Picky eaters can make meal time a nightmare for the entire family. Kids with special needs often have good reasons to be reluctant eaters—sensory sensitivity issues, food allergies, or oral aversions due to feeding tubes or invasive oral medical procedures. Whatever the reason for pickiness, parents need lots of tools in their toolbox to help their children learn to enjoy food.

Preschoology Offers Help

Stefanie, blogger at at Preschoology, a mobile app company devoted to helping young children learn social skills, reviewed 3 apps designed to encourage picky eaters. The reviewer is a school psychologist who tested the apps on her young clients. For each app, she answers the following 3 questions and gives 1 opinion:

• What does it do?
• Who is it for?
• How would I use it?
• Why I love it.

3 Apps to Encourage Picky Eaters

Here are the 3 recommended apps and a summary of Stefanie’s review of each.

1. Toca Kitchen Monsters by Toca Boca: Though this app wasn’t specifically designed to aid picky eaters, it allows very young children, even under age 3, to explore food in a non-threatening, fun way. The app graphics are gorgeous and engaging and very intuitive to use.
2. Choose My Food by Haymachine Entertainment: This app was specifically designed for kids with food sensitivity issues. It allows them to choose foods from a selection of food visuals and earn virtual stickers by eating real food. Stefanie ends the review by saying, “the designers of the app are in touch with the the fact that certain populations of children avoid even the most basic of foods.”
3.  LaLa Lunchbox: Children can use this app to plan what will be in their lunch box each week. It can help children communicate the foods they like and don’t like with their parents. It’s a useful tool for preparing shopping lists and can help families get out of menu ruts.

What Picky Eater Apps Have You Found?

Do you know of other apps that encourage picky eaters? If so, leave a comment for the rest of us. Happy eating!

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