S/O ARFID support and help

[Anonymous]

Spin off from the kid/wife/picky eating thread. We are heading toward this diagnosis. Would appreciate Andy therapist rec or eating centers around the DC area. Any advice or suggestions would be so helpful. Thanks in advance.

[Anonymous]

We talked to both Children's and KKI. Neither had supports that I thought appropriate (Children's seemed to take a anorexia/body image approach that wasn't appropriate and KKI took an ABA/forced eating approach that I wasn't comfortable with). We focused on anxiety treatment (meds and therapy), which helped.

[Anonymous]

I also wasn’t comfortable with KKI’s approach. We did a year of OT at age four but made little progress and the little he made didn’t last.

Got an ADHD diagnosis later.

[Anonymous]

Anyone treat at home? It really seems like slow exposure. But who knows! Arfid is so “new” in terms of knowledge.

[Anonymous]

Find an SLP (or OT) trained in the SOS approach to feeding.

[Anonymous]

I'm the PP. On the SOS website there is a place to put in your zip code to find a trained professional.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Find an SLP (or OT) trained in the SOS approach to feeding.

Did this actually work for you? I know several people who have tried it, but none saw long term changes.

[Anonymous]

ARFID parent here- it’s a long road. How old is your kid? My answer depends. After 8 the recommendation is for CBT rather than feeding therapy. My child received their official diagnosis from a developmental pediatrician at KKI at 6 or so but we did our therapy elsewhere.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm the PP. On the SOS website there is a place to put in your zip code to find a trained professional.

Tried it over a summer and it sounded amazing but no results (long OR short term)

[Anonymous]

In Baltimore, Mt Washington Pediatric Hospital’s feeding clinic was a game changer for my child. SOS approach.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:ARFID parent here- it’s a long road. How old is your kid? My answer depends. After 8 the recommendation is for CBT rather than feeding therapy. My child received their official diagnosis from a developmental pediatrician at KKI at 6 or so but we did our therapy elsewhere.

My DD sees someone at Childrens for this, and also told CBT after 8 (she’s 10). DD was doing CBT for other issues and added in trying new foods. CBT with a private provider.

DD did try new foods with therapist but it’s hard for her to eat more than one bite.

It’s a long road, though, and progress is slow. We have been working on this since DD was 6, and I no longer think there is any silver bullet which will fix it. DD has tried feeding therapy, have worked with a nutrition, every approach to eating, and nothing really moves the needle.

We celebrate small successes and I work with DD (and her therapist) to set concrete goals and work on them for months. Last year DD started eating rice, and this year hamburgers. Both of those were huge since before dinner had to be plain pasta (90% of the time), grilled cheese, or (rarely) chicken nuggets. She only eats 2 brands of pizza.

[Anonymous]

Wow! Hamburger and pizza are awesome! Congrats. Thanks for sharing your story.

[Anonymous]

Pp who is an ARFID parent here. Agree it is a long and slow process. The best thing for my kid was to take the pressure off completely. My kids therapist does a lot of work around lower anxiety in general and also understanding how their body physically reacts to anxiety.but a lot of it is us as a family chipping away at it every day. My kid wishes they ate better so we basically try to find ways to make challenges small enough they can manage it. Look into food chaining. My kid now eats pasta from anywhere, a lot of Mac n cheeses and many chicken nuggets. Sounds crappy but that allows us to go to a lot of restaurants. We do so many different approaches. Baking treats together, picking fruit at an orchard, anything and everything.

[Anonymous]

My AFRID kid is a teenager and sees a therapist from The Eating Disorder Center. It is a slow road but a big part of it has been acknowledging that this is a disorder kid can't help, and that it isn't kid's fault or parent's fault. There's so much shame in ARFID because of all the judgement received by other parents and kids. Coaching the kid on how to handle this has been a big part of dealing with it.

My kid is physically healthy (miraculously), which takes a little bit of stress off. What I've heard is that kids get motivated to expand their safe foods when they hit college because of desire to take part in social eating. I hope this is the case for my kid. Kid also has ADHD and had traumatizing choking experience as a five year old which seems to have been the inciting event.

[Anonymous]

What do others do at birthday parties and family functions? Having an Arfid eater goes against everything you want your child to be like — ie serving them only what they can eat.