CRUNCH, SQUISH, AND SQUEEZE: SENSORY PLAY IDEAS FOR FOOD TEXTURE SENSITIVITY
As a parent, introducing new food items can be a challenge. But, it doesn’t have to be! Sensory play is incredible for working with food texture sensitivities it incorporates hands-on play using different textures and different types of food.
Sometimes, kids just need a little extra encouragement to explore foods that don’t fit their typical preferences and that’s where sensory play ideas come in! Using sensory play to introduce new textures can help ease that initial hesitation. It’s easy to turn it into something fun and inspiring, rather than uncomfortable or scary.
That’s why today, I’m excited to share a round-up of some of my favorite, go-to sensory play ideas that can help little ones become more comfortable with food. Whether you’re working on picky eating or you just want to expand your sensory play toolbox, these activities are fantastic for making food fun, while taking advantage of confidence-building experiences!
Crunch, Squish, and Squeeze: Sensory Play Ideas for Food Texture Sensitivity
Before we dive into play ideas, I’m going to quickly discuss what food texture sensitivity is. Knowing why our little ones find certain textures intimidating or overwhelming can help better explain why sometimes mealtime can feel like a battle.
When we approach these aversions to food with empathy and creativity, we’re able to help our kids feel more confident, understood, and inspired to take that leap of trying new foods!
What is Food Texture Sensitivity?
Food texture sensitivity is when a child is more sensitive to specific food textures, which can ultimately make trying new foods seem overwhelming or even unbearable. And when trying new textures is overwhelming, it unfortunately limits the amount of foods you’re able to incorporate during meal time. Texture plays a key role in food acceptance, especially in our little ones who are exploring these foods and textures for the first time.
For some kids, texture aversions are just a part of development. But for little ones with sensory processing disorder (SPD), these feelings can be more intense due to hypersensitivity when interpreting sensory information commonly mixed up with just general “picky eating”.
The good news is that repetitive and positive exposures to different textures can help kids become more comfortable over time! Occupational therapy tends to use play-based approaches to introduce new sensory food through gentle methods.
So, on that note, you don’t have to be an occupational therapist to make meal time work for your little ones, (phew!) you just have to be willing to get creative. Let’s dive in!
10 Food Sensory Play Ideas for Foot Texture Sensitivity
Edible Marshmallow Slime
The squishy and sticky texture of the slime makes it perfect for food play plus, slime is loaded with other developmental benefits, too! It’s a win-win!
This yummy and engaging activity just uses marshmallow, coconut oil, and powdered sugar. This activity is so fun and intriguing, even your picky eaters will want in on the fun!
Slime is fantastic for tactile exploration. It can help to desensitize kids to sticky or gooey textures, which is SUPER beneficial when you’re incorporating foods like peanut butter.
Goop Play
The magic of goop lies in the fact that it’s solid when you squeeze it, but it’s liquid when you just leave it sitting! How cool, right?! Grab your goggles and roll up your sleeves, it’s time to unleash your inner mad scientist!
This scientific sensory play idea just needs cornstarch, water, and food coloring. That’s it! If you want to make this activity even more enriching, add small toys for your little one to search for! This allows them to dig through the goop and really get their hands in it.
The inconsistency of the mixture can improve your little one's tolerance for varied sensations, demonstrating that foods can vary in texture, too! Like puddings or thicker sauces, for example. As an added bonus, this activity is also great for STEM education!
Taste Safe Squishy Blocks
Gelatin is the perfect base to use for food play because it introduces kids to wobbly and slippery textures. Using hands-on activities like this can make them more comfortable trying similar feeling foods later on things like grapes, or even scrambled eggs!
All you need is clear gelatin powder, food coloring, parchment or wax paper, and containers to fit the gelatin into. Cut them into large blocks, and lay them out for your little ones to enjoy!
The bright colors make this activity more appealing, and the squishy nature of the blocks makes them more desirable to play with. You could also use Jell-O instead of clear gelatin to encourage actually trying the food (and to give your little ones a sugary little treat!).
Taste Safe Paint
This activity is excellent for experimenting with cold and creamy textures, which mimics food like cottage cheese or smoothies. You can even customize the base, making the experience more beneficial for your kid’s specific needs.
By using pudding, yogurt, or even whipped cream, just add a few drops of food coloring to your item of choice and you’ll get an edible alternative to traditional, messier paint. Just keep your hawk eyes out for this activity since the pudding and whipped cream are higher in sugar.
