September 30, 2024 • 26 mins
Hosts:
Courtney Luecking, PhD, MPH, RDN Extension Specialist for Maternal and Child Health
Anna Cason, RDN, LD, Extension Associate for Food and Nutrition
Department of Dietetics and Human Nutrition, Martin-Gatton College of Agriculture, Food and Environment, University of Kentucky
Dr. Courtney Luecking and Anna Cason wrap up the SNACK Club series by diving into the fascinating world of sensory experiences and their impact on children's eating habits. This episode of Snack Club explores how using our senses can make food fun and engaging for kids.
The hosts discuss the eight senses—sight, sound, smell, touch, taste, balance, body awareness, and internal cues—and how each one plays a crucial role in the eating experience. They provide practical tips for parents to create a nurturing feeding environment, from celebrating small wins like a child touching a new food to creative ideas for making mealtime fun, such as food art and involving children in the kitchen.
Whether you're dealing with picky eaters or just looking to add a sense of adventure to your family's meals, this episode is packed with insights and strategies to help you raise a mindful eater. Embrace the mess, celebrate the small victories, and discover new ways to make food exploration a joyful journey for your kids.
So come for the SNACKS and stay for the SUPPORT!
To connect with Snack Club resources:
SNACK Club website
Big Blue Book Club Facebook Group
SNACK Club on YouTube
To Connect with FCS Extension:
UK Cooperative Extension County Offices
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Music
(00:00):
Big Blue Book Club presents SNACK Club with Courtney Luecking and Anna Cason, featuring
Raising a Happy, Healthy Eater and How to Raise a Mindful Eater. Now, here are our hosts.
Feeding children is an adventure. And at some point or another,
(00:24):
you might have had questions like, am I doing this right? Or is this normal?
Headlines, things we see online, things we hear from family and friends,
and even unpacking what we see in the store can have us questioning what to feed our children.
We want children to have what they need to lead happy, healthy lives.
And it seems like as soon as we figure something out, it changes.
(00:45):
That's where we come in. My name is Dr. Courtney Luecking. I'm a registered dietitian
and extension specialist for family and child nutrition.
This means I have lots of training and expertise about child nutrition.
I also have two littles of my own. This combination allows me to talk through
practical science-based strategies for creating a nourishing feeding environment for your family.
(01:07):
And my name is Anna Cason. I'm a registered dietitian and Extension Associate in Food and Nutrition.
I don't have kids of my own but my interests and passion lie in supporting healthy
food related behaviors which begin in childhood.
In partnership with the University of Kentucky Cooperative Extension Service,
we present SNACK Club where we share bite-sized bits of information for Supporting
(01:29):
Nourished Active Children in Kentucky.
So come for the SNACKS and stay for the SUPPORT.
Hi, Courtney. Hi, Anna. How are you? Doing well. How about you? Doing well.
This is a fun one. It is. And I love that we're ending our first part of this
series on this note, on a high note. It's fun.
(01:49):
And I think a sense of adventure, exploration, that's how we want to send people out into the world.
And it kind of ties up all the other things we've touched on and finding the
silver lining throughout all of them. Yes.
And so today we're going to be talking about letting the fun begin. Yes.
Using our senses to explore and experience food.
(02:11):
And I have to say, when I read this Raising a Healthy Happy Eater,
I loved that they had a whole chapter on the sensory experience.
Me too. I knew we had senses.
I've always heard five senses, I think, which people have.
They took it to another level there are
(02:31):
more than five yes newsflash there are more than
five yes yeah so might be a spoiler alert
for those or maybe not shocking to others yeah i think that's like the sense
of taste maybe we start there yeah the sense of taste because i think we used
to think there were only what four senses of taste there was sweet sour salty
bitter but now there's this fifth one. I remember being at a trivia contest.
(02:56):
I knew there was a fifth taste umami, that savory flavor.
And they said there were only four. And I was like, so we got it wrong because
of me. I convinced my group that there were five.
We can go back in the literature. There is evidence.
There's actually five. We didn't argue it. We were dead last anyway. So it was a moot point.
But anyway. But yeah, taste I think is one of the main ones. Yeah. Especially with,
(03:20):
eating. Yeah. Taste is important. Yes. And maybe one of the more final sensory
experiences that we taste leading up to it.
Yeah. So what was, let's talk about, we have eight senses and they are all integrated
through this sensory integration system.
So our brain is constantly receiving messages from all over our body and our environments.
(03:44):
And I love one of the examples, almost like a hair on your arm.
You may detect it at first, but over time you might become dull to it.
But it's just like all of the different processes that are happening in your
body and how your brain tries to make sense of it.
And I think what reading that really helped me better appreciate how overwhelming
(04:05):
it could potentially be to eat a new food.
Or just at a younger age when you're like growing into your body and your brain
is trying to a process, how to navigate all these senses that it's receiving.
Yes. It's a lot. It's a lot. I think about like a conference I went to recently
and eating lunch and it felt like a flashback to middle school, high school lunch.
(04:28):
You walked into a big crowded room, couldn't find any of my friends and you're,
you know, like your tray of food and you're like, well, I don't know where to
sit. There's a lot of noise.
The lights were dim. Like there was a lot of sensory experiences going on that
were like totally detracting from my interest or desire to eat.
Yeah. Well, I think about that even like in different environments,
I pay attention to the temperature a lot.
(04:49):
Like that is something that my body reacts to. If it's super cold in a room, I can hardly focus.
But if it's super hot, same thing. So it's all these different things that your
body is feeling and noticing. And then it kind of prioritizes like what...
Where it falls in the line of what do I need to react to and like really focus on.
So eating is, there's a lot going on. We're moving, we're putting new things in our mouth.
(05:14):
We're also seeing new things. We're hearing things, a bunch of different stuff
that's playing a role in this activity.
