80: SPD and Selective Eating (for SPD Awareness in October)
October is Sensory Processing Disorder Awareness Month!
In this episode of The Nourishing Autism Podcast, Brittyn breaks down the real reason behind selective eating for kids with SPD. You’ll learn how sensory overwhelm can lead to a narrow list of “safe foods”, why that matters for your child’s nutrition, and what simple steps you can take to create calm, low-pressure mealtimes that honor your child’s sensory needs.
Brittyn walks you through:
What’s really happening when your child avoids certain textures or temperatures
How sensory overwhelm affects appetite and food variety
Practical ways to make mealtimes more regulated and stress-free
How to start expanding your child’s diet using their unique food sensory profile
Whether your child seeks out big sensory experiences with food or avoids them altogether, this episode will help you understand how to meet them right where they are.
📌 Show Notes & Resources:
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TRANSCRIPT
Hi, I'm Brittyn, a Registered Dietitian and autism sibling. I have a passion for helping parents of neurodivergent kids navigate nutrition and wellness for their child, one small step at a time. Here we'll explore practical nutrition tips, learn from top autism experts, break down the newest research, and share inspirational stories that will empower you to utilize nutrition to help your child feel their best and thrive.
Listen in while picking kids up from school, sitting in a therapy waiting room, taking a quick walk or wherever you find yourself, looking for some inspiration and a friend to guide you along this journey. This is Nourishing Autism.
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Hello everybody. Welcome back to the Nourishing Autism Podcast. I am so excited to be here for episode two of season three. Last week we launched the third season of the Nourishing Autism Podcast, which actually wasn't our plan. We had planned to launch season three, either later in 2025 or early 2026.
But with the conversations going on around Tylenol and Leucovorin and everything that was announced two weeks ago now, I just knew that I really needed to hop back into the podcast and thoroughly explain my thoughts and the research that we have and how we should actually be viewing this and why it's not a Tylenol issue, but it's so much deeper than that. So I'm excited for you to listen and to hear your thoughts on that too. I've gotten so much positive feedback from those of you who had listened.
Even those of you who in the beginning you had to stick with me. I had one mom say that at first, right out the gate, she was feeling a little defensive, and then the more she listened, the more open-minded she grew, and the more she was able to take a step back and look at the entire situation and how she came out on the other end, actually feeling some hope.
So I hope that that is you as well.
Today we are digging in to Sensory Processing Disorder and selective eating. October is Sensory Processing Disorder awareness month, so I thought that it would be a great way to honor SPD and talk about why it's so important that we understand what SPD is and how SPD can also really affect your child's nutrition and eating, and the steps that we can take to help improve their nutrition and make sure that we honor their sensory needs.
So for those of you who are not familiar with Sensory Processing Disorder, technically, SPD is not recognized as an official diagnosis, but there's so much advocacy that is happening for SPD to be recognized because it is a very important diagnosis that we are able to explain why so many kids are having sensory overwhelm or underwhelm and why they are needing special accommodations around their sensory experiences. At the root of it, Sensory Processing Disorder affects how the brain processes sensory information from the environment, like sight sounds, smells, taste, touch, and movement.
And for many children this could look like hypersensitivity to certain senses. It could also look like hyposensitivity to certain senses. It could also be, interestingly, a combination of the two, so they could be very hypersensitive to loud noises, meaning that loud noises feel very overwhelming to them, but at the same time really crave deep pressure and maybe they're stuffing their mouth.
They are looking for big sensory experiences , like spicy foods, hot foods, super cold foods. Then we also see kids who are very hypersensitive to those sensory experiences, especially in the mouth because we have so many nerve endings there, that they could be avoiding sensory experiences through textures, temperatures, colors, and sticking to foods that feel very regulating and not stressful.
And for many kids with Sensory Processing Disorder, they may also have poor balance, low muscle tone, or difficulty with coordination, which also plays into selective eating.
Eating is one of our most sensory rich experiences because it involves all of our senses at once, including smell, sight, taste, touch, and hearing. Overstimulation is more likely to happen with eating because all of these sensory experiences are stacked, especially for a child who is prone to overstimulation.
Or maybe a sensory avoider instead of a sensory seeker.
