Your toddler will only eat pureed food. Your son will only eat crunchy foods like hard pretzels, celery, and chips. Your daughter calls any food wetter than a cracker "slimy." Are your kids picky eaters, or could they have a hidden medical problem?
If your child limits himself to certain textures of foods and refuses to eat others, it may be a sign of a Sensory Processing Disorder (SPD). Children with SPD have difficulty making sense of the sensory information that their body collects. A trained occupational therapist can evaluate your child’s sensory processing and determine if the texture aversion is due to a SPD.
If your child will only eat soft food, it may be that he has difficulty chewing and swallowing other foods. This can be due to dental problems, pain in the mouth or throat, lack of muscle control, or a physical difference in mouth structure that makes chewing and swallowing difficult. A child who has always been in pain believes that pain is a normal state of being, and will not describe feelings of pain when eating.
Some causes of texture aversions:
- Sensory Processing Disorder - Some children may be “overresponsive” -– averse to being touched, tormented by tags in clothing, and unwilling to touch textures they find distasteful. Others may be “underresponsive” -– oblivious to pain or their proximity to others, and constantly seeking out more sensory input. They may only like very hot or very cold food, or only very crunchy or hard-to-chew food.
- Autism – Children with autism often have rigid rituals around meals that can include refusing to eat certain textures, tastes, or temperatures of foods.
- Dental Problems – Children with cavities may not complain about tooth pain, but may be unwilling to eat crunchy or chewy foods.
More About Picky Eaters and Medical Problems
- Children who Only Eat One or Two Foods
- Children Who Gag on Solid Foods
- Children Who Don’t Want to Eat Anything
- Children Who Won’t Eat [Insert Food]
Sources:
Ernsperger, Lori, Ph.D. and Tania Stegen-Hanson, OTR/L. Just Take a Bite: Easy, Effective Answers to Food Aversions and Eating Challenges. Future Horizons, Arlington, TX.
North American Society for Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology, and Nutrition. Hepatitis B Vaccine. Accessed online 1/14/2011. http://www.naspghan.org/user-assets/Documents/pdf/diseaseInfo/2008%20Revisions/Hepatitis%20B%20-%20Reviewed%20August%202008.pdf
