Kassady Gibson, like most parents, was tired of fighting her kids to try new foods.
"We struggled so much. It's so sad when you see your child only want to eat chicken fingers and pizza," said Gibson. "We just want them to be healthy. As parents, we love our kids and want the best for them, we were like should we try feeding therapy,? Should we do this?"
Gibson said, one day, she had a light bulb moment.
"One morning we were just joking around and we said, if you eat this banana you can have this banana badge," Gibson said. "My husband said, you can be part of the Food Explorer Club, and it worked! She (our daughter) tried it and that same night our older daughter tried salmon with us doing the same method. We thought why don't we make an app out of this."
She and her husband got to work. They tapped into their children's love of adventure and developed the "Food Explorer" app.
All you have to do is download the app, it is free, and start to navigate through it.
There will be a list of foods and when your child tries one of those foods, you can choose to give them a badge and the amount of points that you think that badge is worth.
Once they get the badge, they can crack open a box to find out how many points the food was worth. Those points add up and, in the end, you can decide what an appropriate reward is for trying the new food.
"If we can teach kids or reward them in a fun, activity-based way," Gibson started. "Then that builds a lifetime of good habits."
While it is not a cure for all and sometimes Gibson still struggles to get her kids to eat--it has been a tremendous help in getting her kids to trying something new, even if they really do not want to try it.
Find out more about or download the Food Explorer Club App, here.