My Son Only Ate Three Foods - Eating and Pathological Demand Avoidance Part 1 | Ep. 158
About this episode
Casey shares her personal journey with her son Cooper's eating struggles and the insights gained from understanding pathological demand avoidance.
If your child has dropped food after food, won't try new things no matter what you do, and every mealtime feels like a battle — this episode is the first in a four-part series where I get personal. I'm sharing the story of my oldest son Cooper, who at his lowest point was eating only Honey Nut Cheerios out of a single specific bowl. I walked through grocery store aisles sobbing, frantically looking for protein bars he might eat. I watched him go through the SOS feeding protocol in occupational therapy and add foods only to drop them again. I tried sneaking vitamins into his chocolate milk. Nothing was gaining traction — and I didn't understand why. In this first episode, I walk you through the years before I had a PDA lens: my own food-focused parenting, the Montessori methods I tried that he refused, the escalating meltdowns around eating, the developmental pediatrician who shamed me for not cooking every meal from scratch, and the moment I finally understood that the root cause of Cooper's eating struggles was not primarily sensory — it was autonomy and equality based. I also talk about what happened when I stopped the SOS feeding protocol, lowered demands around food, and gave…
People in this episode
Host: Casey
Topics covered
- eating struggles
- pathological demand avoidance
- parenting challenges
- food autonomy
- feeding therapy
- child development
Keywords
- eating
- food refusal
- parenting
- PDA
- ARFID
- occupational therapy
- feeding protocol
- autonomy
- childhood nutrition
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: Montessori, SOS feeding protocol, occupational therapy, ARFID, anorexia
More episodes of At Peace Parents Podcast
- What Occupational Therapists Need to Know: Restrictive Eating and Pathological Demand Avoidance Part 4 | Ep. 161
- 10 Misconceptions About Eating And Pathological Demand Avoidance Part 2 l Ep. 159
- Getting Husband and Parents On Board with Pathological Demand Avoidance | Ep. 157
- What Radical Acceptance Actually Looks Like for Pathological Demand Avoidance Parents | Ep. 156
- Raising Twin Pathologically Demand Avoidant Boys: Socialization, Therapeutic Equalizing, and the Long Game | Ep. 155
- Ep. 154 - Entrepreneurship and Pathological Demand Avoidance
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