Yeah. So let's take a few moments just to talk through all of these different
senses and think about how they specifically relate to an eating experience.
I like to use that word because it is actually an experience.
Some are more elaborate than others. Yeah. What was one of the senses that you enjoyed reading about?
(05:41):
We'll stick with the basics first. Yeah, top five. So we talked about taste.
But I have some fun facts about taste. Okay, let me hear them.
So did you know that we can start to taste when we are babies in the womb?
Like during pregnancy in utero, babies start to taste amniotic fluid.
(06:01):
That's how early taste buds start forming. That is fascinating.
So just thinking about how our taste preferences begin so early in life.
Before we even know it. Yeah. Wow. Yes.
And then another fun fact, I learned this from previous career,
but that our gut has taste buds. They can like sense that sweetness.
(06:23):
We thought it was just on our tongue, but also in our gut. But we were doing
like intestinal samples to try to like look for and find those.
Wow. So it's really like a whole digestive process with taste.
Yes. Yes. A whole body experience.
Okay. I think those are my only fun facts. Those are fun facts.
Oh, one more. One more. Oh. And the book did talk about super tasters.
(06:45):
Oh, yes. I think it's really relevant when we're thinking about kids.
Yeah. There are these more bitter flavors. So if we think about those cruciferous
vegetables, the ones that smell awesome when you cook them in the office.
But you're like, who's making broccoli or Brussels sprouts?
Who's putting that up? Yes. Usually you get guilty as charged.
But those can have a more intense flavor. And one in four people are really
(07:05):
sensitive to that butter flavor.
I didn't realize it was that many. It is. And then about one in four are actually
not really sensitive at all.
And then everyone else kind of falls in the middle somewhere.
Okay. And there are some tests that you can do to kind of get a sense if you're a super taster.
But just something to think in mind is people, children and adults have really
strong reactions to some of those more bitterly coffee, for example, unsweetened coffee.
(07:31):
But it's another indication that if you're sensitive to it, all influencing
the choices that we make about what we like or what we don't like. Yeah. Interesting.
So sorry for that tangent. Just a little bit more. Fun facts.
I love them. So back to basics.
Sensitive. Seeing. That's another one. We have our eyes. We see things.
Everything around us. And then again, our body chooses to prioritize it on this
(07:57):
list and decide if it needs to react or respond to it.
So with the eating experience, this food's going to be in front of you.
And if it's a new food, it may look intimidating.
You may see it and that may be like a first signal.
You see it and it's something new and it's hesitant. You don't know if you want to try it.
And then other senses can play a role in deciding that. Yes.
(08:19):
And I think there's evidence then looking at the size of plates or the portion
of the plates or in the bowls and like, what do they say we eat with our eyes
rather than our stomach?
So I think sight is a really, you bring up a really good point when talking
about that one, whether it's new,
like the amount, or even, and just how quickly that turns to,
(08:42):
do I have previous experiences, like memory that we might have,
or the fear if we don't have anything that we can relate it to.
And thinking about like mixed dishes for little ones, it may be a familiar food,
maybe spinach or something.
But if it's cooked in a lasagna or a soup or something with other ingredients
too, they may not recognize that it is something they've had before.
(09:04):
And then it may maybe hasn't. And even if they've had all the foods before,
like in a lasagna, but if it's all together on their plate, it may be...
There may be some fear with it, understandably. I'm actually so glad you brought
this up because I've heard stories of parents like sneaking vegetables into dishes.
And while that can, the evidence behind that, like it can slightly increase
(09:27):
the amount of vegetables that children eat. At the end of the day, it usually backfires.
There's kind of like that evasion of trust that we talked about before.
And so while I appreciate that, I'm always looking for creative ways to get
vegetables in and being able to see them for what they are.
And experience them differentially as well as together is really important. Yeah, absolutely.
(09:49):
Okay. Taste, sight, hearing. Hearing, which I don't think we usually think of when it comes to food.
But like we were traveling for work this week and I kept hearing the pop of
the soda can or the pop can or like the twist of the bottle and the fizz.
And that just brings like there's something.
Yes. Yeah. Well, even thinking about like restaurants,
(10:11):
there are so many like marketing things that go into setting the dining experience in a restaurant,
something that I am not familiar with at all, but there's a level that they
play the music for a reason because you're supposed to be having this conversation over this table.
So like these other senses that we don't often think about, there are like specific
(10:33):
studies that look into them related to the eating experience and And we know
that they have a huge role.
It is wild. And that's something we can talk about with kids.
Like sound, like a crunch.
Just think about the crunch of like you take a bite and it's like, oh gosh.
And what does this food sound like if we take a bite or things like that?
So sound, it does play a role. It does.
(10:54):
Okay. Okay. Three down. Three down. We have smell. Smell. This one is interesting.
Yeah, it is. I saw like your questionable look. It could be either really great
or maybe not so great. Yeah, I know. I was thinking of an orange,
and then I went back to the cruciferous veggies, and then I immediately went to like...
Taking or drinking something that we don't like. And whenever we were younger,
(11:17):
they were like, oh, just plug your nose and drink the cough medicine or something
like something that. Yes.
So your point exactly is that smell and taste are so closely linked.
They go hand in hand. They do.
And the researcher that I worked with previously did taste and things like that.
She's like, no one has ever been born without the sense of smell.
(11:39):
Oh, that's interesting. It's really interesting now because with the lingering
effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, some people still can't really taste or smell.
And so it's really taken away that experiential part of eating.
Yeah, I haven't thought about that.
My father-in-law, he's like, how's that taste? He'll make something and he's
(11:59):
like, I can't taste it. Oh my gosh.
Years later. What a drastic change.
Wow. I know. Oh, but so the smell component and it can just bring back memories.
So think about like grandma's baked cookies or something.
