68. 6 Things You Can Be Doing NOW for a Successful Back-To-School Transition
It's that time of year again! In this episode of the Nourishing Autism Podcast, Brittyn shares 6 key tips to help your child transition smoothly back into the school year, focusing particularly on maintaining nutrition. We know that a change in routine can impact your child's eating habits, so listen to learn how establishing routines early, involving your child in meal prep, practicing eating in different environments, and more can set your child up for success during this big change!
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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] So as we start to talk about transitioning back into the school year, I have some tips for you that I think are really going to make a difference with not only just your child's overall transition, but especially their eating. Now, one thing that's really common that happens is that big transitions like this or changes in schedules can really affect your child's nutrition.
They may momentarily drop safe foods because of this huge routine change that's going on. So what I want to do is try and prevent that as much as we can.
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Hey everyone, welcome back to the Nourishing Autism Podcast. I'm so excited that you're here. We are going to be talking all about back to school today. So I know that many kids are going back to school this month. Some kids in the Northeast or on the West Coast don't go back until September. But for my Midwesterners, I grew up in Oklahoma, we always started school in early August.
And so it's so surprising to me, or early to mid August, but it's so surprising to me that school just starts for a lot of kids so late, and then I know many people in Canada and the UK and Australia and all over the world also do year round school, so they don't have these big breaks, which is interesting.
I am kind of curious to hear what kind of schedule would work better for a child on the autism spectrum, because as we kind of think through these big shifts and transitions, I start to wonder, is it better [00:03:00] to have one big shift where they're off of school for, you know, two to three months, and you kind of get into a new routine, or is it better to have these little breaks throughout the school year?
My initial gut feeling is that most kids would do best with having one big break rather than all these little breaks because we wouldn't have to make all these transitions and routine changes all the time. So that's my gut feeling, but I am curious, if you listen to this podcast episode and you have big feelings on this, please message me on Instagram.
It's @ nourishingautismpodcast and I would love to hear what you have to say about this. You know, if your child does follow one of these and it does or does not work for you, I would love to hear.
So as we start to talk about transitioning back into the school year, I have some tips for you that I think are really going to make a difference with not only just your child's overall transition, but especially their eating. Now, [00:04:00] one thing that's really common that happens is that big transitions like this or changes in schedules can really affect your child's nutrition.
They may momentarily drop safe foods because of this huge routine change that's going on. So what I want to do is try and prevent that as much as we can, try and keep their nutrition in a great place. The reason that a lot of kids do drop some foods when they're transitioning is because they are looking for consistency and predictability in a world that doesn't feel consistent or predictable when they're changing from being at home to going back to school.
And so you can achieve that with food, also might be really regulating. So they may focus in on a few select foods, and then as they get back into the routine, their diet may start to expand out again. But like I said, would love to share some tips with you to hopefully get ahead of this and prevent that from happening, or to also just [00:05:00] help you once you get back into the routine, get back into gaining those safe foods back again.
So let's hop into it. Number one, we want to establish a routine early. So this is something that I would love for you to start doing now, the earlier the better. Now what I would love for you to think about, what does their routine look like at school? Are they going to start school at 8am? Do they get a snack?
What time are they going to eat lunch? What time are they going to transition into new classes? Or maybe transition into therapy, for example. Now, while we can't exactly replicate their schedule at school, the big stuff, I would love for us to replicate now and get into a nice routine. So be waking up at the time that you would be waking up during the school year,
weeks ahead of time. Start thinking about eating breakfast and snacks and [00:06:00] lunch on your school schedule. That's really going to help your child not have such a drastic transition. I mean, I know some kids eat lunch as early as 10 am or 11 am. And if your child is consistently eating lunch at noon, that's really going to throw things off and could really mess with how much they're eating at school or if they're eating at all.
So trying to follow as much of a routine that stays similar to school's routine, the better and will help them a lot. Now, one thing I wanted to bring up as they start getting into a routine for school, I've actually been checking out this new product and they sent me one because I was trying to figure out what is a way that we can help kids have some autonomy and keeping their routine and especially getting ready for the school year.
Now there's a product called AngelSense. And AngelSense is a watch and they also have another wearable device [00:07:00] and specifically made for kids with special needs and used by many, many kids on the autism spectrum. And the idea behind it originally was to be like a GPS tracker to help for kids who elope and also track them throughout the day and make sure that they have support if they need it.
But the feature that I love the most for AngelSense is actually a routine reminder. So you can actually schedule these auditory reminders on your child's watch or wearable that says out loud to them, time for snack, time for vitamins, time for whatever.
