Episode 71: Why Standard Fussy Eating Advice Does Not Apply When Feeding Neurodivergent Children

Over my 24 years as a paediatric dietitian and 13 years as a mum to a once–fussy eater, I’ve seen firsthand that standard fussy eating advice simply does not work for many families in this space.

Neurodivergent children have their own feeding rules, sensory sensitivities, and unique routines. What works for one child may not work for another.

In this episode, I share the seven truths I’ve learnt from supporting thosands of families: why it’s a long game, how to plug nutrient gaps safely, and why guilt is not helpful for parents. Most importantly, I want you to feel reassured that you are not alone, and that nutrition truly can transform your child’s daily life.Links
https://nourishwithkarina.com/feedingbabies
https://nourishwithkarina.com/membership

Highlights:

Introduction (00:00.106)
Balancing Treats and Nutrition in Everyday Lunchboxes (02:15.98)
Fussy Eating & the Long Game: Feeding Neurodivergent Kids (02:30.25)
Food Before Medicine: How Nutrition Shapes Kids’ Health & Therapy Outcomes (04:52.856)
From Nonverbal to Thriving: How Nutrition Transforms Kids’ Lives (07:15.0)
Routines, Anxiety, and the Reality of Feeding Neurodivergent Kids (12:03.98)
Why Your Child’s Eating Story is Unique—and Worth Celebrating (14:29.56)
Why One Bite (or Even a Sniff) Is Progress (16:51.694)
The White Diet Is Real: How to Spot and Fix Nutrient Gaps (19:16.45)
From Fatigue to Focus: Nutrient Deficiencies in Fussy Eaters (21:36.576)
Parent Guilt, Mealtime Stress, and How to Let Go(23:56.63
Gut Health and the Neurodivergent Child (26:22.926)
Specialized Dietary Strategies for Neurodivergent Kids (28:42.718)
How Better Nutrition Transforms Daily Life for Neurodivergent Kids (31:01.774)
Supporting Our Kids to Live Their Best Lives (33:21.486)

Show notes

READ TRANSCRIPT

Show Notes

Over my 24 years as a paediatric dietitian and 13 years as a mum to a once–fussy eater, I’ve seen firsthand that standard fussy eating advice simply does not work for many families in this space.

Neurodivergent children have their own feeding rules, sensory sensitivities, and unique routines. What works for one child may not work for another.

What we cover in this episode

Standard advice doesn’t apply – Why traditional “picky eater” strategies often fail with neurodivergent children
Progress looks different – Why food variety may expand slowly, or not at all, and why small wins count
The white diet is real – Understanding nutrient deficiencies and how to fill the gaps safely
It’s not your fault – Releasing parent guilt and reframing the mealtime experience
Gut health is critical – How gut–brain connections affect mood, learning, and behaviour
Specialised strategies work – Why food chaining, texture progression and tailored nutrition make a difference
Better nutrition, better daily life – Improved energy, focus, therapy participation, and overall wellbeing

Show notes & resources

Explore healthy recipes for kids: nourishwithkarina.com/healthy-recipes-for-kids
Join Karina’s 5 Days to Healthier Kids Challenge: learn.nourishwithkarina.com/5-days-to-healthier-kids-challenge
Grab Karina’s Time Saving Healthy Supermarket Kids Snacks Guide (Intro Offer): karina-savage.mykajabi.com/offers/GkPU49mj
Learn about Nourishing Kids, Karina’s popular program that lifts the “food stress” load: nourishwithkarina.com/nourishingkids
Listen to more episodes of The Easy Feed: podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/the-easy-feed/id1710594874
Watch Karina’s regular features on Channel 7 Sunrise: nourishwithkarina.com/press
Book an online consultation for personalised support: nourishwithkarina.com/nutrition-consultation
Check out Karina’s Kids Food Reviews: nourishwithkarina.com/food-reviews
If you have a fussy eater, register for Karina’s online training and learn the 3 essential steps to end fussy eating: nourishwithkarina.easywebinar.live/endfussyeating

