Address: 11747 Jefferson Avenue Suite 1-B | Newport News, VA 23606
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About Nutrition Solutions
Hey there! I’m Jill Weisenberger a registered dietitian nutritionist, certified diabetes care and education specialist, certified health and wellness coach and certifiable food lover.
Changing my habits and thoughts brought me greater health and more joy. I’ve helped thousands of others improve their health too.
I remember when I thought it was a personal weakness that my lunch started at a fast food restaurant and ended with chocolate. Why didn’t I simply do what I knew was right? After some soul-searching and a few (or a lot) of missteps, I did. Bit by bit, I created my healthy habits and a bucket of energy by setting myself up for success, relying on solid routines, changing my mindset, and dropping that useless view that eating and exercise are either all good or all bad. With relief, I discovered that not eating perfectly isn’t a personal weakness.
I can help you too.
Whether you have diabetes, prediabetes, heart disease or you simply need a better way to lead your life to avoid health problems down the road, you’ll find answers to your questions about food, nutrition and healthy habits right here.
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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
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.
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