While we are spending the summer looking at strategies to prepare your child with eating & drinking difficulties for starting school, I thought it would be important to talk about consistency.
You’ll have heard the phrase, consistency is key. I promise it’s more than a cliché, especially when we are thinking about feeding therapy.
There are lots of fun things about feeding therapy; exploring new foods, messy food play, turning the supermarket shop into a game etc etc. but there are some strategies (the ones that are for the meal table) that crave consistency to work. Feeding therapy strategies at the meal table need repetition and a consistent approach day–to–day, meal–to–meal to be effective (I promise!). On paper, as a Therapist, this can seem quite straightforward ‘here are 3 strategies, keep doing the same thing over and over again’. These are the strategies surprisingly that many parents and carers find the most difficult to keep up with. Why?
My guess is that we all, consciously or subconsciously, believe ‘variety is the spice of life’, not here its not, sorry. I get it. You make some food, it goes on the floor, repeat. It would be understandable to think your child doesn’t like it so you offer something else. Did you know children need to learn EVERYTHING?! So seeing something once or even just a couple of times, when they’re already feeling nervous, apprehensive, frustrated isn’t going to motivate them to want to eat it.
Here's the science bit: Our brain is wired to crave consistency. When two or more cognitive structures are inconsistent, this creates arousal which is interpreted as aversive. This prompts our brain to seek out consistency (Von Kampen, 2019).
There are loads of cognitive structures going on at a meal time - motor (sitting, using cutlery, chewing for example) sensory (processing sight, smell, tastes), memory (remembering what to do and how to do it, past experiences with those foods), language & speech (social interactions, expressing needs), all competing for space. If you're already finding mealtime a challenge, these will be heightened and increase aversion, prompting your child to seek what's familiar or consistent; beige foods, same place at the table, same plate. Or they might become avoidant altogether.
What do we mean by implementing consistency?
Taking a consistent approach is another way of saying repeat the same approach every day, in exactly the same way, until you start to see a shift in behaviour towards the desired outcome. This could be a few days, months and in some cases - years. Giving up too soon can have an adverse effect and undo all your hard work.
When you are being consistent your child will start to experience the following:
Trust & predictability – puts them at ease, they know what to expect and so are less apprehensive or even motivated to engage with meal time.
Learning and mastery - your child can take in the same information time and again, helping them to learn what is required at meal times and master those skills so they become second nature
Neural connections - consistency could help to rewire the brain away from the fear and towards the pleasure of mealtime by knowing what to expect; no more fear of the unknown. Also, rewiring the sensory processing system, lots of consistent exposure quietens the fight, flight or freeze mode and helps your child relax at mealtimes.
Skill development – practice practice practice. Children benefit from being able to practice eating and exploring new and familiar foods repeatedly, from a sensory and motor perspective. They will only feel willing and able to explore their skill development when they are desensitized from the consistency.
If you feel you've been definition consistent for a while now and you still feel like you're not getting anywhere, please don't hesitate to get in touch! We can analyse what you're doing and make some further changes. I promise there is always something that can be tried!
Take care x
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