Picky eaters and battling with finicky children during meal time may seem to be family ritual for some families. In trying to figure out what is going on and why, it might help to look for clues. For example, do you have a child who is only picky at a particular meal or time of day? It might be about the types of food you are offering or some other reality of that time of day.
I have known children who had a hard time at breakfast and it was because of breakfast food. As a matter of fact, when my middle daughter was little, it took a while before I learned that she did not like the mushy texture of most breakfast foods. She could tolerate scrambled eggs, but she preferred them fried and firmer (for some reason, I assumed that a small child would like scrambled eggs better); to this day she will eat cereal, but she eats it dry—without any milk. She doesn’t eat things like yogurt, pudding, or mushy pancakes, but she will eat toast and bacon or crisp fruit. Once we figured all this out, breakfast ceased to be one of her “trouble meals.”
Mixing up the food offered and getting outside the “traditional” box might help you to determine if the child’s pickiness is about the food. Why not have peanut butter sandwiches for breakfast or even for dinner? I have another child who has never been a fan of meat so the typical meat-and-potatoes type dinner was a real turn-off for her as a younger child. By making sure there were things that she did love—salads, fruit, cheese and crackers or a quesadilla, etc. dinner became fun for her too.
If it is not about the food, consider what else is going on at the time of day. If breakfast is the problem, it is because the child is tired, cranky, feeling rushed, not awake yet, cold, etc.? If it is lunch time, is the child over-stimulated or tired? Dinner can be problematic for many families and sometimes it is because it is rushed, at the end of the day, the child is tired or needs attention, etc. If the child eats fine most of the time but is picky only at certain times or meals, what might be going on?