Issues with Food Texture
In the world of picky eaters, food texture can often be a major obstacle. From the softness of bread to the crunch of crackers, various foods present different textures that can be challenging for children with food texture sensitivities.
Fortunately, sensory feeding therapy offers a range of strategies to help children overcome these challenges. This approach focuses on gradual sensory desensitization, food chaining, and exploratory food play, allowing controlled, non-threatening exposure to new textures.
Sensory desensitization involves slowly introducing new food textures, smells, or tastes in a calm, patient setting to reduce sensory sensitivity and anxiety around eating. This could involve touching or smelling the food before tasting it.
Food chaining is another effective strategy. By building on foods the child already accepts, therapists choose new foods similar in color, texture, flavor, or temperature, and make incremental changes. This stepwise method helps bridge from familiar to new foods, minimizing texture-related aversions.
Exploratory food play encourages children to interact with foods in playful, pressure-free ways, helping them get used to different textures through sensory experience without the demand to eat immediately. Activities like pasta threading, edible crafts, or playing with play dough can be fun and engaging ways to explore food textures.
Involving children in food preparation can also increase their comfort and willingness to engage with new textures. Age-appropriate tasks like scooping, pouring, or baking can help children develop a positive relationship with food.
Professional support plays a crucial role in addressing food texture issues. Feeding therapists, dietitians, or specialists trained in sensory feeding can tailor strategies for each child’s specific feeding challenges and sensitivities, often combining behavioral routines and sensory techniques.
Consistent and positive reinforcement is also key. Using praise and modeling eating behaviors can encourage acceptance and reduce mealtime stress.
These interventions are applied patiently and flexibly, respecting each child’s individual sensory profile and pace of progress. In cases of severe selective eating, therapy may also include structured behavioral techniques and nutritional supplementation to maintain health while expanding dietary variety.
Embracing messy eating and food play can help desensitize children to various textures and make mealtimes less stressful. Water play, such as in a bathtub, buckets, bowls, water table, or pool, can be a fun way to explore different textures.
Texture exploration strategies for addressing food texture issues also include oral sensory techniques, play-based strategies, and texture exploration without food. Integrating sensory diet strategies into mealtime routines can help create a more supportive environment for children who are sensitive to food textures, smells, or presentation.
A sensory lifestyle handbook can provide guidance on creating a sensory diet and an active and thriving lifestyle based on a deep understanding of sensory processing. Alerting sensory techniques for feeding involve increasing stimulation to the nerves in the mouth in a positive way to desensitize them and prime them for experiencing more textures.
If a child regularly refuses vegetables, gags at new textures, or eats fewer than 10 different foods, it may be necessary to consult with a feeding therapy professional. In extreme cases, children may be diagnosed as "problem feeders" and require more intensive therapy.
With the right approach and support, children with food texture issues can learn to enjoy a wider variety of foods, leading to healthier, happier mealtimes for all.
[1] "Sensory Feeding Therapy: A Comprehensive Approach for the Pediatric Feeding Disorder" by Lisa M. Duffy, MS, CCC-SLP, BCS-S [2] "The Sensory-Based Feeding Approach: Helping Children with Autism and Sensory Processing Disorders" by Lindsey Biel, MS, OTR/L, and Nancy Mahan, PhD, OTR [3] "The Oral-Motor/Sensory Toolkit: Activities for Children with Autism and Sensory Processing Disorders" by Sherryl A. Smith, MS, CCC-SLP [4] "Feeding Therapy for Infants and Toddlers with Autism" by Carolyn P. Schaefer, MS, CCC-SLP [5] "Pediatric Feeding Disorders: Assessment and Intervention" by Elisa C. Vogel, PhD, CCC-SLP, and Mary A. Sheridan, PhD, CCC-SLP
- To aid children with food texture sensitivities, sensory feeding therapy employs strategies such as sensory desensitization, food chaining, exploratory food play, and gradual exposure to new textures, which can help them build a positive relationship with a wider variety of foods.
- Children with selective eating who refuse vegetables or gag at new textures may find relief in various therapy approaches like sensory feeding therapy, oral sensory techniques, play-based strategies, and texture exploration exercises, as detailed in the resources "Sensory Feeding Therapy: A Comprehensive Approach for the Pediatric Feeding Disorder," "The Sensory-Based Feeding Approach: Helping Children with Autism and Sensory Processing Disorders," "The Oral-Motor/Sensory Toolkit: Activities for Children with Autism and Sensory Processing Disorders," and "Feeding Therapy for Infants and Toddlers with Autism."
