Most children with autism have eating difficulties. This leads to a more complicated process on the language acquisition side. When the child does not eat solid but only passed, the phonoarticulator and facial muscles have a precarious development, lacking harmony. All these areas live in an interdependent relationship, one is not more important than the other, so when we think about the intervention it is important to do it in parallel, to cover all areas.
Food difficulties range from the easiest to the most complicated, and the intervention plan is implemented accordingly.
Food training can last from a few days to a few months or even years, which is a difficult process in which we need many resources: patience, love and very strong reinforcements.
Therefore, if we have a child who has undergone medical investigations and from this point of view no difficulties are observed but the child has certain deficiencies, is food selective, then we must consider a possible behavioral problem. p>
In this sense, applied behavioral intervention (ABA) helps us a lot. A detailed analysis of these behaviors helps us to implement a correct food training. This is done by exposing to as many foods as possible through the technique of gradual desensitization.
The most common food problems are:
- Consumption of past foods. Even though the child has passed the chronological age in which the diversification and introduction of solid foods is done, I met children at 4-5 years old who ate only past foods, this being one of the reasons for the reduced existence of the language, a weak muscles.
- It is impossible to accept only one type of food and introduce other new foods. Even if the parents decide that a more varied number of foods need to be introduced in a short time, the child manifests tantrums that are difficult to manage, which also results in regurgitation behavior and the parent often gives in, thus strengthening the behavior. .
- accept only certain textures, only certain smells, only certain colors (these are the children who accept only foods of a certain beige color (eg beetroot, bread, bananas, yogurts, etc.) and red foods, green reject them). All these can be in addition to a behavioral problem and a problem related to the sensory part, because of this and the feeling of aversion to food, may have increased or decreased sensitivity to taste, smell, vision. >
- I often meet children who do not chew food, fail to coordinate to make the right movement so that they chew food.
- Behavioral problems during meals (eat d or in a certain position, only in the presence of the phone, just running around the room …).
Food education is done in the presence of some rules from which it is important not to deviate.
An important rule is that the child eats at the table, the gadgets being used as rewards only at the end of the meal.
-self-service difficulties (fail to use cutlery functionally, drink cup water, etc.). When we work on this skill we need to start with the cutlery that is easier to use and a very pleasant food so that the reward is intrinsic.
All of these behaviors can contain one or more of the issues listed, that is, a child can eat only a bird, only a certain food and only a certain color, walking around the room. Here we have four problems exposed and when we start the intervention we do it by changing one element, choosing the least intrusive criterion of all.
Indeed, there are many typical children who have eating difficulties, and who are often taken from their parents (eg the mother does not eat peppers, the child does not like peppers but maybe he did not taste never this food or maybe even a food he doesn’t like). The difference is that a typical child may not like peppers but I accept other vegetables
without difficulty and the difference is made by the behaviors manifested in refusal (excessive anger, aggression).
When it comes to eating problems, the parent, mentally, is not prepared to fight this problem, always thinking that the foot would go on a „hunger strike”, so it could drastically lose weight and end up with malnutrition. / p>
All this can be in addition to a behavioral problem and a problem related to the sensory part, hence the feeling of aversion to food.
The later the intervention, the greater the difficulties, the better rooted and the stronger the inappropriate behaviors. Without specialist help, it is very difficult to manage these problems.
