My son has been in feeding therapy for many many years, and this is yet another thing weve tried in hopes of getting him to eat anything, or try any new foods. I didnt have high hopes because weve been here many times before and wasted so much money on things that are supposed to help but dont. Happily, this has helped a little. I cant say it will do the same for you or your picky eater, but its worth a shot!

The downside is that it just doesnt hold much. My preschooler doesnt eat much to begin with, but this definitely doesnt hold a "meal" of his. It holds maybe 10 grapes, a piece of cheese broken up, and a couple crackers. It would be great if it had one spot that was a touch bigger that could hold a quarter of a piece of toast or something, or half a waffle chopped up. But oh well.

Its also kind of a pain to wash. Its handwash only, and has lots of edges and such so if you serve something messy in it, its going to take longer to wash of course, so just something to keep in mind. Even with that, its been helpful for my kiddo who doesnt like food to ever ever touch, who wont reuse a plate if theres a crumb on it, and who needs incentive to try new things. We put familiar foods we know he will eat alternately in the compartments, and in the last open compartment we put something he will not eat. He has to interact with that last item (touch, lick, bite and spit, chew and spit, hold on tongue, or maybe even chew and swallow) to get the treat in the covered spot at the end. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesnt. But its worth it if it works even once!

That said, I wouldnt buy it for a normal child who eats normal sized meals. It doesnt hold enough for them at all. This is more for snacks or grazers.

Picky eater? Buy this. You know you've already tried everything else.

Here's my picky eater story: he ate everything when he was little. Whatever I ate, he ate. Avocado, pork chops, risotto, even unagi (this is still his favorite food if you ask him), and then around 3-4 I started letting him order from the kids menu and I broke him. I broke my wonderful eater, and I was tossed headlong into a world of chicken nuggets and kraft mac and cheese. If I could undo anything, it would be that cursed kids menu. It got so bad that at one point he would only eat KRAFT macaroni or MCDONALD'S chicken nuggets. Absolutely ridiculous. He wouldn't even try different candy - he literally only ate the Hershey chocolates from his Halloween candy. Dad and I got all the other goodies. I took him to the doctor, and even to PT to determine if it was a sensory disorder or something.

I thought it would get better at school. Surely peer pressure and being stuck there all day he'd be so hungry he'd eat what they gave him. Nope. He'd eat the milk at whatever tiny side he didn't mind. The doctor told me not to stick his likes and to make him eat what the family eats. Nope, he'd just go to bed hungry. Then on to school and be hungry. My kid would rather starve. We tried games, bribes, punishment, even force (have you ever seen a kid spit out hot fudge or honey?) So yeah, I'd give up. Occasionally I would absolutely force the issue and make him eat something, (like a fried chicken leg or something - something I knew he liked but it looked different). And here were are now and he's 7.5 and he still refuses to try new things.

I refuse to let him be one of those 40 year old men who only eat chicken nuggets.

He will psyche himself out and assume he won't like something and then wash it down with milk. He does this with foods that he probably actually would like if he gave it an honest and fair try. I've been just outright forcing him to eat things now. It's just a battle of wills to break him before this becomes a lifelong problem for him.

Somehow I stumbled across this and bought it because "what the hell". I thought he was too old to be enticed by this and wished I had found it sooner.

To my surprise he was ALL ABOUT HIS TREASURE MAP. He's had 4 meals so far and REQUESTS the map. He's excited about what his prize will be, and even excited about what his foods will be. Granted, he's not thrilled about all of them, but he eats them. They're small portions and he can wrap his head around it. My kid are 2 pieces of broccoli without argument tonight. I didn't have to spend 30 minutes talking him into it. He's rated several new foods and I'm excited to go shopping to find new things to put on his tray. He knows there will always be easy spaces with food he does like, and that makes him feel safe. He's got 2 or 3 "dangerous" spots for new foods.

Is he falling in love with his new tastes? Not yet. But he's understanding that food doesn't have to be your favorite to eat it (no one really gets excited about veggies - but we eat them, and we find ways to make them yummy). Will he start to like the new things he's being exposed to? I sure hope so. I hope it's at least taking the fear our of it and making tasting new things ok. Will he stay interested in the plate? He'll probably not be as excited forever, but we're definitely going to use it to get him in track with being a healthy eater.

Buy this!

This plate is great quality. Not flimsy. And it actually works at dinner time!

This is so cute.

Huge help for my super picky eater. I will probably go into more detail than I need to, but for parents at a loss, my child just had FOUR plates of food from this plate.

For quality: it's great, heavy plastic. I don't expect it to fade or chip at all. The finish square has a cover which is great for hiding the surprise at the end to keep kids excited to eat or at least more open to eat. I do wish the finish square was just slightly bigger, but that's only because I'm putting hot wheels cars under it. It would be great for a small piece of chocolate or fruit, not much bigger than that.

Now my story with this plate:
I have a 3 year old who is one of the pickiest eaters. Trying new foods would result in refusal, meltdowns and tears. I've tried it all, offering foods over and over, getting them involved in making, bribery, etc and while I might get a couple bites here or there on the rare occasion, nothing really worked. Tonight I made one safe food (mashed potatoes) meatballs and carrots. I started with every other square mashed potatoes and each square 1 to 2 bites with a hot wheels car wrapped in a paper towel hidden underneath the finish. My toddler was hesitant and first, but with repeated reminders it was only one bite and then back to mashed potatoes, he finally tried a bite! From there, the next plate I upped it, now it was 2-3 bites and then back to mashed potatoes. By the 4th plate we were up to 4 bites per square! He easily had 8 carrot slices, a full meatball and probably 3/4 of a cup of mashed potatoes total! Previous attempts with a "normal" plate of this exact meal were very, very lucky if he took 1 or 2 bites total if any at all. Making it into a game and smaller bites helped us tremendously!! I'm absolutely shocked and so happy we took a chance on it!!