For our DS, pickiness was anxiety-driven. We worked on it AFTER about 6 months of ABA therapy, a form of behavior therapy, which improved his coping skills and his compliance with instructions in other ways first. Then we tackled the food by asking him to eat two bites of something we were eating. It was not pretty, but it got much better, and the range of things he would eat improved.
I know that for some people there are sensory issues, but for our DS, the big problem was not sensory. He still gets anxious about unfamiliar food, but the range of what he will eat is more in the normal level now. We still work frequently to expose him to new dishes and new ways to present food.
I don't think that I would have been happy to leave this issue alone. Being able to eat with colleagues in restaurants is a job-getting and job-keeping skill; being the guy who orders plain noodles is not endearing to peers once you're in your 20s.
DeeDee