And some of those can be really positive memories or it could be like that one
time you cooked me salmon and the smell was like offensive, you know.
(12:23):
Or burnt popcorn. Oh, yeah. Yeah.
So smells are powerful influence on our eating experience.
Yeah. Okay. Okay. And then thinking about touch, like the other,
kind of what I touched on.
No pun intended, touched on earlier, but like temperatures in the room,
(12:43):
that's not necessarily like fingertip touching what we may think of with like
that direct, but our body is feeling the air around us.
So there's that sense of like touch in some ways.
And so that also plays a role into to this eating experience.
Think about if you're in the 95 degree sunlight in the middle of the day,
that may impact how much you eat or your appetite versus if you were in an air-conditioned
(13:10):
room for that same meal. Absolutely.
And so being mindful of how we can make the environment comfortable when children
are eating in that regard and recognizing there's so many nerve of endings in our fingers.
And so that just touching with food, touching or playing with food,
don't play with your food.
There is something to be said for that. Now, do we want them like throwing it at the wall?
(13:32):
No, but I was even trying to celebrate this the other day with my oldest who's
eating less variety now than she was, but that like she was at least touching
it. And so we celebrated that win.
I'm like, awesome. Way to go. You know, what did it feel like?
Yeah, yeah, yeah. All right. So now diving into the like.
Nitty gritty of these nuisances. Yes, but that also play an equally important role.
(13:57):
So the vestibular, that inner ear, our balance system, we are sitting on these
tall chairs and so we're having to keep our balance and just especially our
youngest of children that are building that core strength.
If we don't have them in the right supportive high chair or booster seat or
thing, their legs are dangling.
We've talked about that before, but it can make it real. If you don't have a
(14:20):
strong core, then it's a lot harder to like get the food to the mouth and get
it old while you're eating. Yeah.
Kind of touching on like we did before, your body is prioritizing these things,
these senses to respond to.
So if you're imbalanced, if you don't feel stable, that could be at the top of the list.
So they may not be focused on eating whatever is in front of them because their
(14:42):
brain is like, hey, we got to get some stability in here before we can bring this fork to our mouth.
Absolutely. And so that bringing the fork to our mouth naturally translates
to the proprioceptive system or body awareness. Yeah.
I was thinking, I was like, how many times do I like miss my mouth?
And it ends up everywhere else. Yes. Always when I'm wearing a white shirt at work.
(15:04):
Yeah. Yeah. But you're okay today. Yes. So far. I'm not going. Yeah.
But yeah, it's that combination of fine and gross motor.
So we can kind of control what our arms and our trunk are doing.
And then we have those fine motor skills to bring that fork to our mouth instead
of like slipping to our chin or up our nose.
(15:24):
And those are a lot of skills that our youngest of eaters are developing.
But even as we get older and like just think about sometimes like growth spurts
and things, children are kind of reacclimating to their new bodies and awareness.
Yes. Yeah. Okay. And then our last one, we've talked about this a bit before,
but that interoception.
That internal awareness of hunger and satiety all that will influence whether
(15:50):
or how much a kid wants to eat at any given time yeah tapping back into those
internal cues that we've touched on a lot okay so our eight senses then just
to recap real quick our sight sound smell.
Touch taste and then we have our balance we have our body awareness and then
we have our hunger their insanity awareness.
(16:10):
All of them play a role in the eating experience. Yes.
And so when we're eating with children, thinking about these different systems
as a way of checking in, if something doesn't seem to be quite right,
is anything a little bit off with this?
Like, do they have a cold? Do they have a stuffy nose so they can't really take it?
Are they trying to keep their balance because we don't have the right chair
(16:32):
for them to sit in or foot support?
Or is Or is the fork too big for them to try to get into their mouth?
These are some ways that we can troubleshoot if things don't seem to be going as we anticipate.
Yeah. Kind of like our previous episode, managing that mealtime behavior.
It could be in response to one of these situations.
Sensory systems being off for whatever the reason may be.
(16:54):
And talked about this with our friends, but just kind of reinforcing that when
people have, or children have sensory processing disorders,
that that can really influence their experience around food and working with
professionals to find the right environment to support children as they're eating. Yeah.
Okay. So sensory experiences also helping them explore. So as they are eating,
(17:16):
what does that feel like in your mouth?
What does That sounds like when you chew it, tell me what it smells like.
Just really helping children explore and have a sense of wonder about the foods that they're choosing.
Yeah. And getting exposed in a variety of ways. Yes. Oh, yes.
Let's talk more about that because we so often focus on, did I swallow it and
(17:37):
did it go down to my stomach kind of thing? That that's like the measure of success.
But there's so many other ways to measure success of being exposed to a food.
Yeah. So like you mentioned, playing with the food, maybe it's a new texture.
And so they're learning about it through their fingertips versus in their mouth,
they're still getting exposed to it or just having this new food in front of
them and they're smelling it, like they're still getting exposed or seeing it for the first time.
(18:02):
So again, reframing how we think about food waste, yes, it may be sitting on
the plate at the end of mealtime, but they were still exposed to it.
So it's not a complete waste.
Absolutely. And so if you are at a point with children and eating that's feeling
very frustrating, maybe think about a celebratory chart that tracks all the
(18:22):
ways that they've interacted with the new food.
You've looked at it, you've had it on your plate, you've smelled it,
you've touched it, and then ultimately taste can be kind of that down the road. Yeah.
Now, there are other ways to have fun with food. The real fun.
I know that there's like a topic you love to talk about. So Anna,
tell me about fun ways to experience food outside of the mealtime.
(18:46):
Yeah. So stepping away from the kitchen for the time being, thinking about exposing
in ways even outside of the house.
So getting involved in the garden or learning about how food grows from the ground up.
