Why Neurodiversity Affirming Nutrition Care is KEY

What is neurodiversity-affirming nutrition care?

Neurodiversity is a growing human movement and paradigm shift that focuses on including, accepting, and celebrating diversity in the human brain. This includes things like social interactions and relationships, learning, attention, mood, and other mental functions.

Being ‘neurodivergent’ simply means having a mind that functions in ways that ‘diverge’ significantly from the social norms. Often, neurodivergence comes with a divergent relationship to food and how mood, attention, and sensory experiences affect food choices.

Neurodiversity-affirming nutrition care means that dietitians and teams are focused on inclusion, acceptance, and celebrating differences and unique strengths. When nutrition care is provided through a neurodiversity lens, the dietitian asks important questions like: How are meals or food experiences going for this child and caregivers’ brain or nervous systems? Are they feeling safe, calm, and curious, or agitated, avoidant, and anxious? How is this affecting their ability to intake the variety and volume needed to get the nutrients their brain and bodies require to function, grow and thrive?

The experiences a child has around all foods, from early infancy onward, set the stage for them to experience safety, enjoyment, and a healthy relationship to food- or not. Medical or physical experiences including sensory, brain, and nervous system differences or disability often set the stage for a child’s attachment style to food to be anxious or avoidant. This can lead to a higher need for food to feel safe and the same, for them to be independent or more in control, and may result in restriction and very specific needs and demands. It may also result in behaviors and communication patterns that feel demanding and stressful for caregivers.

Having empathy and compassion for the child’s lived experience sets the stage for a unique nutrition prescription and care plan. Focusing on neurodiversity allows families to take real action steps towards better health for the child and the family as a whole. It allows caregivers to look at the bigger picture, and figure out how to best communicate and connect. They have greater clarity and trust around when to step back and let their child lead.

Neurodiversity-affirming nutrition care engages child-centered awareness and empowers caregivers to provide more ‘felt safety’ food experiences for their child versus pressure or manipulation tactics. It allows for more creative, flexible options so families can break free from food and nutrition ‘rules’ that don’t seem to be working. Neurodiversity-affirming nutrition care is for kids and caregivers early on in their journey, or have ‘tried everything’ and need a different approach.

Questions to ponder

• Have you considered if you or your child is neurodivergent? If so, in what ways do you find it relates to food choices and eating?
• What is your child’s unique food story? Discuss, ponder, or journal about this…
• How are they telling you their side of the story? Think words, tone, actions, repetitive behaviors, body language, food choices…

References

Naureen Hunani, 2023, Inclusive Approaches to Feeding Difficulties,
https://www.rdsforneurodiversity.com