The Sensory Sensitive Kid & Mealtime
Mealtimes are the ultimate sensory experience. For a child with sensory sensitivities, mealtime can be an assault of different textures, tastes, smells, sights, and sounds. Many of these kids come to the table stressed and worried. What food is going to be on my plate? What is the food going to feel like in my mouth? What if the food looks different? Am I going to have to try the food? In this state, it is difficult to do new things (such as try a new food), and our appetite often decreases.
Here are some tips to help your sensory sensitive child during mealtime:
Tip #1: Movement and heavy work help calm a stressed nervous system.
Animal Walks (walking like a wheelbarrow, bear walking, crab walking, sliding across the floor on the tummy like a snake)
Pushing or pulling a loaded laundry basket around the house to put things away (UPS Delivery Game)
Bike or Scooter around the block
Jumping on a trampoline
Playground time (climbing up structures, hanging from bars)
Tip #2: Certain food textures can help a child feel calmer with eating.
Even the texture of certain foods can provide “heavy work” for the mouth. When you think about offering a new food, crunchy foods might be easier to manage and provides sensation that is calming and regulating. For example, instead of offering a steamed vegetable, try roasting or frying it to offer more of that crunchy texture. Instead of raw kale, offer a kale chip.
Tip #3: A calm environment leads to calmer mealtimes.
A calm environment can help your child feel calmer and more ready to pay attention and eat. This might include turning the TV off, playing some calming music, dimming bright lights and using a quiet voice. Limiting clutter and other visual distractions on the table may also be helpful.
Tip #4: Always include at least one preferred food on the plate.
Making sure to offer at least one preferred food for each meal and snack can put your child at ease. We don’t want to take away what your child can do. This will lead to an increase in worry and stress and more challenging mealtime behaviors.
Tip #5: Make one small change at a time!
For sensitive kids, making one small change at a time can help with flexibility without overwhelming them. This might look like cutting preferred food in a different shape or changing the flavor of the jelly but keeping all other aspects of the peanut butter and jelly sandwich the same.
Tip #6: Frequent exposure to new foods is important.
Kids need to be offered variety in order to learn how to eat new foods but it may take them multiple exposures to the food (15 to 20 times or more) before they are comfortable eating it.
Offer foods with similar properties to your child’s accepted foods (same color, shape, and texture, but different flavor).
Tip #7: Model the behaviors you want to see at mealtime.
Sit and model exploring a new food by looking at, touching, and smelling it, with no expectation to eat the food. Show your child how you can lick a new food to see if it has a “big” or “little” taste or hold a new food between your teeth.
Tip #8: Establish and include your child in mealtime routines.
Setting up a mealtime schedule and routines around eating is an important part of creating positive mealtimes. Mealtime routines help prepare your child to be ready to eat and offer some predictability to what can be an overwhelming sensory experience.
Tip #9: Fresh air for our super “smellers”.
Some kids are really sensitive to smells and this can create some aversion to sitting at the table or trying new foods. Try opening a window to decrease the smell, let your child know when “smelly” foods are being prepped, or keep a lid on dishes with stronger smelling foods in them.
Tip #10: Don’t hide or sneak food.
When we “sneak” food into a child’s preferred food, we aren’t really teaching the child to learn to eat the food. Sensitive kids can detect the change and will likely refuse the food in the future. This can also disrupt the parent-child relationship and creates distrust in the future.
