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About Feeding Clinic of Santa Monica
Our individualized approach allows us to work with families to find a feeding schedule that meets the child’s needs, rather than fitting the schedule to the convenience of the clinic, which can compromise the effectiveness of therapy.
We work with your child, infant or toddler as much as needed to fix your child’s eating problem by creating a mealtime structure that resolves the most pressing feeding issues that your child exhibits. The feeding specialist tailors feeding protocols according to the needs of your child, as well as to the parent. Every child is unique in displaying different types of mealtime behaviors and responding differently to each type of protocol.
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22939 Hawthorne Blvd Ste 202, CA, 90505
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(310) 857-6448
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes, picky and selective eating is actually a quite common concern for children with autism. If you rolled your eyes looking at the steps above because your child with autism has never had a full day's serving of vegetables in their life, you are definitely not alone. As if getting kids to eat their veggies isn’t challenging enough, research shows children with autism have significantly more eating challenges than their peers who are not autistic.
In addition to sensory difficulties that can lead to a lot of anxiety with food, autistic children are 4x more likely to have gastrointestinal issues such as stomach pain and discomfort. This creates the perfect storm for extra extra picky eaters - and a lot of added obstacles and concerns for parents.
The difficulties associated with autistic children and food can cause a wide range of concerns from children being underweight to overweight (overweight children can still be at risk for nutritional deficiencies!). This can lead to slower than normal growth and nutritional deficiencies like low vitamin D and calcium levels. Even when given multivitamins, many children with autism are still found to have some of these nutritional deficiencies.
Here are some tips:
- Keep to a schedule - setting schedules for meal and snack time can help picky eaters build up their appetite throughout the day
- Minimize distractions - removing distractions like screens and toys can help your child be more engaged at mealtime
- Approach new foods together - Make new foods less scary by trying them together. Touching and smelling the food together before tasting it
- Support choice & control - Allowing your child to pick which foods they eat will help them feel more in control
For more tips, check out our guide for getting a complete diet.
It may not seem obvious, but eating is a complex behavior that involves perceptual, emotional, and cognitive processes. And we know that children with autism process things differently. While many of us look forward to things like our afternoon snack, it may be an activity that causes a lot of anxiety for your child.
Parents describe food selectivity being determined by a few of the following factors: texture (69%), appearance (58%), taste (45%), smell (36%), and temperature (22%). Uniform texture, bland and neutral color foods are reported to be overwhelmingly preferred by more than 90% of children with ASD.