Introduction (00:00.106)
You're listening to the Easy Feed podcast episode number 71. Why standard fussy eating advice does not apply when feeding neurodivergent children. Hi there, I'm Karina Savage and with over 20 years experience feeding children, including my own, I've learnt all the secrets that busy mums need to get their children eating better and actually enjoying healthy foods. So a huge welcome to the Easy Feed podcast.
Hi everybody. Welcome back. hope you're well. Welcome to another episode of the Easy Feed. I've been noticing that there's been a lot of interest in the neurodivergent space with my posts, with different things that I've been, you know, chatting about and different podcasts that I've been on. Now I have to apologize in advance for my coarse husky voice. I have literally been in bed most of the week with the flu. So I apologize in advance if things get a little bit...
Husky or if that's even the word, but anyway, I, I wanted to record this episode because I feel like a lot of parents struggle in this space and there is a lot of diagnosis of ASD, ADHD and, and I feel like there's a lot of standard fussy eating advice out there. And even with non neurodivergent children, my approach is very different to a lot. My approach.
factors in what I have created to be called the feeding ecosystem. It is not just, you know, put the food on the plate and eventually they'll eat it. It is not, you know, just, it is not just make funny faces out of food or cut carrots into stars and they'll eat them. It is very unique. And so even my approach with standard fussy eaters who aren't Eurodivergent is quite different to what you might find with other dietitians.
And really it's been the culmination of my 24 years as a pediatric dietitian and 13 years as a mother to a fussy eater who is not a fussy eater anymore, but really put me to the test when she was younger. And what I've learned through hundreds and hundreds of thousands of families that I've worked with over the 24 years with children who are neurodivergent, things do not improve with the standard advice.
Fussy Eating & the Long Game: Feeding Neurodivergent Kids (02:30.25)
And even, you know, using my own feeding ecosystem, absolutely, there's a lot of that, which does help because it, you know, it's been created to work, but it still can be beneficial for some individuals. But I think it's also really important to know that it's a long game. It is a journey. And if you're pouring lots and lots of money, hundreds and thousands of dollars down, you know, the feeding therapy route, you've got to be prepared that it's not necessarily going to fix things.
quickly. So that can also cause a lot of frustration and dismay with parents because perhaps the expectation is that they will accelerate their eating habits and expand. should say their eating habits a lot quicker than they actually are going to. I think it's really important to set the expectation with parents that this is a long game. I mean, with any fussy eater, it's a long game, but with neurodivergent children,
It can be even longer game and we need to be really mindful of plugging nutrient gaps whilst we set up a strategy for success. So I think recently I did a post on Instagram and it was something along the lines of, you know, things that I've learnt along the way around feeding children who are neurodivergent. And so I just want to share those seven things with you today, because if you are a parent of a neurodivergent child and you are listening, it may give you some, you know,
level of comfort and reassurance as to why you are feeling this way about your child's eating on, why you are struggling potentially with your child's nutrition. And please feel free to reach out to me either on Instagram or via my website. You can always email hello at nourishwithkarina.com and that will come through to me and I will be able to respond to you because parents need help. I mean, end of story, full stop.
Parents need help with feeding their kids. Neurodivergent children are often on the NDIS and you know, there's a lot of emphasis placed, I believe on capacity building and you know, developing those core skills so that they have improved daily living. And I think sometimes overlooked the fact that really underpinning all of that is nutrition. If their nutrition is not good,
Food Before Medicine: How Nutrition Shapes Kids’ Health & Therapy Outcomes (04:52.856)
They're not going to have enough energy to be able to participate in physiotherapy or other therapies. The gut brain connection will not be as effective as it could be. Therefore their cognitive ability may be, you know, suboptimal because it could be better potentially with better nutrition. If their nutrition is suboptimal, they may not have the energy to get through speech therapy sessions or
other therapy group therapy work because the nutrition's not there. If their nutrition is not good, then their blood sugar levels may be swinging up and down and their concentration and focus may be poorer. So I think it's really important to recognize that nutrition underpins everything. Well, in my book it does. And if they are not healthy, if their gut health is not there, if their immune health is not there, they're going to be getting sick more often. And then that means more sick days.
