Carers of special needs people understand the burden of responsibility and worry that comes with looking after them and providing that extra care. Often our own children, or other loved ones, may be the picky eaters that only want the ‘white diet’ foods – that is, white rice, white bread, white pasta – which can worry us, as carers, sick over whether they’re eating well enough or getting adequate nutrition. On top of that, mealtimes can be an ordeal in themselves, with refusals to eat, or try new foods and even tantrums.
You see, it’s something that I understand from personal experience; my younger son has special needs – he lives with autism and intellectual disability. My wife and I have been through the eating issues, the food sufficiency worries and the mealtime stalemates, and continue to live with the challenges of ensuring his nutrition is good enough. It is something that you can get through too, though, with persistence, patience and quality support from someone who gets it. After nearly 20 years, we’ve come to understand what works with our son, and what a good approach looks like in practice. Combined with Glowing Health Nutrition’s scientific method, there is experience and diligence to apply to how we can work with your special person.
Here’s some of the facts about our special needs people in Australia. About 17.7% of us live with a disability, split approximately as 77% with physical disabilities and 23% with mental or behavioural disabilities. Of those people with mental or behavioural conditions, around 6.5% live with intellectual or developmental disorders. Drilling down further, it’s estimated that almost 354,000 people, or around 1.4% of all Australians, are on the autism spectrum, and many of those may also live with ADHD.
Nutritionally, the outward display of the disabilities of our special needs people manifest as concerns around their feeding. In fact, autistic kids are five times more likely to have a feeding issue in general than neurotypical children, and as any carer of an ASD kid knows, they are much more likely to reject a food because of its texture or consistency. These eating refusals seem to increase with increased severity of their condition, as less tends to be eaten of unfamiliar foods, and disruptive mealtime behaviour is greater, in kids with more severe autism. Of concern is that picky eating may increase the risks of specific deficiencies in vitamin D, fibre consumption, vitamin E and calcium, from tending to exclude vegetables but also fruit and other foods.
There’s also some emerging evidence that picky eating may increase the risk of disordered eating or even eating disorders, possibly more in girls, although this is not well understood yet.
All this is not to be negative about living with a special needs person, though, because although mealtimes may be a source of stress for parents, they can also be important occasions, where the family comes together to eat, have family conversations and be a source of ‘family resilience’ helping everyone feel connected and supported.
Although caring for a special needs person can feel overwhelming at times, it does have its own rewards – that special smile that only you get, or the unexpected act of selflessness that leaves you completely in awe. It only makes you want to do even better for them than you already are, and that can mean picking through the nutritional maze of balancing what they will eat and what they need to. Whether you’re going through the picky eating, food refusals or the daily meals conflict, you don’t need to go through it alone. At Glowing Health Nutrition, we listen to your story before offering considered, evidence-based advice, so that together we can build a plan to ease that burden and make mealtimes more agreeable. Our role is to support you through the nutritional issues of your special needs person, so we’re with you on that journey for as long as you need us.
Rick Lapeyre MHNutr., BHSc.(Clin.Nut.)
Principal Nutritionist – Glowing Health Nutrition.
Rick Lapeyre is a highly qualified nutritionist who brings a wealth of skills and experience to the role.
Rick is a member of the Australian Natural Therapists Association (ANTA) member no. 30053. He is also a member of the Nutrition Society of Australia (NSA).
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