This post is in paid partnership with Little Spoon. I only endorse products I trust and use in my own family.
As a mom of three, I’ve come to learn that kids have very different personalities and preferences. I love that about them! However, after experiencing picky eating with one of my children, I realized there was more I could be doing to support eating habits from a young age.
Before I transitioned my youngest to solids, I brushed up on the latest research on food selectivity. We’re now almost a year into solids, and I believe these tips have helped encourage healthy eating habits and reduced potential picky eating.
Below are the four most impactful ways I’ve found to help prevent picky eating. Of course this is not medical advice. All children are different, so please be sure to consult your pediatrician with specific concerns.
1. Have a plan
This is where I believe I could’ve made the biggest difference with my picky eater. Without a plan to advance through textures and introduce a wide variety of flavors, most parents (myself included 🙋🏼♀️) will naturally default to serving the same child-approved option over and over. I’m seeing now that the best way to address picky eating is to prevent it in the first place.
In my goal to have a really solid plan with my youngest, Little Spoon has been a lifesaver. Their Babyblends are specifically crafted for babies’ nutritional and developmental needs as they age, including purees of varying texture. Now that she’s a little older, she’s also been introduced to a huge array of ingredients and flavors with their cut-to-size table foods.
2. Don’t give up too quickly
It often takes many exposures (think 8-10)[1] for babies to accept new foods. Before I found Little Spoon, I would get discouraged every time one of my kids would reject a food. If I was putting all that time and energy into preparing their food, I naturally was very hopeful they would actually eat it. Little Spoon takes some of the pressure off, with appropriate serving sizes of each food that are easy to repeat to encourage food exploration.
Little Spoon Blends also help repeat exposures of the same ingredient in different ways. My little one is learning to love sweet potatoes over time (not naturally one of her favorites), thanks to different combinations including sweet potato. One of her recent favorite blends includes sweet potato, apple and white bean!
3. Keep some things consistent
While offering a variety of foods is key to maintaining a baby’s expanding palate, there are some things that are helpful to keep consistent. We prioritize three meals, around the same time each day, so that my kids know when they can expect to eat.
In my experience with Little Spoon, there are some consistencies I think have been beneficial as well. As my youngest has transitioned through the Babyblends, she’s reached the stage where she can feed herself with the pouch format of their Babyblends. She can now enjoy the Blends that she loves, while developing her motor skills by eating from a pouch (at home or on the go)! This feeding flexibility without compromising on nutrition is a gamechanger.
4. Have sneaky hidden nutrients as a backup
One of my favorite parts of Little Spoon is that all their Blends really pack a nutritional punch. There are no mystery ingredients. Just real fruit, veggie, and superfood purees, freshly made with the quality you’d expect from your own kitchen. They’re truly as good as homemade.
The Blends were the perfect first start as we transitioned to solids, and now that my youngest is a little bigger and enjoying Little Spoon’s Biteables as well, I love that there are veggies and superfoods hiding in plain sight. Think hidden veggie marinara sauce, breaded chicken and veggie bites, turkey kale meatballs. I’m certainly not saying all veggies should be snuck into a toddler’s diet, but knowing that there are some fail-proof, always accepted, nutrient dense options is a huge win. I truly never worry my toddler isn’t getting the nutrition she needs.
Why Little Spoon
If you’re looking to get ahead of picky eating, I truly believe Little Spoon is the most thoughtfully designed option out there. Unlike other baby food brands that offer a rotating menu of single serve pouches, Little Spoon is built around a developmental progression, meaning you’re actively working against picky eating with every meal, not just feeding your baby. The Blends progress through textures as your baby develops, the serving sizes are built for repeat exposure, and the Biteables have made variety so much easier for us.
As someone who has been through the picky eating trenches with one child already, I wish I had found this sooner!
