Food Chaining: Building the Core Diet

When you analyze the core diet, study it to learn about what the child is likely to accept next. If you are successful and the child enjoys a new or modified food item, rotate that food into the core diet. This is very important. Sometimes a child will eat a fruit or vegetable but it is not offered often enough to become a true core food. You want the child to become familiar and comfortable with the new food. That builds the foundation of the core diet. Variety is how children develop new tastes and build their tolerance of new and later diverse textures. Teach children how their teeth smash food (boys love this stuff). Crush food in baggies, Alicia, Stacey, Ewan and Vaughn did it with toy trains. Be creative, pull from your language therapist side and watch food change as it gets wet or is dipped in a liquid. Talk about the water your mouth makes (saliva) to soften food. Compare, teach, demonstrate...but do not push the child to do more than his sensory system can tolerate. If it feels pressured, it is. Remember, once the food is in front of the child it belongs to him. You can comment about the food but not direct him to eat.