Why work on fussy eating before food sensitivities?

‘We have to get her off gluten and dairy…but I don’t know how’, ‘I suspect she doesn’t do dairy well, but she loves it so much, I just couldn’t’, ‘It is SO stressful trying to get my children to have their chicken broth, when I know they need it, but they won’t’.

Sound familiar?

Well dedicated parents, this is how I have come to realise that specialised diets are only as good as the child is eating the foods.  Agree?

I go as far to say to families, ‘What if…. we worked on supporting your child to be an adventurous eater and having great options of foods in their repertoire.  What if they were eating veges, soups, broth, kraut and trying pretty much anything?  Would that make it really easy to fathom trying out a particular diet?  Be it removing say dairy or gluten or trying Paleo or even the GAPS diet?’.

How can we avoid stress in these situations?

Here are a few things I know, from working with my own children and the families I work with:

• Eliminating foods is really Bring in a fussy eater and even more so.
• When you have hunger at stake, you can’t afford to be trialing new diets if your child isn’t really on board
• By gradually working on creating a healthy, adventurous eater, you allow your child to warm up to the new foods without stress. And you of course pick up many wins, just by bringing in healthier foods for them.
• When you’re not stressed and your child isn’t, you get naturally more success with the new foods.
• It takes time. Sometimes, yes, you just have to rip the bandaid off and get straight into that specialised diet.  I did with gluten, dairy, additives, sugar, corn, soy and even some meat/fruit/veg with my son.  But in reality, we perfected this, plus many other changes to our diet over years.
• You do not have to do this perfectly. As long as we chip away at make positive changes and keeping our end goal in sight, we get there.  By trying to do too much at once, it erodes at our own health, with the stress of it all.
• And no, sometimes, say with allergies or just knowing your child needs to be off some foods, you do have to make the quicker switch.  But with something like GAPS or Paleo or FODMAPS or even an anti-candida diet, we can do the slow unwind.

Getting there slowly but surely

What about if I said:

• “With your goal of a Paleo diet…. what about if you planned to remove sugar, gluten and dairy over the next 3 months? Do you think you could manage it?  And then what if you removed other grains slowly over the next 3-6 months?  All the while, making small changes, like the oils that you use and weighing up if your child is ready for fermented foods?  Does that sound plausible, compared with pulling off a Paleo diet by the end of the month?”
• “With your goal of trialling dairy-free…. what about if you started to introduce some almond milk, say mixed with dairy to begin with and gradually fading out the dairy, over the next 2 weeks? And then what about if I showed you how to make coconut yoghurt and you started adding a bit into your little one’s dairy yoghurt, until it was all coconut?  Could you fathom that over the next 2 weeks?  And then by the end of the month, I’ll give you some ideas on dairy-free snacks so you can trial what your little one likes?  Before you know it, you are virtually dairy-free without any stress?”
• “So with your goal of going on a GAPS diet… What if we worked at moving towards a Paleo diet over the next 6 months, with my steps above? Would you fathom that?  And then what if we introduce broth and any other foods your child is not so keen on, before you start GAPS?  Would that be less stressful?…but still keeping your end goal firm in your mind?”

So having gone through the stress of pulling off a quick removal of a pile of foods AND also doing the slow unwind towards say Paleo or an anti-candida diet (removing sugars and grains), I definitely know which way is easier!

But how do I get them to eat it?

I am well aware though, that you do need to have some very good skills in enticing your child onto new foods.  And this is what I offer to parents, my fussy eater roadmap, where we strategically work on the next best foods to introduce to your child, that will most likely give you success – whilst keeping that important end goal in mind!