Food Therapy For Kids: Developing Healthier Eating Habits With A Therapist
Learning to try new foods and make healthy food choices can be common parts of growing up, and young children often go through periods of picky eating. However, childhood eating difficulties can sometimes go further than occasional pickiness.
Severe eating challenges can have an impact that lasts beyond childhood, which is why some children may benefit from a specialized treatment called food therapy. In this article, we’ll explore what food therapy is, what it involves, common eating challenges it can treat, and more.
An introduction to feeding therapy
Feeding therapy, also known as food therapy, is a specific type of therapy designed to help children who struggle with eating. Children may benefit from feeding therapy if they have difficulty with tasks related to eating—such as chewing and swallowing—or if they struggle with extreme pickiness, transitioning to solid foods, or food-related anxiety. Feeding therapy generally aims to improve children’s relationship with food and build healthy, sustainable eating habits that they can carry into adulthood.
What type of therapist provides feeding therapy?
The exact type of therapist who provides feeding therapy to a child may depend on the child’s individual situation and eating challenges. That said, the two most common types of feeding therapists are occupational therapists and speech-language pathologists.
Occupational therapists typically focus on helping patients perform tasks related to daily living, while speech-language pathologists primarily specialize in treating people with speech or swallowing difficulties. These specialists may also work with pediatricians or dieticians to ensure their patients are receiving comprehensive care.
Reasons for seeking food therapy for kids: Motor skills, pickiness, and more
Pediatricians recommend food therapy for kids for various reasons. These range from improving a child’s eating habits to making it easier for them to eat, improving their nutrition, and more. Below are some specific reasons a parent might seek food therapy for their child.
Avoiding new foods and other problematic eating habits
It can be common for children to be picky eaters early in life, and many children naturally learn to enjoy a wider range of foods as they grow older. However, this may not always be the case. Some children may avoid eating entire food groups, throw tantrums during meals, or refuse to eat altogether.
Motor skills challenges
Some children struggle with eating not because of their food preferences, but because they struggle to chew, swallow, and put food in their mouths. This can be due to developmental delays, cleft palates, cerebral palsy, and various other conditions. Symptoms of feeding difficulties related to motor skills may include the following:
Difficulty transitioning from milk to solid foods
Frequently gagging or choking on food
Struggling to drink from straws
Trouble breathing while eating
Trouble controlling the jaw, lips, and tongue
Sensory difficulties
Certain conditions can lead children to be especially sensitive to specific textures, smells, and tastes. As a result, they may undereat, refuse to try unfamiliar foods, or avoid mixing foods. Below are a few disorders that may cause these symptoms:
Sensory processing disorder (SPD)
Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)
Autism spectrum disorder (ASD)
Avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder (ARFID)
The consequences of untreated eating challenges
Not all children who struggle with picky eating have feeding disorders. However, for those who do, these challenges can have negative consequences for mental and physical health:
Malnutrition, including inadequate calorie, nutrient, and vitamin intake
Altered brain development and/or physical growth
Difficulty forming healthy eating habits later in life
Anxiety, tantrums, or other emotional challenges around food
Family stress
A risk of longer-term disordered eating habits
(H2) The connection between eating habits and mental health
While untreated feeding disorders can have negative effects on children, developing healthy eating habits early in life can benefit children’s emotional and mental well-being. Adequate nutrition in childhood can help form the foundation for healthy brain development.
Research has also found that the quality of our eating habits in childhood is linked to our mental health and susceptibility to stress throughout our lifetimes. While genetics and environmental factors also tend to play a role in mental health challenges, healthy childhood eating habits may reduce the risk of mental illness later in life.
Addressing eating challenges early may also help children form a healthy relationship with food, learn to recognize their bodies’ hunger signals, and confidently make healthy choices. This may reduce the risk of disordered eating behaviors, provide a sense of autonomy and agency, and support self-esteem.
Is not trying new foods a sign that my child needs food therapy?
If your child is a picky eater, you may wonder if it’s worth starting food therapy. Keep in mind that children often go through picky eating phases early in life, and this may not always be cause for concern. Pickiness can be a way for children to assert independence and test boundaries, which are typical parts of development. That said, it may be worth paying attention to your child’s eating habits and looking out for the following symptoms:
Extremely restrictive food choices
Frequent tantrums, anxiety, or crying fits, especially in response to new foods
Frequent gagging, vomiting, or choking
Extreme aversion to specific tastes, colors, smells, or textures
Eating habits that negatively affect family routines and quality of life
Nutritional deficits
Symptoms like these may be a sign of an underlying challenge that could be worth discussing with a professional.
What does seeing a food therapist involve?
Starting food therapy for your child can seem overwhelming if you’ve never worked with a feeding therapist before. Understanding what this process may look like can make it seem less intimidating, so let’s take a closer look.
Starting food therapy for kids: Initial intake, health assessment, and treatment plan
The specifics of food therapy can vary depending on your location, your provider, and your child’s individual situation. That said, food therapy typically starts with an initial assessment and evaluation. Your primary care provider or pediatrician may refer you to a food therapist if your child has been struggling with eating for a while. You might also find a food therapist through your insurance company or local occupational therapy practices. During the initial intake, your practitioner may ask you or your child about topics like:
Your child’s medical and mental health history
Your child’s past and present eating habits and behaviors
The symptoms you’ve noticed, and how they’re affecting your family dynamics
In some cases, your provider may also want to observe your child’s eating behaviors firsthand. They may have you attempt to feed your child so they can watch their reactions and take notes. If the therapist suspects another underlying condition, like autism spectrum disorder, they may refer your child for testing to rule out other contributing factors. They may also request a comprehensive health evaluation to rule out physical health conditions that may be affecting your child’s eating habits.