More time the parents have got to take off work, more trips to the doctor, more medical trauma for these children. I saw this patient the other day that literally mum's like, he's got medical trauma. He has had so much sickness and so much done to him. She said, now I try to avoid the doctors and avoid medico's as much as possible because he's just seen too much of it in his life. And so if we can keep them healthier, then they're going to be visiting the doctors less.
And then able to undertake their therapies and everything else that they need to do to help them to thrive as a, well-functioning child, going to school, going to the playground and connecting with other children. So it's all super valuable. But it all starts with what they put in their mouth. Food is medicine and food should be the medicine rather than medicine. I mean, I know children need medicine sometimes, but if we can manage it through food, all the better.
And if we think about the study released from the university of Southampton, it basically told us that if our children avoided these artificial colours mixed with preservatives, then there would be 30 % less diagnosis of ADHD, which is insane. So it all comes back to food. It all comes back to gut health, systemic health.
From Nonverbal to Thriving: How Nutrition Transforms Kids’ Lives (07:15.0)
So in my mind, and I know in your minds too, cause I'm preaching to the converted, he wouldn't be listening to this podcast if you didn't believe nutrition was important. We really need to be focusing on how we can best support our neurodivergent children to improve their eating and improve their nutrition so that we can improve everything, almost every aspect of their life. You know, I've had children, not neurodivergent, but it just goes to show the power of nutrition. was a two year old little girl.
And she was basically nonverbal. was very socially withdrawn. She basically wouldn't have eye contact with people. She was malnourished. without, through no fault of her parents, she was nutrient deficient and we discovered that she had undiagnosed celiac disease. And once the nutrition was restored, because we put her into a strict lifelong gluten free diet and she started to absorb nutrients again, she started to talk. She started to...
more socially connected with her family, with everybody and her cognition and development just absolutely skyrocketed. So it was incredible to see the transformation that occurred once her body started to receive the nutrition that it needed and her gut health healed and her gut health improved and the gut-brain connection was really improved as well. So it's really important that we focus on nutrition for our children, all children, but...
Especially neurodivergent children that may have, you know, some cognitive challenges, sensory processing challenges. There's more and more research coming out all the time around the gut-brain connection and the importance of optimizing gut health for neurodivergent children. Okay. So back to my top seven truths that I have learned over the years, past 24 years as a pediatric dietician working with neurodivergent children and families of neurodivergent children. And look.
I must say that when I do online consultations around Australia and sometimes offshore, it's the families that I need. It's the parents I need. I don't need to see the neurodivergent children. I just need all of the information. I need their food diaries. I need their medical history. need blood results if they've had them, weight and height. And then a really good chat with the parents to find out all the nitty gritties about their development, their gut health, their immune health. And that helps me then shape a
Gut Health, Sensory Needs, and the Long Game of Feeding Kids (09:38.926)
plan forwards for how we improve their nutrient intake, where there may be potential nutrient deficiencies, because we really need to plug any short-term nutrient deficiencies to then enable them to be healthy enough to then expand their intake of food over time. But as I said, it's a long journey. It's a long game with children, especially neurodivergent children. So we need to make sure that we're supporting them wherever we can. Short-term.
to set them up long-term. So my first truth is that standard fussy eating advice does not apply. Most of the well-meaning advice that you'll hear around fussy eating, especially online, goes something like this. Keep offering foods without pressure. Eat together as a family so you can all model healthy eating behaviors. Don't cater to picky eating, just serve one meal. And trust that with time, children will naturally expand their intake. They're just some of the
the standard advice that you'll hear in fussy eating and then others might be, you know, make it fun, cut it into colorful shapes and get them involved with food. And some of those things can be super effective in children, but not always in neurodivergent children because there are more significant underlying reasons for the food aversion and it's stronger.
then we often realize it's very ingrained and it's very significant for that child and it needs to be respected. It's not just about preference or willpower. The sensory sensitivities can be so strong and overwhelming, can make the child feel very vulnerable and very unhappy and very anxious. For a child with autism who struggles with consistencies, perhaps it might be like a
a slimy consistency or a saucy consistency, no matter how many times you present it in a fun, calm, peaceful way, no matter how many times you eat it in front of them, if their underlying sensitivity is so strong, they're not going to be eating that food full stop permanently. Like, you know, you'll be lucky if they eat it at all. And I don't think we can expect them to even consider trying that food within, you know, for years, if ever.