Or we've talked about this before, just exposing them to foods at the grocery store and giving
them some role in the deciding factor of what foods you're going to buy for
(19:10):
the meal or getting them involved in the kitchen too whenever they're ready
at certain ages with different steps of preparing these foods.
So again, it's involving all these different sensory systems in a variety of ways.
So they are still getting exposed to new foods.
So ultimately, maybe they end up tasting it. and hopefully liking it. Yes.
(19:33):
That's like goal, hashtag goals. Long-term goals.
I love this because again, it's so easy to miss these opportunities in everyday
life because we're like, okay, get the meal made, serve the kids meal and move on.
And just not that every meal has to be long and drawn out and just like overly
elaborate, but by us spending so much time talking about this,
(19:55):
hopefully, I'm hopeful that people can take away way just a little bit about, oh, right.
Celebrate that this is happening. Recognize that this is happening.
Instead of focusing on the negative, we can focus more on the positive.
We've exposed to a new food. We've touched it. We've smelled it.
We've tasted it. We've played with it. Yeah. Celebrating the small wins.
(20:17):
Any other suggestions for playing with food?
So there are some ways to make art with your food, which is another good way
to be exposed to it and kind of.
Exposed in a variety of ways. So they may be touching it in a different way.
Perhaps they're using a full stick of celery and doing stamps with it.
(20:39):
And maybe normally when they're exposed to celery, it's bite-sized amounts where
they could actually eat it.
So getting exposed to the full vegetable, making stamps with it.
Or one of my favorites, Mr.
Potato Head. If you have the pieces lying around instead of the plastic potato,
it does take a little bit of muscle, but get a full potato and have them make
(21:00):
different faces with the potato.
So they're being exposed to it in a different way.
Yes, and if people are worried about waste, then you couldn't think about crafty
snack time where you give some dip and fruit or vegetables to children and allow
them to put it together, create something and then eat it.
Enjoy it yeah yeah okay so i
(21:21):
think oh you know what we didn't talk about
yet which is so important because playing with food can be messy yes and we're
here to tell you to embrace the mess which may hurt like it may you may have
a visceral reaction like oh i would yes like oh i can't handle that but embrace
it and i'm just thinking of babies partially because we're in that space base of life.
(21:44):
So will your teenager eat like this? Not necessarily.
So, but just like we would take pictures and with like yogurt,
for example, and just shoving it all over the face and all over the hands.
And I think we eventually just started stripping down the top too.
Cause it was just like a yogurt bath.
And my dad would be like, Oh my gosh, that goober or something like funny. And I'm like, yes.
(22:06):
And like she's learned, she's practicing feeding herself and she's just really
experiencing it. Some of it's getting into her mouth, the rest isn't,
but she's totally comfortable with it.
But I get it. It is kind of cringy because you're like, no, I have to give you a bath, maybe again.
All the steps. Yeah. Yes. But there are ways to-
Preemptively prepare for the mess. So kind of like you mentioned,
(22:28):
maybe infants, toddlers just eat at mealtime without a top on or with a rubber
bib or something, a silicone one that is easier to wipe up than the cloth fabric ones.
Or if you're in a high chair or underneath their seat at the table,
you can lay out a full tarp if you have it or a trash bag, empty trash bag,
(22:50):
put it there so that anything that ends up on the ground can easily be cleaned up.
Or if you have pets, there are just natural vacuums that are there to save the
day. We miss our pets now.
And then if older children are helping prepare things in the kitchen, that can be messy too.
And also embracing the mess there. But at that point, they're also developmentally
more capable of helping clean it up.
(23:13):
So again, like we've talked about this before, this assessing breathing and
just then helping children learn how to clean up that mess, Yes,
because that's all part of the process of creating and exploring and experiencing.
Well, Anna, this has been so fun. It has been.
Final remarks, closing remarks on making food fun. Yes.
(23:33):
Think about the senses. Again, all of these senses are playing a role in this
experience, and it is a true experience.
So think about if there is a mealtime behavior that you're really working to
manage, maybe think about the senses. is and perhaps there's a reason for it.
Or if there's not, just learn to embrace a mess that comes along with it and have fun with it. Right.
(23:57):
It's going to ebb and flow. It's a journey.
And I feel like that's why we wanted to close with this topic. It's a feeding journey.
And so if we can stay curious, if we can stay present or engaged in that through
experiencing the senses, is,
then we as adults can actually, I think, learn a lot along the way too,
(24:17):
or learn to like new things or see things in a new light and help our children
to feel more comfortable navigating the world and all the foods that are out there for them.
Yes. And get involved with foods in different ways outside of mealtime and maybe
in the kitchen at a different time also.
Yes. Well, we are so grateful to those who made it all the way through with us. Yes.
And we'd love to keep having conversations about topics that matter to people.
(24:42):
So email us at SNACK Club, S-N-A-C-K-C-L-U-B@uky.edu and let us know what's
on your mind or what you've been talking with friends about or what you have
questions about and we'd be happy to chat and explore those topics with you.
And some of the topics we've touched on today, there are additional resources like podcasts or.
(25:03):
Kids in the kitchen charts. So those will be linked in our show notes.
And as always, check in with your local Cooperative Extension office for more
information, ideas, activities, all the things.
All the things. Until next time. Yes.
Enjoy, have fun and embrace the mess. Yes. Thanks for joining us for another episode of SNACK Club.
Resources related to the topics discussed in this episode can be found on our
(25:26):
website linked in the show notes.
Your local Cooperative Extension Office is also a wealth of information and
can provide links to local resources.
If you have other topics you would like to hear about, send us a note at snackclub@uky.edu.
That's S-N-A-C-K-C-L-U-B@uky.edu.
(25:47):
And as a reminder, the digestible bits of information we share are like navigation
signs for your feeding journey, but you may need to contact a healthcare provider
for more personal advice.
