13. To Supplement or Not to Supplement?
Have you ever felt shamed for offering or not offering supplements to your child with autism?
Supplements can be a great source of nutrients that your child may not be getting from their diet if they do not eat a broad diet of fruits, veggies, whole grains, and protein. Let’s dig deeper, without judgment, on when and when to not supplement!
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IN THIS EPISODE
The SOS approach to eating for picky eaters
Is nutrient testing right for your child
Where to find the best quality supplements
LINKS
Join the Autism Nutrition Library
Follow @AutismDietitian on Instagram
TRANSCRIPT
Welcome to the Nourishing Autism Podcast where you take a deep dive into the research on autism and dietary changes, nutrition supplements, and lifestyle modifications. Every week, we break down nutrition topics and an easy-to-understand way for you to feel less overwhelmed and feel confident on your nutrition journey with autism.
Hello everyone! And welcome to the Nourishing Autism Podcast. I'm your host Brittyn Coleman, the Autism Dietitian. . And this week, we are talking about supplements to supplement or not to supplement. Supplements are a huge topic in the autism community when working on improving focus or digestion or just helping kids feel better, and it's really divisive.
I see a lot of people who are a hundred percent on board with supplements. And when I say people, this could mean families who are implementing these strategies, but it could also mean healthcare providers. So we can see people who are in one camp of supplements all the way, and not even think about diet per se, but let's just go and supplement and get all of our nutrients from supplements. And that's pretty drastic by the way. That's a little exaggerated. Then we have our other side that is saying absolutely no supplements, no nutrients from supplements, only nutrients from foods.
And that's great, but it's also pretty drastic. And sometimes isn't a great fit for those who are really selective eaters and need some support now.
There's this camp that's kind of in the middle that is oftentimes left out. And this is really where I am. I see that supplements can be extremely helpful. They can help us fill in the gaps for kids to get the nutrients that they need in order to thrive, but might not be able to get their nutrients fully from their foods yet.
And we can be really targeted with those supplements. But ultimately we really want to focus on the nutrients coming from food, because there's so much that food can offer us that supplements cannot. We think about getting our nutrients from foods, oftentimes we are getting fiber, a variety of different vitamins, and minerals, and antioxidants.
Whereas, if we're just consuming our nutrients from a multivitamin or just one supplement, we're missing out on all those additional benefits, it's really just that isolated vitamin, or mineral, or whatever it may be that you're supplementing with. So that being said, going back to what I had mentioned earlier.
Sometimes we can use supplements as a way to fill in the gaps while we're working on expanding diet. And so I really encourage you to view it this way. Supplements can be extremely helpful to help children come back from a nutrient deficiency for us to help get from A to B quicker to fill in the gaps.
But we can't forget to work on feeding and expanding the diet, in the meantime, because of supplements, I view them as a short-term fix. We can help get our nutrients in there. And sometimes they can be long-term, you know, we can have them alongside a great diet, just making sure that we're filling in all of the gaps from the diet.
So what can happen when kids are really limited in the foods that they'll eat, let's say that they only eat five foods and they repeat those same five foods, the same meals every single day. What happens is we end up missing out on a few key nutrients that those foods might be lacking in. So let's say that we're only eating chicken nuggets, French fries, some chips. We have some apple sauce and we're consistently missing out on, magnesium, for example, or some zinc. We're not consistently getting those nutrients, so we might be lacking in those. So if your child is not going to accept a really high magnesium or zinc food like nuts or seeds, overnight, if you put them on their plate and they're not going to eat them.
We have an issue because they're not getting those nutrients consistently or at all with their current diet. So being able to add in a supplement to make up for some of those missing nutrients, oftentimes for selective eaters, this can come down to a multivitamin, filling in those, and then while you're filling in the gaps with the supplement, let's work on expanding the diet, using the proven and helpful ways for kids on the autism spectrum to expand their diet.
And if you're not familiar with those ways to expand the diet. I would love to help you and guide you and doing this. And I do this through the Autism Nutrition Library, my membership, as well as group coaching programs. And in my group coaching programs, it's different from the membership. It's the small group programs, typically 10 to 12 people, and I walk you through how to expand the diet.
