Trying new foods: Food is a big part of holiday traditions. However, many children with social learning challenges struggle to try new foods. There are many reasons why. For example, some foods they tried early in life may have been hard for them to swallow, which caused a panic response when they were unable to clear their airway. These memories can be subconscious and can act as an obstacle throughout a lifetime. Sensory sensitivities can also lead to strong emotional responses to various tastes and when your child was young they could not, and may still not be able to, communicate their experience with you. When you do not get critical information you cannot help your child understand or soothe their emotional responses to overwhelming experiences. The above are often some of the foundational experiences as to why a child with social learning challenges refuses to TRY new foods. The biggest obstacle for the family is helping their child overcome the emotional hurdle associated with trying new foods. If you are wanting to try to expand your childs diet to new and maybe healthier foods we have found the following strategies very helpful for families: 1) Try NOT to make the experience about liking a new food. Rather focus on reinforcing your child for trying a new food. Whether or not they like what they try is secondary. We also avoid asking a children if they like a new food until they have tried it multiple times. Research has shown that children are NOT are not able to reliably answer, Do you like it? Until the child has tried the new food 15-20 times. We focus instead on praising the child for trying the new food! 2) Appreciate that your role is to support your child emotionally so they feel safe. Getting frustrated because your child is exhibiting dead, anxiety, apprehension, avoidance, etc. will not help your child feel emotionally safe. In fact, your negative emotions will serve to reinforce what your child already feels; trying new foods is SCARY! Stay calm. Let your child know that what ever they are feeling is OK and still nudge them out of their comfort zone. Dont push them out of their comfort zone. You might get temporary success but the next time you try something new all you childs fear will still be there to work through. 3) Break down the process so success is inevitable. Start by introducing a new food that is very similar to what your child already likes. Same but different. Start by having your child touch the new food. Then, when it FEELS right, graduate to your child tolerating having some of the new food near them or on their plate while eating other preferred food. Have your child feed YOU the new food. Try NOT to act like a used cars salesman when you are eating the new food. Keep you praise focused on your childs willingness to feed you and how they are making you happy. Children with social learning challenges benefit greatly from SEEING your face expressing joy. Use lots of positive touch to praise your child for getting out of their comfort zone. You are NOT trying to convince them the new food is good. You can smile and like it, but dont try to sell it. If you have tried convincing your child in the past your child will remember and detect that you have an agenda. The threat system in their brains will activate and they will either shut down, run away, or protest to try to get you to stop. If all is going well and you can try to have have them kiss the new food, lick it, etc. the point is to be creative and break down the process. Trust in and use your intuition to figure out the right pacing of the process for you and your child. When your childs take takes a daring step be at the ready to genuinely reinforce them for TRYING. 4) Size matters: When we are guiding children and their families we do not care if the child can taste the new food they are trying. We are more interested in helping them move past their emotional hurdle(s). We put on the plate the smallest portion of the new food as possible that can still be seen. For example, we can create a portion 1/3 the size of a piece of rice. If necessary to build trust with the child we do NOT leave a larger portion visible in the room so as to avoid activating the childs threat system. Remember, helping the child overcome their emotional hurdle is key. Lots of genuine, positive engagement. NOTE: Some children get scared when parents reinforce their efforts because they associate praise with higher (more new feed) expectations. So you might need to keep your praise short and sweet. Hope this post helps simulate your creativity. Creativity is the key to continued success. If this post was helpful to you please share so others might benefit as well. LIKE our page! Happy Holidays to you and your family!
Posted on: Wed, 26 Nov 2014 07:39:43 +0000
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