And last but not least, special thanks to our team behind the scenes.
Mindy McCulley for bringing this audio and video file to life with her technology
skills and to the people through her marketing magic.
(26:08):
And to Kelli Thompson for her creative ability to turn one conversation into
our SNACK Club symbol. We hope to see you again soon.
Music
(00:00):
Big Blue Book Club presents SNACK Club with Courtney Luecking and Anna Cason, featuring
Raising a Happy, Healthy Eater and How to Raise a Mindful Eater. Now, here are our hosts.
Feeding children is an adventure. And at some point or another,
(00:24):
you might have had questions like, am I doing this right? Or is this normal?
Headlines, things we see online, things we hear from family and friends,
and even unpacking what we see in the store can have us questioning what to feed our children.
We want children to have what they need to lead happy, healthy lives.
And it seems like as soon as we figure something out, it changes.
(00:45):
That's where we come in. My name is Dr. Courtney Luecking. I'm a registered dietitian
and extension specialist for family and child nutrition.
This means I have lots of training and expertise about child nutrition.
I also have two littles of my own. This combination allows me to talk through
practical science-based strategies for creating a nourishing feeding environment for your family.
(01:07):
And my name is Anna Cason. I'm a registered dietitian and Extension Associate in Food and Nutrition.
I don't have kids of my own but my interests and passion lie in supporting healthy
food related behaviors which begin in childhood.
In partnership with the University of Kentucky Cooperative Extension Service,
we present SNACK Club where we share bite-sized bits of information for Supporting
(01:29):
Nourished Active Children in Kentucky.
So come for the SNACKS and stay for the SUPPORT.
Hi, Courtney. Hi, Anna. How are you? Doing well. How about you? Doing well.
This is a fun one. It is. And I love that we're ending our first part of this
series on this note, on a high note. It's fun.
(01:49):
And I think a sense of adventure, exploration, that's how we want to send people out into the world.
And it kind of ties up all the other things we've touched on and finding the
silver lining throughout all of them. Yes.
And so today we're going to be talking about letting the fun begin. Yes.
Using our senses to explore and experience food.
(02:11):
And I have to say, when I read this Raising a Healthy Happy Eater,
I loved that they had a whole chapter on the sensory experience.
Me too. I knew we had senses.
I've always heard five senses, I think, which people have.
They took it to another level there are
(02:31):
more than five yes newsflash there are more than
five yes yeah so might be a spoiler alert
for those or maybe not shocking to others yeah i think that's like the sense
of taste maybe we start there yeah the sense of taste because i think we used
to think there were only what four senses of taste there was sweet sour salty
bitter but now there's this fifth one. I remember being at a trivia contest.
(02:56):
I knew there was a fifth taste umami, that savory flavor.
And they said there were only four. And I was like, so we got it wrong because
of me. I convinced my group that there were five.
We can go back in the literature. There is evidence.
There's actually five. We didn't argue it. We were dead last anyway. So it was a moot point.
But anyway. But yeah, taste I think is one of the main ones. Yeah. Especially with,
(03:20):
eating. Yeah. Taste is important. Yes. And maybe one of the more final sensory
experiences that we taste leading up to it.
Yeah. So what was, let's talk about, we have eight senses and they are all integrated
through this sensory integration system.
So our brain is constantly receiving messages from all over our body and our environments.
(03:44):
And I love one of the examples, almost like a hair on your arm.
You may detect it at first, but over time you might become dull to it.
But it's just like all of the different processes that are happening in your
body and how your brain tries to make sense of it.
And I think what reading that really helped me better appreciate how overwhelming
(04:05):
it could potentially be to eat a new food.
Or just at a younger age when you're like growing into your body and your brain
is trying to a process, how to navigate all these senses that it's receiving.
Yes. It's a lot. It's a lot. I think about like a conference I went to recently
and eating lunch and it felt like a flashback to middle school, high school lunch.
(04:28):
You walked into a big crowded room, couldn't find any of my friends and you're,
you know, like your tray of food and you're like, well, I don't know where to
sit. There's a lot of noise.
The lights were dim. Like there was a lot of sensory experiences going on that
were like totally detracting from my interest or desire to eat.
Yeah. Well, I think about that even like in different environments,
I pay attention to the temperature a lot.
(04:49):
Like that is something that my body reacts to. If it's super cold in a room, I can hardly focus.
But if it's super hot, same thing. So it's all these different things that your
body is feeling and noticing. And then it kind of prioritizes like what...
Where it falls in the line of what do I need to react to and like really focus on.
So eating is, there's a lot going on. We're moving, we're putting new things in our mouth.
(05:14):
We're also seeing new things. We're hearing things, a bunch of different stuff
that's playing a role in this activity.
Yeah. So let's take a few moments just to talk through all of these different
senses and think about how they specifically relate to an eating experience.
I like to use that word because it is actually an experience.
Some are more elaborate than others. Yeah. What was one of the senses that you enjoyed reading about?
(05:41):
We'll stick with the basics first. Yeah, top five. So we talked about taste.
But I have some fun facts about taste. Okay, let me hear them.
So did you know that we can start to taste when we are babies in the womb?
Like during pregnancy in utero, babies start to taste amniotic fluid.
(06:01):
That's how early taste buds start forming. That is fascinating.
So just thinking about how our taste preferences begin so early in life.
Before we even know it. Yeah. Wow. Yes.
And then another fun fact, I learned this from previous career,
but that our gut has taste buds. They can like sense that sweetness.
(06:23):
We thought it was just on our tongue, but also in our gut. But we were doing
like intestinal samples to try to like look for and find those.
Wow. So it's really like a whole digestive process with taste.
Yes. Yes. A whole body experience.
Okay. I think those are my only fun facts. Those are fun facts.
