The Feeding Family

How many questions do we ask our children in a day? In an hour? Maybe 5, 10, 100? Often it depends on the day, activity, and our mood (and that of the child!). What do you want to eat? How was school today? Why are you crying? Which book do you want to read?

Questions are a wonderful tool to gain knowledge and understanding of our world and of the thoughts and feelings of others. The way we ask questions of our children can give us more or less information, just by choosing our words carefully. 

When we ask a question, we expect an answer. Think about the question, "What color is that carrot?" It requires a very specific answer, usually only one word. What do we learn from our child's answer? At most we are likely to find out if they know their colors. A great way to ask the same "question" is to say, "Tell me about that carrot." This question is open-ended and invites the child to think critically about many elements of that food. They may respond with their feelings about carrots, or they may describe the carrot's shape, texture, temperature, color, or smell. A simple change in our words can open up a deeper conversation about everyday experiences.

How about this situation, your child is sitting at the table with food in front of them and a sour look on their face. What do we say to them? Often we ask our child, "Do you like/want it?" or even, "You don't like it?" When we ask these questions, however innocently, we can sometimes plant seeds in their little brains that maybe there IS something not to like or try! Next time you see that look, try this instead: "I wonder what you're thinking about that food." Instead of a question, this is a statement which encourages your child to also reflect on how they feel, negative or positive. You might be surprised by what your child replies with!

Questions are an important part of teaching our children about language and about the world around them. With a few simple changes to our words, we find that our children have a lot to teach us as well!

Our Sunday Fun-Day posts feature fun, easy, food-related activities for you and your family to enjoy. These include ways to explore new food textures or flavors outside of the pressure of a "mealtime". We hope that this "food-play" will allow a new opportunity for your little ones to learn to love food.

This Sunday we continue our multi-week feature on ways to encourage food education and exploration at the grocery store. For picky eaters or children who are hesitant to try new foods, the grocery store can be a broad landscape of new experiences that may lead to new food choices at home. Other children with sensory aversions or sensitivities may have a harder time with the overwhelming sights, sounds, and smells at the grocery store. Think about situations that may be challenging for your child and modify these activities as needed. (For example, try "shopping" in your very own pantry or fridge as you are preparing for a meal)

Today's Grocery Adventure is great for children in the early elementary-school years or children who are learning about categories. The grocery store offers us endless options for food in a relatively organized fashion. Next time that you are shopping with your kids, point out the way that foods are grouped together. Challenge your little ones to describe the ways that the foods are similar or different. Here are a few examples.

Produce: Fruits and veggies are the primary foods found here. How are they grouped? Round foods together? Leafy foods together? Is there a section for produce that is from another part of the world?

Dairy: What kinds of foods make up the dairy section? Cheeses, yogurt, milk, and maybe a few other treats. Talk about why these foods all belong in the same category (made from milk, cold, etc.)

Canned Goods: This section takes a little more detective work. What kinds of foods come in a can? Look for pictures to find out! Are there some foods that are not in a can? Cucumbers? Bread? Berries?

Meats/Fish: It's always important to know where our foods come from. The best place to see these foods might be the butcher counter. What foods are red, pink, white, gray, or even black? What animals do they come from? Be careful, you might end up with some little vegetarians on your hands! 

Our Sunday Fun-Day posts feature fun, easy, food-related activities for you and your family to enjoy. These include ways to explore new food textures or flavors outside of the pressure of a "mealtime". We hope that this "food-play" will allow a new opportunity for your little ones to learn to love food.

This Sunday we are starting a multi-week feature on ways to encourage food education and exploration at the grocery store. For picky eaters or children who are hesitant to try new foods, the grocery store can be a broad landscape of new experiences that may lead to new food choices at home. Other children with sensory aversions or sensitivities may have a harder time with the overwhelming sights, sounds, and smells at the grocery store. Think about situations that may be challenging for your child and modify these activities as needed. (For example, try "shopping" in your very own pantry or fridge as you are preparing for a meal)

This week's adventure is a Grocery Shelf Scavenger Hunt. This activity teaches children about following directions, listening skills, letter/number/color recognition, and best of all about FOOD!

