ARFID Treatment in San Diego

Rather than starting with exposure work or forcing a child or adult to eat certain foods in certain ways, we take a deeper dive into the nuance of eating and feeding with you, the parent, at the center of the team. If you’re an adult with an ARFID diagnosis, you can expect our team to be responsive to your unique needs. You will stay in the “driver seat” at all times.

Our first step is supporting you and/or your family with establishing more calm and less chaos around food. We have many ways of introducing grounding techniques and reworking routines so that mealtimes have less anxiety and more connection. We utilize the STEPS+ approach.

We understand and embrace the fact that each child has their own abilities and neurological tendencies that make them who they are. While we establish common goals of treatment we stay open to the fact that each child’s outcome to treatment will be just as unique as they are. We attempt to acknowledge our own privileges and lived experiences that may create agendas for what a child is “supposed to do” with food and seek ways to adjust methods and recommendations that honor abilities while improving the eating experience. As a team we also pursue continuing education opportunities from those with professional and lived experiences that can offer valuable insight.

Depending on the age of your child and their experiences, we may recommend that we work only with the parents for a portion of the nutrition therapy process. A large part of our family feeding process rests in providing parents with the support and tools they need to feel calm and confident with feeding their child/family and having a safe place to discuss their challenges, concerns, stressors, etc… Parents implement the treatment so it often makes sense to primarily work one to one with parents and caregivers. Again, this will depend on the age of your child and what you’re seeking support for.