How to Deal with Picky Eaters: Top 10 Tips

1. Stick to a Routine

Children thrive on routine, and eating is no exception. Serving meals and snacks at roughly the same times each day can help tame picky eating. A consistent schedule trains your child’s internal hunger clock. So if they know a meal or snack reliably comes every 2–3 hours, they’re less likely to graze constantly or come to the table already full.

This means they’ll be hungry (and more willing to eat) when it’s mealtime. Scheduled eating times also reduce random junk-food snacking and help kids learn that there are set times for eating and times for playing.

Essentially, routine creates a healthy rhythm: your child’s body starts expecting food at certain times, which can improve appetite at meals.

Action items for this tip:

• Create a pre-meal routine: Establish a pre-meal routine of washing hands and setting the table so your child knows it’s time to eat.

• Shut off screens: Turn off the TV and iPad at mealtime so your child can focus on their food and enjoy quality time together.

2. Remove All Pressure

One golden rule for handling a picky eater is to remove pressure and anxiety from mealtimes. This means no forcing, bribing, or power struggles over food. Pushing certain foods too hard can backfire. Research has shown that when parents are very strict about making a child eat certain foods or use tactics like “one more bite or no dessert,” the child actually becomes more likely to be picky.

Pressure, even if well-intentioned, turns the dinner table into a battlefield and makes eating a negative experience. Instead, think of your role as providing healthy options, and your child’s role as choosing what (and how much) of those to eat. If they sense that you’re not going to badger or trick them into eating, they feel less resistant and more in control.

Action items for this tip:

• Avoid pushing too hard: Don’t insist your child finishes everything on their plate if they say they’re full.

• Don’t get upset: If your child refuses a meal or whines, try not to get angry or visibly upset. Simply remove the plate without comment or offer a simple alternative like fruit or yogurt later. By not reacting dramatically, you take the “audience” away from the behavior.

3. Be a Patient Role Model

Children are wired to copy what adults (and older kids) do. Use this to your advantage at the dinner table. If your child sees you regularly eating and enjoying a variety of healthy foods, over time, it will influence them.

Make a point to sit together for meals as often as possible. Sitting together as a family can help your child build social and emotional skills.

At meal time, show them the behavior you want to see. For instance, if you’d like them to eat vegetables, let them frequently see you eating veggies yourself. Want them to drink water instead of soda? Drink water with your meals, too.

Action items for this tip:

• Demonstrate enjoyment: Let your child see you taking bites of everything on the table. You don’t have to pretend a disliked food is your favorite, but focus on the positives. For example, “These peppers are so crunchy and sweet!” Your genuine enjoyment is contagious.
  

• Be patient with new foods: If your little one refuses a new food, don’t write it off. Keep offering it periodically without pressure. It may take 10-20 exposures for a picky eater to decide a new food is ok to eat.

4. Serve One Meal for the Whole Family

Do you find yourself whipping up a separate dinner for every member of your family because you know your kids won’t agree? If so, it’s time to retire the short-order cook routine. Making one meal for the kids and a different meal for adults (or a different meal foreach picky child) is exhausting for you, and it unintentionally reinforces picky habits.

If a child knows that refusing dinner will guarantee that you’ll cave and make their favorite peanut butter sandwich instead, they won’t have any incentive to try anything new.

Action items for this tip:

• Include a “safe” food: Plan meals so that there is at least one healthy item your child likes on the menu. This could be a familiar fruit, a piece of bread, plain pasta, or even chicken nuggets alongside a new veggie dish. Having a safety net food ensures they won’t go completely hungry and reduces mealtime anxiety.
  

• Avoid last-minute replacements: If your child refuses the meal, avoid the urge to microwave their favorite chicken nuggets as a replacement. You can wrap up their plate for later if they get hungry.
  

5. Let Them Help in the Kitchen

Kids are naturally curious. One of the best ways to get a picky eater interested in food is to involve them in making it. When children have a hand in preparing a dish, they feel a sense of ownership and pride that can override some of their resistance to trying it.

It’s hard for a child to completely hate a food they helped make from scratch. They’ll probably be at least a little curious to taste the fruits of their labor. Check out these healthy, kid-friendly recipes for ideas.

Action items for this tip:

• Assign age-appropriate tasks: Assign kitchen jobs that fit your child’s age and abilities. Toddlers can tear lettuce, rinse fruits, or dump pre-measured ingredients. Preschoolers can stir, whisk, or help knead dough. School-age kids can start cutting soft foods with a safe knife under supervision.
  

• Make it fun: Turn cooking into a game or adventure. For example, create a challenge like “let’s add as many different colors of veggies as we can to this salad – you pick the colors!” or have them make faces or patterns with toppings on mini pizzas. Keeping it playful sustains their interest.

6. Get Creative with Presentation

A plate of plain, unadorned vegetables might get a big no on sight from a picky eater. But arrange those same veggies into a smiley face or a rainbow pattern, and suddenly you have their attention. Making food visually appealing and fun can entice children to try things they’d otherwise ignore. The goal is to spark their curiosity and make mealtime enjoyable rather than a chore.

