Picky Eating Dietitian and Nutritionist
Registered dietitian and nutritionist for picky eaters of all ages
Registered dietitian and nutritionist to help manage picky eating behaviour through a variety of effective personalized strategies.
Can a dietitian and nutritionist help picky eaters?
Yes, a registered dietitian and nutritionist can help picky eaters and their parents by providing effective personalized nutritional interventions and support to help manage the behaviour.
How can a dietitian and nutritionist help picky eaters?
A dietitian and nutritionist who works with the adolescent population can help provide nutritional support in many ways, including:
- Receive nutritional counselling individually, with a parent or together with your whole family.
- Receive education from a dietitian for picky eaters about the behaviour and its causes, and the most suitable strategies to help manage it.
- Have a pediatric nutrition dietitian assess picky eating behaviour.
- Help explore food likes and dislikes and expand the person’s food repertoire.
- Discuss with the dietitian meal planning strategies to support the picky eater–consider family style meals instead preparing different meals to the selective eater.
- Allow the dietitian and nutritionist to assist the family with food exposure guidelines: strategies to introduce disliked foods up to ten times in hopes of eventually coming to accept them.
- Making food more fun: encourage loved ones to help prepare, serve or display food in fun and creative ways to encourage taking that brave first bite.
- Work with a dietitian and nutritionist for picky eating on meal planning to help implement consumption of versatile and nutritious meals.
- Learn about “food bridges”: once a food is accepted, introduce others with similar colour, flavour and texture.
- Consider pairing a liked food with a disliked food in hopes of gaining some traction with the flavour combination, a technique called “food chaining”.
- Ensure your loved one consumes nutritious and balanced meals most of the time, while allowing space for “fun foods” as well on the family meal plan.
- Break from bribing children to eat disliked foods in exchange for a treat: this strategy tends to backfire over the long run, making liked foods more prized and disliked foods more aversion prone.
- Avoid food fights at the table, by creating a calm environment more conducive of addressing selective eating dynamics.
- Review your vitamin and mineral supplementation practices in hopes of correcting possible micronutrient deficiencies.
- Have a picky eating dietitian and nutritionist answer any questions you may have.
- Monitor progress throughout.
- And more.
Dietitians on Picky Eating Behaviour
Parents seeking help for their kids struggling with picky eating are bombarded with complex language around naming the eating challenge. We hear about picky eating, selective eating disorder or avoidant restricted food intake disorder (ARFID).
While studies indicate up to 50 percent of toddlers and about 27 percent of older children demonstrate picky eating habits, most youngsters outgrow eating challenges without experiencing any negative consequences on their nutritional status, growth or social development. If eating difficulties persist into adulthood, further investigation may be necessary.
Eating struggles become a major concern, when food choices become severely limited and attention to taste, texture, appearance and smell of food act as a further barrier to eating. Without professional intervention, affected individuals can develop nutritional deficiencies, experience significant weight loss, malnutrition, and stunted growth. As with these dynamics the suspicion of ARFID arises, seeking the help of a specialized health care team becomes paramount.
At JM Nutrition, our pediatric dietitians provide support for picky eating behaviour.
Other and Related Services
In addition to working with a dietitian and nutritionist for picky eating behaviour, consider these services.
Work with a picky eating dietitian and nutritionist
Select the practitioner whose specialty you feel best suits the needs of your child.
If you require guidance in this area, we can certainly help. Book free consultation.
Contact us to request an appointment with one of our dietitians and nutritionists.
Fill out the intake form and return it back to us prior to the appointment.
Important: The appointment with a pediatric dietitian is typically 1-hour long, unless your adolescent is approaching the adult age. In this case, he or she may fall under the packages and pricing guidelines for adults. We encourage you to make this decision with your adolescent child.
Children’s Fees: The fee for one session and email follow-up with resources with a registered dietitian who focuses on pediatric nutrition is $175 (this service is tax exempt).
If your child is approaching the adult age, you may consider the packages and pricing that apply to adults.
Learn more about packages & pricing for adults.
Depending on the age, the parent does not have to be present during the entire appointment.
After the appointment, our practitioner will conduct an email follow-up, unless your child undertakes one of the packages for adults.
The email will include valuable information and resources:
- a summary of appointment session notes
- meal ideas and recipes (including plant-based options, if desired)
- picky eating behaviour strategies
- tips on how to increase vegetable intake
- help with meal scheduling
- other pertinent information
Should you want to book more ongoing sessions, you can certainly do so.
Free Consultation
Schedule a free, no-obligation phone consultation during which we can:
- Outline how the process works
- Discuss your goal(s)
- Explain how billing and pricing work
- Address concerns about insurance
- Help you select a practitioner
- Answer any other questions
- And more
Get started
Learn about our dietitian and nutritionist for picky eating
How much does a dietitian and nutritionist for picky eating cost?
The fee for a personalized session and email follow-up with resources with a registered dietitian who focuses on picky eating is $175 (this service is tax exempt).
If your child is approaching the adult age, you may consider the packages and pricing that apply to adults.
Where to Find Our Dietitian and Nutritionist for Picky Eaters
You can book an appointment with a picky eating dietitian and nutritionist in-person at one of our locations in Ontario, Nova Scotia and British Columbia at one of the below offices.
Office Locations
Virtual Support for Picky Eating
You can also choose to book sessions with an online dietitian and nutritionist.
We also provide nutritional counselling virtually to the residents of other provinces: Alberta, Saskatchewan, MB, New Brunswick, NL, PEI, Quebec and the territories.
For more information on the services offered in each city and service area, visit: