 Today we're going to think about how to encourage your child to broaden their repertoire of food and try new things. There's all sorts of reasons why your child might have a very limited repertoire of foods. The most common one I come across is children who've got lots of issues in terms of the sensory processing of foods and might find that challenging, in particular our autistic children. But there might be all sorts of different reasons why you as a parent, a carer or a supporting adult might want to broaden out that range of foods. And this is a really simple graduated approach that can be quite good fun as well that we're going to talk about trying today. So I use a six stage approach and it looks something like this. We're going to think about it. Then we're going to look at it. Then we're going to poke it and play with it, something we're normally told not to do with our food but hey, we get to make the rules, we're in charge. We're going to sniff it, we're going to lick it and then finally, if we're up for it, we're going to eat it. So you'll see that's kind of, you know, a lot of steps going on there. So let's start with step one. So step number one is to think about it. Now this might seem a little bit odd. We're thinking about wanting to encourage our child to eat more and different foods and I'm telling you don't even bring the food into the room. We're just going to think about it. This is really important, particularly if you've got a child who is anxious, nervous, worried, perhaps had some tricky experiences with food and this all feels quite daunting to them. We don't want to jump in too fast and too hard with the new food types. So instead we're just going to think about it without any pressure at all to eat the new food. We're going to get curious. We might notice that a TV show is featuring a food that we haven't tried before or that a character in a book that we're reading eats a certain food and we might wonder what that food might be like for ourselves. We might look in the supermarket and see a fruit that we've never tried before. The sauce can be anything and you might kind of keep a little bit of a list, maybe a bit of a journal, a diary, a poster, whatever works for you and your child of potential foods to try and then we're going to think about those foods and we're going to get really curious and before we ever touch it, hold it, sniff it, any of those things, we're going to wonder about those foods. We're going to think, I wonder how it grows. I wonder what it will smell like. I wonder if it tastes or feels like something that I've tried before. I wonder if my favourite character from my favourite book would like it. I wonder what would happen if you throw it. I wonder what would happen if you pull it. You get the idea so we get really curious and we wonder a lot about the food. Another thing you can do for this stage is just to kind of have the food around so you might have the food present without ever mentioning it to your child. It might be in the fruit bowl or maybe you eat alongside your child and maybe it's on your plate and they can notice it but we're just allowing them to just gradually become exposed to it in these early stages when we're just in that thinking stage. We might look at pictures of it, we're just trying to introduce it slowly, slowly, slowly. So the first stage, we think about it. Don't take it too fast, get really curious. Step two is to look at it and here we're going to actually be in the room with the food. So we're going to look at it, we're going to actually think about what colour it is, we're going to wonder about how it feels, we're going to be kind of gradually exposing ourselves to this food. The food is in the room, there's no pressure at this stage to eat it and you might do this stage having the food in the room, looking at it, wondering about it several times before the child ever goes on to the next stages. It's about this gradual exposure, making it feel safe. Your child needs not to think that any time we start thinking about or being near a new food that they're suddenly going to have to try it because that can seem really scary. So we've got build up kind of trust and safety here, needs to feel safe to be around that food and this might seem odd if you are someone who eats a whole massive range of foods and you've never faced any of these challenges yourself but this is going to provoke significant anxiety for some kids so we keep it safe, we keep it simple, we just be in the room with the food, no expectation to touch it, no expectation to sniff it, certainly no expectation to taste it. It's just there, quietly being there in the room with us maybe on your plate, maybe on the table, maybe it's just generally present but we're just looking at it. Imagine it like some kind of still life, you might even do this, you might draw it, paint it, wonder about it, look at it, no expectation to touch, taste, smell, get too close. Step three is to poke it and to play with it. This is my favourite stage and it's the favourite stage of many children because we spend a lot of time saying do not play with your food and so we get to be kind of naughty here, we get to play with it and this is important because this stage where we poke it, we play with it, we might mash it or tear it or throw it or whatever feels good and interesting to get your child really involved and up close and personal with this food. This helps to increase their exposure to it, increase their familiarity to it, get a little bit used to the kind of textures that are going on here, they'll be starting to notice things like what it smells like and beginning to wonder what it might taste like, all those sorts of things so we poke it, we play with it, we get really really curious in a hands-on kind of way. For some kids at this stage they might find that the feeling of the food as they tear it or stroke it or whatever might feel not so good and they might then want to step away. Now here you can get one of two ways, you can either repeat this stage and play with it and become more familiar with it and over time they might become more prepared to take the next stages or we go okay well we've learned that this food is not one that we're going to try but that's okay because we've looked at it, we've wondered about it, we've touched it and then we've decided not to rather than never even thinking about it, we might revisit it at a later date that's okay but we try not to put too much judgment on this and we just wonder okay what's next but if your child does find that they're kind of getting up close and personal with it, touching it, playing with it, poking it, throwing it whatever and they're interested to move on then we're getting a little bit closer to actually eating it. Next we're going to sniff it, the sniff stage is kind of a make-and-break bit so not trying to put too much pressure on you but try to like not get too excited at this stage, don't put too much pressure on the child, show them by leading by example, give it a sniff yourself so maybe as you're poking and playing with it if the child feels comfortable you're going to go oh I think I can smell it a little bit, oh it smells a bit like um oh it's a bit like a bit like an orangy kind of smell isn't it, oh I love the smell of oranges so get curious start to smell it and then you might actually pick it up and really give it a good sniff so our sense of smell and our sense of taste are so kind of closely