1. As you are shopping, challenge each child to find something on the shelf nearby. 
2. Give clues like, "find a food in a blue box" or "find a food that is round".
3. Teach your child to ask questions if they are having trouble, for example: "Bobby, you look like you are having a hard time finding that food, I wonder if you could ask a question to get another clue?"
4. Always give your child praise when they bring back a food item. This activity is not meant to have a "winner", only to engage children in the process of selecting and purchasing food that will later be prepared and eaten.

Children respond well when they are given choices in many day-to-day activities. This includes eating and mealtimes. Giving a child choices when they are grocery shopping gives them a small amount of control over their mealtime experiences later. It can also help children feel more comfortable trying new things if they are exposed to new foods in a "non-mealtime" environment like grocery shopping. 

When preparing new foods at home or when serving a meal, talk about how your child helped you shop. This will help to associate that new food with feelings of pride and success. Encourage children to explore the new foods, even if they are not quite ready to taste them.

Our Sunday Fun-Day posts feature fun, easy, food-related activities for you and your family to enjoy. These include ways to explore new food textures or flavors outside of the pressure of a "mealtime". We hope that this "food-play" will allow a new opportunity for your little ones to learn to love food.

Easter is a time to appreciate new life and new beginnings, so what better than a seedling project? Planting a garden is a wonderful way to teach your children about food and where it comes from. This Easter Veggie Garden project will help you start your seedlings indoors and then replant them outdoors.

Materials:
Cardboard egg carton
Potting soil
Various vegetable seeds from a garden store
Water
Spoons to scoop soil

1. Cut the egg carton in half, separating the top from the bottom. Set the lid aside. It will be used as a “base” for your seedling garden later.
2. Saturate the bottom half of the egg carton with water and allow excess water to drain.
3. With a pencil or screwdriver, punch holes in the bottom of each egg “cup” to allow water to drain through.
4. Fill each cup with loosely packed potting soil and sprinkle with water to make soil damp.
5. Poke a finger into the center of the soil and place 2-3 seeds in each cup. Cover the seeds loosely with soil.
6. Place the planted seedling tray into the egg carton lid to provide a dry base for your garden.
7. Place the seeds in a warm, partially sunny spot. Make sure that the soil remains damp but not soaking.

Over the next few weeks, watch for green shoots to appear! With older children, you can discuss the way that plants use the sun for energy, just like we use food for energy to help us grow. Once sprouts appear and begin to grow larger, cut apart the individual egg “cups” and plant into an outdoor garden or larger planter. Follow the instructions on the seed packets for specific sun and water recommendations (they will vary based on the types of seeds). Hopefully you will grow some delicious veggies to enjoy!

Today’s Sunday Fun-Day post is a little late, so let’s call it Monday Fun-Day! Given this cold, slushy spring morning, we certainly need a little fun. Today’s activity is Hot Dog Art, an homage to spring and America’s favorite pastime. Being a native of Boston and a transplant to Chicago, I love my Fenway Franks and Chicago-Style Dogs. What really make a hotdog great are the bright and flavorful condiments; red ketchup (unless you are at Wrigley), yellow mustard, and electric green relish. These condiments are great for exploring new flavors, smells, textures, and colors.

For this activity you will need:

1 large sheet of butcher paper to cover the table and create your art
Small ramekin cups for different condiments
1 hotdog per child for “painting”
Sliced hotdog “rounds” for stamping
A variety of condiments to use as “paint”

Some other examples of “paints” might be BBQ sauce, mayonnaise, or even jelly. Spread the paper over the table and hand out the hotdogs to each child. Encourage exploration of colors and textures of each of the “paints”. Let their creativity run wild!

For children with sensory aversions or who have difficulty getting messy, offer paintbrushes instead of hotdogs to spread the condiments. Other options include offering rubber gloves to wear while painting.

