20 Food Play Games to Help Picky Eaters Learn to Accept New Foods

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If your child runs from broccoli like it’s a villain in a movie, you’re not alone. Research suggests that nearly half of all children experience picky eating at some point in early childhood, and that pressuring them to eat rarely helps.

The good news? There’s a better way.

As a pediatric dietitian, I’ve seen how playful, pressure-free exposure can help kids go from refusing new foods to actually enjoying them. When we let kids touch, smell, explore, and play with food, we build comfort and curiosity, two of the biggest ingredients for learning to like new foods.

So grab some napkins, relax about the mess, and try one of these 20 fun food play games to help your picky eater warm up to new foods.

1. Food Tic-Tac-Toe

Lay out a 3x3 grid (you can use a paper plate or cutting board) and let kids use broccoli florets and carrot coins as their Xs and Os.
~ Why it works: Touching and handling new foods builds familiarity without pressure to taste.
~ Best foods: Broccoli, carrot rounds, cucumber slices, cherry tomatoes.

2. Make a Food Face

Let kids use ingredients to create silly faces on a plate; think banana smiles, blueberry eyes, and shredded carrot hair.
~ Why it works: It reframes new foods as something fun and creative.

~ Best foods: Fruits, veggies, shredded cheese, hummus, crackers.

3. The Color Challenge

Ask your child to find foods from every color of the rainbow and arrange them in order.
~ Why it works: Encourages variety and exposure to colorful produce.
~ Best foods: Strawberries or raspberries, oranges or carrots, yellow bell peppers or bananas, spinach or kale, blueberries, purple grapes, eggplant, or figs.

4. Mystery Smell Game

Blindfold your child (or have them close their eyes) and let them smell a few foods, with no pressure to eat. How many can they guess correctly? 

~ Why it works: Smelling builds sensory familiarity before tasting.
~ Best foods: Herbs like basil and mint, spices like cinnamon and cloves, citrus fruits, or maple syrup.

5. Dip & Discover

Offer a small sampler platter with dips such as hummus, baba ganoush, artichoke dip, ranch, and guacamole, and pair them with different veggies or crackers to explore textures and flavors. To make it even more fun, use a fun food pick like these cute ones from Dabbldoo*. 

~ Why it works: Dipping feels playful and gives kids control over every bite.
~ Best foods: Carrots, cucumbers, pretzels, bell peppers, crackers, snap peas, cauliflower florets, or celery sticks.

6. Edible Art

Let kids “paint” with food! Give them pureed fruits, yogurt, or colorful smoothies, along with a plate as their canvas.
~ Why it works: Reduces anxiety around food contact.
~ Best foods: Smoothies, applesauce, mashed sweetpotato, or beet puree.

7. Build-a-Bug

Use celery sticks as bodies, layer on a nut butter or cream cheese, and top with raisins, apple slices, or nuts/seeds (if safe for your child) to make “ants,” “caterpillars,” or “ladybugs.”
~ Why it works: Adds imagination and pattern recognition to eating.
~ Best foods: Celery, nut or seed butter, cream cheese, raisins, nuts, seeds, or mini chocolate chips.

8. Sensory Soup Station

Set up a pot or bowl filled with cooked noodles, peas, corn, rice, and beans, and give your child spoons and cups to scoop and stir (or, even better, let them use their hands).
~ Why it works: Messy sensory play builds tolerance for different textures.
~ Best foods: Cooked pasta shapes, canned beans, rice, peas, and corn.

9. Food Sorting Race

Set a timer and have your child sort foods by color, shape, or size.
~ Why it works: Sorting takes the focus off eating and turns food into a puzzle.
~ Best foods: Cereal, fresh, dried, or freeze-dried fruit, sliced veggies, nuts, seeds, or cheese cubes.

10. Make-Your-Own Mini Pizza

Lay out mini pita rounds, sauces, cheese, and toppings for a DIY pizza bar. If they don’t like the idea of eating pizza, you could have them be the chef and make a pizza for you or a family member.
~ Why it works: Builds autonomy and curiosity about ingredients.
~ Best foods: Tomato sauce, pesto, bell peppers, mushrooms, olives, cheese, spinach.

