You’ve tried everything to help picky eaters try new foods. Bribing. Bargaining. Hiding vegetables in smoothies. Making airplane noises with the spoon. Nothing works, and mealtimes seem to be exhausting for  everyone. There’s got to be a better way, right?

Actually, there is. The best way to help picky eaters try new foods isn’t forcing or tricking. It’s using food exposure strategies that work with your child’s developing brain, not against it. Let’s explore practical, research-backed approaches that actually make a difference.

Understanding Food Exposure

Research shows it takes 10 to 15 exposures (and even up to 30) to a new food before a child will even try it. Many more exposures happen before they’ll truly accept it. Here’s the crucial part: the food exposure method doesn’t require eating.

Most parents offer a food three to five times. Their child refuses it. They give up thinking “my child hates broccoli.”

But food exposure means any interaction with a food. Looking at it counts, touching and smelling it counts. Even, helping you cook with it helps towards acceptance. Each time your child sees a food on their plate, even if they don’t eat it, that exposure builds familiarity and comfort over time.

When you understand this broader definition, the pressure comes off. Your child doesn’t need to eat the food today. They just need to be around it and interact with it in whatever way feels safe right now.

How to Use Food Exposure to Help Picky Eaters Try New Foods

This isn’t theory. Here’s what progress might look like with something simple, like broccoli:

Week 1: Your child pushes broccoli to the edge of their plate but doesn’t have a meltdown about it being there.

Week 3: They pick up a piece of broccoli to examine it, then set it back down.

Week 5: They touch it to their lips during a silly moment, making a face but not getting upset.

Week 7: They lick a small piece when their sibling dares them to, immediately reaching for their water.

Week 10: They take a tiny bite, chew it, and spit it out politely into their napkin or a “no thank you bowl”.

Week 12: They eat one small piece without complaint, though they don’t ask for more.

Week 15: They actually request “the little green trees” with their dinner.

This progression might happen over months, not days, and that’s completely normal. Each step forward is meaningful, even if it doesn’t look like “eating” yet. Celebrate small victories like smelling a new food, touching it with their finger, allowing it on their plate without complaint, or even just talking about it positively.

The Food Exposure Ladder: Steps to Help Picky Eaters Try New Foods

The most effective way to help picky eaters try new foods follows a gradual progression where each step builds on the last and creates safety before moving forward.

Step 1: Visual Exposure (Just Looking)

Start by having the food visible in your home. Put it in a fruit bowl on the counter, let your child see you buying it at the grocery store, and talk about it casually without any pressure.

“Look at these bright red strawberries! They’re so pretty.”

No expectations, just exposure. Children need to see foods many times before they’re comfortable even being near them, so visual familiarity is the first step to eventual acceptance.

Step 2: Being Near the Food

The next step involves having it at the table during meals. Put a small portion on a separate plate, not touching their food, and let them know they don’t have to eat it or even touch it.

“Here are the green beans we’re having. You don’t have to try them, they’re just going to be here while we eat.”

This step teaches children that food can be present without being threatening. Learning to tolerate its presence at the table is huge progress for many picky eaters.

Step 3: Touching and Exploring

When your child seems comfortable with a food being near them, encourage touching, but never force it. Make it playful and pressure-free.

“These green beans feel smooth and cool. Want to touch one?”

If they say no, that’s totally fine. Keep offering the opportunity without pressure. Some children benefit from exploring food through play outside mealtimes by sorting dried beans by color, using vegetables to make stamps in paint, or building towers with crackers. Play removes pressure while creating positive associations with different foods.

Step 4: Smelling

Smelling food is a critical step that many parents skip, but smell and taste are deeply connected. When children smell foods repeatedly, they become more comfortable with eventually tasting them.

“Want to smell this orange? It smells sweet and fresh.”

Let them smell foods while cooking, have them explore produce at the grocery store, and make smelling foods a fun, no-pressure exploration. This is especially important for children with right brain weaknesses since the right brain controls our sense of smell.

Step 5: Tasting (Finally!)

