Playing with Food. Making Mealtimes Enjoyable
Jan 23, 2025
Every child has a unique profile as to how they process sensory information in their environment. This is especially relevant when children engage in their mealtimes. Children may be considered “picky eaters” due to certain sensory qualities of the food presented to them. They may avoid crunchy foods if their oral sensory system is sensitive to harder textures, or meats that are chewier, or mushy foods like applesauce due to the texture. They may also avoid foods due to their color, size, smell, or temperature.
Below is a visual guide to begin the process of sensory exploration around food with your child. There are five areas of sensory exploration with your food that will be covered: see, feel, smell, lick, bite. These categories help children explore their food in a variety of ways. The components of each area allow you and your child to engage in conversation and play with their food to further learn about the different qualities of that food.
See (Visual System)
The first area to explore is what we see when looking at the food. This can be the first hurdle a child climbs over when engaging with food. To help, we can explore things like the color of the food (red, green, brown, etc.), the shape of the food (circle, square, etc.), and the size of the food (small, medium, big). Relating the color of a food to a different, preferred food may help a child be more open to further engagement (i.e. “Hey, these pieces of broccoli are green, just like those cucumber slices you like!). You can also engage in food play to create shapes that are exciting to children, such as making star shaped pizza cut outs or bell pepper bracelets.
Feel (Tactile System)
The second area to explore is what we feel when we touch food. With this exploration, some qualities of the feel of food we will look at are the temperature (hot, warm, room temperature, cold), texture (smooth, bumpy, pointy), and the wetness (dry, wet, sticky). The wetness of certain foods may be uncomfortable to children, so keeping paper towels or wipes available would help them clean it off quickly if their tactile system becomes overwhelmed. If there are certain textures you don’t enjoy, you can share that with your child (i.e. “I’ve never tried this food before, and normally I don’t like sticky foods, but I want to learn more about it before trying it.”)
Smell (Olfactory System)
The third area to explore is what we smell from the food. We can talk about the intensity of the smell (small, medium, or big) as well as the different types of smell (salty, spicy, sweet, savory). This visual aid provides pictures of foods associated with these smells to help your child compare newer foods to some foods they may already be familiar with! Providing your child with the language to describe the smell is key (i.e., “Wow! That is a big smell from that meat. It reminds me of the smell from chicken.)
Lick (Oral Sensory System)
If your child has explored a food through their visual, tactile, and olfactory systems, they may be ready to further explore through their oral sensory system. The fourth area to explore is what sensory information food provides through licking. Some aspects of food we can determine through licking are the temperature, the texture, and the flavor. A fun way to explore these qualities of food is comparing what the temperature or texture was through feeling the food, or comparing what the flavor is through smell, versus licking the food and seeing if they are the same or different.
Bite (Oral Sensory System)
The fifth and final area to explore is through biting food. Explore food up to this point will provide a variety of information, such as whether food is crunchy, chewy or squishy, or soft. You can also continue to explore other qualities previously mentioned, such as texture, temperature, and flavor. A fun game to play with crunchy foods is to see who can make the biggest crunch!
A few key points to remember when exploring less familiar or non-preferred foods: