Feeding Therapy Tip: Get Your Child Involved in the Kitchen

Mealtimes can be stressful when your child is a picky eater or has feeding challenges, but one powerful way to encourage curiosity (and even tasting!) is by getting your child involved in the kitchen.

Even if they’re not quite ready to try new foods, giving them a hands-on role in meal prep, no matter how small, can build confidence, reduce anxiety, and create positive associations with food.

🥣 Why Kitchen Involvement Matters

Children who participate in preparing meals are more likely to feel a sense of control, ownership, and pride over what ends up on their plates. When food is familiar, fun, and something they’ve helped create, it becomes less intimidating.

And here’s the key: trying the food isn’t the only goal. Touching it, smelling it, helping pour or stir—these are all meaningful sensory steps that build toward eating.

👇 Try This at Home

Even very young children can participate in simple, safe tasks like:

• Bringing the bowl to the table

• Washing fruits or veggies

• Mixing ingredients with a spoon

• Pressing buttons on the blender or microwave

• Setting the table or choosing utensils

• Arranging toppings or sides on a plate

Each of these actions helps your child interact with food in a low-pressure, playful way, and every interaction is progress.

Remember: Exposure = Progress

If your child doesn’t end up tasting the food, that’s okay. Interacting with it, smelling it, or even just watching it being prepared still counts as a positive step in feeding development.

Over time, repeated positive exposure helps reduce food aversions, increase sensory tolerance, and build trust around new tastes and textures.

Support That Grows With Your Child

At More Than Speech, our feeding therapy sessions focus on creating safe, supportive experiences around food. We collaborate with families to bring feeding strategies into the home, because real growth happens not just in the therapy room, but around your own kitchen table.

📲 Want support with picky eating or feeding challenges?

🗓️ Click here to schedule a feeding therapy consultation with our team.