intertwined that really getting in and giving it a really good sniff is a really great stage before the actual tasting, this stage also will give the child a really good idea about whether they're likely to like the taste, it'll give them idea about how strong this thing is likely to taste as well so some things are a bit bland and won't smell of much and therefore they probably won't taste of much and that might be quite a safe and easy food but some things so like your citrus fruit have got this big smell and that might be a smell that really appeals to your child or reminds them of something else that they've liked or it might be one that makes them want to run a mile, again it's okay at this stage for your child to say no or not now and we need not to layer the judgment we just need to make a note of how far we got, think about maybe returning to this another time perhaps or not and moving on, if though they sniff it and they think hmm that smells good or I'm interested or I'm happy to know more or maybe even just a sort of meh like a meh is okay meh but I'm happy to take the next stage I feel safe to take the next stage next we lick it so again trying to keep this all really playful with your child try to keep the stakes low be in it with them even if you've eaten this food a thousand times imagine you're experiencing it for the first time imagine you're an alien landed on earth you've never tried this food you've played with it you've given it a good sniff now we're gonna lick it I feel really weird doing we're gonna lick it okay we're gonna lick that food you might lick different parts of the food to see if different bits taste different give it a lick see what it tastes like get curious with your child does this does this taste remind you of anything else does it taste different on the front of our tongue than when we swallow it hmm what does it taste like hmm interesting the licking stage is kind of getting close to the eating bit and your child might begin to feel that tension that pressure and so sometimes here it can help to sort of step away you can do this with any of the stages but in particular the lick it stage you might step away and just leave your child with access to the food so they might give it a lick in their own time you might find that they're not ready to give it a lick right now with you but that when you walk away and the pressure's really off and you go off and you I don't know you go and do something else perhaps you're going to be a bit cleaning in the background or something you might be noticing what they're doing but they think you're busy then maybe just maybe not give it a little lick now how you respond if that happens is up to you many children will actually find it better more acceptable just to be left to kind of get on with it and then later you might notice oh I noticed that you gave that papaya a little lick what did you think rather than hooray hooray you've done it because that can sometimes heap the pressure on but you'll know your child best and whether they'll respond to that kind of immediate identification of what they've done right and that praise or if they're going to find it better to quietly check in and show a little bit of pride later but licking it great we now have a really clear idea we've licked it we've got an idea whether we might be prepared to eat it if they licked it and they liked it next stage is to eat it don't make this too big we're not expecting them to eat the whole thing but just to try a tiny tiny taste are they happy to put a little bit of this food item in their mouth suck it chew it they might even then chew to spit it out if they don't like it and that's okay we need to make provision for that and give permission do this in a really safe environment they need to know it's okay to try things and if they don't like them or they're not sure about them it's okay to then reject them that's okay we might revisit them we might come back to them they might then want to try it again as they get more used to the texture but in this safe environment while we're trying things we've got to make it so the kind of anything goes be playful be explorative if our child thinks that once they put something in their mouth they're not allowed to spit it out they're going to be a lot more cautious about what goes in their mouth and you can probably identify with this if you've gone out for a meal and on your plate in front of you maybe you're in some kind of fun in a fancy restaurant it's one of my bugbears in a fancy restaurant this is my unidentified food thing on your plate some people are cool with that they just go for it me i'm looking at that going i've no idea what this is i don't know what it's going to feel like or taste like i might hate it i'm in a fancy restaurant i can't spit it out ergo i'm not putting it in my mouth that's a fairly common response especially amongst us autistic adults we don't want our child to feel the same way we want them to be faced with that situation and go i don't know what this food is going to feel like in my mouth i'm not entirely sure what it's going to taste like when i chew down on it but if i don't like it it's okay i can spit it out and maybe have a glass of water or something they like the taste of to hand to neutralize just in case they really dislike it so they're going to try eating it and then if they've done that we need to just make sure that once they've tried it once we actually come back and revisit it on other times we think about whether they might be prepared to add this food into their repertoire now this is quite like a long process you might have gone through it quite quickly with your child or it might have taken you a while what you want to do is make sure that you don't lose the momentum so make a note of the food that's been tried be really proud of your child in a way that works for them and add it to the lists of foods that they have tried and then maybe think with them did they like it did they not would they prepared to try it again and then try to revisit and repeat that exposure you probably won't need to do all the stages again but try to gain some familiarity with that food now remembering that for our children when they get familiar with the food the more that they have it the more that they're exposed to it the more acceptable it will become to them so don't just do this once and then go away rather do it and then repeat as many of the stages as you need to and return to the food many times until it becomes a familiar and known food if they like it and then it can become part of their food repertoire and this way we gradually gradually build it up if you keep it fun and so long as your child isn't losing weight and they seem to be kind of generally kind of happy and healthy you can take this as slowly as you need to their bodies are amazing and will actually manage on remarkably narrow food stuffs if need be so just make it fun get really explorative with them try new things take the pressure off you and them and keep a journal of what you manage i would love to hear if you try this process with your child or a child that you care for and what foods do you try do you add any other stages in how do you record what you've done how did it go down share your successes but also share where it didn't go quite so well because we can then begin to think about how to tackle some of those together good luck it's not easy for any of us but we're all in it together until next time