Mum reveals why letting kids play with their food might help clean their plate at dinnertime
By Julia Etherington and Kelsey Karolyi for Dailymail.Com
18:57 Mar 16, 2023, updated at 19:20 Mar 16, 2023
- Miriam Sandler reveals how you can get kids to eat food they don’t like
- The Florida-based mom said you should add food coloring to their meals
- She also noted that letting them play with their food would help
A mum-of-three has revealed how you can teach the picky eaters in your home to feast on foods they don’t like.
Miriam Sandler, of Miami, Florida, is starting to use social media to help empower others and share tips for kids to develop skills through connection and play.
Through her own parenting experience, the 31-year-old figured out how to get kids to clean their dishes at the dinner table.
Myriam – who has amassed over 2 million followers across social media – often shares her tricks to get kids to eat more and revealed that letting your kids play with food before dinner time will make them more likely to have fun.
Parenting tricks of the century! How can a mom teach you how to get your kids to eat food they don’t like and remove stains
How do you get your kids to eat foods they don’t like?
Use food coloring to die out fun food colors
Let them play with it before dinner time so they get used to seeing the food on their plate
How to get permanent marker graphics on walls and furniture
Spray the wall with SPF 100 sunscreen and use a cloth to wipe the stain.
Repeat until the stain is gone.
The marker will fade without removing any of the paint.
How to get rid of saliva from clothes Soak it in warm water with white vinegar. Watch the slime melt!
Then wash as usual.
How to revive a leftover pen without its cap
To revive washable felt-tip pens that have dried out because the cap was left on, simply pour water into the cap.
Put it back on the pen, let the pen stand at the bottom, uncapped for a few hours, and it will be like a brand new felt tip.
How to make colored rice to keep it for years
Measure out 1 cup of dry rice for every tablespoon of white vinegar.
Add it to a plastic bag and add a few drops of food coloring. Shake well and place to dry on a flat tray lined with parchment/wax paper, then children can play with it.
How to get crayon marks on walls
Use window/glass cleaner and scrub with a cloth.
Repeat until the crayon is gone.
Myriam’s journey began when her first child, Nicole, reached the age of one and only drank milk, refusing to eat any solid foods.
The influencer, who is also mom to Emma, five, and Ariana, 17 months, who she shares with Mark, 37, claims doctors brushed off her concerns and simply said her daughter was still growing.
So, she set out to find a solution on her own.
When she learned her daughter had a tissue allergy, she tried to change her child’s perception of food.
She explained that by adding food coloring and letting her children play with their food before dinner, they began to see it as fun.
‘Having worked with children with ADHD,’ she said, ‘I realized that sensory play is an effective way to introduce texture and engage a child.
I knew her favorite texture was water because she loved the bath, so I started with water-based toys and slowly introduced new textures.
“I made the water blue using food coloring and added some toy ducks to make it a pond.”
I changed textures every three to four days to keep playing fun and fresh.
“I created the recipes in my kitchen, making play dough and clay that was edible, colorful pasta so you could get a feel for texture through play, not at the dinner table.”
Eventually, Miriam’s hard work began to pay off.
She said, “Babies put everything in their mouths, so she quickly got used to these textures and by the time she got to the dinner table she was trying real pasta and actually enjoying it.”
Within a few months, Nicole was eating all kinds of foods like salmon and quinoa.
Myriam said: “We were overjoyed that we had come out of this difficult stage.
Nicole enjoyed mealtimes, which meant we all started to enjoy meals together as a family.
Buoyed by her parental win, Miriam created Mothercould, where she shares her recipes and ideas for sensory play with videos made in her own kitchen.
She said: “Sensory play will capture a child’s imagination for long periods of time because they use all their senses and it is an open-ended game.
“The moment I realized sensory play was working for my daughter was my ‘mom’ moment.”
Miriam indicated that she was glad she was holding her own gut when trying to figure out how to get her baby to eat.
We’ve tried literally every type of solid; Yogurt, soup, baby food, it doesn’t matter, said the mother.
She refused all of that. It was very stressful.
“Although Nicole was healthy, we were very concerned about her not eating and her refusal to even touch the food.”
Her degree in psychology and her experience helping children with disabilities helped her realize that her daughter had a tissue allergy.
Using her techniques, the mother spent months exposing her daughter to various substances until she succeeded.
Then the mommy set out on a mission to share other parenting hacks.
I’ve helped teach parents how to remove marker from walls, how to remove slime from clothes, and even make colorful rice.