Allowing children to finger paint with these foods provides them a low-pressure space to interact with the textures, without worrying about having to eat the food right then and there.
Colorful Spaghetti Pull
I have a special place in my heart for this activity, because it’s one of the ones that really helped Nicky with her eating habits. It’s a hit every time!
Start off by following my colorful noodles DIY so you get fun-colored spaghetti. After you do that, follow it up by pouring a Jell-O mix into a parchment paper lined bowl, add in your colored spaghetti, leave some of the ends out, and refrigerate it until it sets.
The act of pulling the spaghetti out of the Jell-O works to introduce kids to chewy foods in a non-overwhelming way. Between the array of colored noodles, the texture of the Jell-O, and the opportunity to watch the strands magically appear, it’s super riveting.
Naturally Dyed Cloud Dough
One of my favorite ways to make this activity more engaging is by creating an edible beach-themed project out of it! It’s super fun, and extra interactive.
By combining cooked flour, vegetable oil, and food coloring, you have an edible beach scene that’s even better than the actual beach you won’t have to worry about kids ingesting real sand with this one.
You can throw in blue Jell-O to mimic the beach, add in goldfish crackers for fish, use sunbathing teddy grahams on the sand the options are endless! The dry and “sandy” texture mimics the textures of baked doughs or crumbly cheeses, perfect for food play.
Ice Painting DIY
Playing with ice will offer a cold, slippery, and firm texture that can introduce kids to temperature differences with food! This tends to be beneficial when you want to incorporate foods like popsicles, frozen fruits, or smoothies.
You can make taste safe ice paint by filling up an ice cube tray with water, adding a few drops of food coloring into each cube, and adding in half of a popsicle stick. Wait for them to freeze, and then allow your little ones to have some fun with them on plain white paper!
Playing with ice builds tolerance to colder sensations, which helps kids feel more comfortable when encountering foods of similar textures and temperatures during meal times.
Ice Cream in a Bag
Another cold-textured item that’s perfect for littles with food texture sensitivities is ice cream! And instead of buying ice cream that contains unhealthy and artificial ingredients, we can make a healthier alternative at home!
With half & half, rock salt, sugar, and different mix-ins, you and your kiddos can create ice cream in a bag! You can add in things like strawberries, chocolate chips, oreos, blueberries whichever ingredients you want your kids to explore!
By paving the way for trying chilled foods, you can later introduce things like yogurt, applesauce, and even custards.
Veggie People
Using veggies to make little figures and people isn’t just a fantastic way to get your kids to try vegetables, it’s also a fun way for them to experience a range of different textures!
Vegetables can be intimidating to little ones they’re not typically considered as fun or as yummy as ice cream in a bag, right? But here’s the thing… they can be. Just make little figures out of the veggies! Use a cucumber slice for the head, a celery stick for the body, carrots for the arms and legs, and cherry tomatoes for the hands and feet.
This is a fantastic (and healthy) way to allow kids to physically feel the different textures as they’re sorting out the different vegetables. Eventually, this may spark curiosity on how these foods will feel as they eat them!
Fruit Faces
This is similar to our veggie activity, but it uses different fruits to create faces rather than veggies to create people. It’s super simple, quick to create, and enjoyable to try out!
Grab a paper plate and lay out your fruits in separate containers so your kid is able to easily identify them. You can do things like use orange slices for the eyes, a banana slice for the mouth, blueberries for the cheeks, strawberry slices for the hair, and maybe even granola for the body if you want to introduce a crunchier texture.
Same kind of idea as the veggie activity playing with fruits can lead your little one to wondering about their taste! It also allows them to be more comfortable with the textures in general, which is fantastic for confidence-building during food play.
Which play ideas will you be using for your food texture sensitive little ones?
Food texture sensitivities can be difficult to work around at times, but play ideas that incorporate food can help with this! By repetitively introducing new textures in fun and engaging ways, it allows your little one to gain comfortability and confidence when trying these foods later on.
Sensory play is a fun and entertaining way to aid little ones in the different journeys they embark on no matter what they may be! For more food-themed activities and craft ideas, visit the Mothercould blog! And don’t forget to download Mothercould In Your Pocket for endless play recipes, engaging activity packs, and helpful tips and tricks!