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Feb 23, 2024 · 1. Start with a Favourite: Begin with a food that your child loves. Let's say, for example, they have a penchant for cheese pizza. This familiar favourite becomes the starting point of your food chain. 2. Introduce Small Variations: Next, make a slight modification to the chosen food. Perhaps you could try adding a new topping that's similar in ...
Food chaining is a feeding method that uses gradual changes to eventually introduce new foods. This is done by slightly altering a child’s “preferred” food and getting progressively closer to a new food. To make these subtle changes to your child’s current favorite foods, remember the 5 T’s of Food Chaining: Taste. Texture.
- How Food Chaining Therapy Works: A Solution For Picky Eaters with Examples
- What Is Food Chaining For Picky Eaters?
- Who Is Food Chaining for?
- The Research Behind Food Chaining
- Food Chaining Rules
- Food Chaining Strategy: Before Starting Food Chaining Therapy
- Similar Sensory Foods to Add to A Food Chain
- How to Progress with Food Chaining Therapy
- Food Chaining Examples
How can you break the frustrating mealtime cycle with a picky eater? Food Chaining is a method of feeding therapy that introduces new foods, building off of foods they already like. In this blog, our dietitian breaks down how it all works. Dinnertime! Your child comes to the table and refuses to eat what you’re offering. Again. So you take some chi...
Food chaining is a method of introducing new foods to picky eaters, building off of foods they already eat. It was created by two Speech-Language Pathologists, Cheri Fraker & Laura Walbert. Food Chaining is based on the child’s preferences for texture, taste, temperature, colour or appearance of foods. And these preferences are used to introduce ne...
Food chaining can be used for children with autism, developmental delays, neurodiversity, Pediatric Feeding Disorder, sensory sensitivity or typically a developing child. And even adults! Food Chaining works even better with older compared to younger children. Children about ages six and up can help you create a food chain. And you can use cognitiv...
Some research shows Food Chaining works to expand the diet. A study of 10 kids aged 1 to 14 with extreme food selectivity practiced food chaining for three months at home. They practice for 0.5 to 2 hours per week with therapy sessions provided in person, via video, email or telephone. The number of accepted foods was recorded at the start of the s...
Before I share how to start food chaining, there are a few points to keep in mind. 1) There is no pressure to eat. Don’t say: “Take a bite.” 2) You can describe the sensory properties of the food like: “This feels squishy.”Your child will learn this language, which helps them predict how the food will feel. Remember the sensory hierarchy: your chil...
1) The Why
The first chapters of the Food Chaining book and course recommend dealing with “why” your child is a picky eater first. From breathing struggles, reflux, allergies, oral motor, and sensory sensitivities to family meal dynamics. There are lots of reasons for picky eating beyond just behavioural. If you suspect an underlying reason for picky eating, talk to your medical professional or get a referral to a specialist.
2) “The Two-Week Cool Down”
This time is for your family to put energy into stopping stress so the child doesn’t fear coming to the table, basically, following the division of responsibility. You choose which foods are offered when and where. And your child chooses if or how much they eat (no pressure!!)
3) Diet analysis
This step is best done with your dietitian (ahem – me!). I look at whether your child’s current diet is balanced. Maybe we need to add a supplement or two to ensure they get certain nutrients while we learn to try new foods. After looking at the accepted foods and diet analysis, we can develop some goal foods together. Perhaps this is a food your child wants to eat. Or maybe it’s a food from a food group he doesn’t eat at all now so that it would fill nutrient gaps.
If your child likes crunchy foods, try
1. nuts or seeds 2. roasted chickpeas 3. cracker sandwich 4. rice cracker 5. iceberg lettuce 6. taco shell or taco chips with dips 7. celery with nut butter 8. parmesan cheese crisps 1. crispy bacon 2. sugar snap peas 3. jicama 4. freeze-dried fruit or veggie
If your child likes soft foods, try:
1. yogurt, cottage cheese or laughing cow cheese 2. baked apple or pear 3. applesauce or pudding cup or Jell-O 4. tofu (add silken tofu to smoothies) 5. banana or zucchini muffin or bread with a spread 6. scrambled eggs 7. avocado, nectarine, banana or ripe melon 8. pancakes (can make into a sandwich) 9. potato wedges or mashed potato
If your child likes chewy foods, try:
1. bagels 2. dried fruit 3. beef jerky 4. muesli bar 5. yogurt-covered granola bar 6. cooked mushrooms 7. fruit leather 8. steak 1. pepperoni stick 2. grilled halloumi cheese or squeaker cheese 3. gummy candy or licorice
Now you have your food chain, what do you do? Offer a portion of food in the chain every day or two. You may have to offer this new food many times. If it’s refused 10-25 times, consider how to modify the food or choose a different one.
Chicken Nuggets to Chicken Wings
1. If your child likes chicken nuggets from Mcdonald’s, you can try offering popcorn chicken. Very similar flavour, texture, and colour, just a different shape! 2. If this would be too big, try offering chicken nuggets from other restaurants or brands first. 3. Once the popcorn chicken is accepted, move on to a different shape: chicken fingers! Again, you can try different brands or homemade if your child needs more steps in his chain. 4. Then you could try breaded chicken wings. Then maybe n...
Fruit Roll-ups to Strawberries
1. If your child loves strawberry fruit roll-ups, we can create a chain from this. Our goal may be fresh strawberries. 2. Starting with fruit roll-ups, we could offer strawberry fruit leather. It’s the same colour, similar flavour and just slightly different texture. You can try store-bought fruit leathers and/or homemade ones. 3. Once the fruit leather is accepted, you could offer freeze-dried strawberries. Freeze-dried with a crunchy texture is easier to accept than fresh fruit. It’s a simi...
May 15, 2024 · In one study involving 10 children aged 1 to 14, participants underwent a 3-month food chaining program, during which researchers tracked the expansion of their food repertoires. Initially, the number of accepted foods ranged from 1 to 8. After the 3-month study, this range significantly increased to 8 – 129.
Jan 14, 2024 · 1. Make a list of all your child’s foods. Take a few minutes and identify any common themes you might see among these foods. Are most or all of the foods crunchy, white, stick shaped, soft, bland, spicy, etc. While a lot of picky eaters do tend to select their foods because of the taste, texture, color, or smell, not all do.
Jan 8, 2019 · A quick google search unearths the following claims: From Zero to Three: In the ‘How to handle picky eaters’ section, is the claim “a child may need to be exposed to new foods more than 10 times before they try it”. From Eat Fresh: Beneath the quote “My child refuses to eat vegetables” is the statement: “New foods may take some ...
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Oct 26, 2018 · What is a Food Chain? A food chain is a sequence of foods or a road map to help a child try new foods. For example, a child may be only eating a specific brand of breaded chicken pieces and the goal is to get the child to accept baked chicken. A food chain would start with very gradual changes to the accepted food.