Routines, Anxiety, and the Reality of Feeding Neurodivergent Kids (12:03.98)
because it's just not within their capability right now, based on their underlying sensory sensitivities. Many neurodiversion children also really thrive on routine and predictability. And this is a really important factor to be mindful of with meals and snacks as well. Often I see children who won't tolerate a difference in packaging or intolerate a difference to the structure of meal times because it's
goes against what they know like trust and is familiar to them. So it's very important that parents are aware of that to ensure that we're not heightening our children's anxiety around food without even realizing. And that's before the food's even presented. So if you're, you know, putting them in a situation where they're feeling a heightened sense of anxiety before you've even served the meal and then you serve a food that's slightly different and expecting them to eat it, or, you know, you feel like they should really give it a go.
is potentially just going to end in catastrophe. And it's important to be mindful of setting up the meal time that's going to allow your child to be calm and in a place to consider trying these foods that you want them to eat. Okay. The second truth I have is that you can't expect the same expansion of food variety with typical fussy eaters.
We expect that food variety will expand over time and sure it is often slower than parents want, but with autistic children, sometimes that food expansion doesn't happen at all. And sometimes the food actually gets narrower for a while and children are very, very limited. So progress for neurodivergent children is often quite different. And we really need to accept that, meet them where they're at and create a plan from there.
And as I said before, some neurodivergent children will be eating a lot more variety than others. And it's really important that you're not comparing your child to other children because whether they're level one, two, three, autism, or whether they're ADHD and don't have an autism diagnosis, each child is different. you can never compare a child's ability to eat with another child because they've all got different starting points. So some children may have had a really rough trot.
Why Your Child’s Eating Story is Unique—and Worth Celebrating (14:29.56)
growing up, they may have had a really rough infancy. They may have been tube fed for two or three years. They may have been really sick. They may have had really bad reflux, which also impacts their past associations and willingness to eat. Like if they've had food coming up and burning their esophagus, that every time they ate it burnt, then they develop that association. So they don't necessarily love to eat because
So they don't necessarily love to eat because in the past it's hurt them. So it's really important to remember that your child is unique. mean, even non neurodivergent children are all unique and they've all got their different stories. So parents just need to look at their own child's story and work out the best path forward based on where they've come from. And we really need to meet their child where they're at, based on where they've come from, not based on
what their diagnosis is and what they should be doing right now. Some children may go through food jags where they were eating a food and then they stop eating it. And so it's, it's incredibly frustrating for parents when you feel like you're getting somewhere, like one step forwards and then two step backwards and then two step forward and then one step backward. And it can be soul destroying when you spend all this time preparing food and then they get to the table and they're like, no, not tonight. And you're like, my.
Gosh. So, I mean, I feel exhausted just thinking about it. It can be so frustrating, but I want you as a parent to remember if you've got a neurodivergent child and this is, you know, you're going, yes, Karina, my gosh, this is my life. Please remember you are not a failure. Your child is not a failure. This is just a symptom of underlying food sensory issues. Their relationship with food is unique and it will develop at its own.
taste and it will likely develop a lot slower and a lot more differently to how you would like it to develop. We can't expect giant leaps with intake. Yes, let's celebrate small wins, but I often talk to parents about the fact that a small win may be the fact that your child will tolerate a new food on their plate. They may not touch it.
Why One Bite (or Even a Sniff) Is Progress (16:51.694)
But they may just tolerate it on their plate. So we need to remember that there is a continuum of learning to like a food and it starts at complete and utter food refusal and food disgust. And it ends with food acceptance and liking that food. But there are like 20, 30, 40 little micro jumps that happen on that continuum of learning to like a food and tolerating food on a plate is one little micro jump. Picking it up is a little micro jump.
looking at it, sniffing it, licking it, perhaps biting into it, biting into it, spitting it out. They're all little micro jumps along that continuum of learning to like a food. And we need to celebrate those small wins. need to recognise those small wins rather than just looking at the overall result, which is another meal where they've refused that food. And this applies to all Fussy Eaters, not just children who are in your age of edging. We need to celebrate the small wins.
