5 ways to support your selective eater during the Christmas holidays Christmas tables are laden with lots of festive foods – turkey and cranberry sauce, ham on the bone, roast vegetables, fruit cake, pavolova, or freshly picked strawberries to name a few. While this has many of us salivating, it’s enough to send shivers down the spine of those families with a selective eater or a child with ARFID. Families might be struggling with mealtimes or getting their child to eat a range of foods. … [Read more...] about Christmas feasting with a “fussy eater”
Feeding
Food Chaining – what is it?
Food chaining is a child-friendly feeding therapy strategy that is used regularly use during treatment sessions to help children experience success with eating. You may have heard your feeding therapist talk about food chaining and wondered what it is and how it works. Food chaining helps you understand why your child will accept certain foods and enables you to introduce new foods that build on the foods they currently enjoy and eat consistently. Food chaining works wonders for picky eaters and … [Read more...] about Food Chaining – what is it?
My child has ARFID – it’s an eating disorder, but please don’t judge me!
“The most frustrating thing about living with ARFID is that nobody knows what it is. It’s a real eating disorder and not a choice, I’m not just being picky and awkward. I just wish more people knew about it.” We recently asked families who deal with the reality of having a child with an eating disorder for their experiences of how society viewed them and their child. For many of these families, the well-meaning comments from friends, families, communities and even health professionals made them … [Read more...] about My child has ARFID – it’s an eating disorder, but please don’t judge me!
Scented Play Dough and how to use it in feeding therapy
Scented play dough is a great a way of building muscles in young children’s hands, providing and opportunity for “heavy work” for a young child or a play activity to keep children busy and entertained. Playing with play dough supports creative development and for children to use their imagination in a play situation. At Sprouts Child Occupational Therapy we have also been using scented play dough during feeding therapy sessions as one treatment method for children who have sensory processing or … [Read more...] about Scented Play Dough and how to use it in feeding therapy
10 tips to increase protein rich foods in your child’s restrictive diet
We all know that protein rich foods are an important part of a balanced diet. But what do you do when you have a child with a restricted diet who avoids all or many sources of protein - meat, fish, eggs, nuts and some dairy products? This can be very concerning or anxiety provoking for families and it can place your young person at significant nutritional risk. For that reason, we often focus on increasing protein rich foods during feeding therapy here at Sprouts OT. What is protein and why … [Read more...] about 10 tips to increase protein rich foods in your child’s restrictive diet
Top 10 feeding tips: For young children who struggle to eat a wide variety of food.
Why is it important to research what the top 10 feeding tips are? Are you a stressed parent, a worried Grandparent or a concerned friend? Is there a young child who could benefit from the top 10 feeding tips in your life? Feeding difficulties are part of normal development for young children. However for some children these difficulties in exploring new foods continues past what would be expected. For children aged 1-5 years old their feeding aversions are frequently due to another … [Read more...] about Top 10 feeding tips: For young children who struggle to eat a wide variety of food.
Avoidant / Restrictive Food Intake Disorder (ARFID)
Sprouts Child Occupational Therapy are experienced working with children who have a diagnosis of Avoidant / Restrictive Food Intake Disorder (ARFID). We hope that this will provide you with a bit more information about what ARFID is. What does ARFID stand for? ARFID stands for Avoidant/Restrictive Food Intake Disorder. This is a diagnosis in the DSM 5 that is used to describe a child, young person or adult who has disturbance in their feeding or eating that causes them to persistently … [Read more...] about Avoidant / Restrictive Food Intake Disorder (ARFID)