How Do I Get My Picky Eater Off A Chicken Nugget-Based Diet? | Defector

"It WAS a food therapist! No shame in using that term. And it worked! You will be disappointed, but not terribly surprised, to learn that it didn't happen overnight. Our son had to go to his food therapist once a week for a couple of years. She started off getting him to describe, in detail, the food on his plate: what it smelled like, how it looked, how it tasted if he dared to take a bite."

"To help picky eaters, you can't just try food chaining, or one of the other stock methods that pops up while doing a Google search. You have to get the patient to think critically about food, same as you have to teach students in an English class to think critically about the books they read. It's an education, with no shortcuts included."

"After a few months, our therapist got our son comfortable with weird (to him) foods on his plate, to know the difference between not liking a food and not being ready for it just yet, and how to make basic quesadillas using a hot plate. Eventually, he stopped making whiny kid groans if we served food he wasn't into."

"Then, at long last, we didn't have to make sure every restaurant we went to had either fries or chicken nuggets on its menu. I knew we'd turned a corner when I made steak one night and our son said, "This is SO good." He'd never been so effusive about real food. He kept asking for more of "the white part&quo"

A picky eater benefited from weekly food therapy over a couple of years. Progress began with detailed descriptions of food, including smell, appearance, and taste, before any pressure to eat. The approach emphasized teaching critical thinking about food rather than relying on quick methods like food chaining. Over months, the child learned to distinguish between disliking a food and not being ready for it, and practiced making simple foods like quesadillas. Whining reactions to unfamiliar meals faded, restaurant choices no longer required fries or chicken nuggets, and the child eventually praised steak and asked for more.

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