If your child adds one new food in a month, that could be a small win. If your child accepts a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil over their pasta, that is a win. You know, they are adding a new food to their repertoire and incredibly nutritious food, I should say. So as parents, we need to shift our expectation and not expect the same expansion of food variety that you may have seen in a brother or sister who's not neurodivergent.
measure their progress from their baseline and try to remember it is a slow journey. But there is plenty that we can do to not only plug immediate nutrient gaps, develop their gut microbiome, support their gut and immune health and set up long-term strategies for success. Okay, my third truth is that the white diet is real and the nutritional deficiencies are real. So you'll see again, all sorts out there on the internet.
Look, I see kids who literally live on two packet varieties of meat and pureed vegetables per day. literally scours the supermarket for these two brands of, no, actually, sorry, it's the same brand, but it's two different types. One's chicken and pureed veg and one's beef and pureed veg. But she basically scours all the different supermarkets for these two pouch foods because that's pretty much it. That's pretty much.
The White Diet Is Real: How to Spot and Fix Nutrient Gaps (19:16.45)
All he'll accept. He's so specific and so rigid with his food intake. Mum's tried to give him other foods, but he just won't accept it. So we have to plug nutrient gaps. It's our only choice right now. And it's my role as a pediatric dietician to support mum to say, right, well, this is what's missing and this is what we need to do to support his nutrition and growth and development right now.
I see other children that literally live on white food. might be crackers, it's pasta, it's salty white, crunchy food, hot chips, and not one fruit or vegetable will pass their lips or you might get potato out of chips. But literally they're at risk of vitamin C deficiency. Often we have to be really crafty at how we can get a squeeze of lemon in here or there, know, boost their intake of vitamin C. Look, you don't actually need a whole lot of vitamin C each day. Often, you know, we think we need more than we do.
But some children don't get enough. Some children don't meet their iron requirements. Iron deficiency is huge in the white diet fussy eating realm. Zinc deficiency is another one that impacts the immune system and vitamin D is another big one. So look, we can absolutely plug their nutrient gaps, but we need to do it cleverly. And you need to consult a pediatric dietician to do this. You can't just...
guess is not guesswork and this is your child's growth and development on the line here. So it needs to be done properly. So please reach out to me. We can have an online consultation. We can plug the nutrient gaps because not only do we need to plug the nutrient gaps for brain health and growth and development, we also need to be making sure that their gut is getting the nutrients it needs. The fiber, the prebiotics, the polyphenols, everything that is going to enable the gut microbiome to be as healthy as possible.
So that those messages from the gut microbiome to the brain are healthy and effective. There is less anxiety. There is better cognition, better concentration, focus, learning, gut microbiome influences, all of that. So that's why we need to make sure that their diet is adequate. And if we need to supplement with fiber supplements, I've got all those tricks up my sleeve. We just need to shine a light on it. We need the focus to be there on nutrition, nutrients and fiber for neurodivergent children.
From Fatigue to Focus: Nutrient Deficiencies in Fussy Eaters (21:36.576)
Okay. So what would my top five nutrients at risk be? Well, firstly, we have iron deficiency, which can increase risk of fatigue, poor energy, concentration, and also increase risk of sickness. Then we have zinc deficiency, which can actually impact your taste and appetite. Absolutely impacts immunity and can also impact growth.
Vitamin D is really important to be paying attention to, especially if children aren't spending as much time outside. If they're more of an inside loving kid, we need to make sure that their vitamin D is adequate, especially if they're living in the southern parts of Australia where there is a greater risk of vitamin D deficiency. Because when there is vitamin D deficiency, it does increase their risk of having more fragile bones and then increasing their risk of fractures. Fiber is another nutrient risk.
And we need to make sure that there is adequate fiber, not only to feed the gut microbes, as I was saying before, to support immune health, but also to prevent constipation because constipation is a common issue in neurodivergent children. And then my final nutrient at risk to discuss now is omega-3s and omega-3s are essential for children, especially in relation to brain function and cognition. And this is one that we also really focus on in my consults to make sure that children are getting enough omega-3s.
