Picky Eaters-Sensory/Trauma
Eating a balanced diet is important, but is specifically difficult with children. Trauma and Sensory Processing Difficulties can hinder the ability to explore a wide range of foods.
“Trauma can be masked as Sensory Processing Disorder causing the root problem of feeding to be misdiagnosed and often untreated.”
Oral sensory processing is one of the more complex sensory systems.
Oral processing involves flavor (spicy, sweet, bitter, sour, salty, umami), texture (slimy, soft, hard, firm), structure (round, square, small, large), smell (sweet, clean, citrus, etc.), and mouth feel (leaves a film, hot, cold, numbing,.).
Oral processing also involves auditory input. As you may know you can hear yourself eat. If you are eating a particularly loud food (such as chips) you also activate the auditory system. If the child is sensory sensitive to auditory input this can make eating firm textures quite difficult.
Oral processing also include proprioceptive input. A good example of this sensation is when you chew on gum for a prolonged period of time your jaw begins to get sore and tired. Another example can involve mouthing non-nutritive foods or even the sensation of sucking on a pacifier. These inputs provide information regarding the location of the food inside of your mouth as well as the location of tongue, teeth, etc.
Oral processing also includes olfactory input. Olfactory is the fancy word for smell. Ever have a stuffy nose and realize that you can’t taste food as well anymore? This is largely impart to the olfactory system. These gives us information about what we eat before we even pick up a fork. If you desire a child to try something you need to give them time to smell the food. However, be careful not to include other smells such as making a batch of warm, cinnamon rolls and expect them to eat the fruit salad with it.
Oral processing starts small and with the child’s led.
Think of an infant, they explores their environment by putting everything–and I mean everything– in their mouth. TShis allows them to learn. They learn the flavor, texture, structure, and proprioceptive input. While their sensory systems are still developing, oral processing is used frequently. They are constantly being fed, pacified, or exploring by putting non-nutritive items in their mouth. It is socially acceptable for an infant to nom on just about anything.
SOOO…..
COVID-19 happened.
Children went from being able to explore their environment by mouthing just about everything (shopping cart handles, pacifiers, tethers, and more). Then society was extremely protective about touching and putting anything close to our face. Many parents were lovingly protective by discouraging any type of play. This however, can cause many children to be scared and aggrieved to try novel food.
Trauma.
If a child been ridiculed when putting an item in their mouth, they have the propensity to be traumatized and resort to a trauma state (fight, flight, freeze, or fawn) in effort to escape negative consequences.
Another aspect of trauma can refer to neglect or lack of exploration. Many children that are in DCFS care frequently have suffered from poverty or low social economic status. Therefore, these families typically live off of shelf-stable food. These items are typically similar textures such as crunchy and dry (chips, pretzels, crackers) and similar colors (shades of brown and beige). These can greatly impact a child if they have not been exposed or introduced to a variety of food.
Sensory.
If a child’s sensory system has been limited to the visual of brown and beige and the texture of crunchy and dry then looking at a strawberry or banana can be alarming to the child’s sensory system. When an “alarm” goes off, children are typically thrown into a trauma state to protect themself. These can look like refusal and anxiety when trying new foods. Even foods like ice-cream and chocolate!! This does not mean that your child will never eat a wide variety of foods or never try such items.
Sensory systems grow and develop. Sensory systems are never utilized independently. However, if we look at common themes regarding sensory inputs we can begin to learn or identify what may be a negative trigger in the progress.
Physiological.
Children have approximately 10,000 taste buds and adults have approximately 5,000 taste bud. This means that as we get older food becomes less potent. Furthermore, our taste buds regenerate every two weeks. This does not mean that after 2 weeks you will hate your previously beloved food, but rather that their quick regeneration gives the nervous system new opportunities to learn and try foods. Instead of trying something once and giving up, we need to be adamant amount multiple attempts over the course of our life time.
https://kidshealth.org/en/kids/taste-buds.html
