Nutrition is among one of the most talked about subjects when I talk to my clients. I totally get that because we all know that nutrition is important for development, optimal learning and growing, and maintaining a healthy lifestyle. BUT most autisitic children can be rigid about food, which is super stressful when you are trying to be the best parent that you can be. Let's take a look at some little and big ways to get food flexibility moving.
Lots of mothers describe rigid behaviours, challenges with mealtimes, or inflexibility with routines which seem to be inherent with autism due to the insistence on sameness. Here's a basic example of your child's reaction when a new food comes out: "NO WAY!!! You've changed the way this looks, and I don't want to try it. It looks weird to me!!" Or they may use far less words and a few more behaviours to tell you this message. It's easy to think of why food can be so challenging for some. For example, let's think of the pasta that you serve, it's going to be a very similar experience to the pasta you serve the next day, particularly if it's the same shape/brand. Now, let's think about a blueberry, it comes in relatively the same shape, but the size, consistency and taste can vary greatly! One is tart, another is sweet, and yet another is mushy. And this is only one example of why food flexibility might be limited for your child! What about cooked versus un-cooked broccoli? What a difference!
Instead of having the big fight day and night, try some of these tips and tricks to eating and feeding before we get to changing food:
1. Let's get playing!
First off a great way to explore anything new is to play. Touching with our hands is a great first way to explore the texture and feel of different foods before progressing to something a bit more difficult like putting the food near our mouths or even inside it! Try looking for fun and creative ways to be messy like the tabletop spaghetti that's been going around or even finding a social media account that has fresh ideas, like messymatesouthcoast on Instagram.
2. Be cool if gagging happens!
During this process you may get freaked out by gagging. Let's try rethinking this a bit. Instead of "oh no, this is a violent reaction to this food," think " gagging is typical and normal for protecting my child's (or anyone's) airways." Though this will likely happen, what is important is NOT to respond in an over reactive way. Have bins and paper towels ready to help clean up if there is a mess, but continue on with the play or exposure. If you remove all the food or have a big reaction to this, the child will learn to associate gagging to get you to remove the food, so try to keep your impulses at bay, react calmly and continue playing.
3. Establish a consistent eating routine.
Try this 2-hour eating routine: start with a meal, then 2 hours later have a snack, then 2 hours later have a meal again, and so on. An eating routine like this can help your child experience hunger. Why is this important you might ask? Well, if your child has been snacking all day, and is given a food that's new, your child won't be interested in trying it AND your child won't have to because they're not hungry! If they aren't hungry, they can refuse easily, causing you more stress about them not eating or trying the new food you've brought to the table.
4. Get variety throughout the eating process.
As we mentioned above, autistic children may create their own routines quickly. I've heard, "he/she will only eat [food] from [brand]," many times before. Some ways to combat this are to 1) beginning serving food where the brand isn't visible, like on a plate or a bowl, which will lessen the reliance on that visual 2) be aware of the things you use by trying a different bowl, utensil or cup. This will help promote flexibility around mealtimes. Little variations when they are consistent can add up to bigger variations over time, like changing the brand on a few things, then adding a new food to the plate.
It's important to remember to continue with a change that you've added to the day. Don't just try it once and say they didn't like that or it didn't work. You'll need to be consistent to get your child used to these new behaviours so that eventually you can start to work on the addition of new foods. Tell us which of these worked for you! We're interested to hear your thoughts!!
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