6 Ways To Keep Eating Problems Out Of Your Mealtimes
If you attended our Picky Eaters Workshop or watched us on Facebook Live, you're probably pumped up and ready to kick your child's eating problems to the curb. I couldn't be happier, and will be cheering you on along the way!
But before you start, you may want to take a few precautions to make sure your intervention sticks. You'll be dedicating a lot of precious time, energy, and emotions to this endeavor, and you'll want to make sure that it wasn't all for naught.
In order to keep those eating problems at bay, consider these 6 actions that you can take to ensure that your feeding intervention is more effective and long lasting:
1. Base your decisions about treatment on your child’s progress with eating
The first thing you'll want to do is create a plan, write it down, and share it with everyone involved in your child's child care. If grandma watches your child during the day, she will also need to be in the know and on board. Consistency is key, so making sure everyone is on the same page will be crucial to your family's success.
You'll also want to monitor your child's progress to determine if your intervention is effective. You can do this by using some of the hand outs that we provided during our workshop (if you couldn't make the workshop, you can download everything here). Collect your data using the Taste Session Data Sheet, and use the Token Program Data Sheet to help your child monitor their own progress. The better you are at monitoring progress, the sooner you will reach the goals you have set.
2. Avoid feeding from the original container
Does your child have brand preferences or only eat from certain restaurants? Even infants can show a preference for foods that have a specific picture or branded packaging. Make your life easier by placing foods on generic plates, bowls, or family dishware. Try to keep any containers or packaging with brand labels out of sight and away from the table. Instead, store packaged foods like cookies, snacks, and cereals in clear plastic (or glass) containers and toss the original packaging in the trash.
3. Vary the dishes, cups, and utensils used at meals
Does your child demand to use the same favorite plate, bowl, utensil, or cup during meals? Do you have to wash these special items immediately after each use to ensure that they're ready for the next meal so that your child will eat and you'll avoid a tantrum? Save your sanity by trying to vary the dishes, cups, and utensils your child uses. Once she is using a variety of dishes and utensils, put those favorites away in storage until she consistently uses a variety of other dishes and utensils during meals. You can bring them back into the rotation later, assuming that those favorite items are age appropriate.
4. Structure the environment
Asking your child to come to the table during a favorite TV show is sure to cause problems. So will trying to introduce new foods to a tired kid. If your child is frequently sleepy during the day, establish a sleep schedule to help with daytime behaviors. An established sleep schedule, as well as an established daily routine, will result in a child who is more willing to participate in mealtime. The daily routine will also help by allowing you to schedule fun activities such as TV time or play time at times that don't conflict with mealtime.
5. Use visual or analog clocks
If you're using a timer during meals, make sure that timer has some type of visual cue so that your child can see how much time has passed and when mealtime is over. The Time Timer App is one of my favorites.
6. Making your intervention last
You're going to want to take a few extra precautions to make sure that your child doesn't regress back into his or her previous eating habits. To do this, you'll need to make sure that you have carefully planned. Treatment takes time, and as your child's eating improves, treatment can be gradually faded. The key word here is gradually. Ending a feeding intervention too quickly because it was successful will very often result in the child's eating becoming worse or at the very least, returning to where they were prior to your intervention.
One thing that you can do to gradually fade an intervention is to systematically reduce the use of rewards. If you have been rewarding your child every time he takes a bite, have your child take more bites prior to receiving a reward.
If you've been using non-food rewards such as videos, toys, activities, you'll want to pair these items with your praise, and eventually fade out the videos/toys/activities as the reward and instead only use praise.
Don't forget about everyone else your child eats with. Continue to make sure that everyone is on the same page across the board with any changes to your child's feeding intervention.
Lastly, you'll want to identify any obstacles to treatment. If there are difficulties with getting everyone on board (for example, at school, at the babysitter's house, at grandma's house), establish a plan for dealing with the obstacles, and figure out how to address them that will result in your child's success. And if things feel like they're getting too complex, consider contacting a feeding clinic or behavior analyst.
Source:
Williams, Keith E., and Richard M. Foxx. Treating Eating Problems of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders and Developmental Disabilities: Interventions for Professionals and Parents. PRO-ED, 2007.