Trying New Foods

Description of the video:

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hello I'm Amy Gaffney I'm an educational
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consultant in the speech language
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pathologist with the Indiana Resource
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Center for Autism
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we know that autistic children often
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have difficulty trying new foods because
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of texture taste or smell
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understanding strategies to help your
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child try new foods can make this
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process easier for you and your child
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first of all we want to try to make meal
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times as calm as possible it takes a lot
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of patience on the part of the parents
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to wait for your child to try a new food
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they may need to try it many many times
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or have many many opportunities before
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they even take that first lick or that
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first bite but eventually they will be
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able to decide if they really like the
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food or they don't
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some tips that I want to share with you
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on trying these new foods are things
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like trying a food chart where you can
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put a sticker on every time that you
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take a bite of something new or try to
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have it make it a family affair and eat
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the rainbow so each day your child can
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choose a food from a certain color and
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have everyone in the family try that new
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red food or that new green food
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have your child try just a little bit of
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something such as one p or even a half a
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p instead of the entire pea pod or maybe
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just one little small piece of the
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broccoli to start with and then the next
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day you might have two little pieces of
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broccoli you can also have them choose
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which silverware they want to use so do
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you want the yellow spoon or the Blue
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Spoon and then I'm gonna put a fourth of
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a teaspoon of applesauce on it just to
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get started and just to try it just to
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get it on your lips a little bit and see
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if it tastes good
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if your child likes apples it's a good
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way to start trying new forms of an
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apple such as maybe a dried apple or
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apple sauce or something else that has
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an apple flavor to it
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another idea is to read some books or
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watch some videos about favorite
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characters trying new food new foods we
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have linked on our website some books
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that are good and also some videos such
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as Daniel Tiger or Sesame Street and
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having the characters trying new foods
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to eat
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you may want to try to pair a new food
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with a food that they already like so if
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they like to dip their vegetables in
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ranch dressing try maybe introducing a
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new vegetable to dip with that ranch
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dressing so if they like orange carrots
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maybe we'll try a thin piece of an
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orange pepper to start with have your
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child help you prepare the food we're
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all more likely to try something if
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we've been involved in cutting it up or
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mixing it together or and making it in
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some way
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we want to be good role models for our
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children so when we try to eat a food we
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want to describe what it tastes like mmm
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that's crunchy oh listen to that sound
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do you want to try that sound you want
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to try to make that crunchy sound with
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that chip or with that carrot stick
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we can also try to use fun plates and
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silverware and straws when we try to
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have something to drink so if your child
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is a big Disney fan I found these cute
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little Mickey Mouse plates where I can
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put dips or little bits of things in the
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ears and then I've got a bigger space
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for that food that I really know the
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child likes so they see more of their
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favorites
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sometimes we can hide stuff like if
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you're making a spaghetti sauce or
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something you can add extra vegetables
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into that sauce that's a good way to get
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things incorporated into your child's
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diet
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um and then if you want to try a new
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drink or something maybe there's a new
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flavor uh you can use that special straw
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it's our special flavors dropper Mickey
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to see if Mickey likes the drink so
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we're gonna try it and see
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we want to try introducing new foods at
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snack time so if our child is always
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wanting the same snacks we can use this
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as a choice board I've got little and
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this is just from the dollar store I've
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got little containers full of um these
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are peanut butter and crackers I've got
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some fruit loops and I've got the
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package here of the fruit snacks so I
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can say oh what would you like for snack
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and if they choose the fruit snacks
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because that's their favorite then
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that's done for the day so now we have
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two other options and if this um if the
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peanut butter and crackers are new that
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we're trying then maybe my guess is they
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might want to say oh I want to get a few
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of these Fruit Loops so we'll give them
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just a couple of Froot Loops and now we
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get another choice we can have more for
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our snack you want to try let's try a
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one peanut butter and cracker or a half
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a peanut butter and cracker and then we
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can mix some with the Fruit Loops
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sometimes kids like to mix things
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together they think that part of it is
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fun but then they're more apt to try to
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eat what again what they've mixed up
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together
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if you're trying
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um maybe a new vegetable or fruit you
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might want to introduce two or three
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types of the same kind of food so maybe
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have out two or three types of fruits or
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two or three types of vegetables for
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your child to pick one and choose part
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of it is just getting them used to
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having these different types of food in
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front of them on their plate getting
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them used to tolerating it and
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experiencing it sometimes before they
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ever take that first bite
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we know that children are more likely to
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have a varied and balanced diet later in
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life if they're introduced to a variety
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of foods and tastes and textures when
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they're in their Early Childhood years
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so it's worth your while to start to try
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and think about what are some good times
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during your day that you can start
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introducing a few more new foods to your
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child
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best wishes and I hope some of these
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tips have helped