Picky eating can be a frustrating and stressful time for many vegan parents. Meal planning is a challenge because you feel lost on what to cook for your vegan child. And meals simply become not-so-enjoyable because there are eating struggles at the dining table.
For many vegan parents I’ve worked with, they just want to know what to do to “get” their child to eat a more variety of foods, or their vegetables, or a particular plant-food. Many vegan parents like yourself often feel like they’ve exhausted all possible options to help their vegan child eat more plant foods and want to know ways to help them meet all nutritional needs.
If you’re worried about your child not getting enough nutrients because of their food selectivity, I know the feeling. It’s hard to meal plan only to see food wasted. It’s hard to think about what recipe to make only to have your child not want to try it. It’s hard to feed your child!
My hope with this article is that you at least take ONE feeding strategy that you can implement at home. Feeding a vegan picky eater is challenging and it requires some trial and error to determine what will work best for your child. So, give it some time.
And if you feel like your vegan child has an eating difficulty beyond picky eating, speak with a health care provider or feeding therapist that can support you to find the best treatment for your child.
Vegan Pumpkin Oat Waffles. Recipe from the Vegan Kids Cookbook
What is picky eating
Picky eating is observed in children in many different ways and all children go through a picky eating phase at some point in their childhood. Some parents view certain eating behaviors as “picky” yet they are sometimes developmentally appropriate eating behaviors for a child. Such as not wanting their food mixed together or picking off toppings from their pizza. This is a somewhat universal eating behavior for all children learning about how to eat, not just for picky eaters.
There really isn’t a true definition for ‘picky eating’ and generally through research it has an inconsistent definition. However, I’m using this word throughout the article because it resonates with you as the parent/caregiver.
The spectrum of ‘picky eating’ can be observed in the following(2):
Rejecting certain foods (whether it’s based on taste, texture, temperature or smell)
Intake of limited variety of plant foods
Preference for how a certain food is cooked or prepared
Preference for a particular food
Picky eaters can be particular with their food and many have their own preferences when it comes to how a food is prepared. For some, it may be that they prefer certain textures such as crunchy items. And others prefer their food to be cut a certain way or seasoned only one way. Food selectivity varies from child to child and why it takes a bit of trial and error to find strategies that are tailored to your child’s individual eating challenges.
If you have a picky eater at home, grab this FREE Picky Eating Guide for vegan kids that can help you with your meal planning.
When does picky eating start?
I often hear from vegan parents describing their baby who just started solid foods as “picky” or a “fussy eater” because they spit out a certain plant food. And that is a valid point. It’s normal to think that when our baby, toddler, or child spits food, throws food, or simply makes facial expressions is because they didn’t like that food.
But that’s not always the case. Majority of the time your child just isn’t sure about that food or isn’t quite sure how to chew it. It may be that they’re not familiar with that food and all kids want familiarity when it comes to eating.
So, babies aren’t typically considered ‘picky eaters’ because they are still learning about food and how to eat. They need time to learn.
Selective eating or ‘picky eating’ is typically observed in children starting at around 15 - 24 months of age. The highest prevalence in many studies that look at picky eating behaviors is around 3 years of age but it’s most commonly seen in children between the ages of 2 - 6 years of age(1). In fact, I remind parents that it takes up to 6 years for your child to learn about food and how to eat, so it’s normal to see some behaviors of ‘picky eating’ up to this age.
Picky eating arises differently for each individual child. There really isn’t one cause for why a vegan child may become a picky eater. It’s believed that children show signs of picky eating during the 2 - 4 years old period. This is because children aren’t growing as rapidly as they used to. So, naturally their food intake is lower compared to when they were younger—a time when they used to try everything!
While slower growth tends to play a role in a child’s intake and food selectivity, there could be other underlying developmental difficulties that may present your child with picky eating. It can be a sensory issue, an oral motor difficulty, or a medical condition such as autism.