The intake process for feeding therapy may take one or more sessions to complete. After your provider has gathered all the information they need, they may sit down with you to discuss their treatment recommendations, such as:
What type of therapy would be helpful
How many therapy sessions your child needs
What goals to focus on in therapy (such as developing self-feeding skills, improving food tolerance, enhancing motor skills, etc.)
What happens during sessions with a food therapist?
Once your child’s food therapist has settled on a treatment plan, your next appointment is typically when treatment begins. Again, specifics can vary from provider to provider, but a typical feeding therapy session may include the following:
Sensory activities to improve body awareness and “warm up” for eating
Gentle exposure to diverse food items
Exercises to strengthen the lips, jaw muscles, and tongue
Exercises to improve hand-eye coordination and other fine motor skills
Mealtime practice
Other tasks and games designed to improve your child’s ability to eat
Food therapy sessions may last anywhere from 30 to 60 minutes. Depending on your child’s needs, their therapist may also spend part of their time teaching you feeding strategies, games, and other techniques to use between sessions.
Getting support as a parent or caregiver
Feeding challenges can be a source of significant stress, not just for children, but also for their parents. Mealtime difficulties, frequent tantrums, and the associated health consequences can strain family dynamics and negatively affect parents’ well-being, potentially even contributing to chronic stress. Chronic stress has been associated with negative mental and physical health effects, including those listed below:
Depression and anxiety
Chronic pain
Fatigue
Decreased fertility
Negative mood
An increased risk of heart attacks and strokes
Immune disorders
Heartburn and acid reflux
If you’re noticing frequent stress related to your child’s eating habits, remember to take care of yourself, prioritize healthy habits, and seek support from people you care about. You might also consider joining an in-person or online support group for parents of children with eating difficulties.
Working with a therapist of your own may be another way to support your mental health and learn strategies for managing stress while you navigate your child’s eating challenges. However, finding time to see a therapist can be hard when you’re already busy with the logistics of your child’s feeding therapy.
With online therapy, you can talk to a therapist via voice call, video call, or online chat at a time that works for your schedule. You’ll be matched with a therapist based on your specific mental health needs, and you can change therapists at any time, for any reason.
Research shows that online therapy can help reduce symptoms of stress and stress-related disorders. In a meta-analysis from 2022, researchers looked at data from 14 different studies of internet-based cognitive behavioral therapy (ICBT). They found that internet-based therapy was effective in reducing self-rated stress, as well as symptoms of anxiety and depression.
Takeaway
Picky eating can be a natural part of childhood and may not always be a cause for concern. However, when children’s eating challenges are negatively affecting their physical or mental health, they may benefit from professional support. Nutrition and eating habits have been shown to be linked to lifelong mental health outcomes, which is why addressing these challenges early can be foundational to a child’s well-being.
Food therapy, also known as feeding therapy, aims to help children who consistently struggle with eating. After a professional evaluation and intake, a food therapist may use various exercises to improve their patients’ eating abilities and relationship with food. For parents of children with eating challenges, mental health support—such as online therapy—may reduce stress and make these challenges easier to manage.
How do I know if my child needs food therapy?
In many cases, your child’s doctor will recommend pediatric feeding therapy if they:
Refuse to eat specific food textures
Experience eating problems like frequent choking, coughing, gagging, or vomiting
Have poor oral motor skills or oral motor difficulties affecting oral feedings
Aren’t meeting their nutritional needs
How can you help kids with food sensory issues?
When children have food sensory challenges, it can be best not to pressure or force them to eat the foods to which they have an aversion. Openly discussing their fears and validating their feelings may be helpful. Making food fun by cooking and baking together, touching food with certain textures, and slowly introducing new foods may help your child overcome sensory struggles by creating positive associations with a variety of foods.
What age should you start feeding therapy?
Babies who struggle to transition to solid foods may benefit from pediatric feeding therapy techniques as young as six months old. Older children may also attend feeding therapy sessions in some cases.
How can I tell if my kid has ARFID?
Avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder (ARFID) typically involves the following symptoms:
Refusal to eat entire categories of food
Reduction in the variety of food they’re willing to eat over time
Trouble transitioning to solid foods from bottle feedings
Failure to meet nutritional needs
Distress related to food
Is ARFID a mental disorder?
ARFID is categorized as an eating disorder, which is a mental health condition that can affect the body physically. Many parents believe their children are simply “picky eaters” when they are actually living with ARFID.
How can you do food therapy at home?
It’s recommended to seek professional food therapy rather than attempting it on your own. Feeding therapists work closely with parents to teach them the skills needed to help their children. Often, after a feeding evaluation, a feeding therapist can identify potential reasons behind difficulty eating and introduce various strategies for parents to use at home.
How much is food therapy for kids?
The cost of food therapy can vary significantly depending on whether a person’s insurance plan offers coverage for it. Sessions may cost between $50 and $300.
Is food therapy worth it?
Food therapy may be helpful for the entire family, as a child’s eating difficulties can affect parents and siblings. After a child’s evaluation, various strategies and activities may be introduced to make mealtimes easier and ensure the child’s nutritional needs are met. In some cases, a G-tube may be used for children who physically struggle to eat.
How long does food therapy take?
The duration of food therapy tends to vary from person to person. Each individual’s challenges are different, and each child may respond differently to the strategies introduced in therapy, such as the sequential oral sensory approach to feeding.
Do I need a referral for food therapy?
In many cases, you may need a referral from your child’s pediatrician to begin food therapy. Sometimes, speech therapists work alongside food therapists and can help with related challenges.
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