Oh, one more. One more. Oh. And the book did talk about super tasters.
(06:45):
Oh, yes. I think it's really relevant when we're thinking about kids.
Yeah. There are these more bitter flavors. So if we think about those cruciferous
vegetables, the ones that smell awesome when you cook them in the office.
But you're like, who's making broccoli or Brussels sprouts?
Who's putting that up? Yes. Usually you get guilty as charged.
But those can have a more intense flavor. And one in four people are really
(07:05):
sensitive to that butter flavor.
I didn't realize it was that many. It is. And then about one in four are actually
not really sensitive at all.
And then everyone else kind of falls in the middle somewhere.
Okay. And there are some tests that you can do to kind of get a sense if you're a super taster.
But just something to think in mind is people, children and adults have really
strong reactions to some of those more bitterly coffee, for example, unsweetened coffee.
(07:31):
But it's another indication that if you're sensitive to it, all influencing
the choices that we make about what we like or what we don't like. Yeah. Interesting.
So sorry for that tangent. Just a little bit more. Fun facts.
I love them. So back to basics.
Sensitive. Seeing. That's another one. We have our eyes. We see things.
Everything around us. And then again, our body chooses to prioritize it on this
(07:57):
list and decide if it needs to react or respond to it.
So with the eating experience, this food's going to be in front of you.
And if it's a new food, it may look intimidating.
You may see it and that may be like a first signal.
You see it and it's something new and it's hesitant. You don't know if you want to try it.
And then other senses can play a role in deciding that. Yes.
(08:19):
And I think there's evidence then looking at the size of plates or the portion
of the plates or in the bowls and like, what do they say we eat with our eyes
rather than our stomach?
So I think sight is a really, you bring up a really good point when talking
about that one, whether it's new,
like the amount, or even, and just how quickly that turns to,
(08:42):
do I have previous experiences, like memory that we might have,
or the fear if we don't have anything that we can relate it to.
And thinking about like mixed dishes for little ones, it may be a familiar food,
maybe spinach or something.
But if it's cooked in a lasagna or a soup or something with other ingredients
too, they may not recognize that it is something they've had before.
(09:04):
And then it may maybe hasn't. And even if they've had all the foods before,
like in a lasagna, but if it's all together on their plate, it may be...
There may be some fear with it, understandably. I'm actually so glad you brought
this up because I've heard stories of parents like sneaking vegetables into dishes.
And while that can, the evidence behind that, like it can slightly increase
(09:27):
the amount of vegetables that children eat. At the end of the day, it usually backfires.
There's kind of like that evasion of trust that we talked about before.
And so while I appreciate that, I'm always looking for creative ways to get
vegetables in and being able to see them for what they are.
And experience them differentially as well as together is really important. Yeah, absolutely.
(09:49):
Okay. Taste, sight, hearing. Hearing, which I don't think we usually think of when it comes to food.
But like we were traveling for work this week and I kept hearing the pop of
the soda can or the pop can or like the twist of the bottle and the fizz.
And that just brings like there's something.
Yes. Yeah. Well, even thinking about like restaurants,
(10:11):
there are so many like marketing things that go into setting the dining experience in a restaurant,
something that I am not familiar with at all, but there's a level that they
play the music for a reason because you're supposed to be having this conversation over this table.
So like these other senses that we don't often think about, there are like specific
(10:33):
studies that look into them related to the eating experience and And we know
that they have a huge role.
It is wild. And that's something we can talk about with kids.
Like sound, like a crunch.
Just think about the crunch of like you take a bite and it's like, oh gosh.
And what does this food sound like if we take a bite or things like that?
So sound, it does play a role. It does.
(10:54):
Okay. Okay. Three down. Three down. We have smell. Smell. This one is interesting.
Yeah, it is. I saw like your questionable look. It could be either really great
or maybe not so great. Yeah, I know. I was thinking of an orange,
and then I went back to the cruciferous veggies, and then I immediately went to like...
Taking or drinking something that we don't like. And whenever we were younger,
(11:17):
they were like, oh, just plug your nose and drink the cough medicine or something
like something that. Yes.
So your point exactly is that smell and taste are so closely linked.
They go hand in hand. They do.
And the researcher that I worked with previously did taste and things like that.
She's like, no one has ever been born without the sense of smell.
(11:39):
Oh, that's interesting. It's really interesting now because with the lingering
effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, some people still can't really taste or smell.
And so it's really taken away that experiential part of eating.
Yeah, I haven't thought about that.
My father-in-law, he's like, how's that taste? He'll make something and he's
(11:59):
like, I can't taste it. Oh my gosh.
Years later. What a drastic change.
Wow. I know. Oh, but so the smell component and it can just bring back memories.
So think about like grandma's baked cookies or something.
And some of those can be really positive memories or it could be like that one
time you cooked me salmon and the smell was like offensive, you know.
(12:23):
Or burnt popcorn. Oh, yeah. Yeah.
So smells are powerful influence on our eating experience.
Yeah. Okay. Okay. And then thinking about touch, like the other,
kind of what I touched on.
No pun intended, touched on earlier, but like temperatures in the room,
(12:43):
that's not necessarily like fingertip touching what we may think of with like
that direct, but our body is feeling the air around us.
So there's that sense of like touch in some ways.
And so that also plays a role into to this eating experience.
Think about if you're in the 95 degree sunlight in the middle of the day,
that may impact how much you eat or your appetite versus if you were in an air-conditioned
(13:10):
room for that same meal. Absolutely.
And so being mindful of how we can make the environment comfortable when children
are eating in that regard and recognizing there's so many nerve of endings in our fingers.
And so that just touching with food, touching or playing with food,
don't play with your food.
There is something to be said for that. Now, do we want them like throwing it at the wall?
