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Food Chaining: How It Works, With Example Chains

Food chaining is a way of widening what a child eats by starting from a food they already accept and changing one thing at a time: the brand, the flavour, the texture, the shape or how it is cooked. Each new food is a small step from the last one, so it still feels familiar. The approach comes from the book Food Chaining by feeding specialists Cheri Fraker, RD and Laura Walbert, SLP, with Mark Fishbein and Sibyl Cox.

Most advice about new foods asks a child to jump: here is broccoli, try a bite. Food chaining works the other way round. It treats the foods your child eats now as the starting point and builds outward from them, so the next food is close enough to something trusted that it does not register as new.

Cheri Fraker, RD and Laura Walbert, SLP set the method out in Food Chaining (2007), written with pediatric gastroenterologist Mark Fishbein and dietitian Sibyl Cox. The book pays close attention to how foods relate in taste, temperature and texture. Feeding therapists use the approach in clinic, and parents use it at home, often between appointments. The steps below are a plain-language outline for home, not a copy of the book's program.

How to do food chaining, step by step

You need a pen, a list and patience measured in weeks. Nothing here needs special food or equipment.

  1. Write down every food your child eats now

    Include brands, how each food is cooked and served, and what it must not touch. This is the safe food list, and every chain starts from it.

  2. Pick one safe food to start from

    Choose a food your child eats reliably and often, not the one you most want to change. A food that is eaten every day gives you the most chances to offer the next link.

  3. Describe what makes that food acceptable

    Taste, texture, temperature, colour, shape, brand. Crunchy, salty, beige and room temperature tells you far more about what to try next than the food's name.

  4. Choose a next food that changes one thing

    Keep everything else the same. A different brand of the same nugget changes one thing; a homemade nugget with a new dip changes two, and that is a bigger step than it looks.

  5. Offer it small, beside the safe food, with no pressure

    A small piece on the plate next to the familiar food. No bribes, no bite counts, no hiding it inside something. Looking at it, touching it and smelling it all count. Offer it again at later meals.

  6. Move on once it is eaten reliably, or step back

    When the new food is accepted most times it appears, it becomes the starting point for the next link. If it is refused again and again, go back to the last food that worked and choose a smaller change.

EatPal turns your child's safe foods into food chains and a week of meals, with one small try bite at a time beside the foods they already eat. Start free or take the 2-minute quiz.

Food chaining examples

Eight chains from foods families often report as safe. Each arrow is one step, and the note under a food says what changed. Your child's chain will be their own; use these to see the size of a step, not as a menu.

Starting from chicken nuggets

The coating is what makes a nugget familiar, so the chain keeps a crisp coating for as long as it can and changes what is under it.

  1. Chicken nuggets, the usual brandSafe food
  2. Chicken nuggets, a different brandChanges: Brand
  3. Homemade breaded chicken piecesChanges: Homemade, same shape and coating
  4. Breaded fish piecesChanges: Fish under the same coating
  5. Grilled chicken strips with the usual dipChanges: No coating, dip kept

Starting from plain pasta

Pasta is a good base because the shape can stay the same while the topping moves one small step at a time.

  1. Plain pastaSafe food
  2. Buttered pastaChanges: A little butter
  3. Buttered pasta with a pinch of parmesanChanges: Cheese, a small amount
  4. Pasta with a spoon of mild tomato sauce beside itChanges: Sauce on the side
  5. Pasta in mild tomato sauceChanges: Sauce stirred in

Starting from french fries

Fries carry crunch, salt and a long shape. Keeping the oven method and the shape steady lets the vegetable change underneath.

  1. French friesSafe food
  2. Oven potato wedgesChanges: Thicker cut, baked
  3. Roasted potato cubesChanges: Shape
  4. Roasted sweet potato cubesChanges: Sweeter, orange
  5. Roasted carrot sticksChanges: A new vegetable, same roasting

Starting from plain crackers

Dry, crunchy and identical from the packet. The chain adds flavour before it adds a new texture.

  1. Plain saltine crackersSafe food
  2. Butter crackersChanges: Richer taste
  3. Cheese crackersChanges: Cheese flavour
  4. Crackers with a thin slice of cheeseChanges: Real cheese on top
  5. Cheese toast cut into cracker-size squaresChanges: Bread instead of cracker

Starting from vanilla yogurt

Smooth foods are often accepted because there are no surprises. Flavour changes first; lumps come last.

  1. Smooth vanilla yogurtSafe food
  2. Vanilla yogurt with a swirl of smooth strawberry pureeChanges: A little fruit flavour
  3. Smooth strawberry yogurtChanges: Fruit flavour throughout
  4. Strawberry yogurt with a few soft fruit piecesChanges: Small soft pieces
  5. Yogurt with chopped fresh strawberriesChanges: Fresh fruit

Starting from buttered toast

Toast is a reliable carrier. Changing the spread keeps the crunch and colour the child already trusts.

  1. Buttered toastSafe food
  2. Toast with seedless jamChanges: Sweet spread
  3. Toast with smooth peanut butter, if peanut is safe for your childChanges: Spread
  4. Peanut butter sandwich on soft breadChanges: Soft bread, not toasted
  5. Peanut butter on peeled apple slicesChanges: Apple as the carrier

Starting from applesauce

Applesauce is apple with the texture removed, which makes it a natural start toward the fruit itself.

  1. Smooth applesauceSafe food
  2. Chunky applesauceChanges: Soft lumps
  3. Soft baked apple slicesChanges: Whole slices, soft
  4. Peeled raw apple slicesChanges: Crisp
  5. Peeled pear slicesChanges: Similar fruit, softer and sweeter

Starting from cheese pizza

Pizza is bread, tomato and cheese in one familiar shape. The chain moves those same parts into other meals.