Overall, the rise of picky eating behaviors can be a combination of various factors like lack of early exposure of a variety of plant foods during starting solids, extended amount of exposure to puree foods, whether breastfed or formula fed, or feeding dynamics at the dining table. These may not be the reason for your child to be a picky eater but may have played a role in developing your child's food preferences.
But no matter where in the spectrum of picky eating your child falls in, eating can be a stressor for your child.
Nutrients for Picky Eaters
Nutritional intake has been shown to vary in picky eaters from the nutrient intake of non-picky eaters. Overall nutrition and specific nutrient intake is of concern for vegan kids who are selective with their food. And this is because their unwillingness to try certain foods or preference for only certain plant foods limits them from consuming certain key nutrients that support their growth.
For kids who show signs of picky eating, nutrients of concern are(1):
Calcium
Zinc
Vitamin E
Vitamin A
Vitamin D
Protein
It seems that pick eaters typically eat similar calories as that of non-picky eaters but it’s specific nutrients like the ones mentioned above where the majority of picky eaters fall short on. It can be challenging to meet these nutrient requirements when your vegan child has preferences for certain plant foods. You can find ways to meet these nutrient requirements inside the Vegan Kids Nutrition Blueprint course.
Here are a few plant foods that will meet several of these nutrients:
Chia seeds - calcium, zinc, protein
Sunflower seeds - calcium, vitamin E, protein
Pumpkin - vitamin A
Hummus - protein, zinc
While eating can be a stressor for many picky eaters, you can still find a variety of ways to include these key plant foods in your child's diet. It's simply finding ways to introduce them without the need to "hide" or blend foods. There are some recipes inside the Vegan Kids Cookbook that can help and can become favorites for picky eaters.
Feeding Strategies and Picky Eating Tips
Some vegan parents I’ve worked with often rely on smoothies, shakes, or fine chop veggies as a way to “hide” these foods in their child’s diet. It’s a simple way to ensure certain nutrients are met for your vegan child; however, this is something that I don’t encourage for parents for several reasons.
For one, it doesn’t help your vegan child learn about food. Relying on smoothies may potentially make the picky eating behavior worse because your child lacks the opportunity to learn and become familiar with foods (and textures). This is not to say that having smoothies from time to time is a “bad” idea, it just shouldn’t be frequently offered as a way to “get” your vegan child to meet certain nutritional needs.
Intentionally “hiding” foods in their meal may lead to trust issues where your vegan child may not want to try something because they’re aware that a certain food they’re not fond of is “hidden”.
I have also worked with vegan parents who bribe or negotiate around food intake with their vegan picky eater. This can be something like: “No cookies until you take a bite of XYZ” or “Take a bite of XYZ and then you can have more pasta”. I can understand the reasoning behind this and in no way is there judgement for just trying to do your best to “get” your child to eat. However, I remind vegan parents that your child wants to be respected and getting your vegan child to try their veggies by bribing or negotiating at the dining table isn’t empowering to them. This puts pressure on your vegan child and over time may make picky eating behaviors worse.
While these strategies may work in the short-term, I encourage you to move to other strategies that will help your child broaden their food acceptance and eat a more variety of foods. It may be a longer journey but the benefit is that your vegan child learns to try more foods on their own time, helping them establish a better relationship with food and meet their nutritional needs.
Here are four picky eating tips and feeding strategies:
Offer Choices
Kids like to have independence of their own food choices. No matter their age, kids enjoy having a say in how their meal is presented or what their meal contains—including with what they eat.
So, for example, let’s say you have tacos on the menu. Offer your child two options for the type of protein they’d like to have their tacos with. “We are having tacos for dinner tonight. Would you like refried beans or lentils as our base?”. Allowing your vegan kids to be part of the meal helps them feel included and are more likely to try that plant food. And you can do this as early as 18 months by presenting the two options for them and letting them point to the one they'd like to try.