threes especially. In addition to those nutrients, there are other nutrients that I definitely focus on in my consultations to support parents to make sure their children are getting everything that they need. Whether it's through supplements, whether it's through fortified food or whether it's through just simple swaps to boost nutrients is plenty that we can do and small changes done consistently can really add up for a child. Okay, moving on to my fourth truth and...
This is a really, really important one. mean, look, they're all important, but I just want to make it very clear that this is not your fault. It's absolutely not the parent's fault. Children with neurodivergence eat differently. They have different feeding issues. They have different sensory processing challenges and you can't blame yourself. As a parent myself, I know it's very easy to blame yourself for lots of things.
Parent Guilt, Mealtime Stress, and How to Let Go(23:56.63)
I mean, I still do it all the time too, but it's, you know, parent guilt is real. Mum guilt is horrible. And we do it to ourselves. We continue to do it to ourselves. But I really want you to know that your child's restricted eating habits is not your fault. And as much as you want them to improve their diet and will do anything to improve their nutrition, you can support them. You can set everything up.
But you can't make them eat it. And so you need to accept that this is a collab where you set up the feeding environment and you do everything you can to encourage, well, not to encourage them to eat, cause you definitely don't want to be talking about food and pressuring them to eat. You set up the environment, know, the structure, routine and whatnot to set up the feeding ecosystem to be conducive to them expanding their intake. And this is a lot of what I talk about in my Fussy Eating Program for three-week feeding kids reset.
But at the end of the day, the buck stops with them. Feeding difficulties in neurodivergent children can be the result of developmental difficulties as well. It could be oromotor challenges, the fact that they can't move or coordinate their mouth and tongue muscles as effectively as they would like. Therefore they might find chewing and swallowing more challenging, especially certain textures. And as I said, sensory hypersensitivities around feeding in neurodivergent children
can mean that some foods are completely and absolutely out of discussion. You're off the table. There is no way of even getting them to consider trying that food. And because we feel so guilty or parents can feel so guilty and I certainly, I felt this too when my child was fussy. He feels so guilty about what they're eating, what they're missing out on, what they're not eating, that it makes you then feel more anxious at meal times to try to get them to eat the healthy food.
because you know that they're not getting everything that they need. And then that anxiety around meal times can then lead to a lot of encouragement to eat. And then that increases the child's anxiety. It increases pressure without even realizing we're pressuring them. And that will absolutely go against everything that that child needs to try to increase their intake of food is actually going to push them away, further away from trying that food that it
Gut Health and the Neurodivergent Child (26:22.926)
Increased anxiety is just going to make them put up a wall and be completely out of the meal time. And it might mean that they actually refuse foods that they have previously eaten because they are just too anxious. It's just too much. It's overwhelming for them. Okay. Moving on to my fifth truth. And I have already said this throughout some of my other truths, but I wanted to make it its own entity as well, because it is very much its own entity and needs to be, you know,
A light needs to be shone on it. That nutrition in relation to gut health is absolutely critical. And I hope, and I'm sure that moving forwards in the, you know, five, 10 years to come, that more and more of a focus will be placed on gut health, especially in relation to neurodivergence. It has to be, it must be. I mean,
There's all these studies now linking, you know, increased risk of anxiety and depression or not risk, but actual increased anxiety and depression in people with poorer gut health. You know, there is a reason why they are doing fecal transplantation, taking the poo from a healthy individual and transplanting it into the gut of an unhealthy individual that may have a disease or some sort of illness.
And that person who has been sick dramatically improves because the microbiome is improved. It completely changes the microbial space of, or I should say the microbial communities of the person who was sick. We know that overweight people, unhealthy people have a poorer microbiome compared to healthy weight people or people who are of healthier status. So they're generally a healthier individual. We know that microbiome is directly linked to so many things that
And especially in the neurodivergent space, we know that microbiome is important. So we need to place a huge emphasis on everything that will improve your child's gut health and improve the production of, you know, the neurotransmitters, serotonin and dopamine, which influence mood, concentration and behavior. So there needs to be a focus on the nutrients that will support gut health.
Specialized Dietary Strategies for Neurodivergent Kids (28:42.718)
