Strategies for sensory food sensitivities

- Are your kids very sensitive to the temperature, texture or smell of foods?

- Do they avoid touching food?

- Do they dribble food and drink down their chin?

- Do they fidget during the meal?

- Do they frequently spill food and drinks unintentionally?

- Do they frequently wipe their hands or mouth while eating? 

If the answer is yes to at least one of these questions, then read on. This post is about sensory issues and about how to help your child overcome them. 

Every second of every day we are bombarded with sensory input. Our bodies and brains use a specialised system to register all the different information and piece it together to create a complete picture of what is going on around us, with our bodies and within our bodies.

Sensory processing is the way in which our brains interpret, organise and use everything we see, hear, touch, taste and smell. 

Sometimes children experience difficulty with processing or tolerating one or more types of sensory input. 

Children who have difficulty processing sensory stimuli may respond with unusual or atypical behaviour. These responses are usually categorised as either over (hyper) or under (hypo) sensitive.

Hyper or over responsive to sensory stimuli. This means that a little sensory stimuli may feel like a lot to a child who is over responsive.

Over sensitive children may:

• Choke or gag at the taste or sight of certain textures

• Dislike brushing teeth

• Refuse to use utensils to eat because they dislike the feeling of a spoon or fork in their mouths

• Prefer specific textures or foods, either crunchy or soft

• Love bland foods with little or no flavour

• Avoid mixed texture of food

• Resist oral sensory experiences through extreme emotional reactions such as tantrums, fear or running way, which makes mealtimes and dental hygiene difficult

Under or hypo responsive to sensory stimuli. This means that a lot of sensory stimuli may feel like a little to a child who is under-responsive.Under sensitive children may:

• Bite, chew on or mouth non-food objects

• Try to bite other people or objects

• Chew on inside of cheeks

• Lick, mouth or suck on various objects

• Over-stuff mouths with food at mealtimes

• Make frequent sounds with their mouth for extra sensory input

• Love very spicy, salty or sweet foods

• Bite nails

• Prefer crunchy foods

Children receive sensory input from various foods. Picky eaters, especially those with food aversions, may process the touch, taste or smell of food as being in some way unpleasant or uncomfortable. 

Some picky eaters may not feel certain soft textures in their mouth well, find them dulled and avoid them. These kids will often prefer crunchy foods or over-stuff their mouth to try and feel the food.

Some children eat a very limited amount of foods because they have difficulty with how foods smell, taste, feel or even how they look. 

AS AN EXERCISE, LIST FOODS THAT YOU DIDN’T LIKE AS A CHILD AND DESCRIBE WHY. Has your list changed since? What kind of food didn’t you like? Chewy? Salty? Cold? Wet? Maybe with skin on or with seeds?  

Below is a list of some very effective and fun activities you can try with your kids at home. I encourage you to experiment with each of them as part of your child’s unique sensory diet and notice what tends to calm or alert them.

If your child is avoiding oral sensory input, some or all of these activities may not be welcomed. However, they can be broken down into small steps, and will help to desensitise the oral sensory input that is being over-processed.

 Please remember to never force any sensory activity, your child should always be an active and willing participant. Even better is when they initiate a sensory diet activity on their own!

1.A SENSORY BIN is a box or bin filled with some kind of texture like dry rice, beans or sand. You can throw in a couple of toys or other bigger objects. Kids can feel and manipulate them with their hands. The materials can be either wet or dry.

 Most occupational therapists use sensory bins to  encourage tactile play. They are perfect for introducing new textures and exploring new sensations.

If you suspect that your child may be a picky eater because they don’t like certain textures of food, playing with sensory bins will  help desensitise them and may help them feel more comfortable with the textures they eat. 

•   Choose a container (shoebox,  bowl, large plastic lunch box, bucket etc)

•   Choose your filler (beans, flour, lentils, salt, kinetic sand, ordinary sand, shaving cream etc)

•   Choose the tools (spoons, tongs, ladles etc)

•   BEWARE OF CHOKING HAZARDS!  If your child is still putting everything into their mouth, be mindful of what you are putting into the bin.

•   If your child is hesitant to join in the play, start with dry materials and add only one material at a time. Gradually introduce new textures and encourage your child to slowly explore new sensory experiences.

•   Try encouraging the child to play with the sensory bin using a familiar or comforting toy, such as  by pushing a train or car through the bin.

•   NEVER, force your kid’s hand into playing with it. If they don’t like it or are having a hard time touching it, respect that and don’t force it.

•   Keep towels or wet wipes handy. Kids might freak out if they’re unfamiliar with a new texture.

•   Let your child explore the bin without any input from you.

•   Use your imagination and the internet for inspiration. I’ve just googled sensory bins and got 11,300,000 results!!!!

2. TASTE TEST.     Because every child processes oral sensory experiences in their own unique way, it can be helpful to do a little “taste testing” while observing the child’s responses to foods that are sweet, sour, chewy, crunchy and so on. Here is a fun way to experiment with a variety of tastes and textures from “Sensory processing 101” by D. Abraham, C. Heffron, P. Bradley and L. Drobnjak.

 Whether your little one has been diagnosed with sensory processing disorder, or you have noticed she either avoids or seeks oral sensory stimulation, this activity can help correct oral sensory imbalances for greater focus, concentration, and learning.

INSTRUCTIONS: 

• Set up different tasting stations with small cups or containers of each food or drink.

• For all the stations, give kids a few minutes to try out each food.

• Observe their reactions and record their likes and dislikes. Does a certain taste, texture or temperature seem to promote a calmer response? Or does it make the child more alert or active?

• You can write a list of your observations and indicate which foods correlated with which types of behaviour. You can also create an “oral sensory box” to keep these foods on hand to use as snacks or sensory breaks throughout the day to promote calm or alert behaviours.

You might want to encourage your kids to try some of these activities as they all can positively impact their sensory processing:

3. Chewing gum provides proprioceptive input through the mouth and joints in the mouth which can be calming and focusing for many children.

4. Vibrating toothbrush - The vibration sensation from the toothbrush can be desensitising for children and also provides added proprioceptive input to the mouth and jaw.

5. Feather blowing. See how long your and your child can keep a feather in the air using only your mouth.

 6.  "Mouthercises" - Demonstrate each of these sounds and movements for your child and ask her to imitate.

• blowing raspberries

• humming

• whistling

• buzzing like a bee

• making a clicking noise with your tongue

• making loud kissing noises

• blowing up cheeks as big as yo can like bubble, then using your hands to “pop” the bubble

• sticking your tongue out as far as you can

• having a silly face contest

If your child is a picky eater and you feel you need support or just don’t know where to start, book your free consultation with me. I’m happy to help. 

Peas and Love

Viola