Mankato Community Education

Picky eating is a common challenge many parents face, but it doesn’t have to be a source of stress. This presentation is designed to help parents understand why picky eating happens and equip them with effective strategies to manage it with patience and confidence. Whether your child refuses vegetables, insists on eating the same foods, or simply seems to be averse to trying new things, this session will provide actionable tips for making mealtimes more enjoyable and less stressful for everyone. In this session, we will cover: - Why Picky Eating Happens: Understanding the developmental, biological, and psychological reasons behind picky eating and how it’s a normal phase for many children. - Strategies for Encouraging New Foods: How to introduce new foods in a non-stressful, gradual way that encourages exploration without forcing it. - The Power of Modeling: How your own eating habits and attitudes toward food can influence your child’s behavior, and how to model positive eating without pressure. - Creating a Positive Mealtime Environment: Setting up a calm, relaxed atmosphere that reduces mealtime stress and encourages your child to feel comfortable with a variety of foods. - Avoiding Power Struggles: Techniques for staying calm and patient during mealtimes, and how to avoid turning food into a battleground. - Dealing with Common Challenges: How to handle food refusal, food aversions, and how to navigate situations where your child’s preferences seem to be getting more limited. - Encouraging Independence and Autonomy: How to give your child a sense of control over their food choices and portion sizes, fostering independence while still providing balanced meals. - Long-Term Strategies: How to maintain a positive approach and what to do if picky eating persists into later stages of childhood. By the end of this presentation, parents will have practical tools to reduce mealtime stress, increase food variety, and help their child develop a healthier, more adventurous approach to eating. You’ll leave with a deeper understanding of picky eating as a normal phase in child development, along with a toolkit of strategies to make mealtime more positive, fun, and less fraught with tension. Join us to take the stress out of feeding your child and turn mealtimes into enjoyable family experiences!