As a child, my parents used to tell me “Don’t play with your food!”…but times have changed!
Playing with food is a good thing and allows your child to explore and learn about foods without any pressure to eat the foods presented. Food play allows your child to touch, see, hear, feel and possibly even taste a variety of foods. Playing with food allows them to enter into a sensory experience that can help with sensory sensitivities, picky eating, language development, problem solving, social skills, and regulation skills.
Is the food gooey, chunky, slimy, sticky, rough, or smooth? What does the food smell like? What shapes, sizes and colors do you see? Does it make noise when you squish it, play with it, break it, crumble it? Children learn through play! Not to mention, picking up and manipulating food can help promote fine motor skills too. How cool is it that there are so many benefits to playing with food?
Moreover, playing with food can make feeding a more fun and positive experience for children who get anxious and stressed when trying new foods. Exploring foods can be incorporated into meal times, but can also be a fun activity during free time or as a creative outlet. Below is a list of food play ideas that kids can enjoy. Over time and with continued exposure through play, they will get to learn all about different foods, become more comfortable with foods, and move towards eating the foods.
Food play ideas:
- Finger paint with yogurt, salsa, hummus, applesauce or other sauces
- Use paint brushes to paint with pudding or purees
- Touch and squish wet foods through Ziploc bags
- Feed their teddy bear or doll during a picnic with real foods
- Feed any toys with a mouth
- Make fruit salad/fruit kabobs
- Create a Mr. Potato Head with real foods
- Work on counting: Count Cheerios, pieces of fruit, crackers…
- Create funny faces with foods
- Stack crackers, cookies, cubes of cheese, and see who can make the tallest tower
- Match different shaped crackers/foods into categories (e.g., shape, color, size)
- Build a house, car or other ideas out of crackers, sticks, cheese cubes, etc and peanut butter as the glue
- Drive cars and diggers through cooked pasta/rice, canned fruit, or yogurt, salsa, or other sauces
- Ask your child to help prepare the foods when cooking or baking
- Serve food to others
- String cheerios or fruit loops and make food jewelry
- Stir/pour/shake/mix foods and sing songs
- Make a noise with a food to draw attention to it (e.g., crunch, splat, pop, splash)
- Make mustaches with foods (e.g., peppers) or glasses (e.g., cucumbers)
- Flick and Roll foods across the table to play table finger-hockey or soccer with foods
- Write names/letters in purees or sauces
- Make letters/numbers from sticks of foods/cooked noodles
Remember it’s all about having fun and exploring foods; try not to stress if your child is not eating the food. Add in some music, sunshine or fresh air and enjoy this time playing together with your child!
