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, tap the menu icon (top left) → Settings → Menus & Quick Log, check the Editing for picker, tap Hub sub-sections, and switch New foods on.

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.