He eats eleven foods now. We stopped counting the ones he doesn't.

For a long stretch, our son ate the same six foods, plain, never touching each other on the plate. Every relative had an opinion about it, and for a while we tried most of them — hiding vegetables, small rewards for “just one bite,” a rule that he had to try something new before dessert. All of it turned dinner into something to get through instead of something to sit down for.

What we changed

We stopped requiring bites and started just putting a small, optional taste of something new next to his usual food, with zero pressure to touch it. Some nights he ignored it completely for weeks. We stopped commenting either way — no praise for trying, no disappointment for skipping it, since both kept the food feeling like a test.

We also paid attention to texture, not just the food itself. He’d reliably avoid anything mixed or sauced, but would try dry versions of foods he’d rejected wet. That single pattern opened up more options than any new recipe did.

What actually moved the number

It wasn’t fast. Over about eight months, foods moved from “on the plate but ignored” to “tried once” to, occasionally, “eats regularly.” We now count eleven foods he eats without a fight, up from six, and we’ve stopped trying to push past that number on any kind of schedule.

What we would tell you

Take the pressure out of trying, completely — no reward, no praise, no disappointment. All three keep food feeling like a test to pass or fail.

Look at texture before you assume it’s about the food itself. Dry versus sauced changed more for us than any specific ingredient did.

Progress here is measured in months, not meals. Eleven steady foods beat a wider list that causes a fight at every dinner.