Food Chaining:
A technique to help your picky eater
By: Brittany Warby
We all know a child or two who is what we call “extremely
picky.” They won’t eat anything red, crunchy, cold, hot, sweet, hard, soft,
etc. They seem to eat the same limited foods everyday and no matter what they
seem to refuse anything else. They may push the food away, spit it out, or gag
whenever a less desired food is presented.
It is easy to place blame in a situation like this. I often
hear “If the parents would just force the child to eat it…” or “Sometimes you
just need to lay down the law and not give in.” Unfortunately it is not always
that easy. The child who ate a variety of textures, colors, and types of food
yesterday may turn into a picky eater tomorrow.
According
to an article, “Feeding Disorders in Infants and Children”, published in the
scientific journal Pediatric Clinics of North America, between 25 to 35 percent
of children in the United States have feeding disorders, and up to 40 to 70
percent of children with chronic medical problems have problems related to
feeding and nutrition.
Causes of Picky eating:
Picky
eating habits can be caused by a variety of things such as vitamin or mineral
deficiencies, malnutrition, oral aversion, congestion, erratic sleep patterns,
or a variety of frequent or chronic illnesses. Other children will simply refuse a food due
to its smell, taste, or texture. In other cases the refusal of food could be
physiological struggle with the process of chewing and swallowing.
In order
to determine what the main issue is, it is best to seek help from a feeding specialist
who can assess the situation and can help pinpoint a cause. For many of these
children a technique known as food chaining can be helpful in assisting the
child. Food chaining can help the child cope with an aversion and gradually
increase the types of food the child is comfortable eating.
What is food chaining?
Food
chaining is a child-friendly feeding technique. It is designed to build the
child’s successful eating experiences by studying the types of food the child
will easily accept and choosing similar food to gradually build the child’s
menu. New foods with similar texture, taste, and/or temperature are presented
to the child. These new foods create a food chain or link between what the
child will easily accept and the targeted food we would like for him/her to
eat.
Food
chaining can use a variety of methods to make the food presented more
desirable. Flavors can be added that will make the child more likely to accept
the new food. Examples of this would be adding ketchup or ranch dipping sauce.
This masks the flavor of the new food and can offer a means to coax the child
to gradually accept the new food.
Another
successful method is by using transitional foods. This is done by giving the
child a bite or two of a familiar and accepted food followed by a bite of the
new food, followed by another bite of the familiar food. Transitional foods can
help to reduce aftertaste and help to cleanse a child’s palate when introducing
a new food.
When doing
food chaining it is important that the feeding specialist rate the child’s
reactions to new foods and continually monitor the changes in preferences over
time. It is also important NOT TO FORCE foods. Food chaining allows a child to
be desensitized to taste and textures enough to allow them to try food in a
variety of different food groups and can help in improving nutrition.
Examples of a food chain:
Example 1:
Child’s current accepted food
choice:
McDonalds Chicken Nuggets
Target food: Baked chicken breast made by
mom
Chain: McDonalds Chicken Nuggets > other brands of chicken
nuggets > homemade chicken nuggets > non-breaded/skinless chicken nuggets
> small chicken breast
Example 2:
Child’s current
accepted food choice: Goldfish
Target food: Mac and
Cheese
Chain: Goldfish
> other flavors/sizes of goldfish > other brands of cheese flavored
crackers > Soft crackers > Shredded cheese > Cheese with pasta >
Mac and Cheese
It is important to remember that no single chain will work
for all children and that each child may require more or less steps before
reaching the target food. Although there
is no one fix all for a picky eater, food chaining is a technique that has
proven to help children build variety and types of foods they will accept.
Resources:
Fraker, Cheri. Food
Chaining: The Proven 6-step Plan to Stop Picky Eating, Solve Feeding Problems,
and Expand Your Child's Diet. New York: Marlowe, 2007.
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