Our post last week discussed strategies about how to take a child with special needs shopping without meltdowns. In this week’s post, we continue with this series and discuss strategies on the best way to take a child with special needs to a restaurant without a meltdown.
 
For a child with special needs, going to a restaurant can cause sensory challenges and aversions, making it difficult for the child and their family to go out to eat. These sensory challenges and aversions can also cause the child to have a meltdown in the restaurant which can cause embarrassment for the family which may, unfortunately, prevent the family from going out to eat again.  There can be numerous reasons why a child may have sensory aversions in a restaurant – including the type of food, the smell of food, the lightning, the amount of noise, and the number of people in the restaurant.
 
To make the process of going out to eat at a restaurant smooth and without aversion for a child with sensory needs and their family, try the following:

• Look at the menu ahead of time 

What type of food does the restaurant provide? Can you pick out specific foods with your child ahead of time that your child would like to eat? This will also help your child become excited about going out to eat which can help decrease any aversion once they are at the restaurant.

• Do some research about the restaurant ahead of time (online search, Yelp, etc.)

Look at things such as is the restaurant child-friendly? Does the restaurant have food options for any family members that may have food allergies? When is the restaurant most typically busy, and does your family want to try and avoid going to the restaurant during these busy times? 

• Bring sensory calming items for your child to the restaurant

Bring things like a Wilbarger brush, hand fidgets, calming bottles, etc. to help your child calm if they start to get sensory overwhelmed. In addition, doing some heavy work ahead of time (wall pushes against the car, jumping jacks, etc.) or giving your child a deep hug can help your child calm and prepare for going into the restaurant.

• Discuss what will happen ahead of time if your child has a meltdown

Have a game plan with your family about what will happen if your child has a meltdown during the meal. Will one family member provide sensory strategies to help the child calm? Will one family member take the child outside to give them a break? By having these discussions ahead of time, it makes it easier to respond in these situations when they happen.

Do these strategies work for you and your family to help prevent meltdowns when going to a restaurant? Are there any additional strategies​ you and your family use to make going out to eat go smoothly? Email me at blog@goflowoccupationaltherapy.com

See you soon!
Michael Jankowski, MS, OTR/L

There is a lot of information about this topic, and my hope is that I can provide you with some simple and easy to digest (no pun intended☺) information for you and your family. 

Food is fun! – Make mealtime an extension of playtime: cookie cutters, toothpicks, chopsticks, and kid safe knives. 
     
Get kids involved with cooking – Let kids help out with cooking and meal prep:  Stirring, measuring out ingredients, and retrieving foods from fridge or pantry are a great way to get kids involved.
     
Don’t label food as “good” or “bad” – If certain foods are labeled as “bad”, that makes them that much more interesting to a kid.  For example, cookies are foods that we sometimes eat, not rewards for cleaning our dinner plate or behaving at school. 
     
Lead by example – If our children see us eating healthy foods, that will mean a lot more to them than lectures about eating veggies. We can also let our children learn by seeing how we bounce back when we don’t eat healthy. It’s ok if we make mistakes with our own food and eating habits, the important thing is to try and learn from the mistakes, so we don’t keep repeating them.
     
Encourage intuitive and intentional eating – Encourage children to listen to their bodies. For example, if a child eats past the point of being full, we can ask them simple questions such as: how are you feeling? are you tired? etc. Let kids start to listen to and understand their hunger and full cues. We are working on teaching our children to listen to their bodies, and not feel guilty if they occasionally eat unhealthily.
     
Eat together without distractions – Eat meals together at a consistent time and start to incorporate a routine of discussing everyone’s day or asking what everyone’s “high and low” of the day was – this is a great bonding experience. Try to avoid distractions like phones, TVs, or Tablets. Allowing screen time during meals makes it hard to establish good eating habits.  Children are more likely to eat quickly and eat past the point of being full when they are distracted by screens.
 
Contact blog@goflowoccupationaltherapy.com to share any strategies you find that work well for your child. 
 
See you soon!
Michael Jankowski, MS, OTR/L