5 Activities to Help with Sensory Aversions During Feeding
Feeding time should be a learning and nourishing experience, but for some children, it’s a major source of stress due to sensory aversions. This is when certain textures, smells, colors, or temperatures of food feel overwhelming to your child. Whether your child gags at the sight of vegetables or avoids all wet foods, you’re not alone. The good news is, there are gentle, play-based strategies that can help.
Here are five practical and fun activities that support children with sensory aversions during feeding:
1. Food Play Without Pressure
Before a child can eat a food, they often need to feel comfortable just being near it. Try introducing non-threatening, no-pressure food play.
Try This:
Create food faces using fruits and veggies.
Let your child squish yogurt with their fingers or paint with purées.
Use cookie cutters to make fun shapes from sandwiches or cheese slices.
Why it helps: Food play helps children become familiar with the look, smell, and feel of foods in a safe, low-stress way. This builds trust and desensitizes their sensory system (the part of their body that is able to “make sense” of new sights, smells, or textures) over time, making them more likely to try new foods.
2. Oral Sensory Warm-Ups
Before meals, give your child’s mouth a chance to “wake up” with oral-motor or sensory prep. This can regulate their sensory system and make eating feel less stressful.
Try This:
Use a NUK™ brush or z-vibe (our favorite!) to gently stimulate the lips, cheeks, and tongue.
Blow bubbles or use straws to sip thick liquids like smoothies or applesauce.
Chew on chewable toys or crunchy snacks like pretzel sticks or veggie straws.
Why it helps: These activities help the muscles in your child’s mouth become active and ready to accept the food you’re giving them. They also help balance your child’s sensitivities, making their mouth more prepared to accept new textures.
3. Messy Sensory Play (Away from the Table)
Engaging in sensory-rich play with non-food materials helps children build tolerance and decrease defensiveness. These are skills that will translate directly to mealtime.
Try This:
Play with kinetic sand, slime, or water beads.
Explore shaving cream, finger paint, or mud.
Use a sensory bin filled with rice, beans, or pasta.
Why it helps: Messy play builds tolerance to different textures and improves your child’s overall ability to process and accept new sights, smells, sounds, or textures. This can reduce reactions to food textures later.
4. Food Exploration Bins
Rather than using a traditional sensory bin, try making it food-themed. This is a great stepping stone for kids who are resistant to touching or smelling food.
Try This:
Create a bin with dry pasta, cereal, marshmallows, or whole fruits and vegetables.
Add kitchen tools like tongs, scoops, or measuring cups to encourage interaction.
Include play dishes to model pretend cooking or feeding dolls.
Why it helps: Food play encourages your child to explore using their hands in a structured but playful setting, helping to gradually build comfort and curiosity about food.
5. Modeling and Mealtime Routines
Sometimes the best activity is simply letting your child observe and participate at their own pace. Regular, predictable mealtimes with positive modeling can make a huge impact.
Try This:
Eat together and talk about how food smells, feels, and tastes.
Avoid pressure to eat and instead just offer the food and let them decide what to do with it.
Use consistent routines, so your child knows what to expect.
Why it helps: Predictability and positive modeling can reduce anxiety. Over time, your child may mimic your behavior, from touching to tasting and eventually eating.
Getting Started
Progress with feeding aversions doesn’t happen overnight, but with consistency, patience, and the right sensory-rich activities, your child can begin to feel safer and more in control at mealtime. These strategies are not about forcing a child to eat, but supporting their sensory journey so they can eat confidently when they’re ready.
If you're unsure where to start, Turning Tides Speech Therapy in Pensacola can help! Our team of speech therapists can help support you and your child with all of your feeding challenges. Give us a call or use the link on our website to book a free consultation today.