And that's obviously part of my plan when I consult with families who have neurodivergent children. It's a holistic plan and it needs to be holistic. Because when the child's nutrition and gut health is optimized, not only do they perhaps grow better, but they have better sleep, they have better attention, they have better social interaction. Everything is better and it's very noticeable for the parents and it's wonderful. Okay, moving on to number seven.
Specialized dietary strategies do make a difference. And this is where you really need to find the right professional for your child. You really need to find someone who is experienced in this space because they won't just give you the cookie cutter advice. They will give you specific targeted advice based on what your child needs. You need someone who is at the cutting edge of what is going on.
Not just preaching what they learn at university. And that's why I'm always scouring the literature. And it's actually quite helpful too, because often I'm asked to give talks or do TV segments. And it always means that I stay up to date and across all the latest literature. Sorry, I'm starting to lose my voice here. And by literature, mean the studies, the studies around nutrition and health.
So whether it's effective strategies such as food chaining or texture progression, visual support, supplement support, elimination diet, there's plenty that we can do, but you need to know what the right approach is and you can't know what the right approach is until you've fully assessed that child. And not necessarily, you know, by touching and looking at them, but looking at their overall picture. And that's what I get when I take a really detailed history from the parents.
So the message is very simple. It's definitely no one size fits all approach. It needs to be personalized nutrition strategies tailored to your child, your child's history, where they've come from and also your family as well, because every family unit is different. Sometimes we have parents that are together. Sometimes we have parents that have been separated or it's a blended family. Sometimes parents are working both full time. Sometimes we have stay at home parents. There's all these different.
How Better Nutrition Transforms Daily Life for Neurodivergent Kids (31:01.774)
Beautiful different scenarios of families and needs to work for that family as well. So not only does the strategy need to work for the child, it needs to also work for the family because they're the ones implementing it. But when you get it right, it can be truly transformative. And that's why I love what I do. I love helping families because when you see the improvement that can happen, it's just magical. Okay. Number seven, again, I've already talked about it, weave this through, but again, needs to be, you know, a standalone.
point that improved nutrition means improved daily living across the board. And as I said, when you can improve your child's nutrition and their gut health, they're sick less often, they can go to more therapy sessions, they can engage in life in a better way, in a more connected, meaningful way. They learn better, they focus better. It improves everything. So we really need to make nutrition a focus.
because then they're suddenly sleeping better and engaging better in school and engaging better with peers and you're getting stronger and learning new skills. Having less behavioral outbursts and better mood in general, which would be amazing. They'll have fewer behavioral outbursts or tantrums and have a better mood in general, which is amazing. It really helps them to truly thrive.
Which is really at the end of the day, what we're all about. We really want children to live their best life. No matter what their starting point or their diagnosis or their challenges are, we just want to support children to live their best life. So there are my seven truths about feeding neurodivergent children and why the fussy eating approaches that you may see online, on the web, wherever you see them on TikTok or YouTube. You can't.
apply those standard fussy eating approaches. Well, sometimes I don't even believe you can apply them to regular fussy eaters. As I said, as well, I've got my own approach and I teach my own approach inside my own fussy eating program, the three week feeding kids reset, which if you want to know more, by the way, you can head to my website nourishwithkarina.com forward slash programs and guides. And if you head to that link, you will see everything that you can learn from me and pick up tips and quick wins from me.
Supporting Our Kids to Live Their Best Lives (33:21.486)
And that's where you'll find my fast eating program, which truly addresses that whole feeding ecosystem and will help you move your child to a place of expanded nutrient intake and will help you move your child to a place of expanded variety and improved nutrition and reduce the stress and the emotion around meal times and food refusal because goodness knows it's stressful for us parents.
So if you've got any questions or you want to chat more with me, then as I said, please reach out to me, send me a message on the gram or email me hello at nourishwithkarina.com. Always happy to chat and learn about how we can support your child more. Whether you have a neurodivergent child or not, it's important that we address feeding concerns of parents and improve the nutrition of all our children so that our next generation can be as healthy as possible.
and live their best lives and that's what I want for my kids and for your kids. So I wish you beautiful week and I look forward to chatting with you soon. Bye for now.