right direction.
"it's okay to try a food and decide that you don't want to swallow it. you were brave to try something new! next time you might decide that you want to swallow it."
"you can choose what you would like to eat on your plate. you don't have to eat everything."
* it's important to always include at least one food that each child likes at meals so that there's always something for them to eat.
if your child says something like "yuck, i hate mushrooms!"
"it's okay not to like mushrooms right now, but it's not okay to be rude. instead, you could say "no thank you" when you don't want to 