If you are home with your kids right now (and assuming you’re reading this during the COVID-19 pandemic, you probably are) you know that kids eat way more often than the three mealtimes during the day. Your kids’ food schedule might actually look like this:

• Pre-breakfast snack 

• Breakfast 

• Snack 

• Planned healthy snack (Or goldfish for the 17th time this week, no judgment here) 

• Snack

• Snack 

• Lunch (child picks at it) 

• Snack 

• Snack 

• Snack (Does 1.5 fruit snack gummies count as a snack???)

• Dinner (You cook a homemade meal, child asks for frozen chicken nuggets) 

While I can’t guarantee your child will stop loving goldfish (or ask for chicken nuggets at dinner) I can offer you some behavior analytic tips to help your child be more independent during mealtime & snack time. 

Manipulate the environment 

This is my favorite proactive tip for decreasing the frequency of your kids asking for a snack. Get some large containers, boxes or big ziploc bags and fill them with portion-sized snacks for your kids that they can grab during the day. Feeling fancy? Make separate containers for each of your kids, color code them or label them so they know which is theirs. You can also put a sippy cup or water bottle in their bin so that you are not washing cups all day. Fill with healthy but preferred choices so they don’t fill up on junk food but also happily get their own snack. Make this work for you; maybe keep them on the countertop but enlist your oldest child with giving the younger ones snacks from their respective bins. Keep a bin in the refrigerator with other options such as cheese sticks & yogurt.  Of course, praise your child for being independent when you see them getting their own snack or helping their sibling! 

Teach them to make it themselves

My favorite way to teach a child a simple recipe is using step by step pictures (in ABA we call this a task analysis). Print out picture steps for your child (if needed). These pictures can also be used as visual choices when they are deciding what to make for lunch. Have the ingredients easily accessible to your kid and keep them in the same place so they can find it easily. Walk your child through the recipe a few times, pointing to the steps as you make it with them and then...let them do it themselves! Here are some ideas of food your kid can make themselves.  

Assign Roles During Mealtimes

Lessen some of the setup and cleanup of mealtimes by assigning kids a role during meals. This creates a team mentality, fosters independence, and is a great chance for the kids to learn all that goes into a meal. For younger kids stick to giving them the same job for several meals so they can get a chance to really master it! Then switch the jobs up or give them additional responsibility.

Some ideas for set up: getting forks and spoons out for everyone, putting napkins out on the table, getting condiments out of the fridge and putting them on the table, putting plastic plates or cups out

Some ideas for clean up: collecting the silverware and putting it into the sink (or dishwasher), collecting all the napkins and putting them into the garbage, putting their own plate/cup by the sink, wiping the table off, sweeping under the table

When your kids do things themselves, mistakes will happen and it’s bound to be imperfect but that’s okay! Praise their effort and their actions! They are learning life skills and doing their best (and so are you!)