Other ways that you can offer choices is the fruit or veggie that will be served for that meal. Just be sure to only offer two options. This makes it easier or less overwhelming for your picky eater to make a choice. If you can recall going to a restaurant that has so many options on their menu, it makes it harder to choose what dish to eat. The same goes for your child.
This feeding strategy of giving them more independence of their food choices is something I go into more detail on Episode 9 of the Vegan Kids Nutrition Podcast.Change the Environment
Changing the environment of where the meal is served can help your picky eater be willing to eat more or try certain foods. Sometimes, kids learn certain behaviors or remember negative experiences with a particular food from being at the dining table. And by changing the space of where they eat, it can help them have more positive associations with food so that they can broaden their food acceptance.
If you have the space or ability, you can take the meal outside and eat it as a picnic. If your child has a small table or desk, you can bring the meal there. Or if you are eating out of the home, a restaurant or park can be a good option, depending on your child's personality of course.
Changing the environment can be as simple as standing near the kitchen counter or island. When I’m chopping bell peppers or broccoli—plant foods that my daughter is still learning to like—I invite my daughter if she would like to help me. Sometimes she says yes and sometimes she doesn’t want to. But 8 out of 10 times, she always seems excited to try the veggies I’m cutting. It may be because she sees me eating some or it may be because there’s no pressure to eat them since we’re not at the dining table. Either way, the change of environment of where that plant food was offered is enough to try it on her own.
Switch things around in terms of where a meal or a certain plant food is offered for your vegan child and you may be surprised to see them willing to try it—all on their own!Start Small (think “sample-like” portion sizes)
Picky eaters can often feel overwhelmed when certain unfavorable foods are offered and the same goes for portion sizes. Being mindful of serving very small portions, especially of the food your vegan kid is still learning to like, can help your child try it.
For example, rather than serving a handful of green beans as the side, offer just one piece or cut to the size of a pea. A good rule of thumb that I share with vegan parents when introducing a new food or a plant food that isn’t as familiar is “the smaller, the better”. It makes the plant food more manageable for your vegan child to experience it and be willing to engage with it.Provide Repeated Exposure to Unfamiliar Foods
You already know that exposure to a variety of foods is important to support your child’s growth and development on a vegan diet. And this couldn’t be more true for picky eaters.
If your child seems to not like a certain plant food, they need repeated exposure to become more familiar with that food and be willing to try it on their own time. It can take 10, 20, 50 or more times of seeing, touching, or smelling a plant food before your vegan child is ready to try that plant food.
Exposure doesn’t necessarily have to always be in the form of food. It can be through sensory activities like washing a vegetable, growing a vegetable garden, setting up a play activity that involves that plant food. It can also be in the form of a book where you read a children’s book about fruits and vegetables that includes positive language around these foods.
Final Comments for Parents and Caregivers of Picky Eaters
Many children go through some sort of ‘pick eating’ behavior around food. Some happen to be age-appropriate eating behaviors that they outgrow with time and others stem from a more severe eating difficulty that require a more robust intervention.
The most important thing you can do with your vegan picky eater is to provide a positive eating environment for them. This includes no pressure to eat something, role modeling by eating with them, serving realistic portion sizes (especially of the plant food they’re still learning to like), and giving them continued exposure to foods. Empower them of their own food choices by letting them decide when they’re ready to try a food.
If you suspect any developmental difficulty or medical condition that puts your child at risk for picky eating, speak with your healthcare provider or seek assistance from a specialist in this area of feeding to support you and your child.
Broaden Your Child’s Food Acceptance
Grab this FREE Picky Eating Guide where I share my top 5 strategies to helping picky eaters eat more variety of plant foods
References
Taylor, C. M., & Emmett, P. M. (2019). Picky eating in children: causes and consequences. The Proceedings of the Nutrition Society, 78(2), 161–169. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0029665118002586
Trofholz, A. C., Schulte, A. K., & Berge, J. M. (2017). How parents describe picky eating and its impact on family meals: A qualitative analysis. Appetite, 110, 36–43. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.appet.2016.11.027
