The senses of hearing, smelling, vision, taste and touch are crucial for affecting the way that people live and react to their surroundings. Your senses guide you to make countless decisions each day, from what to wear because of hot temperatures to turning off a bright light in a room. Foods naturally affect the senses because of their many different flavors, textures and aromas. For the person with sensory integration disorder, food can cause difficulty with eating or even food avoidance that can lead to nutritional deficiencies.
Identifying Sensory Integration Disorder
Sensory integration is the process of taking in information through the body's senses. This information about the environment is processed in the brain, which helps you to make decisions. The person with sensory integration disorder is able to use his senses to take in sights, smells, textures and sounds, but this information is interrupted or becomes disorganized, causing difficulties with how the brain processes it. Children with sensory integration disorder may have difficulties adjusting to their environments. They may be over- or under-stimulated, they may seek stimulation through rapid or repetitive movements or they may be hypervigilant to their surroundings. These coping mechanisms affect their behavior, causing problems with attention, activity, sleeping and eating.
Problem Foods
For the person with sensory integration disorder, food can be a challenge, because he may be uncomfortable with the many senses that are affected by a plate of food in front of him. For example, a child may avoid eating any kind of citrus fruit because of the textures of the peels, the segment membranes and the acidic taste. Other types of foods that may cause problems include stringy foods, such as celery, lettuce or some kinds of meat and foods that have skins, such as potatoes. Although these foods affect the senses while eating, almost any food can cause difficulties for the person with sensory integration disorder.
Nutrition
Kelly Dorfman, MS, of Developmental Delay Resources states that some children with sensory integration disorder may have poor nutrition because they avoid certain foods or the rigid demands of eating only the same foods. For example, a child may only want to eat foods that are soft, such as pasta, soft cheese and white bread. Grain husks sometimes found in bread may be too distracting and the child may avoid other crunchy foods at all costs. This diet cuts out many of the vitamins and minerals found in whole grains, fruits and vegetables. Instead, the child's diet may consist of starchy, processed foods that are high in carbohydrates but low in other essential nutrients. Parents of children with sensory integration disorder may need to develop creative ways of getting other types of foods into meals.
Encouraging New Foods
Parents of children with sensory integration disorder may encourage new foods or introduce new items by being creative with presentation. By slowly presenting foods that have different textures, colors or smells into a child's diet, parents may be able to increase the types of foods their children are willing to eat. For example, to encourage a child to eat foods that may have a stringy consistency, allow her to play with stringy, non-food items before eating, such as yarn or ribbons. Then, introduce a couple of stringy foods, such as spaghetti or string cheese and give her a chance to try them.
