Raising Adventurous Eaters : Practical Ways to Overcome Picky Eating and Food Sensory Sensitivities

Help kids develop a positive relationship with food, so they can become healthy and adventurous eaters for life!

Is your child a picky eater? Do they insist on having the same foods served over and over again? Be it chicken nuggets, pizza, pancakes, or French fries—if your child is only eating a few foods regularly, their diet may be seriously lacking in the nutrition and vitamins they need to grow and be healthy. And you may feel stressed out and frustrated at mealtime. For many kids, picky eating is a sensory issue—whether it’s the smell, taste, texture, or appearance of food. So, how can you help your child overcome these sensory sensitivities and ensure that they get the nourishment they need?

Written by a pediatric occupational therapist with a specialty certification in feeding, eating, and swallowing, Raising Adventurous Eaters offers eight evidence-based sensory strategies to help kids foster a healthy relationship with food. You’ll learn all about how picky eating can be caused by sensory processing differences, and find step-by-step strategies for dealing with each sense. By learning to lean into their senses, children will better understand what’s going on in their bodies. This fosters an intuitive eating approach, teaching kids to listen to their body’s hunger and fullness cues and respect and respond to those cues appropriately.

Whether or not your child has a diagnosis of sensory processing disorder (SPD), or simply has sensory sensitivities when it comes to food, this book will help you set your child up for successful mealtimes, turning the most stressful time of the day into a time that your family can spend relaxing and bonding together around the table.

Lara Dato, MS, OTR/L, is a pediatric occupational therapist with a specialty certification in feeding, eating, and swallowing—one of approximately fifty professionals with these credentials in the US. In addition to years as a feeding therapist, she has taught courses on feeding therapy across the country. Her passion is helping picky eaters and their families find joy in adventurous eating!

Foreword writer Suzanne Mouton-Odum, PhD, is a licensed psychologist who has helped children and families manage anxiety and difficult behaviors for more than twenty years. She coauthored Psychological Interventions for Children with Sensory Dysregulation and Helping Your Child with Sensory Regulation with Ruth Goldfinger Golomb.

Foreword writer Ruth Goldfinger Golomb, LCPC, is senior clinician, supervisor, and codirector of the training program at the Behavior Therapy Center of Greater Washington, where she has worked for more than thirty years.