Because of this, overstimulation is more likely to happen with new foods because they're less familiar with the sensory experience of that food. It's less likely to happen with foods that are their go-tos, that they know exactly what to expect from food, where it actually can feel really regulating from a sensory experience.
They know exactly what to expect. Now, poor muscle coordination can also affect our eating skills. The coordination that it takes to move food around in our mouth, to utilize our tongue and take food from the front of our mouth and put it on our back teeth, and to adequately chew food with our back teeth or front teeth or whatever is needed to grind down that food, even have the stamina behind chewing something that's really tender and chewy, like a piece of meat. Some kids are not able to do that from a texture standpoint, but also from a muscle coordination standpoint. I think this is really important that we understand this because kids are not just choosing to be picky here. They're not saying, I just don't want to eat meat. No. It actually comes down to a severe sensory sensitivity from the texture of the meat, and then also can come down to the muscle coordination that is needed to safely chew and swallow that meat.
So for kids who are not eating meat, usually, that's one of the first things that I think about is both the sensory experience and the muscle coordination or low muscle tone, because if kids can't physically eat it, they won't.
Now, I like to imagine our sensory systems like a bucket, and we have cups of water that we are pouring in our bucket, all the time. Some of us may have really large buckets. Some of us may have really small buckets that overflow easier when we're putting a few cups of water in. Every sensory experience signifies a little bit of water.
So let's say that we have a really overstimulating sensory experience. We're pouring lots of water in,
or maybe it's a small sensory experience that's happening for a long time where it's like a tag on the back of the shirt that is constantly trickling into this bucket. And what happens over the length of the day where we have all of these sensory experiences, our bucket gets fuller and fuller and fuller, and sometimes that bucket overflows, and that's when we start to see signs of sensory overwhelm and overstimulation are signs that your child's bucket might be overflowing. Includes stimming and self-regulating behaviors, feeling super overwhelmed and agitated, maybe just not like themselves. Meltdowns, tantrums, maybe they choose to stick to very particular routines, eat very specific food, do something that feels regulating to them.
You could notice an increase in anxiety, sensory sensitivity increasing here as well. Decrease in focus, and then limiting their food choices. Again, choosing those foods that are going to feel the most regulating to that child in the moment, especially at mealtime, when it is a really overstimulating experience.
Choosing those foods that are gonna help bring them back into that more regulated nervous system is a common experience for many kids.
I often explain to parents that with overstimulation comes a narrow diet because the child is choosing all of those safe and regulating foods which starts to get to a very limited list. And with a narrowed diet comes a child running on empty. The fewer foods that we have in the child's diet, the fewer nutrients that we can also get into their bodies.
And so what can happen is that children often who have limited diets start becoming more at risk for nutrient deficiencies.
The foods that most kids find really regulating are going to be packaged and processed, and that's because they're going to be the same every single time. They always have the same texture, the same look, the same color, the same temperature. They know what to expect every time versus when we cook at home or we get food out, or even certain foods like fruits and vegetables that do change every single time,
that feels really uncomfortable for many kids who are looking for routine and sameness and consistency.
Unfortunately, these packaged and processed foods don't come packed with all of the nutrients that most children need, especially to support their brain and their sensory processing.
So what we want to make sure that we do is approach this in a sensory oriented way so that we can understand your child, their sensory needs, and make sure that we're meeting their nutrition needs. Now one of the first things that I want you to do is focus on the mealtime environment. I don't even want you to bring in new foods. New foods are not invited. So we take a step back, we look at the mealtime routine, and let's get a really solid one in place that also is going to feature your child's safe foods so that the only factor here is the routine around mealtime. Sometimes we do actually have to take a pause to trying new foods so that we can take a step back and focus on the mealtime environment and make it a very relaxed, safe, and low pressure space.
This includes removing background noises and distractions. Lengthy meal times can actually overstimulate many kids. Posture and seating can also be really helpful if we focus in on getting your child into a correct posture and helping support them in being able to chew and swallow their food very safely versus sitting crisscross on the sofa or somewhere that is not going to support their core and their muscles to able to adequately chew.
Ideally, we want kids in what's called a 90, 90, 90 position where they have their feet, knees, and hips, all at a 90 degree angle.
To help prevent dysregulated meal times. We also wanna have a pretty routine schedule on what they can expect. A visual schedule or visual calendar so that they can expect what is about to happen.
We wash our hands. We go to the table. We sit in a particular chair and we have a routine that feels familiar to them, that they can stick to and helps them feel regulated coming right into mealtime. So, number one, focusing on the mealtime experience and making sure that we have a really regulated and calm and safe mealtime before we even add in new foods. Next, we wanna start introducing the least overstimulating foods first, when we do bring new foods in. And the least overstimulating foods are going to depend on your child, everybody's least stimulating foods are going to look different. Oftentimes we do see that foods that are beige and crunchy and the same every single time are a majority of kids' safe foods, but what safe foods are in their entirety are foods that are going to match your child's sensory needs.
They're predictable and consistent, provide a sense of security, and help reduce anxiety and overstimulation at meal times because eating involves such a unique combination of all of our senses with every single food. And this is something that I call our food sensory profile, and this is basically how we take your child's favorite and safe foods. We write them all down. We break them down into sensory experience, and then we build it back up to learn how we're going to expand your child's diet with their sensory needs and favorite foods in mind.
And we see so much more progress whenever we focus on your child's sensory needs first and build from there versus starting with the foods that we want our child to eat like maybe broccoli, which is a great food to add in. But if your child is only eating chicken nuggets and french fries right now that are crunchy and beige, perhaps adding in some steam broccoli, which is kind of mushy and green, may not be the most successful right off the bat.
I actually have a workbook for finding your child's food sensory profile, and I am giving it away for free for Sensory Processing Disorder Awareness month.
And you can find that in the show notes right below where you're listening to this podcast. And click there. You can also find it at autismdietitian.com. And there is a little dropdown menu that says freebies. And there you can download my Food Sensory Profile Workbook, my Getting Started Guide, my Mealtime Sensory Checklist, my Taking Supplements Guide and complete our Picky Eating Quiz so that you can learn more about your child's needs and how to best support them.
My last tip for you at mealtime is to make sure that your child always has a safe food available. Having a safe food can be really regulating. It's going to support their sensory needs by having that food available to them. And I usually like to provide the safe food in a large or medium portion size so that you feel more confident that they're going to get enough nourishment from a meal that is going to be one of their safe foods. And when we introduce new foods, we wanna start super small, sometimes I even say pinky fingernail size, so that we introduce the least overstimulating portion of a new food as possible.
Again, that new food is going to be one of the foods that meets their food sensory profile. And that way we are going to have more success when we do start working up the sensory ladder to help your child be more involved with that food, going from maybe seeing it from across the room, all the way up to touching it, smelling it, and eventually eating it, of course, on their own timeline.
If you need support for this, I do this every single day inside of my membership called the Nourishing Autism Collective, where I support families in helping expand their child's limited diet and prioritizing their nutrition so they can get the nutrients that they need to feel their best and thrive.
Next week I'm going to be taking a deep dive into my daughter Nora's eczema journey. She is turning one this month and we have been on quite the journey with her over the past eight months, and I'm pleased to say she's in a completely different place than we were back in January, but I know many of your kids also struggle with eczema, so I'd love to share a little bit what we did behind the scenes and what I think helped her the most and where we are now.
So I hope you'll join us. Thanks again for listening, and I hope you have a great rest of your week.
Transcribed by Descript
About Brittyn Coleman, MS, RDN/LD
Brittyn Coleman, MS, RDN/LD, is a distinguished Registered Dietitian and Autism Nutrition Expert, known for her innovative, sensory-friendly feeding approach to nutrition for children on the autism spectrum. As the founder of the Nourishing Autism Collective, and as an autism sibling herself, Brittyn brings both professional expertise and personal understanding to her work. She empowers families with her expert guidance, helping children receive essential nutrients for optimal health and development. Her strategies are tailored to the unique dietary needs and sensory preferences of each child.
Brittyn's influence extends beyond her membership site through her active social media presence and her popular podcast, 'Nourishing Autism'. Her educational content on Instagram, YouTube, and other platforms has established her as a leading voice in autism nutrition, providing valuable resources, practical advice, and a supportive community for parents and professionals.