  1. Cheese pizza, the usual frozen kindSafe food
  2. Homemade cheese pizza on the same style of crustChanges: Homemade
  3. Cheese quesadillaChanges: Tortilla instead of crust, no sauce
  4. Cheese quesadilla with a little shredded chickenChanges: A small amount of chicken inside
  5. Mini pizza bagels with one topping your child picksChanges: Bagel base, a chosen topping

Common mistakes

Most chains that stall do so for one of a handful of reasons, and nearly all of them come from moving faster than the child.

  • Changing two things at once. A new brand in a new shape is two steps, and the refusal tells you nothing about either.
  • Starting from the food you wish they ate. Start from the food they actually eat most.
  • Hiding the new food inside a safe food. If it is found, you can lose the safe food along with the new one.
  • Taking the safe food off the plate to make room for the new one. The familiar food is what makes the plate possible to sit down to.
  • Counting bites or offering rewards. Pressure turns a small step into a test the child can fail.
  • Serving this week's success at every meal. A new food eaten too often can burn out and drop off the list.
  • Reading one refusal as the end of the chain. Offer it again on another day, and only then think about a smaller step.

How long food chaining takes

Think in weeks and months, not meals. Some links are accepted the first time they appear; others need many calm offers before a child will touch them, and a few never take, which is why a chain needs more than one route forward.

There is no fixed timetable, and a pace that looks slow from the outside is often the pace that holds. Keep a written note of each food offered and what happened. Progress on a short food list is hard to see from week to week and easy to see across a season.

When to involve a feeding therapist

Food chaining at home suits a child who eats a narrow but steady list. Some situations need a professional first, and food chaining was developed in clinics for exactly those children. Talk to your pediatrician and ask about a referral to a feeding therapist or dietitian if:

  • Your child is losing weight or falling away from their growth line.
  • The list of accepted foods is getting shorter rather than longer.
  • New or changed foods cause gagging, vomiting or panic.
  • Your child avoids foods after choking or vomiting.
  • Whole food groups are missing and you are worried about nutrition.
  • Mealtimes are distressing for your child most days.

Where the chains start: your safe foods

Every chain begins with a food already accepted, so the safe food list is the most useful thing to have written down before you start. If you have not made one, the safe foods list groups common safe foods by category with the reason each tends to be accepted, which is the same information you need to plan the next link.

How EatPal plans meals with food chains

EatPal is a meal planner built around food chaining. You start by entering the foods your child already eats, and the plan for the week is built out from that list.

On the Food Chaining screen, you pick a food your child eats and EatPal suggests foods from your household's pantry that sit close to it. Each suggestion says what it shares with the starting food (a similar taste, texture, colour or shape, or the same kind of food) and whether it is a small, medium or bigger step. Foods that clash with an allergy recorded for that child are left out. Add to plan puts the suggestion on today's or tomorrow's plan as a try bite, beside foods your child already accepts.

Each try bite then moves along an exposure ladder, from looking at the food through touching, smelling and licking to a full portion. A food that gets a refusal steps back and rests rather than being pushed, and meals are logged as ate, tasted or refused so you can see the chain move over weeks.

EatPal is a meal planning tool. It does not assess, diagnose or treat feeding problems, and nothing on this page replaces a feeding therapist, a dietitian or your child's doctor.

Common questions

What is food chaining and how does it work?
Food chaining widens a child's diet by starting from a food they already eat and changing one feature at a time, such as brand, flavour, texture, shape or cooking method. Because each new food is close to a trusted one, it feels less new. The method was published by Cheri Fraker, RD and Laura Walbert, SLP in the book Food Chaining.
Can you give me an example of food chaining?
Plain pasta, then buttered pasta, then buttered pasta with a pinch of parmesan, then pasta with a spoon of mild tomato sauce beside it, then pasta in the sauce. Each step changes one thing. The eight chains on this page show more.
What is food chaining in feeding therapy?
In feeding therapy, food chaining is a structured way of expanding a narrow diet. A feeding therapist or dietitian looks at what a child accepts, works out which features make those foods acceptable, and plans small steps from them. Parents carry the steps on at home between sessions.
Can chicken nuggets be used in food chaining?
Yes, and they are one of the most common starting points. Keep the crisp coating familiar while changing what is under it: another brand, homemade breaded chicken, breaded fish, then grilled chicken strips with the usual dip.
What are some food chaining examples for vegetables?
French fries to oven wedges, then roasted potato cubes, roasted sweet potato and roasted carrot sticks. Keeping the roasting and the shape steady lets the vegetable change underneath.
Who created food chaining?
Cheri Fraker, a pediatric dietitian, developed it, and she and speech-language pathologist Laura Walbert published it with Mark Fishbein and Sibyl Cox in the book Food Chaining in 2007.
How long does food chaining take?
Expect weeks to months for a chain, and the pace varies from food to food and child to child. Some links are accepted quickly; others take many calm offers. A written record is the easiest way to see progress that is too slow to notice day to day.
Is food chaining the same as hiding vegetables in food?
No. Food chaining puts the new food in plain sight, next to a familiar one. Hiding food inside a safe food risks the safe food if your child finds it, and it teaches nothing about the new food.
What if my child refuses the next food in the chain?
Keep the food they already eat on the plate, offer the new one again at another meal, and if it keeps being refused, go back to the last food that worked and choose a smaller change. A refusal tells you the step was too big, not that the chain failed.
Can I do food chaining at home without a therapist?
Many parents do, for a child with a narrow but steady list of foods. If your child is losing weight, the list is shrinking, or new foods cause gagging or panic, talk to your pediatrician about a feeding therapist first.

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