- Encourage your child to accept being in the same room as a new food.
- Encourage them to look at a new food, if possible engage them in a conversation or activity that involves the new food.
- Put a tiny amount (size of finger nail or less) on a learner plate near their plate. This can be at the other end of the table to them. If they allow this and don’t get upset, next time they have exposure to this food, it can be brought a little closer to them, but only gradually (this should be a food the rest of the family are eating).
- Encourage your child to smell the new food. Get involved by smelling the food too – your child may copy.
- Encourage your child to touch the new food with their fingers.
- Encourage your child to bring the food to their face, then to their lips (‘kiss the food’) and then bring to their tongue. Do this at a rate that suits your child – some children may do all steps at one mealtime, others will take several.
- Encourage your child to lick the new food then put it in their mouth (they can remove the food and place into a tissue without chewing and swallowing – this step allows them to experience the taste and feel of the food in their mouth).
- Encourage your child to bite, chew (approximately 5 – 10 times) and then swallow a very small amount of the food.
- Finally - gradually increase the amount of food eaten. The food then becomes an accepted food for your child. Then start the process all over again with another new food. Remember it can take several months to introduce a new food so don’t give up.
Recognise food patterns
List the foods your child likes to eat – describe the textures, colours and flavours:
- Crunchy, soft, dry, wet or sloppy
- White, beige or particular colour e.g. orange
- Sweet, savoury, strong flavours or bland
- Do they eat different textures but separately? E.g. crunchy dry cereal with a drink of milk (but not mixed together)
Use this list to work out taste, texture and colour preferences. Try to think of other foods which match this description (e.g. If they prefer white, soft, bland foods offer similar foods such as rice, cauliflower, spaghetti, chicken).
Increasing the variety of the diet
- A social story could help a child understand why we eat and the function of food. Their favourite characters / hobbies could be used.
- Produce a clear daily and/or weekly menu of foods. The time should be displayed next to the meals. Visual tools can help a child express and recognise needs, preferences and hunger.
- Make a food progress chart. Put pictures of accepted foods on the chart and pictures of food they wish to try and then you or the child can record progress on the chart.
- Some children will be more accepting of foods which are presented in a consistent way. An example of this would be tinned or pre chopped fruit and vegetables which always look the same shape without any darker bits on the skin. Processed foods are predictable, they are designed to look and taste the same every time you eat them. These foods can help children with sensory issues.
- If the child has been able to engage with a new food a motivator can be given as a treat e.g. if they help with the cooking, or touch the new food with their fingertip. They might have 5 minutes longer to play with their motivator.
- Children also need to learn how to chew so get them to look at you when you put something in your mouth so they can see you’re over exaggerated chewing motion.
- A king’s taster is when your child will try something off another person’s plate they have confidence in, even if the same food is on their plate. Try taking a little off their plate and eating it, so they can see their plate is safe too.
No emphasis should be put on tasting it, it’s just about tolerating it.
Food chaining
- In this process the child is presented with a new food that is similar in texture, taste or temperature to the accepted food. Below are some examples of how you could try this:
- If bread is accepted, try offering a smaller loaf (same brand), a thin or thick cut loaf (same brand), then move onto unsliced bread, then pitta bread, then ciabatta, then pizza crusts and baguette.
- If toast is accepted, fold over the toast to make it look like a sandwich, put this on a plate and see if they will tolerate it. Leave the other slice of toast flat, they might copy what you have done but just might leave it on their plate and only eat the flat piece. This is important to do each day as it will help to build up exposure and help them adapt to change. Then try making the toast lighter in colour, only doing so if they accept this. Gradually you can change the colour of the toast to lighter until it’s not being toasted.
- If squirty cream is accepted, try offering a pouring cream, then yoghurt, then custard, then try rice pudding
- If crisps are accepted, try vegetable crisps or carrots puffs, then homemade oven cooked vegetable crisps, then roasted vegetables