Christine Miroddi Yoder – Foodology Feeding Therapy
Podcast Transcript
Episode Air Date: March 23, 2026
Title: 20 Questions Parents Ask About Picky Eating
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Hi, my name is Christine, and I want to talk to you today about a lot of the questions we get when parents call us about their child’s eating.
Questions like:
Why does my child gag on food?
Why will they only eat snacks?
Did I cause this?
Is this normal?
When parents call us, they’re usually feeling overwhelmed, frustrated, and sometimes even a little guilty.
They’ve tried everything. Offering the food, hiding vegetables, saying “just one bite,” and nothing really seems to be working.
So today we’re going to play a little game called 20 Questions.
These are the exact questions parents ask us on calls every single week about picky eating, food refusal, sensory issues, gagging, and feeding aversion. I’m going to answer all twenty.
But as we go through them, you might notice something interesting. Many of these questions actually lead back to the same underlying issues.
Because picky eating usually isn’t just about the food. As I’ve said many times before, it rarely is.
Before we jump in, if you’re listening and thinking, “Wow, this sounds exactly like my child,” the best place to start is by taking our picky eater quiz.
It helps you figure out whether your child is in the Fearful, Stuck, or Curious stage of eating. The strategies that work for one stage can completely backfire in another.
You can take it at thepickyeaterstest.com.
Alright, let’s jump into question number one.
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Christine:
Question one: Is my child’s picky eating normal?
Some picky eating is normal, especially in toddlers. Kids naturally go through phases where they prefer familiar foods.
But we start to look more closely when picky eating includes extreme food restrictions, fear around new foods, gagging, or strong reactions at the table.
When mealtimes become very stressful for the whole family, that’s usually a sign that something deeper is going on.
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Christine:
Question two: My child only eats a few foods. Should I be worried?
Many parents tell me their child eats the same five, ten, sometimes even three foods over and over again.
What we look at is not just the number of foods, but the pattern.
If a child eats foods across different textures, colors, and food groups, that’s very different from a child who only eats crunchy beige foods.
The pattern tells us a lot about what might be happening underneath.
We also tell parents that the sooner you come to us when there are still more foods in the diet, the easier it is to expand it.
Waiting until a child only has one to three foods makes it much harder to rebuild.
Parents in our Stuck stage usually make progress faster, while parents in the Fearful stage may work with us for a year or longer.
That’s not always the case, but as a general rule, the fewer foods there are, the longer it takes to rebuild.
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Christine:
Question three: Why does my child refuse every new food?
New foods feel unpredictable to children.
Their brain interprets unfamiliar foods as potentially unsafe. Refusing the food is actually the nervous system trying to protect them.
This is why pressure to try the food often backfires.
One of the first things we suggest parents do is remove the pressure. Stop forcing bites.
We definitely do not do “no thank you bites,” especially with children in the fearful stage.
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Christine:
Question four: Why does my child say they hate food if they didn’t even try it?
I hear this all the time.
This is what we call anticipatory rejection. The brain makes a decision before the food even gets close to the mouth.
It’s often connected to sensory sensitivity or previous stressful experiences with food.
So the brain automatically refuses unfamiliar foods because unfamiliar sometimes equals unsafe.
Inside our program we pair new foods with positive experiences so the brain can relearn that new foods are safe and even fun.
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Christine:
Question five: Why does my child cry when I put food on the plate?
When a child cries just from seeing a new food, it tells us their nervous system is overwhelmed.
The goal at that moment is not tasting the food.
The goal is helping them feel safe enough to tolerate the food being nearby first.
Many people reference the “steps to eating,” from the SOS approach developed by Dr. Kay Toomey.
However, those steps are sometimes misunderstood.
They are not meant to be a behavioral ladder where we demand licking or biting a certain number of times.
Yes, there is a general order — tolerating food in the room, on the table, or on the plate.
But we never tie those steps to pressure.
When we do, we actually move backwards.
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Christine:
Question six: Why does my toddler panic when trying new foods?
This often happens with children in the fearful stage.
Their system simply isn’t ready for tasting yet.
What they need first is safety, predictability, and gradual exposure in a playful way.
Knowing what to say — and what not to say — when presenting new foods can make a huge difference.
That’s something we teach parents inside our program.
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Christine:
Question seven: How do I help a child who is scared of food?
The most important thing is reducing pressure.
When kids feel safe around food, curiosity can grow.
And that’s when you begin to see progress.
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Christine:
Question eight: Why does my child refuse dinner but ask for snacks later?
Sometimes children learn that refusing dinner leads to snacks later.
So their brain starts holding out for the food they prefer.
Creating consistent meal and snack structure can help prevent that cycle.
