Some children can experience severe anxiety around certain foods. The sight or smell of them can send them running.
This sort of anxiety needs to be managed carefully. Whilst it may be irritating and frustrating and make no sense at all to you, here are some things you can do to support your anxious child:
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Try to understand what is causing the anxiety and aversion to a certain food so that you can empathise with them rather than get angry. Did they have a bad experience in the past – choking, being sick, an allergic reaction? Or maybe there is a sensory sensitivity – the smell, colour or texture of the food, for example. ⠀⠀⠀
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Accept that there is an aversion and that this is a real problem for your child. Be at peace with your child not eating that food at the moment.⠀
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Provide plenty of opportunities for your child to become comfortable around the food; seeing it on the table and you eating it, helping you shop for it, getting it out of the fridge/cupboard.
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Don’t insist or put any pressure on your child to eat the food or to explore it in any ways which make them feel uncomfortable. Pushing an anxious child can make the situation worse and make them less likely to ever touch the food let alone eat it. ⠀⠀
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Talk to siblings about how they react to the anxiety – no teasing, no making a fuss or laughing. ⠀⠀
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Don’t make a big deal of it or use negative talk; we don’t need to say things like ‘she doesn’t like cheese’ or ‘he’s got a phobia of peas’. No explanation or discussion is needed in your child’s presence.
If you’re struggling with an anxious or fussy eater and you’d like to support your child to overcome whatever is holding them back from trying something new and develop a love of food, message me or find more information about my How to feed your fussy eater courses and resources here.