48. The ONE Thing You Have to Understand Before Successfully Expanding Your Child's Diet
In this episode of the Nourishing Autism Podcast, Brittyn discusses the importance of understanding sensory needs in expanding an autistic child's diet. Many popular approaches are often unsuccessful and in fact, usually backfire. So today she covers one of the MOST important topics when it comes to expanding your child's diet, Sensory Profiling. Brittyn is also offering a free five-day workshop to help you analyze your child's sensory preferences around food. The workshop will guide you in identifying nutritional gaps, understanding your child's sensory needs, and introducing new foods in a way that minimizes overstimulation.
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TRANSCRIPT
Hi, I'm Brittyn, a Registered Dietitian and autism sibling. I have a passion for helping parents of neurodivergent kids navigate nutrition and wellness for their child, one small step at a time. Here we'll explore practical nutrition tips, learn from top autism experts, break down the newest research, and share inspirational stories that will empower you to utilize nutrition to help your child feel their best and thrive.
Listen in while picking kids up from school, sitting in a therapy waiting room, taking a quick walk or wherever you find yourself, looking for some inspiration and a friend to guide you along this journey. This is Nourishing Autism.
Brittyn: [00:00:00] We really have to think about the way that we approach food, how we can reduce overstimulation in both the mealtime environment and also which foods that we're offering the child. And that is where we start getting into something that I call Sensory profiling, and this is something that I teach all of my clients, all of the members inside of my membership because it's a really important thing that you need to understand before you start having success with expanding your child's diet.
Brittyn: Hey everyone, welcome back to the Nourishing Autism podcast. If you are a parent to an autistic child and you've been trying to expand their diet for a while now and you haven't been having success, you're trying all of the typical picky eating approaches and It just feels like nothing is working.
Let me fill you in that it is not you. You are not doing something wrong. It is the approach. [00:01:00] The approach that we often see when it comes to picky eating is not tailored for children with additional sensory needs. So, you heard it from me first. You are not doing anything wrong. It's the approach. Now, the approaches that I'm talking about are some of the super standard picky eating approaches.
Maybe, well, they'll eat when they're hungry. Or, you know, just put out a new food and they'll eventually eat it when they get hungry enough. Or, you can't leave the table until you take a bite. Or, you have to take a bite of this food before you can eat this food. So, basically what that is, is taking away access of a safe food and trying to get them to eat an unsafe food to motivate them to eventually get their safe food.
What all of these things have in common is that we are just completely blowing through the child's sensory threshold. Now, the way that I think of a sensory threshold is like a bucket. So, we all have different sized [00:02:00] buckets. I, you know, could have a really large sensory bucket. You may have a really small sensory bucket, and throughout the day, every sensory experience that we have is us pouring a little bit of water into that bucket.
So, how we perceive the sensory experience also determines how much water gets poured in there, right? So, you and I could be going through these same exact day, experience these same exact things, and your sensory bucket is overfilling by 9am, and mine doesn't overfill at all. Because I have more of a sensory threshold.
Now for kids on the autism spectrum, their sensory threshold is oftentimes really, really low. Or we are like, we're in the water that we're pouring in. We are just pouring it in by like the gallon. So they often start to feel overstimulated pretty quickly. Now when we are eating, Food is incredibly overstimulating.
It is a very, very [00:03:00] sensory rich activity or experience that we get as humans, and it hits all of our sensory experiences at once, all of our senses. So, when a child already is overstimulated, so their sensory bucket is overfilling, and then there's this new food or they're having to try this new food, and it's all these senses that they never experienced before.
They're quickly, quickly into sensory overstimulation. So we really have to think about the way that we approach food, how we can reduce overstimulation in both the mealtime environment and also which foods that we're offering the child. And that is where we start getting into something that I call Sensory profiling, and this is something that I teach all of my clients, all of the members inside of my membership because it's a really important thing that you need to understand before you start having success with expanding your child's diet.
So sensory profiling is basically digging into [00:04:00] your child's sensory preferences around food. So we take a hard look at their diet, we dig deep, we figure out what are their sensory needs, what are they looking for, what are they avoiding, what is manageable for them, what is not manageable. Figuring out all of the different areas because there's, a lot of different pieces when it comes to our sensory system on how they're going to perceive that food.
It could be the color, it could be the texture, the temperature, the shape, the noise that it makes when you eat it. So there's so much that goes into that. Now, when we start to dig deep into that and we can start to understand where your child is coming from, Then we can start to make really informed decisions on which foods to offer them.
And this is the first step of successfully expanding your child's diet. If we can't offer them the right foods, we are not going to have success, even if we're taking a really sensory oriented approach on how to expand their diet, because that's another part of the process. So, We have, I like to break it down in three different areas.
So first we [00:05:00] analyze, we figure out what are my child's needs, what are they missing. Next I teach you how to expand from there based on what we learned in that first step. And then in step three I teach you how to expand, like how are we going to take this food, this list of foods that we've created, and how are we going to introduce it to your child in a way that's not going to put them into overstimulation.
So, some kids have some super straightforward food preferences, like maybe your child really likes beige and crunchy foods. Now, it can't be that simple, but we can dig in so much more and get so much more clear on what they prefer. Now, for some kids, it could be all over the place. Like, they might have a really simple preference.
subtle pattern or seemingly no pattern at all in the foods that they like, sometimes it really is helpful to have a second set of eyes from an expert to see some of the trends on what your child prefers. Now, some kids might be looking for sensory input from food because Food, again, is very sensory rich.
