Notes from Food Aversions Webinar

I spent two hours on Tuesday, Jan 27, 2009 listening in on a Teleseminar thru Moms Fighting Autism that was moderated by Chantal Sicile-Kira. The speaker who responded to questions posed beforehand and during the Webinar was Dr. Lori Ensperger.

The topic Autism, Food Aversions, and Eating Challenges: Effective Answers that Help

I spent the time typing my notes on twitter, basically I tweeted them instead of handwriting in a notebook like I had planned to do. On twitter you use 140 characters, so these will be brief tips I typed out while listening. The following are those tweets:

At the start of the webinar Dr. Ensperger mentioned her book, Just Take A Bite.

Dr says there is no scientific evidence on gfcf diet helping kids with autism. she follows evidence based method.

statististics for typical child to acquire a new food - introduce peaches or broccoli - can take several months based on research.

can take up to ten-fifteen times for the 1-2 yr old to take to a new food - accept it, ones with dev disabilities - put food on plate.

an offer of food is not the same as forcing a child to eat, it means just putting it on the plate.

offer new gfcf food to pair it with another food they are eating, use in systematic way, small portion of item that might have gluten.

when trying new foods have foods that we are comfortable with, feel safe with the food, 3 months not long time to do diet 4 yr old.

does not want to see a 4 yr old getting hungry since not into the gfcf, do not take all foods away at one time from child, explore new food.

another question on gfcf. she is reminding about her position that relies heavily on science for the gfcf diet, mentioning the cost now.

check with Ped for an allergy, many have not mentioned age of their child in their questions, talk about food jags now, we have those.

food jag - same food, same cup, same way the food is on plate, certain brand name only, maybe even music in background all the time.

food jags are normal typical behavior - a 2 yr old might eat peanut butter every day for a month, those with ASD do food jags for yrs.

my son used to have bacon breakfast, hotdog for lunch, nuggets for dinner, now none of those,she says ASD kids do not go back to food jags.

happens to me where I stock up on item,then food jag stops, left with lots food serious issue she cautions parents dont support food jags.

keep exposing them with changes, if always chicken nuggets to turkey nuggets, change brand of nuggets, add sauce, change fork.

if we keep their food jags in tact and no changes, they will eventually stop and never go back to that food again, need to change it up.

parental responsibility, how to change mac & cheese, put food coloring in it, does not change taste, add texture, make slight gentle changes.

do not hide or sneak foods into another food doesn not work guess I will not be buying Jerry Seinfelds wife book.

she is talking about sensory issues and the temp of the foods and how they work for or against trying a new food.

just becasuse you gag does not mean you have low muscle tone. Book covers signals in low muscle tone - Just take a bite (book)

practice chewing with chewy tubes - wont work for my kids she recommends Thera Pro website, always adult supervision.

put knot in chewy tube, have kid play tug and war to practice swallowing techniques, use baby safe feeder from target.

gagging can be a learned behavior that kids use to get food away from them. If I gag mom takes food away.

kiss the food goodbye, do not over react to gagging, be calm, leave it there, maybe tomorrow we will try again.

food meal phobia - real thing - fearful of putting food in our mouth, fear of new foods, a true fear (yes I have that with seafood)

Chantal Sicile-Kira wants to know how cultural the foods of kids with autism is, doesnt think kids in France eat mac/ch,, fries & nuggets.

food jags, list of foods kids eat is prevalent in other countries too, Lorna Wing did study at her clinic, 70% of kids in UK had aversions.

question about school OTs not working on feeding since it is not educational, an issue heard often that public schools are responsible.

school OTs and SLPS are not taught on feeding aversions, need to be highly trained, can do more damage if not trained, oral motor dev

I heard that yrs ago from two diff OTs, she says put it in writing, do ltr to school by registered mail, been denied OT svcs, kid not eating

child with low weight, going all day without eating, school does need to address this as it is impacting their education/learning, advocate

listening to the teleseminar now, typically ASD kids eat mac/cheese, hot dogs, fries and chicken nuggets, that is what they stated, google?

talking about window of opportunity = question reading now

one of the myths is that children are not going to starve themselves, not true among ASD kids

Ellen Satter - she says she is a role model for mothers, a registered Dietitian, how to get your kid to eat but not too much.

How to get kid to eat, but not too much

we are responsible for where kids eat, how often they eat, the serving size, not following parent responsibiltiesi if allowing these

here are my articles for Feeding Teens, any suggestions let me know.

www.usda.gov - food pyramid for kids - says print and put on refrigerator

always a serving size of preferred food so kid can make transition to a new food

1 hr done, none of my questions yet, although she seemed to group many about trying new foods & mentioned older kids, refer to me maybe

she is talking about fight or flight over food, going over rules for parents, start a schedule for food, check for times to eat

4 yr old is too young to be picking out their own food, parents responsibility, appropriate and child friendly foods for 4 yr old

www.new-vis.com New Vision - site to see Suzanne Evan morris, on oral motor stuff, OT, etc

talking about me right now, doing my links for my review of her book

talking about utensils from my question

kids only use fingers for food, goes back to sensory processing, body awareness, spatial awareness, proprioception, no body awareness

after trying several times can use fingers easier, have child eat in front of mirror, allow them to use visual system to over compensate

can see the fork in the mirror, motor planning will assist child in using the utensil. plastic ones instead of medal (yes) safe, coated one

weighted utensils, proprioceptive delay, use this instead, grasps similar to pencil grips, neat answers

lil dipper from Gerber is a good spoon with chunky grip, spoon part is small with a guard so child cannot get in too far, no gagging

Gerber LIL DIPPER spoon, baby safe feeder - recommended items for kids at any age

bowling with food, bop for kiwi or chicken legs, put music on, 5-10 mins daily, not forced and no pressure there, away from table

playing with food is separate from eating time, reason why not at table for play, use your imagination to create ways to introduce new foods

they are more willing to move along those 35 steps to tryng food, kiss it goodbye, get used to it gently

play guess the food, get shoe box, put hole in bottom, put food in there, they need to feel food in the mystery box, they might lick it too

try to stay calm and not react to their trying new food, do not need to call grandma and not over zealous, puts pressure on kid

do an obstacle course on foods,like to feel, - movement/motivating, pillows to crawl under box crawl over - our OT used to put food on swing

schools need to do ongoing assessment for preferred items, they dont like to use food as reinforcer at school

kid motivated by edibles, get sugar free gummie bears at the diabetic aisle for kids that are heavier, music is good motivator

tangible or activity based reinforcers at school, at home get kids to experience different things, like sports and music,books, etc

www.dole.com tips for parents to introduce foods, fruit and veggie bingo game and talk tools is another company we have their stuff too

talking about kids seeing dentist, food issues can be related to issues in their mouth, yep my kid lost a tooth recently, go to CHLA

cavities affects if doing a feeding program, especially with textures, smells, she mentioned my name again about my review of her book

I think I have a review on amazon, if not willl get one there drlori@cox.net - her email with questions, can give you answers

her book is from future horizons, just take a bite sicilekira@mac.com that is Chantal Sicile-Kira email address, has son 20 with ASD

Webinar has finished.