and playing with food is encouraged!
We really hope you found this helpful. Feel free to reach out if you would like more information!
These strategies were obtained from the SOS Approach to Feeding Guide and were developed by Kay A. Toomey and Associates 2002/2010