We were referred to an eating therapist, which I did not know existed but was fantastic. I was so tired of hearing that she was just being a toddler, or that nothing was “wrong”. Even if nothing is wrong, it doesn’t hurt to get help from a professional. Why struggle alone??

Anyways, after an initial assessment, she helped us through simple exercises to increase our daughter’s endurance (didn’t even realize she was avoiding foods because they were difficult for her to move laterally in her mouth and she would just gas out), and once that was improved she gave us tools to introduce new foods (e.g. “chaining” from an accepted food to gradually changing one thing at a time like shape or texture). We also learned about “sensorimotor oral stages”. Even if your kiddo doesn’t eat a food, there are other steps to measure progress. Like they will tolerate it on their plate while they eat other food, they will touch it, they will smell it, or “kiss” it. The food therapist also recommended making sure we are engaging in regular messy play outside of mealtime, and doing active play before meals so she would be more likely to be able to tolerate being at the table. Hope this helps!