Episode Details

What's just one thing parents can do to help a child who is restricting what they eat? In this episode of Just One Thing for Parents, I'm joined by Yaara Shimshoni, clinical psychologist and assistant professor at Yale School of Medicine. Yaara has extensive experience training, supervising and treating families using SPACE (Supportive Parenting for Anxious Childhood Emotions), and she has recently adapted this approach to ARFID, or avoidant restrictive food intake disorder. 
Together, we explore why mealtimes can become such a battleground, and why the instinct to keep the peace can, over time, make things harder rather than easier.

Yaara explains the difference between the normal fussy eating that so many toddlers go through and the more significant restriction that starts to affect a child's growth, health or daily life. We talk about all the things parents understandably do to help a child feel less distress in the moment, from making separate meals to buying one particular brand, and why these short-term fixes can reinforce a child's fears in the long run.

For any parent who dreads mealtimes or worries they are getting it wrong, this episode offers a compassionate, science-based way to step back, ease the pressure, and focus on what is genuinely within your control.

You can find out more about Yaara Shimshoni's book here: https://global.oup.com/academic/product/breaking-free-of-picky-eating-9780197769447