And you can set it on a routine to help remind your child what to expect next. Something like this is going to also really help your child understand the transition from event to event. And I think you could really use this now and at school to really support your child too. So I was messing with it this morning, [00:08:00] and I plugged in Time for Vitamins, and it even has your voice, and you can say it in the exact same way, especially for those kids who are gestalt language processors.
This can be really helpful, so wanted to share this with you, I'll share the link to it if you want to check it out in the show notes, but I'm really impressed with it so far, and I'm excited to see all of the capabilities that you could use with this, and I'm definitely going to gift one to my brother because I think he could really benefit from that because we do know that autistic individuals really struggle with that interoception which is recognizing internal body cues. And so having these reminders can be really helpful to take vitamins, to eat, to go to the bathroom, but can also really keep them on schedule. So, I think my brother would really benefit from it.
They're also running a promotion right now where you can get a free tracker when you sign up for any plan. So I'll link that link in the show notes for you to check it out and get a free tracker.
So that's tip number one. Let's establish a routine early so that they are going to have a [00:09:00] successful transition into school and you're going to have as few big shifts in their routine as possible and you can break this up one thing at a time, change it slowly and gradually. We know that that works best for kids instead of an all or nothing or cold turkey approach. Tip number two is to pack familiar foods in their lunch.
I have so many people who ask me, should I be sending new foods in my child's lunch? And while that's a great idea in theory, and some kids do well with that approach, I would say a minority of kids do well with sending new foods in their lunch. If your child is a selective eater, it's actually better to work on those new foods at home and in a familiar environment that's more controlled, rather than sending them off to school. Please remember, your educators are not feeding therapists, and while they have the best intentions in mind, they don't always have the right training. So we don't want them just working on adding in new [00:10:00] foods because we want to make sure that we're utilizing the right approach. I know they also have so many hats that they wear and feeding therapist isn't one of them. So we want to work on the feeding at home and when they're out of their routine, when they're in school, somewhere that's pretty overstimulating, let's send foods that are going to help them feel regulated and safe.
If you know that your child does really well trying new foods at school, then this is absolutely something that you can try sending new foods. But I want you, especially in the beginning of the school year, stick with the safe foods, stick with the familiar foods, especially as they are getting into their routine at school and everything feels different and their environment is different.
Let's keep something that feels safe the same. This can reduce anxiety and really help during the school day. I would recommend thinking about snacks and lunch. I like kids to be eating every two to three hours, so think about your child's routine and thinking about how we can start working in familiar snacks [00:11:00] and lunches.
Now, number three, is involving your child in the meal prep of their lunch. You can give them choices, ask them what they like to eat at school. They can even pack it with you. So involving them, not only in food prep, which we know is a fantastic way to help kids with more sensory exposure, but this is also going to help when they get to school, they know what to expect, they know what to look forward to in their lunch. I think that that's a really great way to get them involved. And you can even talk about this if you're not able to get them involved in actually packing their lunch. Talk about it the night before. If your child uses an AAC device, giving them two options to show them to pick in between,
and you can show them a photo of their lunch as well. I think that's a really great way to involve them. For kids with a PDA profile, that is also a fantastic way to really help decreasing those demands because they get to have [00:12:00] some input on what they're actually eating too. So involve your child in meal prep, but also in packing their lunch too.
I love the autonomy that that gives them as well and that independence. Those are things that we can absolutely start fostering in our kids early, which is great. Now number four is practice eating in different environments. So I want to think of this in a few different ways. Now number one, let's think of the physical location that they are eating their meals right now.
I think overall, the best thing that you can do is sit at the dinner table to have a meal. That helps kids recognize, okay, this is the place that I'm sitting down to eat. This is where I'm expected to eat. This is where I start to get hungry. But when we're thinking about prepping your child to eat in a different environment, I think that it can be nice to have some flexibility and do it intentionally.
Talk about it ahead of [00:13:00] time. Maybe we can have a picnic outside and we can be talking about that. We can be watching videos of picnics. We can be looking at photos of picnics like where you could bring their food out. One possibility too, can you go in the school, if it's going to be a different school than they're used to, and look at the cafeteria, look at where they're eating?
Could they eat a snack there? Could we do something that feels maybe a little bit more in that routine but feels different than your current routine? The other thing that I want to think about is what are they actually going to be eating out of at school? So at home they probably eat from their plate.
And they might have a particular plate that they really like, but you can't always send that to school unless it has a cover or something that you can send. I know my son eats from some of those silicone plates that come with the little lid on top, but I don't send those in his lunch because they pop open so easy.
