If you’re a parent or caregiver, it’s likely that at some point along the way your child has turned up their nose at a meal you were sure they would love. For some kids, this isn’t just because they’re being ‘picky’—it’s a sensory food aversion. Let’s look at what sensory food aversions are and how speech pathologists can help you address this challenge with practical strategies to help you expand your child’s diet variety. 

 

What Are Sensory Food Aversions in Children? 

Sensory food aversions are when a child has a strong, often inexplicable dislike for certain foods due to their texture, smell, taste, or even appearance. It’s more than just a preference; it’s a sensory experience that can be overwhelming or uncomfortable for them. 

Children with sensory food aversions may suddenly stop chewing a food item, gag, vomit, or have a more intense response to seeing foods on their plate that they’ve had poor experiences within the past. Sometimes even if a food is cooked or presented a different way, a child may continue to refuse to eat or even interact with the food.  

If this is your experience, you’ve undoubtedly been facing additional stress around mealtimes as a parent/caregiver, and this may be starting to rub off on the entire family if it’s a common occurrence at mealtimes. 

 

Why Do Sensory Food Aversions Happen? 

There are many things that can contribute to sensory food aversions in children. While this can be associated with Autism, there are many other factors that may be contributing to your child’s sensory food aversion that don’t necessarily relate to a particular disorder. 

Developmental Stages: Young children are still in the early stages of developing their sensory processing systems. What seems like a normal texture or taste to adults might be too intense or confusing for them, and this may lead to food refusal or negative reactions to certain smells, textures, and taste that can look like fussy eating behaviours. 

Previous Negative Experiences: If a child had an unpleasant experience with a particular food, they might develop a strong aversion to it. This could be due to a bad taste, a negative reaction, or even something as simple as a food poisoning incident. This can happen to children of all ages and developmental stages, and even adults! We’re sure there’s at least one food you can think of from your past that you won’t dare to eat now. Past negative experiences can definitely play a big role in the development of sensory food aversions.  

Sensory Sensitivity: Some children are more sensitive to sensory stimuli. They might find certain textures or smells overpowering. For instance, a child with heightened tactile sensitivity might avoid foods with certain textures because they feel unpleasant. This sensitivity may be associated with an underlying sensory processing disorder. 

Underlying Conditions: As we mentioned at the start, sometimes sensory food aversions are linked to broader conditions such as autism spectrum disorder or sensory processing disorder. In these cases, food aversions can be part of a larger pattern of sensory sensitivities. 

 

How Speech Pathologists Can Help 

Speech pathologists might not be the first professionals you think of going to when it comes to sensory food aversions, but they play a crucial role in helping children overcome their food aversions and expanding the variety in their diet.  

Here’s how they Speech Pathologists can help children with sensory food aversions: 

Encouraging Exploration: Through targeted, research-backed feeding therapy approaches, Speech Pathologists can help children with food aversions gradually become more comfortable with different textures and tastes. This often involves gentle, step-by-step exposure to new foods alongside other therapy techniques.  

Collaborating with Parents: Speech Pathologists work closely with parents to provide practical strategies that can be implemented at home to reduce mealtime stress and create an environment that supports the child with food aversions to expand their list of accepted foods. This can be done 1:1 or in a group therapy session with other parents and caregivers for additional support.

Intensive 1:1 Feeding Therapy: For children with significant sensory food aversions, feeding therapy provided by SLPs can be incredibly beneficial. This therapy focuses on improving the child’s ability to eat a variety of foods safely and comfortably. 

 

Sensory food aversions can be challenging for parents and caregivers to deal with, especially when you’re juggling many different things and stress is piling up. But with the right support and strategies, children can eventually expand their food choices and enjoy mealtimes more.  

Thanks for reading! If you have any questions or experiences to share, feel free to get in touch or check out other helpful article to learn more about the difference between picky eating and feeding disorders.