My daughter is a really picky eater. We’ve been going to occupational therapy with her to help with her eating and they played a lot of games with food there. It inspired me to put together a list of games we play with food, which have successfully helped my daughter to either eat more or to try new foods.
1. Guess the food game
Scarlett helped me to pick foods that she was willing to use for this game. We arranged them on a plate, blindfolded her, and had her guess the food by tasting it. We used a carrot, a grape, a raspberry, a piece of broccoli, a piece of cheese, a walnut, a piece of a cracker, a blueberry, a pistachio, and a piece of a pretzel stick. In the middle of the plate, we put a chocolate cookie for a prize if she guesses all the items. Scarlett had a lot of fun playing this game and I was happy I got some fruits and nuts in her.
2. Food on a DIY spinning plate
This game is inspired by this spinning plate, which can be bought online or you can also make it yourself by downloading this spinning wheel plate that I created. After printing the file, place it inside a gallon ziplock bag. We made an arrow spinner by taping a piece of arrow-shaped paper to a spinner. This plate has a drawing of an animal in each section, and I put pieces of food on top of each drawing. Every time Scarlett spins a plate, she eats a piece of food and discovers what animal is hiding underneath. Of course, she had to approve what kind of food I selected to put on a plate. And sometimes we have to put a treat in one of the sections, she gets more interested if there’s a chance to hit a jackpot.
3. Eat an apple on a string
Everyone heard of this game, but we actually never tried it so we decided to fix that. It’s really hard to take a bite off an apple without using hands, so I had to change the rules a bit and allow using hands once in a while – after all, we were playing this game because I wanted to get an apple into my picky eater. Even though my daughter managed to take only a few bites, she had a ton of fun trying it! I think next time we’ll try it with a half-peeled banana – it would be a lot easier to take a bite off it.
4. Animal faces
Scarlett is a lot more likely to eat a sandwich if it looks like a dog, or a cat so we’ve been experimenting with food art.
5. Using cookie cutters to create themed lunches
Scarlett has been into dogs recently, so I got her this doggy cookie cutter set. It includes the shapes of dogs, bones, and paws. I used the cookie-cutter shapes to cut sandwiches for her. Combined with Paw Patrol doggy fruit punch, it made a perfect lunch combo for a picky eater.
6. Using unusual fun plates
There are a few cool plates that have been really helpful in getting Scarlett to eat. As mentioned earlier, she loves a spinning plate and almost always agrees to eat off it. We also use a board game plate, where you eat food step-by-step until you arrive at the secret treasure section, which is hiding a dessert. We also use various sectional plates, since my daughter doesn’t like the food touching each other.
7. Building food structures
We built a fruit structure using blueberries, grapes, and toothpicks. Pieces of cheese or apples can be used for building as well. I was happy to see that Scarlett ate a bunch of grapes and blueberries while building.
8. Banana sushi
This is a super-fast-to-make creative food. We just cut bananas into thick slices and put sugar-free sprinkles on top. It looks really yummy and helps my daughter eat some bananas.
9. Potion station
Who doesn’t like magic potions? It was fun to create this setup for my daughter. We used everything we could find – cereal, juice, milk, cacao powder, yogurt, gummies, sugar-free sprinkles, eatable eyeballs, berries, plant-based food coloring, whipped cream, and various measuring cups, containers, measuring and mixing spoons. When Scarlett mixed up a potion, we tried to come up with an idea of what this potion would be good for and pretended that it worked.
10. Take a bite game
This Take a bite game has been super helpful in getting my daughter to eat. It includes cards with actions that kids need to repeat. Some actions are funny, like ‘Make a silly face’ or ‘Tickles’, some actions are cute, like ‘Hugs’, and some action cards say ‘Take a bite’ – so my daughter gets to eat bites of food in between other actions. This game is really cute with plenty of hugs, tickles, and kisses with your child. A digital version is also available here.
11. Food chess
A game of chess can be played with food as well – just use 2 types of food instead of checkers. You’ll need 12 pieces of each type of food. Just cover the game board with clear plastic and follow the regular chess rules, the only difference is that you have to eat the opponent’s food when you jump over it. My daughter wanted to eat raspberries and I wanted to eat blueberries – just remember that you will be eating your opponent’s food so I was playing with raspberries and she was with blueberries. Whoever has more food pieces left at the end – wins the game.
12. Cheerios book
Another way to incorporate some snacks into play is using a Cheerios playbook. It helps little kids to develop fine motor skills by placing Cheerios on allotted spots. The counting Cheerios book is also great for teaching kids to count.
I wish my game had been developed when you were writing this article because I’m sure it would have been on the top of the list! You have to check out Eating Explorers, the innovative game that engages your child with the explorer theme and interactive parts that can be customized to your child’s nutritional and behavioral needs.