Eat potato
Potato is rarely the same two dinners running, it can be mealy, wet, hard at the edge or completely dry. For a child who reads food with their mouth that difference is enough to stall the whole meal, and the steps below move slowly.
♂Boy eating a potato
Close view of a boy taking a bite of a potato.
About this visual support
A child who eats potato without blinking one day and pushes the plate away the next is not being difficult on purpose. Boiled potato keeps changing character: floury and dry once, wet and glossy the next time, and the skin feels different depending on how long it sat. The mouth registers that difference long before the head gets around to thinking it is the same food as yesterday.
Visual support stops the eating from being a jump straight into the unknown. A picture of the potato, one of cutting it into smaller pieces, one of tasting and one of taking more or putting it down shows your child there is a way back if it does not feel right. A tip that belongs specifically to potato: let your child cut the piece themselves with the fork before tasting, because a potato they have already pressed on and felt is far less of a surprise in the mouth.
In the Routined app you can put the visual support inside the dinner routine and let your child tick off the steps at the table. Fourteen days are free to try.
Use this image in a schedule
Build your own visual schedule with this image and download it as a print-ready PDF. Completely free.
More similar visual supports
Cards and dinner
A smiling girl with voluminous curly hair holding playing cards in one hand and ...
Cereal and yogurt
A bowl of cereal with yogurt, a spoon, a milk carton, and a small yogurt cup nex...
Dinner
A plate of food, including a chicken drumstick, peas, and potatoes, placed betwe...
Dinner in car
A person sits in a car, eating from a red bowl with a yellow spoon.
Dinner time
A girl sits at a table eating food from a plate with a fork.
Eat
A person eating a piece of toast.
Eat and drink
A child takes a bite of a bun and drinks from a cup with a straw.
Eat lunch
An illustration of a girl eating lunch, with a sandwich, an apple, a lunchbox, a...