An approach to resolve the cross sensitivity of fiber Bragg gratings (FBGs) is proposed by the adoption of different polymers as the coating materials for gratings. From the different optical responses resulted from the gratings of different polymeric coatings, sensitivity to individual parameter can be exactly revealed. As an application of this approach, simultaneous discrimination of axial strain and temperature with two FBGs of different polymeric coatings is demonstrated with the axial strain and temperature sensitivities of 1.228 pm/mu epsilon and 11.433 pm/degrees C for the acrylate-coated FBG, and 1.170 pm/mu epsilon and 11.333 pm/degrees C for the polyimide-coated FBG, respectively. (C) 2008 American Institute of Physics.