Why "just one bite" can backfire
Dinner is going cold. Your child is not eating. "Just one bite" slips out almost by itself. One bite is not a whole plate, after all.
But your child does not hear the size of the bite. They hear a request to put something they already fear into their mouth.
A bite cannot be undone
Food on a plate can be pushed away. A bite in the mouth cannot. Taste, smell and texture arrive with it, and spitting something out in front of everyone may feel harder than refusing it.
While the child decides, everyone watches. Dinner does not move on until there is an answer.
What stays afterwards
Sometimes a child takes the bite just to get dinner moving again. The following week, broccoli may bring back more than its odd smell. It may bring back the silence around the table too.
Adults can also miss what already happened. The child sat nearby, touched the food, licked it and put it down. If everyone was waiting for a swallowed bite, the whole evening gets shortened to: "They didn't try it."
No required bite
A green bean goes on the table. The child leaves it alone. It goes away. A few days later, it comes back. No deal about cartoons afterwards, no collective sigh over the plate.
After a few dinners like that, the child may try the bean. They may not. They still decide what goes into their mouth.
Yesterday they left the room. Today they stayed at the table. Those are two different evenings, although neither ended with a bite.
Five buttons
Taste a Day has five: Looked, Touched, Smelled, Licked and Ate it. In the evening you tap one. Looked is an answer too.
Taste a Day is a game and a habit tracker. It does not diagnose or treat feeding disorders, ARFID or any other condition. If eating is affecting your child’s health or growth, talk to a paediatrician. We are happy to be the thing you do between those appointments.