Fussy Eater Solutions

03/09/2026

24/08/2026

**Desensitisation starts in the kitchen 🥕🥒🍅**

Food familiarisation is the system I created and it doesn’t begin with *“just have a taste.”*

Sometimes it starts with chopping, arranging, peeling, smelling, touching and simply being around food without any expectation to eat it.

When there’s no pressure, the amygdala is less likely to sound the alarm. Food can become more familiar, more predictable and, importantly, less threatening.

And sometimes curiosity does the rest.

A spontaneous bite. A lick. A nibble.

Not because we asked.

Because the opportunity was there and the child felt safe enough to explore.

That’s the aim of my food familiarisation process: **we don’t ask children to taste. We create opportunities for tasting to happen.**

21/08/2026

🍊 Ever spat out the fibrous bits of a mandarin? It’s not true texture sensitivity, but it gives us a glimpse of how tricky — even triggering — textures can feel for kids.

When a bite feels uncomfortable, the body slips straight into avoidance mode. That’s why foods suddenly “drop off the menu” — especially wet or mixed textures like mandarins, yoghurts with bits, or lumpy soups.

✨ What helps?
👉 Start small: blot juicy foods or smooth out lumps.
👉 Then try flavour pairing — bring in a taste your child already loves to make that new texture feel safer.
👉 And above all… 100% zero pressure. Calm mealtimes = real progress.

💡 Save this for your next meal time!

20/08/2026

Hand-feeding often begins for a very understandable reason: “If I don’t do it, my child won’t eat.”

So parents distract, load the spoon, choose the bites and keep the meal moving.

And it may work… in the sense that food gets eaten.

The problem is when this becomes the only way a child knows how to eat.

Years later, the parent is still responsible for almost every bite, while the child has had very little opportunity to practise the skills involved in becoming an independent eater.

This isn’t about suddenly removing support or letting a child go hungry.

It’s about gradually changing who is responsible for what at mealtimes.

We can support children while still giving them opportunities to notice appetite, make choices, handle food and take increasing control of their own eating.

Because sometimes the question isn’t only:

“How much did they eat?”

It’s also:

“What are they learning about eating?”

18/08/2026

Ever notice your child—or even yourself—freeze mid-bite? 😳 That’s swallowing phobia (phagophobia), and yes, kids can experience it too!

It’s not drama—your brain just hits red alert around swallowing. Professional support, including hypnotherapy, can help retrain the brain, calm panic, and make eating safe and enjoyable again. 🥪💡

You don’t have to face it alone!

05/08/2026

I don’t recommend asking children to play with food.

Instead, I encourage playful, purposeful interaction that helps them build confidence and practical skills.

In this video, a child, on the autism spectrum, super rigid with food, cuts hard-boiled eggs in three different ways. He explores the texture, practises using a cutter, and becomes more familiar with the food without pressure to eat it.

This is desensitisation through food skills.

As his confidence and excitement grew, he then chose to eat the eggs.

13/07/2026

One refused carrot can somehow become a whole family intervention.

When everyone is trying to help, meals can become more intense, not less.

For many children with persistent fussy eating, food anxiety, sensory sensitivities or ARFID traits, the issue is not a lack of advice. It is often that too much focus at the table increases pressure and reduces safety.

Sometimes the first step is not adding another strategy. It is reducing the noise around the child and rebuilding confidence slowly.

11/07/2026

This little girl was only 4, but she already knew that her eating was a topic.

She walked in during a short chat with her mum and announced that she had tried chocolate and a new chicken nugget.

It was sweet, but it also showed how quickly children can become aware that adults are watching their eating.

For some children, this can create pressure, even when everyone is kind and encouraging.

Food becomes more than food. It becomes something to report, prove or defend.

That is why I often encourage parents to reduce the spotlight around eating and focus instead on safety, confidence and quiet progress.

09/07/2026

Books about eating fruit and vegetables can be lovely, and they may help some children.

But when food feels unsafe, logical persuasion has limits.

A child may understand that fruit and vegetables are healthy and still feel unable to eat them.

That is not stubbornness. It can be a threat response.

This is why persistent fussy eating, food anxiety and ARFID traits often need a different approach: one that works with safety, sensory responses, confidence and the nervous system, not just reason.



https://zurl.co/0C8Tn

07/07/2026

One of the most useful things I show parents is that food safety rituals are not random.

A child may accept a particular food:

at home, but not at school

from one parent, but not another

at a familiar restaurant, but nowhere else

when it comes in its usual packaging

when it is served in a particular way

The food itself may be exactly the same.

To adult logic, this can look inconsistent.

But the child’s nervous system is not only responding to the food.

It may also be responding to the environment, the person delivering it, the level of predictability and the conditions surrounding the eating experience.

The ritual is often doing a job.

It may be helping the child reduce uncertainty, maintain control or feel protected from a feared sensory or physical experience.

That does not mean every ritual should remain in place forever.

It means we should understand what it is protecting before trying to remove it.

In my work, safety rituals are valuable information.

They help us identify what the child believes must happen for eating to feel manageable, and where greater safety, flexibility and confidence need to be developed.