NWPF Nutrition | Katharine Jeffcoat, RDN, LD

Helping families create a healthy relationship with food for their children.

Picky Eaters

Picky Eaters

Is mealtime a food battle?

Do you find yourself bribing your child to eat?

Can you count the foods your child eats on two hands?

Are you becoming a short order cook at meals?

Do you worry about your child’s overall nutrition and growth?

If you answered yes to any of those questions, you are likely living with a picky eater or problem feeder.  

At some point, most parents will experience some type of picky eating behavior with their children. If your child is a toddler, expect to hit a stage where something will be accepted one day and rejected the next. It’s common for toddlers to start expressing control at this stage. Older kids can go through a food jag where they overindulge in a food and later don’t want anything to do with it.

Picky eating can often be shown to be more complex than just a food jag and toddler stage. Children with picky eating can have sensory or oral motor challenges that need to be addressed if they have strong reactions to tastes, smells, and textures of food.

When dealing with all children who are picky eaters, how we respond to this behavior will certainly impact the feeding relationship and can either exasperate their picky behavior, making it worse, or remedy it by allowing the child to feel safe exploring foods.    

At NW Pediatric and Family Nutrition, we evaluate the potential cause of the picky behavior and assess if additional evaluations would be beneficial if oral motor challenges or delays are a possibility. Most of the time with children 7 and younger we work with parents on their feeding relationship, especially when their toddler has not grown out of their control stage of picky behavior. Older children can benefit from feeding therapy where assignments and daily food challenges are involved, especially if ARFID (Avoidant/Restrictive Food Intake Disorder) is suspected. Treatment will be dependent on the situation and the child. Schedule your free 15-minute phone consult to ask your questions or book your Initial Nutrition Consult now to get started.

 

View our Insurance and Fee policy here →

 

Client Testimonial

here’s what one my clients say

“It was such a relief to find someone who understood him. She acknowledged the unknowns about his condition and had patience and a plan. It was exactly what we needed. The daily food logs took work, and sometimes – if I’m honest – I didn’t want to deal with it. But I understood the importance of consistency and we worked hard to stick to the plan. Some weeks were better than others, but I knew we were making progress and doing what was best for my son and that’s all I needed to keep going. I was motivated by seeing incremental and regular improvement and so hopeful! As we continued, I saw big improvements and it seems we we were celebrating something nearly every week! I think it was really important for him to be talking to an expert on food and nutrition because he took it seriously and he understood the importance of it when it came from her. The check in meetings with Katharine have kept us on track and making progress and allowed my son to see and talk about his successes. His ability to eat more foods has truly changed our lives and I feel so much less worry over his nutrition.”

— Laura, Mom to 9 year old with ARFID

 

“I appreciated Katharine’s down to earth approach to food and nutrition. She took a detailed interest in my son and asked great questions to understand the whole picture. As a mom herself, Katharine has realistic understanding of what parents can control and the effort it takes to make changes in the way our kids eat.”

— Alissa, Mom

Book Your Consultation

Is meal time a food battle? Are you struggling with a picky eater? At NWPF Nutrition we evaluate the potential cause of the picky behavior and assess if additional evaluations would be beneficial. Schedule your free 15 minute phone consult to ask your questions or book your Initial Nutrition Consultation now to get started.

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