Only after your child has had multiple experiences with steps 1 through 4 should you encourage tasting, and even then, there’s a progression. First, they might just lick it or touch it to their lips. Then a tiny taste with no chewing required (they can spit it out). Next comes actually chewing and swallowing a small bite. Finally, eating a regular portion.

This gradual progression respects their sensory system and builds comfort and confidence instead of creating fear and resistance.

The Right Brain Connection: Using Smell to Help Picky Eaters

Here’s something most parents don’t know. For many picky eaters, especially extreme ones, right brain weakness plays a significant role in their eating challenges.

The right brain is responsible for our sense of smell, and smell connects directly to taste and food acceptance. Strengthening right brain activity can actually help calm the nervous system and improve a child’s sense of smell, which makes them more willing to try new things.

Right Brain Smell Exposure Activities

To help picky eaters try new foods, expose your child to more right brain stimulating smells. These specific scents help develop their sense of smell while also calming the nervous system and improving focus before meals.

Strong, clear scents that support right brain development:

• Coffee (let them smell coffee beans or fresh brewed coffee)
• Peppermint (essential oil or fresh mint leaves)
• Lemon and lime (fresh citrus, essential oils, or while cooking)
• Cedarwood (essential oil or natural cedar)

These aren’t just pleasant smells. They’re specifically chosen because they stimulate right brain activity, which helps with focus, calmness, and sensory processing.

How to Use Essential Oils

Here’s a simple strategy many families don’t know about. Place a small amount of high-quality, pure essential oil on your child’s right collar in the morning or before meals, using lemon or peppermint oil specifically. Avoid your child’s skin or eyes.

Why the right collar? The nerve that controls our sense of smell doesn’t cross over like other nerves do. Placing oil on the right side directly stimulates the right brain where smell processing happens.

This small intervention offers multiple benefits. It can calm your child’s nervous system before meals. It improves their focus at the table. It helps their sense of smell develop more fully. It also reduces anxiety around food, as well as in general.

Creating a Right Brain Supportive Environment

Beyond essential oils, create an environment that supports right brain development throughout the day. Switch out cleaning supplies and candles to use stronger scents like lemon or mint instead of floral scents. Use these scents during calm times like playtime, bath time, or during mornings before school, not just meals. Make it part of your routine. This is great for promoting regulation.

When children are calmer and more regulated throughout the day, they’re more willing to try new things. This includes foods. For more strategies on helping your child stay calm naturally, see: How to Calm Child Naturally: Brain Supporting Activities. Check out this blog for more ways to stimulate the right side of the brain for calming. Also check out this blog for more information on which children will benefit from “Brake Pedal” activities, and which children will not. See note on this blog on when to seek individual help for your child. 

The Division of Responsibility: Helping Picky Eaters Without Pressure

Along with food exposure, the Division of Responsibility approach creates a healthy feeding dynamic. This framework naturally encourages children to try new foods over time. Parents decide what foods are offered, when meals and snacks happen, and where eating takes place. Children decide whether they eat what’s offered and how much they eat.

This clear division removes power struggles completely. You’re not forcing your child to eat, and everyone has their role. When you consistently offer variety without pressure, children eventually become curious. They watch others eating and enjoying different foods. They feel safe enough to explore on their own timeline.

Want to learn more about implementing this approach? Check out: Reduce Mealtime Battles: Division of Responsibility Guide

Practical Strategies to Help Picky Eaters Try New Foods

Beyond food exposure and the Division of Responsibility, these specific picky eater strategies create an environment where children feel safe trying new things.

Serve New Foods with Safe Foods

Always pair new or non-preferred foods with at least one food you know your child likes. This ensures they won’t go hungry and removes some anxiety. If dinner is baked chicken, roasted broccoli, and rice, and your child only eats rice, that’s okay. They ate something. Keep offering the other foods without pressure. Eventually, curiosity and familiarity work together.

Try a “No Thank You Bowl”

A “no thank you bowl” gives children control while still creating valuable food exposure. Here’s how it works: place a small bowl next to your child’s plate where they can put foods they don’t want to eat.

The key is they can’t just point and refuse. They have to interact with the food first. Depending on where they are in their food exposure journey, you might ask them to pick it up and place it in the bowl, smell it before putting it in the bowl, or touch it to their lips first.