So we use [00:14:00] silicone bento boxes. I really like the ones from Austin Baby Co and i'll link those as well in the show notes and we utilize their larger bento box. And I really like that for him but what I did before sending that is making sure we are going to do some test runs at home so that he eats successfully out of it because if we just send it to school, we don't know, can he open it himself? Can he successfully eat out of it? Does it change the taste of the foods that he's eating?
Can he reach in there well? Does the food look yucky? What does that look like? So, before school starts, or maybe if school's already started, and doing this on a weekend, pack your child's lunch the way that you would when they're going to school. Let it sit in their backpack with an ice pack on it and then bring it out at lunch.
Let's practice to see, do the foods that you're sending maintain the same sensory experience that your child is [00:15:00] craving? Are they not going to eat these foods anymore because they're not able to microwave them or eat them hot? Are they having a hard time opening up their lunch box or is something else going on
that's getting in the way of them eating their lunch? I think doing these trial runs is not only going to get your child more used to eating food from this particular lunch box, but it's also going to help you feel more in the know and more confident sending foods to them that you have done a trial run already.
So thinking about yes, eating out in different environments, but also eating in this different way where their food is in a different format too. So trying to get some flexibility within these and you can do this at lunch and practice every lunch at home in this way while your child is still on break.
And number five is communicating with school staff. So I want to make sure that your child's teachers [00:16:00] and their therapists, are well aware of what's going on in their diet right now, their needs around food, and what you're working on. And I think that this can really prevent some frustrating experiences and conversations.
You can send, before school even starts, like an email with information about your child. You can send it with them on day one, but I often find having this info before school even starts can really help your teacher have the time to read more about your child and kind of have that information kind of sink in and give them the time to ask questions before the whole school year starts and things get a little messy.
So including information about your child, including information about their sensory needs, including info about their selective diet, and you can say, my child only eats five foods. We're working on this. We're in feeding therapy or maybe you're in the Nourishing Autism Collective and [00:17:00] you're working on approaches at home on how to expand your child's diet.
Let them know that you're working on it and what you need from them at school is just to support your child in building a positive relationship with food and that you don't expect them to try and expand their diet. You're working on it yourself.
That's just one example of something that you might say, if it fits. But I think it is really helpful to just be able to have this open conversation with your child's team at school and know what to expect.
Now, if your child is coming home from school, or maybe they have a history of coming home from school, and they haven't eaten, or they're not eating their lunch, and it's consistently full, this is where we really need to start digging into what's going on and having that open communication, because that is an issue.
If your child isn't eating that food, they're not going to be able to get the nutrition, they're not going to be able to feel their best and focus their best, and this can affect their learning. So this is [00:18:00] actually something that you can bring up with your IEP team.
Just remember, as a parent, you have the right to call an IEP meeting at any time. So, if you are concerned about their eating and this is really affecting their day to day life and their behavior and their focus, it's important that we cue in the IEP team. Make sure that we have accommodations in place to make sure that your child is able to eat.
If they're overstimulated in the cafeteria because it's loud and crowded and has a lot of smells and your child just can't eat that way, then we need to figure out a way that your child actually can get nutrition. So it's important that we talk through that. Even snacks could be one thing that we could build into their daily routine.
They get a little bit of a sensory break. Even if it's just five minutes where they can also have a little snack and that can help really regulate them and get some quiet time. So think through those things. If you start noticing that your child isn't having success and they aren't eating enough and they're coming home ravenous, this is something that you can talk to your [00:19:00] teacher and your IEP team about.
Now, number six, lastly, is using visual supports. And this could be a visual schedule, this could be a social story to outline what school is going to look like, and what lunch and eating is going to look like. I love social stories to help prepare kids and help them know what to expect when they're going to the school. So if you're able to grab actual photos from the school that your child is going to be in, that would be fantastic so that they could actually visualize what it's going to look like to go into their classroom, to eat lunch, and what that's going to look like throughout the day.
So utilizing these now is only going to benefit you at school, and you may even ask your special education teacher if they will be able to use some of these supports at school as well, like visual supports, for example, where you could see a picture schedule or something that could really support [00:20:00] them in their routine at school as well.
Okay, now let's go through these tips again. Number one, establish a routine early. Number two, pack familiar foods that feel safe and regulating to your child. Number three, involve your child in packing their lunch and meal prep. Number four, practice eating in different environments and settings. Number five, communicate with your school staff.
And number six, to utilize visual supports. I'm really excited for you all to take a few of these recommendations and start putting them to play. Let us know how it goes. I am thinking of all of you. I'm cheering you on as this big transition back to school starts.
I know that it can be a big transition for both kids and parents. You got this and I'm excited for your next school year and I'm hoping that you have the most supportive team possible.
Thanks so much for tuning in to this episode of Nourishing Autism. I'll see you next week. [00:21:00]
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.
