{"id":2331,"date":"2016-08-18T13:40:21","date_gmt":"2016-08-18T17:40:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/parenttraining.chip.uconn.edu\/?page_id=2331"},"modified":"2025-09-10T02:10:02","modified_gmt":"2025-09-10T06:10:02","slug":"12-meal-time-ideas","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/parenttraining.chip.uconn.edu\/index.php\/12-meal-time-ideas\/","title":{"rendered":"Games For Mealtimes"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Pixabay<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Mealtime is a great time to work on requesting and making choices. When a child is ready for dinner, food will be a powerful reward. This makes mealtime a good teaching time. But remember, if your child is very hungry when mealtime starts, she may get very frustrated if she has to make requests or choices. If you think she is feeling very hungry, make sure to give her plenty of food right away so that she is less hungry before you start to work on requesting or making choices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. PUT ONLY A FEW BITES ON YOUR CHILD’S PLATE AT ONE TIME TO WORK ON REQUESTING<\/b><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Put only a small amount of food on your child\u2019s plate with more on a second plate, just beyond her reach. Then you might be able to encourage her to make several requests for more of the food. Place a bowl with more of the same food where she can see it. When she finishes with the food on her plate or in her bowl, wait to see if she points to the bowl with more of the food. If she doesn\u2019t, you might move it a little closer to her. If necessary, prompt her to point to it and look at you. After she requests the food by pointing, even if she needed help to point, put a little more of the food in her bowl or plate. You can do the same thing with drinks. For example, you could pour her only a small amount of juice instead of a whole cup. When she finishes that, she\u2019ll most likely want more! You want to give your child lots of chances to practice asking for the foods and drinks she enjoys.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And remember, if your child is learning to use PECS (the Picture Exchange Communication System)<\/em><\/a> to communicate her wants and needs, mealtime is an excellent time for your child to practice using pictures to ask for her favorite healthy foods and drinks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If your child is learning to say some words, see if you can get her to add a word or a sound to her request. So, for example, if she has been requesting waffles and seems to want more, try prompting her to say the word, \u201cwaffles\u201d or even just the \u201cw\u201d sound. Whenever she requests food, by looking at you and pointing to the food she wants, or by saying a sound or a word, make sure you give it to her immediately. <\/strong>And let her know how happy you are that she did such a nice job asking!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But this is important: If any of this seems to be hard for your child and she becomes frustrated, you should practice it only two or three times during a single mealtime. Then put the rest of her meal on her plate. There will be plenty of chances to practice this skill with your child. You can build in more and more practice trials at each meal over time. You do not want to frustrate your child. And, make sure she gets her basic nutrition<\/strong>. That always comes first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If your child is a very fussy eater, and does not like a lot of different foods, it may be more important to get a healthy amount of food into her than to work on requesting. In this case, you could try putting only a very small amount of a sweet dessert on her plate, and encourage her to request more of the dessert, rather than  requesting the basic food she needs for nutrition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If your child is such a picky eater that you’re not sure she’s getting all the nutrition she needs, see if the suggestions in Module 7 Picky Eating are helpful. And you should keep a diary of everything she eats over a few days or a week and ask your pediatrician to either look it over, or refer you to a dietician or nutritionist to make sure she’s getting all the nutrition she needs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2. CHOOSING BETWEEN TWO PREFERRED FOODS<\/b><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Mealtime also provides the perfect time to offer your child choices. Choosing between a bite of food and a sip of a drink, or between two different kinds of food, is a great way to work on making choices. Simply hold up both choices in front of your child and look at her. Some of the time, you can ask, \u201cWhich one?\u201d or \u201cWhich one would you like now?,\u201d but it\u2019s best not to ask that every time. Once she has the idea, just hold up the two choices and let your child make a choice. If she doesn\u2019t make a choice, prompt her to point to whichever one you think she might like. For example, if she has been eating bites of chicken, perhaps she would like a sip of her milk. In that case, just prompt her to point to the cup and then say, \u201cMilk\u201d or \u201cMilk, please!\u201d Then give her a sip right away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

3. PRACTICING PECS AT MEALTIMES<\/b><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

If your child has been learning PECS (the Picture Exchange Communication System)<\/a>, where she hands you a picture to request something, mealtimes are great times to work on this. She can request using a single picture for one food. She can also work on making choices using two or more pictures. If you have not yet taught your child to make requests using PECS and your child is not yet speaking, you might want to review the section on PECS and try it out with your child at mealtimes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

4. USING SPOON FEEDING TO IMPROVE EYE CONTACT<\/b><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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Freepik<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

If you sometimes feed your child with a spoon or fork, even if she can already eat by herself, it will make it easier to work on eye contact during mealtimes. Simply wait for eye contact before giving the child each bite of food. Just hold up a spoon or a piece of food and, once your child makes eye contact with you, give her a big smile while putting the food in her mouth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The bite of food is meant to reinforce eye contact while making the meal a shared social time. Just changing this one thing at your mealtimes, the timing of the bites, will make each bite of food a reinforcer for eye contact.<\/strong> Just think of how many extra times you will have each week to work on improving your child\u2019s eye contact! And you will be doing this during time already planned for feeding your child her regular, healthy meals.<\/p>\n