(13:32):
No, but I was even trying to celebrate this the other day with my oldest who's
eating less variety now than she was, but that like she was at least touching
it. And so we celebrated that win.
I'm like, awesome. Way to go. You know, what did it feel like?
Yeah, yeah, yeah. All right. So now diving into the like.
Nitty gritty of these nuisances. Yes, but that also play an equally important role.
(13:57):
So the vestibular, that inner ear, our balance system, we are sitting on these
tall chairs and so we're having to keep our balance and just especially our
youngest of children that are building that core strength.
If we don't have them in the right supportive high chair or booster seat or
thing, their legs are dangling.
We've talked about that before, but it can make it real. If you don't have a
(14:20):
strong core, then it's a lot harder to like get the food to the mouth and get
it old while you're eating. Yeah.
Kind of touching on like we did before, your body is prioritizing these things,
these senses to respond to.
So if you're imbalanced, if you don't feel stable, that could be at the top of the list.
So they may not be focused on eating whatever is in front of them because their
(14:42):
brain is like, hey, we got to get some stability in here before we can bring this fork to our mouth.
Absolutely. And so that bringing the fork to our mouth naturally translates
to the proprioceptive system or body awareness. Yeah.
I was thinking, I was like, how many times do I like miss my mouth?
And it ends up everywhere else. Yes. Always when I'm wearing a white shirt at work.
(15:04):
Yeah. Yeah. But you're okay today. Yes. So far. I'm not going. Yeah.
But yeah, it's that combination of fine and gross motor.
So we can kind of control what our arms and our trunk are doing.
And then we have those fine motor skills to bring that fork to our mouth instead
of like slipping to our chin or up our nose.
(15:24):
And those are a lot of skills that our youngest of eaters are developing.
But even as we get older and like just think about sometimes like growth spurts
and things, children are kind of reacclimating to their new bodies and awareness.
Yes. Yeah. Okay. And then our last one, we've talked about this a bit before,
but that interoception.
That internal awareness of hunger and satiety all that will influence whether
(15:50):
or how much a kid wants to eat at any given time yeah tapping back into those
internal cues that we've touched on a lot okay so our eight senses then just
to recap real quick our sight sound smell.
Touch taste and then we have our balance we have our body awareness and then
we have our hunger their insanity awareness.
(16:10):
All of them play a role in the eating experience. Yes.
And so when we're eating with children, thinking about these different systems
as a way of checking in, if something doesn't seem to be quite right,
is anything a little bit off with this?
Like, do they have a cold? Do they have a stuffy nose so they can't really take it?
Are they trying to keep their balance because we don't have the right chair
(16:32):
for them to sit in or foot support?
Or is Or is the fork too big for them to try to get into their mouth?
These are some ways that we can troubleshoot if things don't seem to be going as we anticipate.
Yeah. Kind of like our previous episode, managing that mealtime behavior.
It could be in response to one of these situations.
Sensory systems being off for whatever the reason may be.
(16:54):
And talked about this with our friends, but just kind of reinforcing that when
people have, or children have sensory processing disorders,
that that can really influence their experience around food and working with
professionals to find the right environment to support children as they're eating. Yeah.
Okay. So sensory experiences also helping them explore. So as they are eating,
(17:16):
what does that feel like in your mouth?
What does That sounds like when you chew it, tell me what it smells like.
Just really helping children explore and have a sense of wonder about the foods that they're choosing.
Yeah. And getting exposed in a variety of ways. Yes. Oh, yes.
Let's talk more about that because we so often focus on, did I swallow it and
(17:37):
did it go down to my stomach kind of thing? That that's like the measure of success.
But there's so many other ways to measure success of being exposed to a food.
Yeah. So like you mentioned, playing with the food, maybe it's a new texture.
And so they're learning about it through their fingertips versus in their mouth,
they're still getting exposed to it or just having this new food in front of
them and they're smelling it, like they're still getting exposed or seeing it for the first time.
(18:02):
So again, reframing how we think about food waste, yes, it may be sitting on
the plate at the end of mealtime, but they were still exposed to it.
So it's not a complete waste.
Absolutely. And so if you are at a point with children and eating that's feeling
very frustrating, maybe think about a celebratory chart that tracks all the
(18:22):
ways that they've interacted with the new food.
You've looked at it, you've had it on your plate, you've smelled it,
you've touched it, and then ultimately taste can be kind of that down the road. Yeah.
Now, there are other ways to have fun with food. The real fun.
I know that there's like a topic you love to talk about. So Anna,
tell me about fun ways to experience food outside of the mealtime.
(18:46):
Yeah. So stepping away from the kitchen for the time being, thinking about exposing
in ways even outside of the house.
So getting involved in the garden or learning about how food grows from the ground up.
Or we've talked about this before, just exposing them to foods at the grocery store and giving
them some role in the deciding factor of what foods you're going to buy for
(19:10):
the meal or getting them involved in the kitchen too whenever they're ready
at certain ages with different steps of preparing these foods.
So again, it's involving all these different sensory systems in a variety of ways.
So they are still getting exposed to new foods.
So ultimately, maybe they end up tasting it. and hopefully liking it. Yes.
(19:33):
That's like goal, hashtag goals. Long-term goals.
I love this because again, it's so easy to miss these opportunities in everyday
life because we're like, okay, get the meal made, serve the kids meal and move on.
And just not that every meal has to be long and drawn out and just like overly
elaborate, but by us spending so much time talking about this,
(19:55):
hopefully, I'm hopeful that people can take away way just a little bit about, oh, right.
Celebrate that this is happening. Recognize that this is happening.
Instead of focusing on the negative, we can focus more on the positive.
We've exposed to a new food. We've touched it. We've smelled it.
We've tasted it. We've played with it. Yeah. Celebrating the small wins.
(20:17):
Any other suggestions for playing with food?
