Start slow, with tolerating the food on the plate, working up to touching the food, and eventually bringing the food to his mouth. This means that he will need to learn to interact with new foods, whether this includes eating the food or not. When working with a problem feeder with oral hypersensitivity, it’s very important to allow a child to feel safe playing with his food.

By reducing additional stimuli in the room, a parent can prevent over-stimulation and help a child to more successfully interact with the foods presented. Introducing new foods provides a lot of sensory input. This includes turning off the television and the tablet and reducing other visual and auditory distractions. Prepare your child’s environment in order to support his success. Set the stage-Reduce additional sensory stimuli to avoid over-stimulation.Consider tactile activities as well, such as finger painting, playing with dry rice or beans, or playing with putty or clay. Some regulating oral activities include blowing through a straw or biting on a washcloth. Providing regulating input prior to beginning feeding time can help to reduce sensitivity and also warm his system up to prepare him. Your child’s sensory system needs to be in an optimal state of functioning for him to be able to accept novel foods. Warm-up, provide regulating oral and tactile input prior to beginning.Setting aside a separate time to work on feeding with your child will help to reduce the demand, establish a calm and safe environment, and provide the structure of a daily routine that will help support your child in being successful. Mealtime is stressful as it is, adding new foods in the mix when you have a problem feeder on your hands can not only escalate your frustration, but can overwhelm your child’s sensory system. Set aside a specific time each day to work on introducing new foods.Here are 5 tips to reduce stress and help your problem feeder to conquer sensory aversion with new foods. When your child is a problem feeder due to hypersensitivity, mealtime often causes stress and discomfort for both the parent and child. This often occurs when a child’s sensory system is overloaded, and as a result, his body perceives the new food as noxious. There are many signs of oral hypersensitivity, but one sign that is concerning for many parents is vomiting or gagging with new foods. Oral sensory aversion can negatively impact a child’s diet. If you know that your child is not experiencing any of these challenges, then it’s likely your child struggles with oral hypersensitivity affecting his ability to tolerate different textures and temperatures of foods. If this describes your child, then it’s important to contact your pediatrician to rule out any food allergies, swallowing dysfunction, or other medical conditions, as these can lead to gagging or vomiting and need to be addressed.

Nausea after first bite of food