[Avoiding a picky eater]
One good rule to remember : NEVER serve plain pasta (or crackers/toast)!
As a speech pathologist, I work with picky eaters (no we don’t just do speech!). It is very common to meet children whose sensory systems prefer plain carbs. But if you never serve it to them, they will never get a taste for it.
How do you serve your toddlers spag bol?
Sometimes we combine it and other times, to encourage more cutlery use (stabbing pasta, scooping sauce), I separate them. Not to mention it’s less messy when you don’t have the time and energy for little hands scooping in.
BUT to avoid the plain pasta, I toss it through tahini or even olive or coconut oil. Or I toss it through the bolognaise and then put it in a ‘stabbing cup’.
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Please tell me why we shouldn’t serve plain carbs. What are the outcomes if they get plain carbs? Thanks
Hi Danielle
As I didnt say so clearly in the post, serving plain carbs doesn’t allow a child’s sensory system to get used to the different texture, smell, look etc of different spreads or sauces that would be served with the carbs (ie crackers, pasta, bread).
And so the more you serve them plain, the more a child will resist having anything else on them (particularly the more sensitive they are). This would be fine if someone could get through life eating plain carbs! But instead, like with any food, exposure to how it will eventually be served to them is great to get sensory systems used to the different sensory properties from the beginning.
Cool, thanks Heidi. Makes more sense now