Surprisingly, yes. Praise around eating is often perceived by children as pressure, and it teaches them to eat to please you rather than to respond to their own appetite. Many children will swallow a food to earn praise without ever learning to enjoy it, then avoid it when nobody is watching. Eating isn't a pass or fail task, and keeping it neutral protects your child's own motivation.

What to say instead is a full week of the programme, with phrases to use at your own table and my support while the new habit beds in.

Less than you might think. Big congratulations can make the next refusal feel like a failure, so the aim is to notice without turning eating into a performance: a calm, neutral response, and curiosity about the food itself rather than praise for eating it. It sounds simple, but most parents find the right words don't come naturally in the moment, especially after months of cheering every bite.

In the language week of Picky Eater Parenting, I'll give you the actual phrases, and we practise them until they feel like yours rather than a script.

Mostly through what they see, rather than what you say. Children notice how often different foods appear, and that pattern teaches them more than any rule. Strict restriction tends to backfire: research consistently shows that restricted foods become more desirable, and children can end up preoccupied with them. A biscuit now and then, or a run of birthday parties, won't harm a child who otherwise eats a varied diet. The aim is to raise a child who can be around these foods confidently, because one day they'll be choosing for themselves.

Handling treats, parties and other people's rules calmly is one of the things we work through together during my course.

There's no magic number, and fixating on one can backfire. Some children need far more than seven tries, and some won't ever like a particular food, which is completely normal. If your child (or their childcare provider) has latched onto a specific number, it helps to keep the message broad: we're learning to try different foods, sometimes we like them, sometimes we don't, and that's okay.

In Picky Eater Parenting we look at what low-pressure exposure looks like for your child, and how to keep going when progress feels slow.

Toddlers have very short attention spans, so wandering mid-meal is developmentally normal and doesn't automatically mean they're finished or being difficult. What helps is a mealtime with a clear beginning, middle and end that your child can predict, rather than an open-ended meal that follows them around the house. 

Setting up a mealtime structure for your family, including what to say when they get down, is something we work through step by step together as part of the course.

This is really common, and it doesn't mean anything is going wrong. After a full day at nursery, many children are emotionally spent, so a big evening meal is a lot to ask of them. On these days, it's fine to serve a smaller, simpler meal that includes a food they reliably eat, with the focus on reconnecting after the day rather than on how much goes in.

Picky Eater Parenting will help you develop a plan around your family's real week, nursery days included, so progress happens at the times your child can actually manage it.

Because eating is physical work, and it's much harder when your body isn't stable. Poor support can also make a child restless or uncomfortable, so what looks like a behaviour problem (wriggling, getting down, losing interest after a few bites) is sometimes partly a seating problem. The right setup changes as children grow, and a lot of family seating isn't quite doing the job.

Seating is one small part of the mealtime setup we cover  as part of the course, so the environment is working for your child rather than against them.

Usually not on its own. Vegetables are the food children refuse most often: many are bitter, and they're less predictable than other foods, so they take longer to accept. What matters is the bigger picture, including how your child is growing and how varied the rest of their diet is. If the list of foods they'll eat is short, or getting shorter, that's worth getting support with sooner rather than later.

Picky Eater Parenting has a whole module dedicated to your child's nutrition, so you know where the real gaps are and where your energy is best spent.

Wet and mixed textures trigger a strong disgust reaction in lots of toddlers, partly because they can't see exactly what's in there or predict how it will feel. It's a common part of cautious eating, and some children are more sensitive to texture than others. It can shift with the right approach, but if it's limiting the family meals your child will eat, it's worth addressing rather than waiting it out.

During the course, we discuss everyday family meals for a texture-cautious child, without cooking separate dinners.

Try not to panic. Copying is how young children learn, and siblings often pick up each other's habits for a while, including the less helpful ones. Children whose eating wasn't a problem before usually settle back. The trickier part is running mealtimes so every child feels treated fairly, and that's where most families find a plan really helps.

It's one of the most common worries I hear. Children's appetites vary a lot from meal to meal, so intake is best judged over days and weeks. The worry is completely understandable, but it can quietly add pressure at mealtimes, which often makes eating harder. If you can't shake the feeling that something isn't right, that's a good reason to get support.

Managing your own worry is a big part of the programme, because it's usually what makes everything else so hard to stick to.

It's a question I'm asked a lot, and it's one number I won't give. Outside specific clinical situations, calorie targets aren't a helpful guide for young children: their needs change from day to day, and they're very good at balancing their own intake over time. 

Counting tends to make feeding more stressful, not less. If you're worried enough to be counting, it's worth stepping back and looking at the bigger picture with someone who can help.

If you're worried about how much your child eats, the course helps you look at the bigger picture of their growth and eating, and step away from counting.

It's very common, and in the moment there's often no way to tell whether it's hunger or a wish to stretch out the evening. What they've eaten across the day is usually a better guide than the request itself. If bedtime hunger is happening most nights, it's often a sign the daily rhythm around food needs some attention.

Holding bedtime and snack boundaries without it becoming a battle is part of how the programme helps you build a calm daily rhythm.

Not necessarily. Centiles describe where a child sits compared with others of the same age, and there's no good or bad centile. What matters more is the pattern over time, and how weight and height relate to each other. Reading growth charts takes experience, so if you're unsure, ask your health visitor or GP to go through your child's red book with you.

Sometimes, but not always, and more isn't better. The right choice depends on your child's age, what they're eating and sometimes blood results, and some nutrients, including iron, can cause problems in high doses. Supplements designed for adults are never suitable for children. It's worth getting advice for your own child rather than guessing, and working on broadening their diet at the same time.

The nutrition module of Picky Eater Parenting covers supplements and iron in depth, so you know what your child actually needs.

Yes. Constipation is a common and often overlooked reason for poor appetite and food refusal in young children, as feeling uncomfortable or full understandably reduces interest in eating. If you suspect it, speak to your GP, health visitor or pharmacist, as the right treatment depends on your child. Many children need treatment for a while, and that's nothing to worry about.

During the course, we cover how constipation and eating affect each other, alongside the dietary side of supporting both.