3. No one has to eat.

Child-led feeding therapy challenges everything most of us have learned about eating and relationships with food-we don’t bribe and we don’t force feed. Imagine how stressed you would feel if you walked into an appointment with your doctor and they demanded that you eat 5 live bugs before they would allow you to leave! Yes, this seems like an extreme example. However, one of the most important parts of helping our clients learn to eat is understanding that eating a new or non-preferred food feels just as intimidating to them as a plate full of bugs would feel to us. We strive to treat all of our clients with respect, which also means recognizing and respecting when they tell us “no, I don’t feel safe eating that yet” (either through words or body language). If we introduce new foods through play activities without the pressure of eating them right away, our clients have time to comfortably and safely explore foods through other methods. They can learn how the food smells, how it feels, and how it looks on the outside and on the inside through play activities that do not require the child to eat the food. Eliminating the demand to eat helps reduce the stress response many children have when they are presented with new foods-and the child is often more likely to initiate trying the food on their own. Sustainable, real progress in feeding therapy usually comes slowly. But when a child has time and space to explore new foods safely without being forced, they will often keep new foods in their diets and continue progressing the skills they gained in feeding therapy even after discharge.