Picky eater baby or toddler? How to help them try new foods

Your baby ate everything you offered at seven months. Now, at fifteen months, it is rice, banana and nothing green. This is one of the most common worries parents bring to the klinik kesihatan, and it is usually a normal stage.

What counts as picky eating?

A picky eater turns down new foods, sticks to a few favourites, or eats well one day and barely touches a meal the next. It tends to peak between about two and five years old. Many babies start showing it towards the end of their first year, once they are mobile and have opinions.

Wariness of new food is part of normal development. Scientists call it food neophobia, and it may once have protected small children from eating something harmful as they began to explore. A child often needs to see, touch and taste a new food many times before accepting it. The NHS suggests it can take ten tries or more.

The reassuring part: most picky eaters still get what they need over a week, even when single meals look thin. Toddlers also grow more slowly than babies, so their appetite naturally drops after the first birthday.

Ways to help your child try new foods

• Start early with variety. When you begin solids at around six months, offer lots of different tastes and textures. Babies who meet a wide range of foods during weaning tend to accept more later.
• Pair new with familiar. Put a small amount of a new food next to something your child already likes. For a baby, you can mix a new purée with one they enjoy. For a toddler, offer a new vegetable with a sauce or dip they know.
• Keep portions tiny. One or two pieces of something new is less daunting than a full serving.
• Eat together. Children copy what they see. If they watch you enjoy steamed broccoli or a bit of ikan bakar, they are more likely to try it. Talk about the colour, the crunch and the smell.
• Use snack time. A relaxed snack is a good moment to offer a new fruit or vegetable alongside a familiar one.
• Let them touch and play. Squashing, sniffing and licking food all count as progress. Mess is part of learning.
• Offer it again another day. A food refused on Monday may be eaten next week. Keep putting it on the plate without comment.

What tends to backfire

Forcing or pressuring

Children made to eat usually end up eating less, and meals turn into a battle. Pressure can also teach a child to ignore their own hunger and fullness. Research suggests it can make picky eating worse over time.

Bribes and deals

"Two more bites and you can have ice cream" feels like it works. It teaches your child that vegetables are the price of dessert, which makes dessert more desirable and vegetables less so. It can also turn other daily tasks into bargaining.

Making a separate meal

Cooking a special plain dish whenever your child refuses dinner can lock in a narrow diet. Instead, include at least one food at each family meal that you know they will eat, and let them fill up on that if they choose.

Sharing the job of feeding

Many paediatric dietitians use a simple idea known as the division of responsibility, set out by the Ellyn Satter Institute. You decide what food is offered, when and where. Your child decides whether to eat and how much.

This takes the pressure off both of you. Your part is to put good food on the table at regular times and make meals pleasant. Your child's part is to listen to their own appetite. Over time, children fed this way tend to eat a wider variety, with fewer arguments at the table.

A few practical habits help:

• Offer meals and snacks at roughly the same times each day, so your child arrives hungry
• Limit milk and juice between meals, which can fill a small stomach
• Turn off screens at mealtimes
• Keep meals to about 20 or 30 minutes, then calmly clear the plate

Teething, milk and other things that affect appetite

Appetite drops for many reasons. Teething can make gums sore, so cool, soft foods may go down better for a few days. Our guide to teething symptoms has more ideas. Illness, tiredness and a growth slowdown all play a part too.

If your baby is still breastfeeding, milk remains an important part of their diet until at least the second birthday, as the WHO recommends. For toddlers, though, a lot of milk between meals can blunt their interest in food. Offering solid food before a milk feed can help.

A feeding set that makes mealtimes easier

Little hands love to explore, and plates tend to end up on the floor. Our Jolly Feeding Set is made from food-grade silicone and wood, with a suction base that grips the high chair tray so your baby can scoop, poke and practise without everything sliding away. It comes in cheerful colours, which some children find more inviting at the table. It also makes a lovely gift for a friend who is about to start weaning.

When to see your doctor

Picky eating on its own is rarely a medical problem. See your doctor or klinik kesihatan if your child:

• is losing weight, or dropping across the lines on the growth chart in their buku rekod kesihatan
• gags, chokes or vomits often with food
• refuses whole food groups and eats fewer than about 20 foods in total
• seems unusually tired, pale or unwell
• has meals that cause you or them real distress

Your doctor can check growth, look for problems such as anaemia or reflux, and refer you to a dietitian if you need more help. Most of the time, patience, repetition and calm meals do the work.