Walkthrough: Introduce a new food, one small step at a time

Getting a new food onto the menu can take weeks of small, patient attempts — and most of that progress never looks like eating. Being in the same room as the food is a step. Touching it is a step. Smelling it, licking it, taking one bite and making a face — all steps. The New foods tracker gives every one of those attempts a home, so you can see the slow climb that is actually happening and show it to a feeding therapist (an SLP) when the time comes. Available

This matters most for ARFID and other feeding differences, where a new food can take dozens of tries and pressure makes everything worse. The tracker is built around one idea: adding a food is an invitation, not a commitment. You decide what to offer; the person decides what happens next. Every entry is a win, logged without judgment.

CareHaven does not give medical or feeding advice. If mealtimes involve gagging, choking, weight loss, or real distress, bring a doctor or a speech-language pathologist into the loop. This tracker gives them better information — it does not replace them.

Where it lives

Two ways in:

• Fastest: tap the + button (bottom of screen) and choose New food (the leaf icon). This starts a new food right away.
• The full list: tap Main Menu (bottom left) → Track → New foods. This is where every food you are working on lives.

The New foods row can be shown or hidden per person — if you don't see it, check Settings → Menus.

Start a food

Tap Start a new food (or come in through the + button) and fill in as much or as little as you like:

1. Name the food — for example "Strawberries" or "mac and cheese."
2. How it feels (optional) — add a word or two that describes the food: crunchy, warm, smooth. Over time these words help you spot what's working ("smooth things keep landing; mixed textures don't").
3. Brand & packaging (optional) — some foods only work in one specific brand or package. Jot it down so it's easy to find and match later, and so a substitute caregiver never buys the wrong flavor.
4. Starting from a safe food (optional) — if this new food is a small step from one they already love (nuggets → tenders), pick that safe food here. This is the food-chaining idea: new foods stick best when they start close to a known winner. Leave it blank if it's a fresh start.
5. Notes (optional) — prep tricks, what's worked before, anything worth remembering.
6. Tap Save.

There's no right pace. Adding a food just means you'd like to try it someday — not that you have to start now.

Log each time you try

Whenever the food makes an appearance — on the table, on their plate, anywhere near them — open the food from Main Menu → Track → New foods and tap Add a time you tried it. One entry per offering, however it went.

The first question is the heart of it: how did it go today? Pick the step that matches, from a ladder where every rung counts:

1. Didn't engage today — offering it counts; there's no pressure today.
2. In the room — sharing the space with a new food is a real step.
3. At the table — sitting near it is its own kind of brave.
4. Looked at it or helped — looking, or helping prepare it, is genuine progress.
5. Smelled it — getting close enough to smell it is a win.
6. Touched it — touching it takes real curiosity.
7. Touched it to lips or mouth — bringing it to their mouth is a big moment.
8. Tasted it — tasting is a win on its own.
9. Swallowed a bite — wonderful.

Then, if you have another few seconds:

• How much — from None to Most of it. "None" is a perfectly good answer.
• How they reacted — tap any that fit: gagged, spat it out, got upset, pushed it away, texture / smell / temperature / look bothered them — or the good ones: stayed calm, was curious, liked it.
• Their mood — curious, calm, neutral, wary, or upset.
• Context (optional) — whether they were hungry or full, the setting, and whether the new food was offered alongside a safe food (a classic food-chaining move worth tracking).
• A note — anything else worth remembering.

Tap Save. That's the whole ritual — ten seconds on a busy day, a bit more when something interesting happened.

Watch it grow

Open any food from the list and the How it's going section shows the story so far: the furthest step so far, how many times tried, and when you last tried. The furthest step is framed exactly as it should be — the best moment yet, not a score. Every step is a win on its own; there's no wrong pace here.

The list itself keeps foods in two groups — Working on and Accepted — with each row showing the furthest step and the number of tries, so a glance tells you where things stand across every food at once.

Two patterns worth the discipline:

• Log the quiet attempts too. "Didn't engage today" entries are data — they show the SLP how often the food is being offered, which matters as much as what happened.
• Look back before you push forward. If the last three tries all say "texture bothered them," the next move is probably a different prep of the same food, not a bigger portion of the same one.

When it becomes a safe food

One day the pattern shifts — they just eat it. When a food has genuinely landed, open it and tap [Name] accepts this now in the Status section. The food moves to Accepted, and a new button appears: Add to safe foods.

Tap it, and CareHaven graduates the food onto the person's safe-foods list (the same Preferred foods list that travels in the handoff packet, so every caregiver knows it's a winner now):

• If a similar food is already on the safe-foods list, you can link to one you already have — so the list doesn't get a duplicate "Mac & cheese" next to "mac and cheese."
• Or add it fresh, carrying over the brand, packaging, and notes you already entered.

Changed your mind, or was it a one-time fluke? Move back to working on un-graduates the status, and the trial history stays intact either way.

How this plays with the Feeding log

The Feeding log and the New foods tracker are teammates, not rivals:

• Feeding answers "what did they eat today?" — meals, amounts, and responses, day by day.
• New foods answers "how is the strawberry project going?" — one food's journey across weeks.

Logging an attempt in New foods never creates a feeding entry or touches nutrition totals, so there's no double-counting. Log a meal in Feeding, log the brave little side-quest in New foods.

A note on pace

Feeding progress is slow on purpose — a food can take ten, twenty, or more calm exposures before it lands, and rushing resets the clock. The tracker is built so the slow version looks like what it is: progress. On the discouraging weeks, open a food and read the ladder from the bottom up. In the room. At the table. Touched it. That's a climb, and you have the receipts.