I’m a child nutritionist – you need to stop telling your child not to play with their food especially if they’re fussy

WE'VE always been told we shouldn't play with our food.

But one child nutritionist has revealed why it's actually a good thing, especially if your children are fussy eaters.

Taking to TikTok, Doctor Taylor Arnold posted a video all about how to encourage fussy kids to eat food and how asking them 'to try it' doesn't work.

The showed the doctor, from the US, trying different phrases to encourage kids to eat and went viral with over one million views.

She suggested trying 'pretend play', such as asking how a dinosaur would eat the food or exploring texture, and asked: "Those green beans are so crunchy, I bet I can crunch them louder than you can."

But one person was confused and said it sounded like she was encouraging them to play with food.

She wrote: "I feel like a lot of these statements could encourage playing with food or eating too quick/dangerous eating which is a disaster waiting to happen."

The nutritionist expert revealed it can actually be good for kids to play with their food.

Doctor Taylor captioned : "You are 100% correct that these statements could lead to playing with food. That is intentional!"

She explained: "That's a good thing, obviously we can go overboard with mess but kids learn through play.

"So I am an advocate for playing with food with your kids.

"You just have to decide what boundaries are right for your family and what rules you put in place when playing with your food."

She added that in her house if kids make a mess when playing with their food they clean it up.

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And added they have rules about not playing with food when out at restaurants.

Lots of parents took to the comments section to share their thoughts.

One wrote: "Yes! I was telling our day home lady this. The kids got to make their own sandwiches, my kid put cream cheese, honey, fruit on bread + made a cake."

Another person commented: "As many lowkey problematic things that happened in a Christmas story, that’s one scene that i always liked cuz like… he’s eating so."

Meanwhile, a third penned: "Hahaha and then you have my boys that think it's a food fight, my 4-year-old sticks his Dino nuggies all in my older son face."