Food Chaining To Help Autistic Children Try New Foods
After living and working with children who favour beige foods I have only just stumbled across the idea of food chaining. If you are a parent of an autistic child, you may have experienced similar challenges with feeding your child. Some autistic children have a restricted diet, eating only a limited range of food. Others may over-eat, or have sensory issues with certain smells, textures, or flavours. These feeding difficulties can affect your child’s health, growth, and social opportunities.
What is Food Chaining?
One way to help your autistic child overcome challenges like a beige diet is to use a technique called food chaining. Food chaining is in essence a behaviour intervention strategy that teaches your child to eat different things by connecting them with familiar ones. This strategy helps your child transition smoothly from their comfort zone to exploring new tastes and textures. Food chaining is a therapeutic strategy used by feeding therapists to increase the variety of foods a child is willing to eat. Essentially, it’s a way to help picky eaters expand their food choices. The concept revolves around linking a new food to an already accepted or “liked” food.
Food chaining can be very helpful for children with autism who may struggle with sensory processing or aversions to certain foods. A qualified professional can work with your child to introduce new textures, flavours, and colours. This can help them become more comfortable with trying different foods.
Before we look into this any further I need to say this needs to be done in a very thoughtful and well planned way. If you are forcing your child to eat different things or restricting favoured items until they try something new you are likely to make the situation much worse. Before trying this you need to accept that some children just will not try new things. Get control of your frustrations.
Accept before spending money on new foods that it all may go in the bin (or dog as ours does). Develop the mindset that you are doing this to help your child not prove a point or because family and friends think “If they don’t eat what they are given then they need to go hungry.”. Take the pressure off yourself and the child.
Why Might Autistic Children Only Eat Certain Foods?
Before starting to attempt to expand your child’s diet, especially if they are autistic or have sensory processing issues it is important to try and work out why they reject and prefer certain foods.
There are several possible reasons why children may refuse to eat certain foods. Three common areas to think about are:
- Sensory sensitivity: Autistic children may have different sensory experiences than neurotypical children, which affects how they perceive and react to food. They may be more or less sensitive to the look, smell, taste, or texture of food, and may find some foods too overwhelming or unpleasant. Children may dislike foods that are too bright, too strong, too bitter, or too mushy. On the flip side some children are sensory seeking requiring strong flavours like Pepperami and even hot sauce.
- Cognitive factors: Autistic children may have different ways of processing information, which can affect how they understand and approach food. They may have difficulty with abstract concepts, such as categories, labels, or nutrition, and may prefer concrete and familiar things. They may also have difficulty with flexibility, generalisation, and change, and may prefer routine and consistency. For example, they may reject foods that are unfamiliar, mixed, or different from their usual preferences – even down to brand. I have seen people put different brands in the familiar container but this can break trust and mean the preferred brand is then dropped.
- Emotional factors: Children may have different emotional responses to food, which can affect how they feel and behave around food. They may have anxiety, stress, or fear related to food, especially if they have had negative or traumatic experiences with food in the past, including being forced to eat certain foods. They may also have difficulty with social and communication skills, which can affect how they interact with others during mealtimes. They may avoid foods that are associated with unpleasant memories, emotions, or situations.
How does food chaining work?
Food chaining works by gradually expanding your child’s food repertoire based on their preferences and tolerances. You start with a food that your child likes and accepts, and then you make small changes to it, such as adding a new ingredient, changing the shape, or mixing it with another food. You repeat this process until your child is happy to eat a variety of foods from different food groups.
For example, if your child likes plain pasta, you can start by adding a little bit of butter or cheese to it. Then you can try adding some tomato sauce, or some chopped vegetables, or some chicken. You can also change the shape of the pasta, or use a different type of pasta, such as whole wheat or gluten-free. You can also mix the pasta with rice, quinoa, or couscous. By doing this, you are exposing your child to new flavours, textures, and nutrients, while still keeping some familiarity and consistency.
How to implement food chaining at home?
Food chaining can be done at home, but it is best to consult with a professional, such as a speech therapist, an occupational therapist, or a dietitian, who can assess your child’s feeding skills and needs, and design a personalised food chaining plan for them. They can also monitor your child’s progress and adjust the plan as needed.
Here are some tips to follow when implementing food chaining at home:
- Keep a food diary to track what your child eats and when. This can help you identify their likes, dislikes, patterns, and routines.
- Do not try this when the child is ill or already stressed.
- Choose a food that your child likes and eats regularly as the starting point. This can be any food, as long as it is safe for your child.
- Make small and gradual changes to the food, such as adding a new ingredient, changing the temperature, or altering the presentation. Make sure the changes are noticeable, but not too drastic or overwhelming for your child.
- Introduce the new food alongside the familiar food, and offer both options to your child. Let your child choose which one to eat, and praise them for any attempt to try the new food. Do not force or pressure your child to eat something they do not want to.
- Repeat the same food for several days, until your child accepts it. Then move on to the next change, and repeat the process. Do not introduce too many changes at once, or switch back and forth between different foods.
- Be patient and consistent. Food chaining can take time and effort, but it can also be rewarding and fun. Celebrate your child’s achievements, and enjoy the journey together.
Be Creative and Have Fun With Food
During the Covid-19 Pandemic there was a shortage of our usual Pasta, the beige fusilli, I could only get tricolour pasta. With two people in the house who rely on their food being consistant this was quite a barrier. I thought I would try a little trick I use when teaching; Use the child’s interest to get them to engage. Our son was really into Power Rangers and as you can see in the picture above we had a large action figure. To encourage dinner time to be a game the red ranger became the waiter. This distraction and element of fun, as well as the similarity to the preferred food meant that at least some of the coloured pasta was eaten.
More information and resources on Eating, Food Chaining & Autism
If you want to learn more about food chaining and how it can help your child, you can check out these sources:
- Eating – a guide for all audiences – This is a guide from the National Autistic Society that explores common issues and ways to help with eating difficulties in autistic people.
- Feeding Difficulties and Autism Spectrum Disorders – This is a brilliant therapy guidance sheet from the Integrated Therapy Service that explains the causes and effects of feeding difficulties in autistic children, and provides some practical strategies and tips.
- Food Ideas for Picky Autistic Child – This blog post from Goally offers some food ideas and recipes for picky eaters, based on the food chaining method.
We hope this blog post has given you some insight and inspiration on how to use food chaining to help your autistic child eat better. Remember, you are not alone, and there is always help and support available. Happy food chaining!