Food chaining

NiniJ55

Can someone tell me a little more about "food chaining".  Bugmommy mentioned it in a post I did last week re: my son's awesome eating habits (sarcasm).

 

TIA

MaxandRuby

When food chaining has been brought up in regards to DS2, it is in regards to increasing what he will eat. One example is that he is very particular to the mac and cheese he eats. Food chaining in this instance would be getting him to eat other brands of mac and cheese to include different shapes of noodles (he only eats the Velveeta brand single serve mac and cheese).

bugmommy

I swear I would drink significantly less wine each week if I didn't have to watch my older DS eat.  *sigh*

Yes, food chaining is usually gradually introducing food based on what they will already eat.  You can change brands of stuff, shapes of pasta, etc. until you are gradually introducing more and more new things and making the child more flexible.  It's basically a food version of deliberate sabotage.  Other ideas are taking a food they like and changing the preparation.   So for instance with my only McDonald's chicken nugget eating child I went to Purdue nuggets at home (still the gross process kind shaped like Cars figures).  Then we did Purdue Simply that's made with actual chicken breast chunks.  Then I started cutting up real chicken breast and frying it.  Then we did baked chicken nuggets with a panko crust.  Then grilled chicken nuggets.  Did I mention the one thing I didn't change in all of this is the sauce?  I've literally driven through a McDonald's drive through multiple times and only bought 30 sweet and sour sauces.  I went in the bathroom and happy danced when I got him to eat a little rotisserie chicken breast without the sauce last week.  When he ate non-Dominos (his preferred delivery) cheese pizza for the first time at a birthday party my DH and I high-fived.  Sad, but a victory for us.

We also do stuff like having him sample food at a non-meal time that is prepared different ways.  So we might do a home fries (which he loves), baked potatoes, and mashed potatoes.  Bonus points if you make it an activity and show them that you are starting with the same food.

I don't remember your previous post, but if any of it is texture related sometimes getting them to gradually increase their exposure to it over time helps.  So first you just touch the food with your hands, then touch with your lips with mouth closed, lick the food, hold it in you mouth but spit it out, and then finally chew and hopefully swallow.

For every dinner I try to have one thing I think he will eat with no problem, one that he will do but doesn't prefer, and one that is new/an issue.  I try to have him menu plan with me by giving him options of two things I can live with and letting him choose.  Also, my DS doesn't usually require a lot of visual support, but for some reason with food he does better if he can see it when picking, so I'm gradually building up a "visual" menu as I cook things.  Most of my DS's food thing is about control, so I'm trying to let him maintain some portion of that while not becoming malnourished on peanut butter sandwiches.

This is such a hard issue for me - I'm a foodie that is horrified by picky eaters .  I cook 2 dinners every night because eating that much simple food with drive me insane, but it is what works best for us right now.  I will add that while DS#2 also has to be prodded and was initially quite resistant with food as well, we are having much faster, easier progress with him.  He sucks down the nightly offering super fast just getting it out of the way so he gets dessert (small scoop of vanilla ice cream).  I hope your case is more like him

MainelyFoolish

There is a book called Food Chaining that describes the process, but it's basically what bugmommy said. You take something the child will eat and change small pieces at a time to gradually expand the palate. At least that's the theory.

I've tried food chaining with DD. It's been minimally successful; I'm not sure if it's because of my DD's temperament or my technique -- probably both. My DD will sometimes eat McDonald's chicken nuggets, although they're not a highly preferred food. A couple of times she's eaten Wendy's chicken nuggets and I think she tasted a Burger King nugget once. She won't eat frozen nuggets prepared at home. She won't eat fried chicken tenders from a restaurant. She absolutely won't touch any other kind of chicken prepared any other way. She also won't eat dipping sauce of any kind, so it's not like I can hide a different kind of chicken with a familiar sauce.

Another example of food chaining I've tried is with french fries. DD loves regular french fries and we've gotten her to eat tater tots and fast food hash browns. The next step that I could think of was sweet potato fries. She won't touch them. Home fries were also a no-go. Likewise with mashed potatoes.

I've been dealing with DD eating like this for almost 3 years now and I can still count on two hands the different kinds of foods she'll eat. A lot of the time I just give up and feed her what she'll eat -- milk, vanilla yogurt, peanut butter, cheddar cheese,  crackers.