Children with ASD: Mealtime Tips for Dealing with Picky Eaters

Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder or ASD often experience food aversions. Hence, if your child is going through a picky eater phase, you are not alone. Aversion to certain types of food may be caused by sensory issues or underlying anxiety. As your trusted autism service provider in Maryland, we will share mealtime tips to help you deal with your child’s picky eater phase:

• Pair Certain Foods Together
  When introducing a new food, try combining your child’s favorite food with new ingredients. This applies positive reinforcement by giving your child a bite of new, healthy food with the food that they enjoy. Your child’s caregivers can help serve the new food slowly with each meal to help your child get used to it over time.
• Apply Stimulus Fading
  Stimulus fading involves the process of slowly increasing the size of your child’s meals. This may include foods that your child previously rejected due to their smell, texture, or flavor. Serve a small portion and allow your child to eat two to three consecutive bites. If your child does so without complaint, you can slowly start increasing their intake with each meal.
• Adjust Different Textures
  Your child may not like the texture of certain foods which can affect their diet. To remedy this, serve food that matches the textures they prefer. You can then add different textures gradually to help your child get used to the new food.

American Caregivers, Inc. is a well-established home care agency in Silver Spring, Maryland offering autism spectrum services.

Additionally, we also offer adult home care services to improve your loved one’s quality of life at home. Contact us for more information on the many ways we can help you.