Make Sense with Food using the 5 Senses!

Getting children to try new foods can be a battle that many parents know all too well. It’s a common scenario — the stubborn refusal to explore anything beyond familiar favorites. This behavior in kiddos can often be a result of their anxiety toward food. However, involving all five senses — taste, sight, smell, hearing, and touch — can be a transformative approach to improving food acceptance. Let us show you how each sense can play a pivotal role in helping kids embrace a variety of foods while establishing healthy eating habits from a young age.

Because eating food can bring a lot of anxiety in our kiddos, it is important to set the expectation to explore the foods over having to eat them. Exploring through each sense allows your kiddo to slow down, develop sensory awareness, and provides an opportunity to reduce anxiety when it comes to food. This can be done by using descriptive words when exploring foods over how your kiddos are feeling about them. Using these words can help dissociate the negative feelings and anxiety the kiddos may associate with various food.

We often eat with our eyes first, and this is especially true for children. As you may understand, many of our kiddos have their favorite “go to” foods, and often times they are bland, plain, and monochromatic. Let’s look at some strategies to help your kiddos look outside their “monochromatic” box. Use words from this list to prompt your kiddos to describe visual characteristics of the foods they see.

Start with familiar foods to practice these skills, incorporating more variety as they become comfortable. Involve kids in food plating and make it fun — create food art, use colorful dinnerware, or cut foods into fun shapes. This visual appeal can tempt the eyes and pique curiosity, making new foods less daunting. Remember, the key at this point is not to eat.

Touching and interacting with food can be anxiety inducing for kids. It is important to start slow while providing comforting measures. Alleviate possible tactile anxieties by having a washcloth available, starting with a small amount of food to engage with, and/or allowing your kiddo the time they need to process what is in front of them. Use words from this list to help prompt your kiddo to describe “touch” characteristics with the foods they engage with.

Invite your kiddos to help with safe food preparation tasks, like rinsing vegetables, kneading dough, or forming patties. Allow them to use their fingers to explore textures — the squish of a ripe tomato, the firmness of a raw carrot. Use food to make art or build fun creations with food. Have your kiddos help with the “clean-up” process while using their hands to throw items away and to clean/rinse the dishes. This tactile exploration can build comfort and reduce resistance to trying foods with unfamiliar consistencies.

The sense of smell is deeply connected to our desire to eat. It can also spark an aversion toward foods. It is important to start slow beginning with familiar foods. Some foods have stronger smells than others. It is a recommendation to start with foods that have a milder smell. Use these words to help your kiddo describe the smell of foods.

Try some of these strategies to work on their smelling acceptance through food exploration. Have your children smell ingredients before they’re cooked and guess what they are. Discuss how the smell changes once the food is cooked. Smell foods to explore differences and similarities with brands or certain food products. Involve your kiddos in this sensory exploration to create a positive association with mealtimes and to enhance the overall eating experience.

In addition, try activities to guess certain smells using various food items that you have at home, such as coffee, cinnamon, herbs, spices, condiments, etc. If you have essential oils, try those. Check out these Fruity Fragrance Oils too!

The sounds of food can evoke enjoyment and anticipation. Help your kiddo explore the auditory sense through food preparation. Some examples may be to listen to the sizzle of a stir-fry, the chopping of produce, the mixing of food, and the fizz of sparkling water or soda. You can progress to identify sounds that you hear when the food is in your mouth. Use some of these identifiers to help your kiddos describe the sounds that they hear with food.

Auditory cues can be an important aspect of taste due to the overlapping nature of the senses. Let kids listen to the sounds made during food preparation and when eating. Describe the noise — is it loud or soft, pleasing or surprising? This can turn a meal into a sensory adventure, making experimentation fun.

The sense of taste is the most obvious player when it comes to food acceptance. New textures and flavors can be intimidating for young taste buds. To overcome this, introduce new foods alongside familiar favorites. A tiny “taste test” portion can remove the pressure from the eating experience.

Encourage kids to describe what they taste — is it sweet, salty, sour, or bitter? Revisit the sense of touch by describing characteristics of how foods “feel” when in the mouth. Engaging in dialogue about taste can shift the focus from eating to exploring.

The Takeaway

Introducing food to children through the gateway of the five senses not only educates them on the sensory properties of food but also develops a foundation for mindful eating. Present a calming atmosphere to enhance the sensory experience. Encourage conversations about the food and its different sensory aspects. Use a consistent and gradual process to reduce the possibilities of anxiety and resistance to food.

Patience and persistence are key, as repeated sensory exposure in a positive environment is often necessary for enhancing food acceptance in kids. The overall hope is that your kiddos will be able to improve their food tolerance by experiencing their senses in a new way. Remember, be creative and have fun!