Bubrick has kids rate them on a scale from 0 to 10. It takes some time to adjust to new flavors, so unless something immediately makes you gag, it’s important to give your taste buds a few good opportunities. Other times it’s touching the food, smelling it, just physically interacting with it.” He also gives kids a rule-you can only say you don’t like something if you’re tried it three times. “Sometimes exposure is just having the food on the table and being able to have a conversation in the same room. “It’s about breaking down barriers,” explains Dr. Then he works to determine what it is she is avoiding-is it texture, taste, smell? Then they can begin exposure therapy, which means kids start working with foods they’ve been avoiding in a carefully controlled, therapeutic way. Bubrick starts by making a list of foods the child wants to try and then another list of things her parents think she should try. “Although parents might be focused on getting kids to eat certain things, it is more important for the kids to buy into treatment first.” Dr. “The treatment is fun and child-driven,” notes Dr. Whatever the reason, it is important to explain to kids that unfamiliar foods aren’t bad for them, even if it seems that way. Others control what they eat because they are afraid of choking, or think something will “go down the wrong pipe.” In this scenario treatment begins with a psychologist explaining how digestion works and dispelling any myths the child may have heard. Some kids avoid certain foods because they are put off by the texture or afraid of trying something new. Parents might think, ‘What’s the problem?’ but when vegetables are the only things your child is eating, it isn’t good.” “Imagine eating only extraordinarily healthy foods-all vegetables, no pasta, no pizza, no sugar, nothing. Bubrick says he has treated kids diagnosed with OCD who were picky eaters out of a fear of being unhealthy. The first step to treating kids who seriously struggle with picky eating is to understand more about their preferences or fears. Like any other bad habit, avoidance becomes ingrained in her-and her family’s-way of life. Whatever the reason, the longer a child is severely picky, the harder it will be for her to try new foods. Others limit their diets because they have problems with anxiety. Some kids have a heightened sense of smell that makes them taste flavors more intensely than most people. Picky eating might reach a clinical level for a number of different reasons. “That’s the age when parents begin realizing, ‘He used to be a great eater but now he won’t eat anything and it is affecting his quality of life,’ or, ‘We thought he’d grow out of it, but now we’re realizing it’s more than that.’” “We typically start seeing kids who struggle with picky eating when they are 7 or 8 years old,” says Jerry Bubrick, PhD, a clinical psychologist at the Child Mind Institute. Picky eating begins to be a serious problem when kids are undernourished or eating so little that it severely limits their lives. Their aversion goes beyond normal choosiness and into an area where parents find they need to call for backup. But some kids are more than picky eaters. It is very common for kids to be slightly picky about what they eat. Finding a child who enjoys green vegetables is certainly harder than finding one who doesn’t. Picky eaters can often make lots of progress in about 8 to 10 treatment sessions. Eventually, kids can practice eating foods that they’re learning to like at home. After a while, they’ll take a tiny bite and work up to trying more of it and deciding if they like it. They might start by being in the same room with the food, then smelling it. Then they start taking baby steps toward eating those foods. Together, they can figure out what’s turning the kid off about each food. Then the child and the therapist can make lists of the foods the child might want to try and foods their parent wants them to try. Kids need to know that new foods won’t hurt them. This is where a therapist can help kids understand how digestion and diet work. Other kids may avoid foods because they don’t like the texture or they’re afraid of choking. For example, a child with OCD may have an unhealthy obsession with healthy foods and only eat vegetables. The first step is to understand why your kid is avoiding certain foods. The longer a child’s picky eating habits go on, the harder it is to get them to eat foods they’ve been avoiding. Some kids have anxiety about food or specific foods. Some kids smell and taste flavors more intensely than other people and that turns them off of a lot of foods. Serious picky eating happens for a few reasons. Kids can eat so little or so few different foods that it starts to affect their health or their daily lives. But sometimes picky eating becomes a real problem.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |