After a solid year of what I will refer to as extreme picky eating habits, you completely fell off of the growth charts for height and weight. You had always been around the 50th percentile and when you basically stopped growing due to restricting your food intake, I knew I had to take action. In January 2017, we had you evaluated by professionals to see what in the world was going on. They watched you eat, well you didn't really eat, but they had enough information to conclude that you had some sensory issues surrounding food. Finally, I had a diagnosis and we began to work up a plan to help you manage your issues and hopefully start eating, start eating a variety of foods and most importantly have less anxiety around food. Occupational therapy or OT weekly sessions began in February 2017.
Each week, I meet with your OT, Alex. I extract everything I can from her in order to help you at home. Over the past five months, I have learned so much from Alex about these sensory issues - first off, the technical term is called SPD - Sensory Processing Disorder. This neurological disorder causes the affected person to perceive the sensory information differently than a "normal" person thus resulting in abnormal responses by the affected person. Experts estimate that approximately 15-20% of kids have this disorder. "Gifted" children are often affected by SPD. The majority of kids with environmental and/or food allergies have SPD. It cannot be addressed with medicine. It does not go away, rather the affected person must learn to cope. Therapy, especially early on in life is ideal. Boys and girls are impacted equally although 99% of the people going to the center we go to are BOYS! Boys apparently exhibit behaviors more externally, where as girls are more likely to internalize. Girls often go undiagnosed.
SPD is incredibly challenging to understand. This is partially because there are so many senses and there are so many different ways they can be sensed. A child with SPD can be hypersensitive, undersensitive or seek senses or any combination of these There are a lot of different outcomes, so a one size fits all just doesn't work. There are not just five senses like we are taught as children. There are eight sensory systems and then endless types of senses. For example, every bite of food someone takes, requires 32 sensory processes to occur! If any of those senses are out of sync, there can be issues. If there are issues surrounding food, this could result in a child (or even adult) not eating "wet" food, fruits, vegetables, soft foods, hard foods, purees, colored foods, pasta, or any combination. Kids with sensory issues that go untreated especially around foods often grow into teens and adults with issues that can result in low self-confidence, physiological issues, anxiety and the list goes on and on. The key to get kids with sensory issues surrounding foods to eat more varieties of foods is to basically revert back to them being a baby. Let them play with it, touch it, talk about it, get comfortable with it. If the child won't touch the foods or play with them, they certainly won't eat them. It is a process.
Kids with SPD that have food issues WILL NOT eventually eat, no matter how hungry they get. They must be given foods they are comfortable with. Kids with SPD often have big issues with transitions and need significant advanced prep about change. Kids with SPD are not giving us a hard time, they are having a hard time.
Kids with SPD can appear to be completely "normal" and then BOOM! Something changes and there is a meltdown that lasts for hours, yes hours! It's unpredictable and often cannot be recreated. It makes identifying patterns in behaviors and inputs extra challenging - how on earth do you parent that?! LOTS OF LOVE is the only and best answer. Oh and did I mention therapy!
If parents think their child(ren) may have minor, moderate or severe sensory issues, I encourage them to visit this amazing website and check out The Out-of-Sync Child.
Each week, I meet with your OT, Alex. I extract everything I can from her in order to help you at home. Over the past five months, I have learned so much from Alex about these sensory issues - first off, the technical term is called SPD - Sensory Processing Disorder. This neurological disorder causes the affected person to perceive the sensory information differently than a "normal" person thus resulting in abnormal responses by the affected person. Experts estimate that approximately 15-20% of kids have this disorder. "Gifted" children are often affected by SPD. The majority of kids with environmental and/or food allergies have SPD. It cannot be addressed with medicine. It does not go away, rather the affected person must learn to cope. Therapy, especially early on in life is ideal. Boys and girls are impacted equally although 99% of the people going to the center we go to are BOYS! Boys apparently exhibit behaviors more externally, where as girls are more likely to internalize. Girls often go undiagnosed.
SPD is incredibly challenging to understand. This is partially because there are so many senses and there are so many different ways they can be sensed. A child with SPD can be hypersensitive, undersensitive or seek senses or any combination of these There are a lot of different outcomes, so a one size fits all just doesn't work. There are not just five senses like we are taught as children. There are eight sensory systems and then endless types of senses. For example, every bite of food someone takes, requires 32 sensory processes to occur! If any of those senses are out of sync, there can be issues. If there are issues surrounding food, this could result in a child (or even adult) not eating "wet" food, fruits, vegetables, soft foods, hard foods, purees, colored foods, pasta, or any combination. Kids with sensory issues that go untreated especially around foods often grow into teens and adults with issues that can result in low self-confidence, physiological issues, anxiety and the list goes on and on. The key to get kids with sensory issues surrounding foods to eat more varieties of foods is to basically revert back to them being a baby. Let them play with it, touch it, talk about it, get comfortable with it. If the child won't touch the foods or play with them, they certainly won't eat them. It is a process.
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| This chart is helpful to identify behavior patterns that correlate to children with SPD |
Kids with SPD that have food issues WILL NOT eventually eat, no matter how hungry they get. They must be given foods they are comfortable with. Kids with SPD often have big issues with transitions and need significant advanced prep about change. Kids with SPD are not giving us a hard time, they are having a hard time.
Kids with SPD can appear to be completely "normal" and then BOOM! Something changes and there is a meltdown that lasts for hours, yes hours! It's unpredictable and often cannot be recreated. It makes identifying patterns in behaviors and inputs extra challenging - how on earth do you parent that?! LOTS OF LOVE is the only and best answer. Oh and did I mention therapy!
If parents think their child(ren) may have minor, moderate or severe sensory issues, I encourage them to visit this amazing website and check out The Out-of-Sync Child.