Eating [00:06:00] is sensory rich. Some kids might be trying to avoid every sensory experience that they can from food, and that can really drive their diet. Some kids can also be somewhere in the middle. They might be sensory seeking in some areas, and they might be sensory avoiding in some other areas. So, if you've ever broken down your child's diet before, if you've ever tried to understand it, it can feel really overwhelming trying to do it on your own, because there are so many different factors.
And so it's hard to be able to say, okay, what are the important factors that I need to understand to break down my child's diet? What trends am I actually seeing and how do I move forward from here? So if that's been you, or maybe you haven't even, you know, looked deeper into their sensory profile quite yet, this might be a completely new concept to you.
And in that case, I'm really excited because I have a free five day workshop coming up to teach you exactly how to do this. So each day in the workshop I send you a video and a quick worksheet for you to [00:07:00] complete so that you can get started on breaking this down in my proven way. So I have worksheets and step by step tutorials on how to do this so that you can come out of this with a great understanding of what your child's sensory needs are around food.
what their nutrition gaps are, because that's another really important piece, and how you're going to move forward from here. So I'm really excited. I've actually never offered anything like this before. All of this information has only ever existed inside of my membership, and now I am sharing it for free to the public.
So if you want to hop in on this, I would love for you to sign up. You can join a few different ways. If you're listening to this podcast, um, I've linked it for you below where you can click the link. You can also DM me on Instagram at Autism Dietitian. Just dm me the word workshop and it'll automatically send you the link to sign up.
You can also head over to nourishing [00:08:00] autism.co/workshop, where you'll be able to sign up and literally just. One click and then starting on March 18th I will send you all of the information that you need in order to do this. Again this is the first step if you are wanting to expand your child's diet,
you have to understand this approach, this is going to help you game plan to make it easier when you do start introducing foods You are going to be super clear on which foods are going to be the most successful food for your child You are going to be super clear on which foods are going to be the most successful for your child, so that when we start introducing them, it's going to be as easy and straightforward as possible.
This is also really great because your kid is going to realize that we are working with them. We are working as a team, and we want to set them up for confidence and comfort, because when we can start in a place for them that feels [00:09:00] comfortable, it's going to feel, first of all, it's going to feel really uncomfortable expanding their diet, but when we can start in a place that feels comfortable and we can empathize with them on where they're coming from, it changes the whole game.
So, I am all about both meeting a child's sensory needs and their nutritional needs to help them get the nutrients they need to thrive and grow because what can happen is that kids get stuck in eating only five to ten different foods because that feels really comfortable from a sensory experience.
Now, I'm all for respecting that. I never say that we have to take those foods out. I'm all for building on top of that. But if we're not building, we're not gaining a variety of nutrients, and that's where we get in trouble because kids start limiting the foods that they're eating, get a very limited amount of nutrients, and then we start seeing the repercussions of that that could affect anybody if you don't have the right vitamins and minerals and you feel clouded and [00:10:00] tired, and fatigued, and you can't focus, that is especially hard for an autistic child. And so we want to make sure that they have the energy, that they have the focus, that they have the nutrients to feel nourished, and that's going to trickle over into all of these other areas of life, helping them feel good and thrive.
And that's what I want. So again, DM me the word workshop to join in on this free five day workshop. You can join through the link below in the show notes, or you can go to nourishingautism. co slash workshop. I am so psyched. I could not wait. I hope to see you there
at the time that I'm recording this, we already have over a thousand people registered for this five day workshop. It's going to be amazing. Not to mention that there's an important community piece of this, you actually get access to our free community inside of the workshop so that you can connect to other parents who are also working on this journey.
And then you also get access to three live calls throughout the workshop week where I get to answer your [00:11:00] questions and support you on this journey. I'm super stoked. Let me know if you're coming at autism dietitian on Instagram. I would love to know if you've signed up and also feel free to share it.
If you have anyone that you think would really benefit from this, or maybe a support group that you're in or a Facebook support group that you're in for other autism parents, I would love if you shared this so we can support even more kiddos, helping them get the nutrients they need to feel the best and thrive.
Thanks so much for tuning in. I'm so excited to see you next week on the next episode of Nourishing Autism. We have new episodes come out every single Wednesday. Can't wait to see you then.
[00:12:00]
Transcribed by Descript
About Brittyn Coleman, MS, RDN/LD
Brittyn Coleman, MS, RDN/LD, is a distinguished Registered Dietitian and Autism Nutrition Expert, known for her innovative, sensory-friendly feeding approach to nutrition for children on the autism spectrum. As the founder of the Nourishing Autism Collective, and as an autism sibling herself, Brittyn brings both professional expertise and personal understanding to her work. She empowers families with her expert guidance, helping children receive essential nutrients for optimal health and development. Her strategies are tailored to the unique dietary needs and sensory preferences of each child.
Brittyn's influence extends beyond her membership site through her active social media presence and her popular podcast, 'Nourishing Autism'. Her educational content on Instagram, YouTube, and other platforms has established her as a leading voice in autism nutrition, providing valuable resources, practical advice, and a supportive community for parents and professionals.
