SENSORY MESSY PLAY with mashed potato! Why you need your kid to get messy with dirt hands

Getting MESSY is crucial for overcoming sensory issues, food aversion and to Help with Picky Eating. Food play is an important sensory play activity for children with sensory defensiveness and those that are picky eaters. This type of play can be fun and a non stressful way for children to explore different foods using all of their senses.
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Why is messy, sensory play with food important? Kids learn about new foods through repeated exposure, food play, and sensory exploration (through looking, touching, smelling, and squishing). Food play offers an opportunity for kids to explore and learn about foods (textures and smells), without any pressure to “eat” or “try” the foods. Over time they become more comfortable interacting with the different textures and smells.
Your child has lots of sensory receptors on their hands, so when touching and messing with food it sends messages to the brain to allow the child to know what that food feels like and makes that texture familiar to the child. The more exposure we give children to these textures through exploring with their hands the more likely they are to tolerate it in their mouths as similarly the mouth has sensory receptors which will let the child know if this food and texture is familiar or not.
Some children are very tactile defensive and do not like different textures on their hands. It is important to respect these sensitivities and start slowly. Introduce dry textures first, so foods like - porridge oats, crushed up cereal, breadcrumbs before moving on to damp textures and then wet gloppy textures. Take things slowly and don’t get disheartened if your child appears disinterested at first - follow your child’s lead, leave the activity out for a few hours and easily accessible to the child so that they can come back to it at their own pace. Add in a few of their favorite small toys to encourage interest! Join in with your child, let them see you feel different food bases, smell them and taste them…children respond well to modeling! For those particularly sensitive to touch add in some scoops, wooden spoons, spatulas, tweezers, pipettes so that they can explore using these first without having to put their hands in fully! They will inevitably get some of the food on their hands which will allow them to build up a tolerance to the texture slowly.
Simple, entertaining, fun, stress free and easy way to introduce new food to your picky eater, engage with them and avoid a rejection. You don't know how to introduce new food to your picky eater? You can barely make your child eat a variety of food? Your kids just want to eat the same food over and over again? No worries. Turn Your Picky Eater into a Food Explorer with Me! Transform Picky Eaters by Empowering Parents & Encouraging Adventurous Tastes!
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