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Christine:
Question nine: Why will my child only eat snacks and not meals?
Snacks are usually very predictable.
They’re often crunchy and familiar.
Meals tend to involve mixed textures, new foods, and sometimes more pressure.
Snack foods are also easier from an oral motor perspective.
Think pretzels, crackers, chips, or goldfish.
They’re easier to chew than many whole foods.
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Christine:
Question ten: What do you do when your child refuses dinner?
The goal is not forcing bites.
But it’s also important not to become a short-order cook making multiple meals.
Our goal is helping families move toward one meal where everyone can eat at least part of it.
Structure and predictability help children feel safe and eventually more flexible.
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Christine:
At this point, if several of these questions sound exactly like your home, the most helpful next step is figuring out your child’s stage of eating.
We recently had a parent say another program kept doing exposure with her child, but the child was so fearful it became traumatic.
Exposure wasn’t the wrong step — it just happened too early.
Feeding is like building a house.
If you try to build the second floor before you have a foundation or walls, it simply won’t work.
A lot of parents were given strategies that may be correct, but they were given in the wrong order.
Our roadmap shows families the correct order.
You can start by taking the quiz at thepickyeaterstest.com.
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Christine:
Question eleven: Why does my child gag on certain textures?
Gagging can happen when food overwhelms the sensory system.
It can also happen when oral motor skills are still developing.
Gagging is a reflex. It’s not something children choose to do.
So we never assume it’s behavioral.
Instead, we identify which pillar is contributing — sensory, oral motor, gut health, or feeding experiences — and support that area.
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Christine:
Question twelve: My child chews food but spits it out. What does that mean?
Sometimes children chew but don’t feel comfortable swallowing.
The texture might feel unfamiliar or too difficult to manage.
Often we look closely at oral motor skills and sensory processing when this happens.
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Christine:
Question thirteen: Does my child have sensory issues with food?
Eating is a sensory activity.
You are smelling, touching, tasting, and seeing the food.
So sensory processing absolutely plays a role.
But feeding is complex and usually involves multiple systems working together.
Our job is identifying where your child is getting stuck so we can remove that block.
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Christine:
Question fourteen: What foods are good for sensory sensitive kids?
Instead of focusing on specific foods, we think about texture progressions.
Helping children move from familiar textures toward slightly new ones over time.
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Christine:
Question fifteen: Why won’t my child eat vegetables?
Vegetables are often more bitter, and bitterness is something our brains naturally reject at first.
They are also more fibrous and require stronger chewing skills.
Children with weaker oral motor skills may avoid them because they are harder to manage.
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Christine:
Question sixteen: How do I get my child to eat vegetables?
Pressure does not work.
Telling them vegetables are healthy or that they make you strong doesn’t change their nervous system response.
Instead we build curiosity, familiarity, and safety.
When children feel comfortable enough, they often try the food on their own.
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Christine:
Question seventeen: How do I get my picky eater to try new foods?
The strategy must match their readiness level.
Some children need to see, touch, or play with foods before they are ready to taste them.
Our job is removing the blocks preventing their natural curiosity.
Humans are naturally driven to explore food.
When that curiosity disappears, something is usually blocking it.
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Christine:
Question eighteen: Did I cause my child’s picky eating?
Parents ask this with a lot of guilt.
But picky eating is almost never caused by one thing.
It’s usually a combination of temperament, sensory sensitivity, feeding experiences, oral motor skills, and gut health.
It’s not fair or accurate to say it’s entirely the parent’s fault.
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Christine:
Question nineteen: Did giving too many snacks cause picky eating?
Snacks can influence eating patterns, but they are rarely the sole cause.
They are usually just one piece of a much larger puzzle.
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Christine:
Question twenty: Should I make my child eat what I cook?
This depends on your child’s stage.
Forcing a curious eater to try a bite is very different from forcing a fearful eater.
Children need structure, but they do not respond well to pressure.
Our goal is helping families move toward shared meals where the child can eat at least part of what the family is eating, sometimes in a modified form.
We always recommend including a safe food on the plate.
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Christine:
If you noticed something while we went through these questions, many of them connect back to the same underlying factors.
Nervous system safety.
Oral motor skills.
Sensory processing.
Feeding experiences.
That’s why quick tips rarely solve the problem.
If you’re not sure where your child falls in their eating journey, start by taking the quiz at thepickyeaterstest.com.
If you already know your child is in the Fearful or Stuck stage, you can learn more about our programs at foodologyfeedingtherapy.com/courses.
Inside the program we guide parents step by step to help their child move from fearful to curious and eventually become a foodie.
Remember, picky eating is not just about the food.
When you understand the why, it changes everything about your mealtimes.
Thanks for listening, and I’ll see you in the next episode.
