5 Products a Pediatric Dietitian Recommends for Helping Picky Eaters Try New Foods

While most children are used to eating with a fork or spoon, Turnbull believes they should also be using knives. Kid-safe knives, of course. 

“First, like I'm not giving my kid a knife, but they're made out of nylon, and I can literally put them across my hand, and they do not cut your hand,” she says. “Of course, you should always supervise your kids in the kitchen when they're working with things but I’ll get kids involved while prepping meals, or I'll give them the kid-safe knife at the meal to let them cut up their meal.”

Providing children with their own cutlery can help develop motor skills and there’s some research, Turnbull says, that points out it could help them develop better eating habits at the same time. 

“It's a really great opportunity to give them some skills in the kitchen and just so much research points to when our kids are in the kitchen and they make healthier habits, they eat more fruits and vegetables. So that is probably one of my number one tools for parents.” 

Turnbull can also point to some anecdotal evidence, saying her children have reached for food they’re prepping they may not have otherwise eaten. 

“I've seen it myself where my kids will eat things when they're helping me prepare foods that if I were to put it on their plate, they maybe wouldn't touch, but because they're involved, it's amazing to see how big of an impact that does make,” she says. 

Using the kid-safe knives may also make the progression to real cutlery a little more seamless. 

“Now my kids are just starting to use regular knives, like steak knives and stuff with supervision, but they've also had the confidence and the skills built using the kid-safe knives,” she says. “So that's why they're a great segue into using adult kitchen tools.”

Your child doesn’t need to eat food traditionally eaten with chopsticks to reap the benefits of using a pair, Turnbull says. 

One of the biggest benefits of the Genuine Fred Kids Chopsticks is they come in different animal designs, which you can use as a character if your child isn’t eating a particular food. The animal’s mouth open and closes each time the chopsticks are used. 

“Sometimes I tell parents, like, have your child feed the chopstick,” she says. “If they don't want to eat a food, like, well, feed it to your chopstick, like pretend you're feeding it.”

It can also be another way to help with hand-eye coordination and other life skills.

“Kids can practice picking foods up, moving them around, or serving themselves without ever being required to eat them,” she says. “Also works on fine-motor skills and exposes kids to different utensils and ways of eating.”

In addition to being fun, Turnbull adds they could also slow down faster eaters. 

The Joie Crinkle Cutter Knife is another kid-safe cutting tool that can be used to get your child involved in the kitchen, and provides a way to cut their favorite foods into fun shapes. 

“It essentially just cuts fruits and vegetables into like a wavy fry-like item,” Turnbull says. “So one of my biggest things is to make apple fries with them and it just changes them completely. Obviously, not the taste, but they're just so much more fun that way.”

The texture it creates may make it easier for toddlers to try different foods, Turnbull adds. 

“It's a great texture for them to hold on to as well,” she says. “It's just an easy way to change up foods and make them more fun and exciting for kids.”

In the same vein, Turnbull says a set of mini cookie cutters can be used for a lot more than making sweet treats. 

“It's just a really great way to like, again, easily change up how we're presenting food to kids, or you can let them use them at a meal and punch out different shapes, whether it’s cheese or cucumbers or whatever it is. It's a really easy way to make food a little bit more playful as well.” 

Anyone who’s ever tried to raise or babysit a toddler knows that keeping them in one place is easier said than done. The Guidecraft Contemporary Kitchen Helper could be a useful tool in having them stick around the kitchen counter while you’re prepping dinner, exposing them to new foods and culinary habits. 

“So essentially it's like a little stool that surrounds your child they can crawl up into and be at the counter,” Turnbull says. “So that really is helpful and safer for kids to be at the counter in that form or fashion to get them involved with, whether it's cooking or doing a project or something else.” 

Children can crawl in and out of the helper, or can be kept in place via one of the two keepers included. The platform can also be adjusted as your child grows and includes a non-slip safety mat. It can also be folded for easy storage. 

“We used it every single day when my kids were little enough to use that,” Turnbull says. “So that's something I always recommend like parents put on like a Christmas list for grandma or grandpa or something.”