Want to do a detox and introduce new foods but my grandson will only eat French fries, bacon, sometimes eggs and pizza and snacks. Trying to get him to eat anything else or new is futile. Suggestions??
Answer:
Thank you for your question! There is a great book written by a BCBA called "Broccoli Boot Camp" that I recommend to all family members that ask me this question. It is available on Amazon and is a basic training for parents of selective eaters. Please take a look! But in the meantime I will give you some recommendations. First, I want you to make a list of foods that your grandson used to eat, but no longer eats. One of those foods will be the first food we focus on. Next, I want you to choose what his reinforcer will be for eating this "new" food. It can be either his preferred meal (ex. pizza, french fries, bacon, etc.) OR a preferred food like snacks, candy, etc. What you are going to do is present the "new" food on a plate all by itself, but it is going to be a tiny bite the size of a pea. We want to start small to give him a higher likelihood of success. Have his preferred food in view, but on a different plate. Tell him "First X (new food) then Y (preferred food). He only has to eat the one tiny bite in order to get his preferred food. If he eats the one bite HAVE A PARTY, lots of praise, hugs & kisses, get excited! Then he gets his preferred food. The next meal do the same thing. Three meals of one bite and no problem behavior then you can move up to two small bites. Every three meals that he eats the nonpreferred food in the absence of problem behavior you can add another bite to the mix and start slowly making the bites bigger. Start here and let us know how it goes. Once he is eating a normal portion of the "new" food we will move on to the next food! This is a slow process, but if you are consistent you will see progress! And he will get used to the routine of "First X then Y" so you will eventually see less problem behavior because he will learn that if he eats the non-preferred food then he will get his preferred food. Let us know how it goes! Give it a week or two. If it is working great, if not we will try something else. Good luck!
Thank you for your question! There is a great book written by a BCBA called “Broccoli Boot Camp” that I recommend to all family members that ask me this question. It is available on Amazon and is a basic training for parents of selective eaters. Please take a look! But in the meantime I will give you some recommendations. First, I want you to make a list of foods that your grandson used to eat, but no longer eats. One of those foods will be the first food we focus on. Next, I want you to choose what his reinforcer will be for eating this “new” food. It can be either his preferred meal (ex. pizza, french fries, bacon, etc.) OR a preferred food like snacks, candy, etc. What you are going to do is present the “new” food on a plate all by itself, but it is going to be a tiny bite the size of a pea. We want to start small to give him a higher likelihood of success. Have his preferred food in view, but on a different plate. Tell him “First X (new food) then Y (preferred food). He only has to eat the one tiny bite in order to get his preferred food. If he eats the one bite HAVE A PARTY, lots of praise, hugs & kisses, get excited! Then he gets his preferred food. The next meal do the same thing. Three meals of one bite and no problem behavior then you can move up to two small bites. Every three meals that he eats the nonpreferred food in the absence of problem behavior you can add another bite to the mix and start slowly making the bites bigger. Start here and let us know how it goes. Once he is eating a normal portion of the “new” food we will move on to the next food! This is a slow process, but if you are consistent you will see progress! And he will get used to the routine of “First X then Y” so you will eventually see less problem behavior because he will learn that if he eats the non-preferred food then he will get his preferred food. Let us know how it goes! Give it a week or two. If it is working great, if not we will try something else. Good luck!