This strategy is brilliant because it removes the power struggle. Your child feels in control of what goes in their mouth, but they’re still getting exposure to the food through touch, smell, or proximity. Over time, these small interactions build familiarity and comfort. Many parents find their children eventually start tasting foods that have been in the “no thank you bowl” for weeks.

Let Them Serve Others

 Serve meals family-style when possible. Even putting a non-accepted food on someone else’s plate is exposure. Encourage them to choose what goes on their plate and their portions within reason.

Autonomy like this helps children feel safe enough to take risks with new foods.

Make Food Exploration Fun

Take pressure off by exploring food outside mealtimes. Garden together and let them pick tomatoes. Go to a farmers market and let them choose one new fruit to try. Cook together and let them smell, touch, and play with ingredients. Positive, low-pressure interactions like these build comfort and curiosity. Over time, this translates to willingness at mealtimes.

Model Adventurous Eating

Children learn by watching. Show them you trying new foods, even foods you’re not sure you’ll like. Talk about flavors and textures in positive ways. Some examples include: “This kiwi is sweet and a little tangy, I love the tiny seeds. Do you want to try a piece?” If they say no, that’s fine because watching you enjoy it matters, and that exposure counts.

Keep Meals Short and Pleasant

Long, stressful meals create negative associations with food, so aim for 20 to 30 minutes at the table. Keep conversation positive and unrelated to eating, and don’t comment on what or how much anyone is eating. Have fun and create laughter to disarm the fear response that may surround eating. Pleasant mealtimes help children relax, and when they relax, they’re more willing to try new things.

What NOT to Do When Helping Picky Eaters

Just as important as what works is knowing what doesn’t, because these common approaches often backfire.

Don’t force or pressure. Forcing creates power struggles and leads to more restrictive eating. Children who are pressured at meals typically eat less variety, not more.

Avoid making completely separate meals. Include safe foods at every meal, but don’t make entirely different dinners for each person. Offer variety and let them choose from what’s available.

Don’t give up after a few tries. Getting kids to try new foods takes 10 to 15 exposures minimum. Most parents give up at 3 to 5. Keep offering without pressure and trust the process.

When to Seek Additional Help

These strategies work for most children with typical picky eating. However, if your child shows signs of problem feeding, they may need professional support.

Consider professional feeding help if your child:

• Eats fewer than 20 different foods
• Gags or vomits with certain foods regularly
• Shows extreme anxiety around mealtimes
• Isn’t gaining weight appropriately
• Only eats one texture or color of food
• Has dropped foods and never added them back

To learn more about typical picky eating versus problem feeding, read: Picky Eating vs Problem Feeding: When to Worry About Your Child.

Helping Picky Eaters Try New Foods: Patience and Perspective

Learning how to help picky eaters try new foods is a long game. It requires patience, creativity, and a good dose of letting go. Some weeks you’ll see progress, while other weeks feel like steps backward. There will be meals where nothing gets eaten except the dinner roll. That’s okay because both patterns are completely normal parts of the process.

Focus on offering variety and maintaining pleasant mealtimes. Trust that your child will eat what they need over the course of days and weeks, not necessarily at each individual meal. Let their appetite naturally guide them to eat when they’re truly hungry.

The right brain smell strategies we discussed support this process. They calm your child’s nervous system and help their sense of smell develop. When children are calmer and their brains are developing in balance, they’re more open to new experiences. This includes trying new foods.

Most importantly, remember that you’re doing better than you think. Every parent struggles with feeding challenges at some point. By approaching mealtimes with patience and creativity rather than pressure and stress, you’re setting the foundation for a lifetime of healthy eating habits.

Your child’s relationship with food is a marathon, not a sprint. Take it one meal at a time. Celebrate the small wins and trust the process. Before you know it, you might find your little one surprising you by asking for seconds of something they refused just last week.

Want More Practical Tips for Mealtime Challenges 

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Note: Skidamarink Kids provides educational information based on research and clinical experience. This content does not replace professional medical advice. Always consult your child’s pediatrician or a qualified feeding specialist about your child’s specific feeding or neurological concerns.

-By Ali with clinical insights from Kendra