11. Crunch Olympics

Have a contest to see which foods make the loudest “crunch!” Then change it up and see who can crunch the quietest.
~ Why it works: Makes texture exploration fun and silly.
~ Best foods: Carrots, apples, crackers, pretzels, or snap peas.

12. Smoothie Scientist

Let your little one mix and match fruits (and even veggies and beans) in the blender to create their own “recipe.” Don’t forget to write down the recipe together so you can make it again!

~ Why it works: Gives control plus exposure to flavors in a familiar form.
~ Best foods: Frozen fruits, avocados, bananas, spinach, yogurt, milk, chia or flax seeds.

13. Taste Test Tournament

Offer two or three similar foods (like red vs. green apples or white vs. orange cheddar) and have kids vote for their favorite.
~ Why it works: Teaches comparison without labeling foods “good” or “bad.”
~ Best foods: Different varieties of apples or grapes, cheeses, or crackers.

14. Build a Food Tower

Challenge kids to stack food pieces as high as they can before they topple over. Try adding in a sticky dip like hummus or a nut butter to be the “glue.”
~ Why it works: Encourages touching and manipulating new textures.
~ Best foods: Cucumber or carrot rounds, apple slices, cheese cubes, celery or carrot as “logs” to build a “cabin”.

15. Picnic on the Floor

Lay out a blanket in the living room and have a snack picnic with finger foods.
~ Why it works: Changing the setting takes pressure off eating.
~ Best foods: Sandwich bites, fruit skewers, popcorn, or veggie sticks.

16. Shape Search

Cut foods into different shapes with cookie cutters and let your child guess each shape or build patterns.
~ Why it works: Visual novelty increases interest in trying a new food.
~ Best foods: Melon, cucumber, cheese, zucchini rounds.

17. Texture Hunt

Give your child a list of textures (smooth, bumpy, sticky, soft, crunchy) and task them with finding a food from the pantry or fridge that fits each.
~ Why it works: Expands comfort with diverse textures.
~ Best foods: Yogurt or applesauce (smooth), crackers or carrots (crunchy), banana or cantaloupe (soft), rice or nut butter (sticky).

18. Story Time Snack

Tell a story about a food’s “adventure,” like how a blueberry superhero rescues a pancake from the syrup “swamp,” then they adventure over the mountain (a biscuit) and find a pot of gold (melted butter in a ramekin). Encourage your child to act it out with their food.
~ Why it works: Engages imagination and positive associations.
~ Best foods: Pancakes, fruits, toast, veggies, or biscuits

19. Muffin Tin Buffet

Use a muffin tin to serve small samples of 6–12 different foods. Include a few foods that they already like and a few that are new or not preferred. Seeing variety in small portions can feel less intimidating.
~ Why it works: Encourages exploration without overwhelm.
~ Best foods: Crackers, cheese, berries, pasta, veggies, and dips.

20. Food Memory Game

Lay out pairs of matching foods (like two cherry tomato halves, two cucumber slices, two apple chunks), then mix them up and place them under small cups. Take turns finding matches.

~ Why it works: Makes visual exposure part of a familiar game.
~ Best foods: Any small cut foods in pairs.

Final Thoughts

Remember: the goal of food play isn’t to “get your child to eat,” but to build trust, curiosity, and positive feelings around new foods. When kids feel safe and interested, tasting and learning to like often will follow naturally.

Try incorporating one or two food games a week and notice how your child’s comfort grows over time. And if your little one’s picky eating feels extreme or is affecting growth, know that help is available. 

If you need more support, grab my FREE guide to reducing picky eating, or check out my self-paced course, Solve Picky Eating, where I walk parents step-by-step through practical, evidence-based strategies to help kids learn to enjoy new foods without pressure or battles at the table.

And if you feel like you have tried it all and still have concerns, I can help. As a registered dietitian specializing in infant and child nutrition, I offer personalized nutrition support for babies and kids in my virtual practice.

Thanks for reading!