Is picky eating advice failing your fussy eater?

You’re not the problem. Your child is not the problem. It could be that it’s more than picky eating.

Hi I’m Kate, a Certified Practicing Nutritionist (registered with AARPN) who lives with ARFID (avoidant restrictive food intake disorder).

ARFID is characterised by challenges obtaining adequate nutrition due to low appetite, sensory sensitivities, fear of adverse consequences and/or eating being perceived as a threat by the nervous system.

It’s also complicated by judgement and picky eating strategies that can often make things worse.

‘They’ll eat when they’re hungry’

‘You’re accommodating them too much’

‘You need to keep exposing them to different foods’

If you are sick of this advice failing your family, you have come to the right place.

As a certified practicing nutritionist living with ARFID I’m on a mission to support those with ARFID.

About me

I was the highly sensitive but easy-going, people-pleasing classic eldest daughter.

At 14 months my mum wrote in her diary:

·       ‘Kate is a small eater & causes a lot of concern for her Nana. She has always been on the 95th percentile for height & about average for weight. Now she has dropped below this average weight but as she is developing normally I’ve been told not to worry (except by nana but she worries enough for all of us). Her favourite foods include grapes, strawberries, yoghurt, toast with peanut butter, chicken cacciatore, eggs and the occasional treat like pizza/McDonald’s fries always are well received.’

As a child I often despised eating. I often wished it wasn’t something we had to do so many times a day. I also found the world a very confusing & chaotic place, so I did what I do best - I studied hard to understand what was expected of me, how to talk to other people, and that so many deep topics were considered ‘over-sharing’.

At 5 years old I attended daycare with my brother. This is my first memory of feeling different around food. Daycare provided food but we took our own peanut butter sandwiches every single day.

At 6 I started school and unfortunately none of my preferred foods were lunchbox friendly. I would often try to sneakily throw out my lunch, because I knew I would disappoint people if I didn’t eat it. I compensated a lot by eating after school once I was home.

By high school my ‘anxiety’ (undiagnosed autism, ADHD, OCD) was in full bloom. But I was still bright and nice to everyone, so my struggles went largely unnoticed. The list of foods I ate was still limited and I struggled with things to take in a lunch box.

I know at one point my lunch was simply a handful of almonds. At other times my mum would prepare me warm pasta with butter in a thermos to take to school.

By age 15 I was in my doctor’s office seeking help. I didn’t understand my mood swings and honestly felt like I might’ve had bipolar disorder. Years later when my family doctors retired I would read in their notes

‘Kate tends to excessive worry’.

My desire to help people and my fascination with the human body has always been there. At 14 I began 10 years of volunteering with St John Ambulance, learning first aid skills and serving the community. It’s also where I began teaching - I became a cadet leader as an adult and had children of all age ranges to teach.

After high school I decided to pursue a double degree in nursing and paramedics. I could say this was my special interest and that is true, but in all honesty I was following a friend who I’d been romantically interested in for a couple of years.

I did enjoy my nursing and paramedic degree but it was a lot. I honestly think i only managed to complete the degree because I was still living at home. At this point my eating was a struggle in a different way - I felt like I needed to eat every 2 hours. I didn’t know it at the time but it was because most of my preferred foods were processed and carbohydrate rich, lacking the calories, fibre and protein I needed to keep going all day.

Towards the end of my nursing degree I developed a wider interest in nutrition & holistic health, mostly because I was desperate to not be full of anxiety and the acne I’d been dealing with for 8 years at this point.

I was too close to finishing my double degree and landing a nursing job to switch to the nutrition degree of my dreams (at least that’s what I thought, might’ve saved myself 9 years in the process) so I started my graduate year.

Within two and a half years of finishing my nursing degree, I was enrolled in my Bachelor of Health Science (Nutrition & Dietetic Medicine). And I loved it.

Ok we are pretending to type for Amanda and fdo do do banana boath hfgdfg dfgdfgdfdfdf ggfgb g11 /26