Another presentation trick is to separate components if your child is sensitive about foods touching or mixed together. Many picky kiddos prefer not to have sauces or different foods all mashed up. Using a partitioned plate to keep foods separate can make them more comfortable approaching it.

Action items for this tip:

• Play with color and variety: Offer a “rainbow” of foods. You might do a fruit platter with red strawberries, orange cantaloupe, yellow pineapple, green grapes, and blueberries. Or make veggie skewers with different colored peppers. The array of colors is visually enticing and doubles as a nutrition booster.

• Let them play: It might sound counterintuitive to let kids play with food, but controlled food play can reduce fear. For instance, allow your child to make a face on their pizza before baking it, or build “food sculptures” with their veggies. These activities get them familiar with the look, feel, and smell of foods in a fun way, which can translate to eventually tasting them.

7. Pair New Foods with Favorites

When introducing a new or previously refused food, it helps to pair it with something your child already likes. The familiar food on the plate serves as a kind of safety anchor and keeps the meal from feeling too “scary” or unfamiliar. For example, if you want to introduce quinoa and your kid loves chicken nuggets, you might serve a small scoop of quinoa alongside a couple of their beloved nuggets and some carrot sticks.

You might also try combining the new food with a favorite in one bite. For example, if they love cheese, you might melt a bit of cheese over a new vegetable to bridge the flavor. Or mix a few pieces of new cereal into their favored cereal..

Action items for this tip:

• Try one new thing at a time: Don’t overhaul the entire meal with unfamiliar foods. Introduce just one new food at a meal, and keep everything else on the plate that you know your child will eat. This way, the whole meal isn’t a bust if they reject the new item.
  

• Celebrate curiosity: If your child pokes at, sniffs, or licks the new food, acknowledge it positively. Even that small interaction is progress. If they don’t go further, no fuss. You can also encourage them by saying, “Maybe next time you’ll decide to bite it,” in a gentle tone. The idea is to praise trying new things, not necessarily finishing them.

8. Keep Portions Small

When dealing with picky eaters, less is more when it comes to portions. A heaping mound of a new or disliked food can be intimidating to a child and will likely cause them to shut down right away. Serving small portions eliminates that pressure.

Small portions can lead to big successes over time, because a child who might refuse 10 carrot sticks could be willing to nibble 1 or 2 when that’s all that’s there. Small portions also help reduce food waste.

Action items for this tip:

• Use small plates and bowls: Child-sized dinnerware naturally encourages smaller servings and is less intimidating than a huge dinner plate. It makes the portion look normal rather than paltry, which can psychologically help both parent and child feel the serving is “enough.”

• Let them ask for seconds: Teach your child that they can have more of anything if they’re still hungry. This reassures them that the small portion isn’t all they’ll ever get.

9. Try Dips and Sauces

Many kids love to dip their food. There’s something fun and interactive about dunking a carrot stick into hummus or a piece of chicken into ketchup. Dips can be a secret weapon for parents of picky eaters. Not only do they make eating more engaging, but they also add flavor and moisture that can help less appealing foods go down easier.

Researchers have found that offering a flavored dip with vegetables significantly increases the chances that preschoolers will taste and like those veggies.

Action items for this tip:

• Pick healthy, flavorful dips: Opt for nutrient-rich dips when possible. Greek yogurt mixed with a little ranch seasoning or herbs is a calcium and protein boost. Hummus offers fiber and protein. Guacamole provides healthy fats. Even a simple marinara sauce can be a good veggie dip (and adds extra tomatoes to their diet!).

• Incorporate play: Make dipping even more fun by incorporating imagination and play. Suggest they dip like the carrot is diving into a pool, or that the carrot is a submarine dipping beneath the ocean's surface.

10. Talk About What You’re Cooking

Cooking can be a great learning opportunity. Describe what you’re doing while you prepare ingredients, including the different textures. This will spike your child’s natural curiosity and maybe even get them to open up about trying new foods.

Ask your child questions to help them learn as well. For example, if your child is learning colors or shapes, ask them to name the color and shape of the foods you’re cooking. Watching you cook will also teach them more about processes, sequences, and cause and effect. 

Action item for this tip:

• Use sensory descriptions: Narrate the vivid details of ingredients as you cook. For example, you might say a carrot is “orange and crunchy,” yogurt is “smooth and creamy,” or peas are “little round green balls.” Using rich, specific words to describe a food’s color, texture, shape, and smell helps your child imagine what it’s like, making the food more familiar and expanding their vocabulary.

When Should You Be Concerned?

In most cases, picky eating is a normal phase that will improve with time and gentle encouragement. However, there are times when a child’s eating habits might signal a bigger issue beyond typical pickiness.

You should consider seeking advice from your pediatrician or a specialist if you notice poor growth or weight loss, severe mealtime distress, or regression where a child is willing to eat less and less. 

For more information on health resources and nutrition programs in your local area, visit our Food For Thought Family Resource Navigator.