Parent & professional resources

Most feeding progress comes from lowering pressure and raising predictability — not from new foods appearing on the plate.

• Keep one guaranteed safe food at every meal so the table never feels risky.
• Serve new foods beside, not on, the accepted food. No-mix plates reduce refusal.
• Use the same cut, plate, temperature and utensil each time you re-offer a food.
• Expect 8–15 neutral exposures before a food is genuinely refused.

Refusal is often a sensory response — smell, texture, sound or visual load — rather than behaviour.

• Reduce competing input first: dim lights, lower noise, remove strong smells.
• Offer drier, firmer textures to children who gag on wet or mixed foods.
• Let the child touch and play with food away from mealtimes; exploration precedes eating.
• Record reactions in the tracker so patterns, not single days, guide decisions.

A narrow diet can still be nourishing while the accepted list slowly widens.

• Fortify accepted foods (oil, nut butter, ground seeds) instead of adding new ones.
• Prioritise iron, zinc, calcium, vitamin D and omega-3 — the most common gaps.
• Watch hydration and stools; constipation reduces appetite quickly.
• Ask for a blood panel before starting any supplement.