So there are some ways to make art with your food, which is another good way
to be exposed to it and kind of.
Exposed in a variety of ways. So they may be touching it in a different way.
Perhaps they're using a full stick of celery and doing stamps with it.
(20:39):
And maybe normally when they're exposed to celery, it's bite-sized amounts where
they could actually eat it.
So getting exposed to the full vegetable, making stamps with it.
Or one of my favorites, Mr.
Potato Head. If you have the pieces lying around instead of the plastic potato,
it does take a little bit of muscle, but get a full potato and have them make
(21:00):
different faces with the potato.
So they're being exposed to it in a different way.
Yes, and if people are worried about waste, then you couldn't think about crafty
snack time where you give some dip and fruit or vegetables to children and allow
them to put it together, create something and then eat it.
Enjoy it yeah yeah okay so i
(21:21):
think oh you know what we didn't talk about
yet which is so important because playing with food can be messy yes and we're
here to tell you to embrace the mess which may hurt like it may you may have
a visceral reaction like oh i would yes like oh i can't handle that but embrace
it and i'm just thinking of babies partially because we're in that space base of life.
(21:44):
So will your teenager eat like this? Not necessarily.
So, but just like we would take pictures and with like yogurt,
for example, and just shoving it all over the face and all over the hands.
And I think we eventually just started stripping down the top too.
Cause it was just like a yogurt bath.
And my dad would be like, Oh my gosh, that goober or something like funny. And I'm like, yes.
(22:06):
And like she's learned, she's practicing feeding herself and she's just really
experiencing it. Some of it's getting into her mouth, the rest isn't,
but she's totally comfortable with it.
But I get it. It is kind of cringy because you're like, no, I have to give you a bath, maybe again.
All the steps. Yeah. Yes. But there are ways to-
Preemptively prepare for the mess. So kind of like you mentioned,
(22:28):
maybe infants, toddlers just eat at mealtime without a top on or with a rubber
bib or something, a silicone one that is easier to wipe up than the cloth fabric ones.
Or if you're in a high chair or underneath their seat at the table,
you can lay out a full tarp if you have it or a trash bag, empty trash bag,
(22:50):
put it there so that anything that ends up on the ground can easily be cleaned up.
Or if you have pets, there are just natural vacuums that are there to save the
day. We miss our pets now.
And then if older children are helping prepare things in the kitchen, that can be messy too.
And also embracing the mess there. But at that point, they're also developmentally
more capable of helping clean it up.
(23:13):
So again, like we've talked about this before, this assessing breathing and
just then helping children learn how to clean up that mess, Yes,
because that's all part of the process of creating and exploring and experiencing.
Well, Anna, this has been so fun. It has been.
Final remarks, closing remarks on making food fun. Yes.
(23:33):
Think about the senses. Again, all of these senses are playing a role in this
experience, and it is a true experience.
So think about if there is a mealtime behavior that you're really working to
manage, maybe think about the senses. is and perhaps there's a reason for it.
Or if there's not, just learn to embrace a mess that comes along with it and have fun with it. Right.
(23:57):
It's going to ebb and flow. It's a journey.
And I feel like that's why we wanted to close with this topic. It's a feeding journey.
And so if we can stay curious, if we can stay present or engaged in that through
experiencing the senses, is,
then we as adults can actually, I think, learn a lot along the way too,
(24:17):
or learn to like new things or see things in a new light and help our children
to feel more comfortable navigating the world and all the foods that are out there for them.
Yes. And get involved with foods in different ways outside of mealtime and maybe
in the kitchen at a different time also.
Yes. Well, we are so grateful to those who made it all the way through with us. Yes.
And we'd love to keep having conversations about topics that matter to people.
(24:42):
So email us at SNACK Club, S-N-A-C-K-C-L-U-B@uky.edu and let us know what's
on your mind or what you've been talking with friends about or what you have
questions about and we'd be happy to chat and explore those topics with you.
And some of the topics we've touched on today, there are additional resources like podcasts or.
(25:03):
Kids in the kitchen charts. So those will be linked in our show notes.
And as always, check in with your local Cooperative Extension office for more
information, ideas, activities, all the things.
All the things. Until next time. Yes.
Enjoy, have fun and embrace the mess. Yes. Thanks for joining us for another episode of SNACK Club.
Resources related to the topics discussed in this episode can be found on our
(25:26):
website linked in the show notes.
Your local Cooperative Extension Office is also a wealth of information and
can provide links to local resources.
If you have other topics you would like to hear about, send us a note at snackclub@uky.edu.
That's S-N-A-C-K-C-L-U-B@uky.edu.
(25:47):
And as a reminder, the digestible bits of information we share are like navigation
signs for your feeding journey, but you may need to contact a healthcare provider
for more personal advice.
And last but not least, special thanks to our team behind the scenes.
Mindy McCulley for bringing this audio and video file to life with her technology
skills and to the people through her marketing magic.
(26:08):
And to Kelli Thompson for her creative ability to turn one conversation into
our SNACK Club symbol. We hope to see you again soon.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
New Heights with Jason & Travis Kelce
Football’s funniest family duo — Jason Kelce of the Philadelphia Eagles and Travis Kelce of the Kansas City Chiefs — team up to provide next-level access to life in the league as it unfolds. The two brothers and Super Bowl champions drop weekly insights about the weekly slate of games and share their INSIDE perspectives on trending NFL news and sports headlines. They also endlessly rag on each other as brothers do, chat the latest in pop culture and welcome some very popular and well-known friends to chat with them. Check out new episodes every Wednesday. Follow New Heights on the Wondery App, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to new episodes early and ad-free, and get exclusive content on Wondery+. Join Wondery+ in the Wondery App, Apple Podcasts or Spotify. And join our new membership for a unique fan experience by going to the New Heights YouTube channel now!
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.