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Why you should give your child REAL food to play with!

So often we give young children PRETEND food to play with. A little basket of plastic fruit and veg, a wooden sandwich set, one of those velcroed-together sliceable pizzas… Nothing wrong with that, but giving your child real food to play with – especially foods they don’t eat – can be really helpful in the fight against fussy eating!

Here’s why.

#1. Exposure to food is the first vital step to becoming receptive to the idea of eating it.

It makes your child familiar and comfortable with it. Maybe they would never dream of going anywhere near a piece of lettuce if you put it on their plate, but give them some lettuce leaves to play with and they’ll happily handle it, tear it up, put it on their toy plates, dish it out to their teddies, feed their dinosaurs… or whatever they want to do with it! That bit’s up to them. The key thing is that they’re handling it and becoming used to the sight, feel and smell of it. The next time they see lettuce in a mealtime situation, it’s going to be way less ‘scary’ or ‘alien’!

#2. It creates pleasurable, positive associations with foods.

If your child has lots of fun playing with a big bowl of cooked spaghetti in the garden, for example, they’re going to feel a lot less negative towards it if you serve it for dinner – even if they’ve insisted on only eating spiral-shaped pasta up to now! So just once in while, give them various bits and pieces of food to play with: Some leftover rice? A chopped up carrot that was left in the pack? Some cubes of cheese cut from the end of the block…? Focus on foods your child DOESN’T EAT but throw in some others too if you’ve got them to spare (a handful of Rice Krispies, for instance, adds some fun!). Yes, it’s messier than pretend food and you’ll probably need to do a bit of wipe-down afterwards – but it’s worth it!

Don’t expect this technique to have an instant effect. And remember, the aim isn’t that your child will eat the food while they’re playing. But if they do, great! Just keep your delight to yourself and don’t ask them if they like it. That’ll just show them how much you want them to eat it which will give them something to react AGAINST! Because the most important thing as always is never to put any kind of pressure – even ‘disguised’ pressure! – on your child to eat anything – ever.