Imagine you are at your favorite café or restaurant, enjoying a cool, rich, delicious bowl of chocolate pudding for dessert. Maybe you come to this spot every week (or more if it’s a particularly stressful week!) and indulge in this smooth, creamy treat. Now imagine that one week, you are served your pudding and it looks a little different. You take a bite and realize that the chef has changed the recipe! Your silken chocolate pudding now contains small, soft lumps of mushy brownies! This is not what you expected! Maybe you even cover your mouth with a napkin and spit out the lump to see what the heck it is. Maybe you don’t finish your pudding today because it’s just not what you wanted. Either way, you notice that you can’t just let the pudding slip down your throat anymore. Now you must swallow a part of your mouthful, chew the rest, and then swallow again. This pudding just got complicated.

Now imagine that you are 8 months old. You’ve never had a lump in your life! That lump in your food might be surprising and even a little scary if it starts to slip down your throat. You might gag to try and get it out. Maybe your eyes start watering and you start to cry. Chances are that you might be a little wary of that food the next time mom or dad brings it out.

Not all children have difficulty transitioning from a stage-2 thick puree to a stage-3 lumpy puree. If they did, the baby food companies might go out of business! But I frequently see families for feeding evaluations because their child is having a lot of trouble transitioning to textured foods. Some of these children demonstrate sensory aversions or oral-motor delays, but many are not really displaying either. How can we help our kids with this sometimes troublesome transition?

A Little More Time: Every child is different and reaches their developmental milestones at slightly different times. Some children may have no problem with lumpy textures the first time they are offered, while others may react strongly to the change. My first suggestion for families experiencing difficulty with this transition is to wait a few days to a week and try it again. If the difficulty persists, then you can move on to some of the following ideas to help your little one adjust.

Ignore the Numbers: Just because the number “3” comes after “2”, doesn’t mean that you are bound by law to offer stage-3 foods immediately. Often changing the order in which solid textures are introduced can help children transition more easily to the lumpy texture. Here is an example of a different transition plan that has helped many families make the change (see the articles on puree, soft solid, and hard solid textures for more information on the different food textures listed below) The following textures should be offered for exploration IN ADDITION TO stage-2 or thick purees and breastmilk or formula for the majority of their nutrition:

   1. Hard Munchables: Offer hard, stick-shaped foods like carrot or celery sticks. Encourage your child to dip the sticks in their pureed food and to play with the texture in their mouth. When the stick is placed in the side of the mouth, it encourages the tongue to move to both sides, a skill necessary for chewing. The hard munchable is NOT intended to be eaten. It is purely for exploration of a new shape and texture in the mouth.
   2. Small, soft cubes: Ripe banana or well cooked carrot works very well for this stage. Think of it as offering the “lumps” from the stage-3, but without the surrounding puree. The pieces should be small, but still able to be picked up with the fingers. Offering small, soft cubes on their own can help a child learn to manage the one texture before mixing it with others.
   3. Lumpy puree or mashed table food: At this point, parents have the option of trying the stage-3 jars again, or moving to mashed table foods. Both are a lumpy texture, but the mashed table foods tend to be thicker. If your child has tolerated the hard munchables and soft cubes well, the transition to lumpy purees should be much easier.

If your child still demonstrates difficulty transitioning to lumpy textures or does not tolerate the hard munchables or soft cubes, seek the advice and guidance of a feeding team evaluation. Ask your pediatrician for a referral and see our guide on what to look for in a feeding team.

Often, I will meet a family for a feeding evaluation and they will ask me this question: “All he eats are chips and crackers, but I can’t get him to take a bite of meat! Why won’t he chew?” Children with oral-motor delays or sensory aversions to food can sometimes be very particular about what kinds of foods they will and will not eat. In this article we will discuss what the differences are between different types of hard or crunchy solid foods. Previously we have discussed pureed foods and soft solid foods. With these three resources together, you should now have a fairly complete glossary of food texture types and descriptions.

