As any parent knows, mealtimes with a picky eater can be an incredibly frustrating battle of wills. Getting kids to try new foods and eat a balanced diet is an all-too-common struggle. While occasional picky eating is developmentally normal, persistent food refusals and limited intake can become a serious concern.
At BUILD Pediatric Occupational Therapy in Cincinnati, Ohio, our therapists are skilled at evaluating the reasons behind picky eating behaviors and implementing strategies to help expand a child's food repertoire. From our pediatric OT perspective, there are often sensory, motor, behavioral or environmental factors contributing to mealtime challenges.
Why Some Kids Become Picky Eaters
Most children go through a normal picky eating phase around ages 2-3 as they assert independence, develop food preferences and have a decreased appetite during periods of slower growth. However, severe or long-lasting picky eating may stem from:
Sensory Processing Difficulties: Highly selective eating is common with sensory processing issues. Strong aversions to certain tastes, smells, textures or temperatures of foods can severely limit a child's accepted food list.
Motor Skill Delays: Kids with underdeveloped oral-motor skills like chewing, swallowing and lip closure may restrict themselves to only soft/pureed foods to compensate.
GI or Oral-Motor Issues: Reflux, food allergies/intolerances, swallowing difficulties and other medical factors can negatively impact food acceptance.
Behavioral Patterns: Rigidity, anxiety around trying new foods, and power struggles at mealtimes may reinforce picky eating habits.
Lack of Role Modeling: Limited food exposure and lack of modeling by others can cause kids to reject unfamiliar foods.
The earlier underlying issues are identified and addressed, the better for establishing healthy eating habits.
Occupational Therapy's Role in Treating Picky Eating
Pediatric occupational therapists take a holistic approach to assessing and treating problematic picky eating that incorporates sensory, motor, behavioral and environmental elements, such as:
Sensory-Based Techniques
Conducting food explorations and exposures to decrease hypersensitivities to tastes, textures, smells and appearances, as well as implementing calming sensory diets before meals.
Oral-Motor Interventions
Exercises, tools to improve chewing, swallowing and tongue lateralization needed for advancing food textures.
Behavioral Strategies
Using positive reinforcement, food rules/routines and addressing mealtime anxieties to expand accepted food repertoires.
Environmental Modifications
Optimizing seating, lighting, sounds and other environmental factors to create low-stress eating settings.
According to AOTA, occupational therapy can make a big impact by addressing the underlying factors and creating positive mealtime associations through play-based feeding strategies.
At BUILD Occupational Therapy, we collaborate with parents to implement individualized, home-based programs for addressing picky eating step-by-step. If you're struggling with your child's limited food acceptance, contact us to have one of our OTs evaluate how to best support your family.
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