Understanding children's eating and supporting change
It is hoped that the information available on this page will help to support your understanding of your child’s eating. As a parent/carer it can be hard to understand why a child is eating the way they are. Often their behaviours and choices can feel quite random which can leave you feeling very frustrated, upset and confused. This in turn can lead to more stressful mealtimes which can result in children eating even less.
By reading our information we hope that you will begin to see patterns which help explain what you are experiencing at home. Once your child’s eating is understood, their choices often make more sense.
We understand that changing behaviours and developing new skills can take a long time and this can be even more difficult in children with a diagnosis or behaviours associated with autism. It is important to be consistent in your approach (this includes all care givers for your child) and you are unlikely to see any significant changes in a few days/weeks.
Please click on the tiles below to view the different downloadable information sheets to understand children’s eating.
Understanding children's eating
- Why some children struggle to eat
- How our senses impact our eating and food choice
- The importance of seating and positioning
- The impact of too much milk on children's eating
- The potential impact of Autism on eating and drinking
- Understanding growth charts
- Understanding and managing constipation
- Understanding and managing reflux
- Understanding how children balance their eating
- Would you eat a tarantula
- The potential impact of anxiety on eating and drinking in children
- What is a balanced diet
Ideas and strategies to support change
The following tiles are advice sheets to give you ideas, strategies and activities to do with your child to enable them to change and develop new skills.
- Advice on learning to feed yourself
- Understanding finger foods using IDDSI
- Introducing buffet style meals
- Food chaining
- Making food fun
- Messy play
- Coping with fussy eating
- Introducing new foods to hesitant eaters - Older
- Introducing new foods to hesitant eaters - Younger
- Tooth brushing
- Food activities and science experiments
- Vitamins and mineral supplements
- Learning to chew
- Success with solids
- Developing attention at mealtimes
- How to achieve a balanced diet
- Sensory play