I keep you accountable. It's a 12-week program. It's a really great way to find community and get support. So if you're interested in that, you can find more information on my website, Autism Dietitian, or on my Instagram page. But basically what I'm walking you through are two approaches to eating. One is called the steps to eating and this is an approach that was created by the SOS Approach to Feeding. And SOS stands for sequential oral sensory. And it's a great approach for kids who have autism or sensory processing issues. And it helps you start where the child is currently comfortable, the foods that they'll currently eat, and we gradually expand to those new foods based on their sensory profiles and an approach called food chaining.
So this is a huge topic and is a huge piece of what I cover in my group coaching program. I'll absolutely have future podcast episodes about the SOS approach, but there are SOS feeding therapists out there, and you can find one to help you with this by going to the SOS approach to feeding website, and they have a therapist binder, and you can type in your zip code and it's incredible. They're all trained occupational or speech therapists.
I've gone through the training and it's been extremely helpful in the approach to eating that has been the most successful for my clients. So when you're going through this decision, If you would like to supplement, or if you're not quite sure if you want to supplement or not, just make sure that you build in what is going to help you get there to where you don't need to supplement anymore, where we can meet all of our nutrition needs from the foods that your child is eating. And that's typically not an overnight approach. It does take time. So while you're working on figuring out how we're going to expand the diet and start seeing successes there, let's think about what nutrients is your child lacking and how can we fill in the gaps? If you're not quite sure if your child is lacking in any nutrients, you can also consider doing nutrition testing with your pediatrician or with a functional medicine practitioner that can run a longer set of labs for you.
So we can look at all the vitamins and minerals. And this is a test that I do run with the parents in my group coaching program. It can help you individualize even more. Take a look at their diet. Are there nutrients that they're typically lacking? If your child is eating very few foods it can be a good idea to start with a high-quality multivitamin, and I have my favorites listed inside the Autism Nutrition Library inside the multivitamins note.
Not all supplements are created equal. In fact, a lot of them that you can get at just your conventional store or Target is not going to be the best quality for kids with autism. So I really encourage you to take a look, the quality, take a look at some of the recommendations that I have to figure out if your current multivitamin is measuring up, and how we can fill in the gaps with the right nutrients so that your child can thrive and focus and just do their best in school and in life. So if you decide to supplement or to not supplement, that is absolutely your choice. But I encourage you to not feel judged or put down by some of the parent support groups that are out there that are very, very anti-supplement. If your child is an extremely picky eater, sometimes it's the best thing that we can do to fill in the gaps while you're working on expanding. This is a no-judgment zone, and I would love to continue the conversation because it shouldn't be so judgmental. Sometimes different people need different supports. And it's the goal to get there, to fill in those nutrient gaps with whole foods like fruits, vegetables, grains, high-quality meats, et cetera. So thanks so much for joining me this week as we take the guesswork out of nourishing autism
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This podcast is brought to you by the Autism Nutrition Library, a one-stop hub and community for all things autism nutrition created to help you explore evidence-based nutrition approaches that have proved to be effective to help individuals with autism feel their best, do their best, and be their best.
Join now by clicking Autism Nutrition Library or by stopping by my Instagram @AutismDietitian. See you next week.
Transcribed by Descript
ABOUT Brittyn Coleman, MS, RDN/LD, CLT
I’m a Registered Dietitian, Autism Nutrition Expert, and the Creator of the Autism Nutrition Library.
I work with parents of children with autism to optimize their child’s diet, supplements, and lifestyle based on their unique needs. I help expand accepted foods for picky eaters, improve digestion and gut health, find the root causes of many symptoms, and ultimately help them feel their best so that they can do their best and be their best.
Not only do I relate to families on a professional level, but also on a personal level. I have been a part of the autism community for over 20 years, as my younger brother was diagnosed on the spectrum at a young age.
I look forward to working with you to uncover the root cause of your child’s symptoms and help your child be the best version of themselves!