Meltable Solid: This is often the first type of “hard” solid food that we offer to toddlers. A meltable solid is a dry texture that, when placed in the mouth, softens and dissolves within a few seconds. Examples of this texture are toddler “puffs”, butter crackers, and shortbread cookies. Children are able “chew” these foods a few times and easily swallow them. If you are unsure whether a food is considered “meltable”, hold a piece in your mouth without chewing. If the food begins to break apart just with saliva, it is considered meltable.

Crunchy Solid: These are often similar to meltable solids, but require more chewing to break apart. Examples are cheerios, saltines, and graham crackers. These foods require better control of the food in the mouth and more endurance for chewing. 

Hard Munchable/Hard Stick: These two terms are used to mean a hard solid that is used for food exploration or mouth exploration without the expectation that the child will actually bite off a piece and eat it. Hard sticks can be used to stir and taste purees or simply for exploration on their own. These textures can help a child “get used to” the feeling of a hard texture in their mouth without having to chew and swallow the food. Examples of hard munchables/sticks are celery or carrot sticks, jicama spears, or hard pretzel rods. Always supervise a child when they are exploring with hard munchables to make sure that they do not accidentally bite off a piece and choke.

Hard Mechanical: A hard mechanical is the same texture as a hard munchable or hard stick but one that is meant to be eaten. These are textures that are appropriate for older children with mature oral-motor skills. Some tougher meats could also be included in this category, since they require a lot of chewing in order to be swallowed.

Mixed Texture: A mixed texture is just what it sounds like! It is a food which combines one or more of the textures featured here and in the Purees and Soft Solids articles. Stage 3 pureed baby foods might be considered a mixed texture, since they combine soft cubes within a thick puree. Chicken soup is also a mixed texture which combines thin liquids with soft solids and hard mechanicals. A child should be able to eat all the textures SEPARATELY before they are expected to eat the textures together.

Now that you know all about food textures, take a look around the next time you are at the grocery store or standing at your fridge. How many soft cubes can you find? How many hard munchables? Keep these textures in mind when choosing foods for your child. Ask your feeding team for additional information if you notice that your child is have difficulty with one or more of these textures.

Many parents and caregivers might not give much thought to the differences between a puree and a soft cube until they are faced with teaching a child with an oral-motor delay how to eat. The small differences between different food textures can make a big difference for your child when they are having difficulties with chewing and/or swallowing. The terms that your speech-language pathologist or feeding team might use to describe food textures can be confusing. In our last segment, we looked at the differences between many types of purees. This week we will address different types of soft solid textures.

Soft Cube Texture: This type of soft solid allows children to appreciate the mouth feel of a formed solid, without demanding a lot of chewing skills. Examples of soft cubes include boiled or steamed potato or carrot pieces, ripe banana or mango. A soft cube texture is one which turns into a thick puree when pressed with the tongue or teeth. 

Finely Chopped: Any fruit, cooked vegetable, or meat can be made into a softer solid texture by chopping it well in a food processor. This allows for more texture in the solid food, but with less effort needed for chewing. Finely chopped foods can be softened even further by adding sauces or gravies to help keep pieces together in the mouth. 

Mechanical Soft: The term “mechanical soft diet” is most often heard in hospitals or other medical settings. This describes a set of foods with are soft enough to be easily chewed, but are not required to be chopped or diced. Sometimes this kind of texture is useful as a transition between a pureed diet (which requires no chewing) and a full regular diet for children or adults who have suffered an injury or other feeding setback. Foods which are considered a mechanical soft texture include soft scrambled eggs, flaked fish (no breading), noodles, rice, and softer fruits and veggies (NOT carrot sticks or apple slices).

