I have been working hard to get my two boys to become less picky eaters. On is your basic picky eater but is learning to eat more fruits but still hates his veggies. The other refuses to eat both. I want them to eat healthy foods, but I also want them to enjoy what they eat.
We have done two rounds of eating therapy with the oldest. Consistently the same results; he eats for the therapist and fights with his parents. Overall not a significant level of improvement with our oldest. No one is happy at the dinner table on some days.
At one therapy session, they play a game with him. It was an effort to make eating more fun, and it incorporated the game into eating. Roll the dice, move the pieces on the game board and execute a couple of different eating challenges.
He would try the foods without much pushback and seemed to enjoy himself. I decided to recreate a similar game at home. Being a dad, I probably made it a little more complex than it needed to be, but we have had some good results.
The Rules
The rules are pretty straightforward.
- Execute the preferred behavior during dinner and get to roll the dice. In our case, we are asking the boys to try one fruit and one veggie at dinner which results in the opportunity to roll the game dice twice.
- The dice translated into points. The max possible each day is 12 points.
- Every time you get 12 points you get to draw a playing card from deck of cards.
- The playing card is then matched to a scratch-off sticker to reveal
You can decide what behaviors or actions you want to see to allow your kids to roll the dice. As stated above, I am trying to get my boys to be adventurous about what they eat. I want them to try one fruit and veggie each day.
You can also remove points if they do not sit straight. If they complain about the meal, remove some points. If they get up from the dinner table without asking, remove some more points.
Detailed Rules
Here are some more detailed rules you can download. I am attaching it in Microsoft Word format so you can modify it for your kids.
- Eat your veggies, roll the dice, move magnets to the good column.
- Eat your fruit, roll the dice, move magnets to the good column.
- If you get 12 points, pick a card, check your price.
- If you get up from your seat during dinner, move one magnet from the good column back to the bad column.
- If you complain about dinner, move one magnet from the good column back to the bad column.
- If you complain about going to school, move two magnets from the good column back to the bad column.
- If you start your homework late or fight about homework, move 4 magnets from the good column back to the bad column.
- If you say a bad word, move one magnet from the good column back to the bad column.
- If you return to 12 total bad points, you lose your iPad & Pokémon Cards for 1 day.
- Each time you return to 12 total bad points you lose your iPad & Pokémon cards for an equal number of days.
- If you eat all healthy snacks (no candy, chips, cookies, etc.) you can reduce your bad point penalty.
- Have fun!!!
How it is Going
The game has created some wins, but it has not had the impact I thought it would. I guess changing behavior and eating habits takes time. When the boys first started to play, the eldest had a run of luck. He was winning lots of prizes right from the start.
This caused the younger brother some anger, and there was a lot of crying about how the game was not fair. At first, I thought of changing the game to be a team effort, but then I realized it was teaching him a valuable lesson. Life is not fair sometimes.
You can put the same amount of work in as someone else but not get the same reward. It has also help reduced the unwritten requirement that if one of them gets a gift or award, the other should too. They have both adjusted that some days they get prizes and others days they do not.
The game has not been as successful in getting my oldest to eat more fruits and veggies. I did not want to create a game that rewarded them every time they ate the food on their plate. I tried to create a sense of real-world wins and losses by making a point system that would span multiple days and add randomness to the prizes awarded.
It also seems to hold their interest some days and not others. Additionally, if it is a food they do not want to eat, they say screw the game that day. They are more intelligent than their dad and know how to game the system.
Overall I would call the game a success because they are both not trying to eat more challenging foods at each meal. It is not a magic cure, but the game is fun.
Other Downloads and Supplies
Here is the template I used to create the prize boards. You can change this up if you would like.
- You can buy the scratch-off labels from this link on Amazon.
- The dice I ordered are at this link.
- I am using these Star Wars playing cards, but any deck of cards will do.
- These are the magnetic ScribbleDoo point boards I used to track scores.
- I am using these magnets.
Please enjoy and remember to track me on Patreon to comment or give me any ideas on how to improve this game!
The Day Warrior
