National Food Days are great fun with picky eaters

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Did you know that every month of the year has wonderfully obscure "national" food titles? Dig hard enough on Google and you'll even find a month's worth of individual "national" ___________ food days throughout the month. It's a feeding therapist's dream come true. I'm finding that January is quite the month for food related fun. 

I had no idea that January is:

• National Oatmeal Month
• National Hot Tea Month
• National Soup Month
  

Now, some of you might be thinking "yeah, so? What's the big deal? So there are special food months and days, how is THIS knowledge going to help me with my picky eater?" Well, many of you know that I'm all about Food Literacy for the Picky Eater {TM} to help kiddos learn about new foods in a fun, pressure-free way. Celebrating these national food months and days is a wonderful way to help your picky eater become more food literate. For example, using the list above, here are some ideas for each:

• National Oatmeal Month: TALK about it! Take a virtual field trip to learn what oatmeal is. If you live in an area where you can visit a real live oat farm, do it!  Shop for oatmeal, making sure to buy more than one kind if you can {steel cut is VERY different than regular oats}. Play in it {dry works best} Kids, especially picky ones,  need to experience foods with all senses BEFORE the food gets to the mouth or we ask them to "try it." Get in the kitchen and bake cookies, make baked oatmeal, try making different flavors-always making sure to serve the new food {oatmeal} alongside their tried and true foods so THEY choose to try the oatmeal on their own terms and not because someone is pressuring them to. Learn more about the Division of Responsibility here. 
• National Hot Tea Month: Again, take a virtual field trip to see where tea comes from and how it's made. So many of our kiddos think food just magically appears in a box all ready to eat. Tea is a great way to explore MANY different fruit flavors. Make iced, hot and sun tea. Talk about how some teas, when brewed, are darker or lighter than the others. How do they each smell? Visit a tea shop that has all of the teas in large glass containers or visit the tea aisle at your local grocery store. Talk about how many varieties there are. Have a tea party-just make sure that your child's favorite drink is included alongside the new drink {tea}. 
• National Soup Month: Watch a cooking show or a YouTube video of someone making soup. Learn about the history of soup. Who discovered it? Did our ancestors eat it? Get in the kitchen and make some soup. Begin with clear broth, in different flavors, as it is less intimidating that soup with a whole bunch of ingredients. Many reluctant eaters, and definitely those reluctant to try meats, will enjoy the savory flavor of broth which opens up the future to perhaps trying meat with the same flavor. Let the kids come up with their own soup recipe. Write it down on a recipe card or type it up and make a soup cookbook. 

Oh! Don't forget to celebrate these food related days this month as well, especially this first one! 

• January 27th-National Chocolate Cake Day
• January 29th National Corn Chip Day

Teaching food literacy to picky eaters can be FUN as demonstrated in this post. Who knows, you might learn something as well. Keep the focus on the fun and learning and not on the trying. Always, make sure to serve the food you are learning about with something you know they will eat so they do not feel pressure. Remember, you are rebuilding the trust and creating positive neurological connections around food, the kitchen or the table by taking advantage of brain plasticity. 

I'd love to know if you find any great virtual field trip lessons on any of the above. Please share if you do! 

Until next time, keep growing and blooming. 

Jen