“Soft” Foods to Avoid: If your child requires soft foods due to difficulty with chewing skills, there are some common foods which are “soft” to the touch, but which can be difficult to chew and swallow nonetheless. One of these foods is bread. While bread is soft, it can be very chewy and sticky when it becomes moistened in the mouth. I often advise parents to avoid bread (slices of bread, rolls, hot dog/hamburger buns, etc.) until there child is able to handle more complex, or multi-textured foods consistently. Meats are another “soft” food that might be avoided for children with oral-motor difficulties. Even if meats are tender, they require more advanced chewing and biting skills. Ground meats with some sauce or gravy can be a nice alternative to whole meats at this stage.

Our Sunday Fun-Day posts feature fun, easy, food-related activities for you and your family to enjoy. These include ways to explore new food textures or flavors outside of the pressure of a "mealtime". We hope that this "food-play" will allow a new opportunity for your little ones to learn to love food.

This week’s Sunday Fun-Day activity can actually be completed over several days to a week. For the An Apple a Day activity, you will need one apple per day of the activity or per experiment. These experiments may be completed in any order and even with other foods if you wish. The purpose of the activity is to take one food and manipulate it in many ways, showing your child how the food changes with each preparation, while maintaining some of the same properties.

Day One - Here Comes the Sun: Slice open the apple into 4-6 pieces. Observe the seeds, stem, leaves, and any other parts of the fruit (see last week’s seed activity). Talk about what color the fruit is on the outside versus the inside. Place the slices on a cookie sheet or in a pie pan. Leave the pan on a sunny windowsill and check each day to see how the food changes in the sun and warmth.

Day Two - Start Your Engines: Chop the apple into 1 cm chunks and place into a blender or food processor. Add water or juice if necessary and blend. What happens with the skin on versus no skin? How is the apple the same and different?

Day Three - Does it Float?: This activity is a good one to incorporate several foods. Fill a bucket or soup pot with about 6-10 inches of water. Choose a variety of whole fruits or veggies and try to guess which ones will float and which will sink. This makes a great, simple science fair project as well.

Day Four - Chips and Dip: Slice the apple into thin “chips” and arrange on a non-stick cookie sheet. Bake on a low temperature in the oven until browned and somewhat crisp. Let the chips cool on a wire rack until they are able to be handled. Offer both raw and baked chips and compare the similarities and differences between the two. Store the chips in a sealed plastic bag to keep fresh for a few days.

How was your Apple a Day experience? Did your kids show you something new? Did you create any new activities? Please share in the comments section for our other readers! Happy exploring!

Our Sunday Fun-Day posts feature fun, easy, food-related activities for you and your family to enjoy. These include ways to explore new food textures or flavors outside of the pressure of a "mealtime". We hope that this "food-play" will allow a new opportunity for your little ones to learn to love food.

This week's Sunday Fun-Day activity is all about food exploration with a little dash of science. For those of you with kiddos home on spring break, Springtime Seeds is a great way to keep those minds active.

Springtime is a great time to take a walk outside with your young explorers. Animals are easily spotted in tree branches which are still bare, new shoots are starting to push up through the dirt, and the afternoon sun is starting to get just a little bit warmer. Start this activity with a walk around your neighborhood or even at a nearby park. Talk about how the plants begin to grow taller and stronger with the help of the sun and rain. Look for buds on trees and the beginnings of spring flowers. 

Afterwards, head home for some hands-on exploration. Choose 3 or 4 fruits, vegetables, or legumes with seeds. Some good examples with different types of seeds are:

• Apples
• Kiwi
• Peas
• Peaches
• Cucumber
• Oranges
• Squash

Lay the whole fruits and veggies out on the table. It might be useful to put down a plastic tablecloth or some newspaper if you are worried about mess. Let your kids explore the food. What do they think the seed will look like? What size or color will they be? Will there be many seeds or just one? Cut each food open and talk about what you see. Is the food a different color on the inside than it is on the outside? Was the food hard or soft? Many fruits and veggies can be easily cut with lettuce knives, which are safe for younger children to use when cutting.

Tasting of the fruits or veggies makes a great end to this activity. A fruit salad or stir fry of vegetables might be on that night's dinner menu!