Explore our blog that focuses on holistic care for any and all ages - pediatric well-being, pre/post-natal health, and adult vitality.
Are you exhausted from the daily mealtime battles with your picky eater? If you’ve tried hiding vegetables in smoothies, created elaborate reward charts, or found yourself negotiating “just one more bite” at every meal, you’re not alone. As a parent, these struggles can leave you feeling frustrated, worried, and sometimes even like you’re failing.
But what if we told you that your child’s picky eating likely isn’t really about the food at all?
Studies show that up to 22% of children are classified as picky eaters, with 40% remaining picky for two years or longer. While most healthcare providers suggest waiting it out or trying various behavioral approaches, they’re often missing a crucial piece of the puzzle: the nervous system connection.
The truth is, picky eating frequently has less to do with stubbornness or behavior and more to do with an overwhelmed nervous system.
Let us share a story that might sound familiar. Leo’s family faced significant challenges with his eating habits — there were many days when he wouldn’t eat at all. His mom felt completely helpless, especially when their pediatrician kept saying he would “grow out of it.” They tried speech and eating therapy but saw little progress.
Everything changed when they discovered that Leo’s nervous system was overwhelmed. Once they addressed this root cause, Leo’s sensory skills improved dramatically, his meltdowns decreased, and he began eating regularly. He transformed from a struggling picky eater to a thriving, happy toddler.
To understand what leads to picky eating, we need to look deeper at what’s happening neurologically:
Your child’s picky eating likely stems from a neurological state called “sympathetic dominance” — where their nervous system is stuck in a constant “fight or flight” mode. This creates several challenges:
When there’s stress or subluxation in the upper neck and brainstem regions, it creates nervous system imbalance. This leads to heightened sensitivity to food textures, temperatures, and tastes.
What might seem like a normal food texture to you can feel extremely uncomfortable or even painful to your child. That soggy cereal or slightly lumpy yogurt isn’t just unappealing — it might trigger a genuine sensory aversion.
The vagus nerve is crucial as it controls digestion, appetite regulation, and the gut-brain connection. When this nerve isn’t functioning optimally, it disrupts natural eating patterns.
This can cause digestive discomfort, making children associate eating with unpleasant experiences. No wonder they become hesitant at mealtimes!
Proper neural connections affecting the cranial and cervical areas impact chewing and swallowing abilities. When these aren’t working efficiently, children often prefer soft, simple-to-eat foods.
The struggle with certain textures isn’t stubbornness — it’s a physical challenge requiring proper neurological support. When your child says they “can’t” eat something, they might be telling the literal truth.
Now it becomes clear why hiding vegetables, using reward charts, or creating mealtime rules often don’t create lasting change. These approaches focus on behavior modification without addressing the underlying neurological causes.
It’s like trying to teach someone to swim while they’re actively drowning — they can’t learn new skills until they feel safe.
Understanding these neurological connections is the first step toward real, lasting change!
Remember Leo’s story? His transformation didn’t happen overnight, but addressing the root cause — nervous system dysfunction — made all the difference. His mom went from feeling helpless to empowered, and mealtimes transformed from battlegrounds to bonding time.
At Rochester Chiropractic and Wellness we use advanced INSiGHT scanning technology to identify specific areas of nervous system subluxation that might be contributing to your child’s picky eating. Our gentle precise adjustments help restore nervous system function, allowing your child’s natural eating instincts to emerge.
Don’t let another meal end in tears and frustration. With the right support and understanding, your child can develop a healthier relationship with food, and your family can enjoy peaceful mealtimes together.
As a parent, watching your child struggle with chronic health issues can feel like being trapped in an endless maze. You’ve tried everything – special diets, medications, supplements, various therapies – yet the breakthrough you’re desperately seeking remains elusive. If this resonates with you, you’re not alone, and more importantly, there’s hope.
Let me share a story that might sound familiar. Hannah was just 11 years old when her family found themselves at their wit’s end. Diagnosed with psoriatic arthritis, she battled daily with nausea, headaches, digestive issues, chronic fatigue, anxiety, and depression. Her family had explored countless options: special diets, supplements, medications – even chemotherapy. Nothing provided lasting relief, and Hannah had reached such a low point that she felt empty and didn’t want to live anymore.
This scenario plays out all too often for families dealing with various conditions, from Autism and ADHD to Epilepsy, PANS/PANDAS, allergies, and asthma. Parents exhaust both traditional medical routes and alternative therapies, yet their children continue to struggle.
There’s a crucial piece of the healing puzzle that most healthcare practitioners – both traditional and alternative – often overlook entirely.
It’s not about finding the next treatment or therapy; it’s about understanding the proper sequence of healing.
Think of your child’s body like a house. The nervous system is the foundation, developed first in the womb and controlling every other bodily function:
When this foundation is compromised, it’s like building a beautiful house on unstable ground. You can invest in the finest furniture, most advanced security systems, and gorgeous decorations, but if the foundation is cracked, nothing will function as intended.
Three key factors often contribute to nervous system dysfunction:
When we try to address “brain-based” issues without first stabilizing the nervous system, it’s like trying to repair a roof while the foundation is still shifting. This explains why many children show minimal improvement despite trying numerous interventions – we’re working in the wrong order.
The body follows a specific developmental sequence:
This is where neurologically-focused chiropractic care comes in. Unlike traditional medical treatments that might only address symptoms, this approach:
Remember Hannah? Everything changed when she discovered neurologically-focused chiropractic care. After her very first adjustment, she experienced immediate relief – sleeping through the night, feeling less nauseous, and regaining her appetite. Today, she’s not just surviving; she’s thriving.
If you’re feeling exhausted from trying everything without success, have faith that this might just be the missing foundational piece in your child’s healing journey.
At RCW, the journey starts with understanding your child’s unique needs through specialized neurological assessments. These INSiGHT Scans can reveal if nervous system dysregulation might be holding your child back from complete healing, and if so, we can create a personalized path forward.
So often, the breakthrough you’re looking for starts with going back to the foundation and building from there. Your child’s healing journey might not be a straight line, but with the right approach and proper sequence, lasting improvement is absolutely possible.
In the world of neurologically-focused chiropractic care, healing is a process that happens in phases. As neurologically-focused pediatric + family Chiropractors, we emphasize the importance of observing Neurological Soft Signs of Healing early in care. These are the subtle yet critical indicators that show a child’s nervous system is beginning to recover, even before the more obvious changes in behavior or health occur.
While parents may understandably look for major breakthroughs—such as improved speech and communication, reduced seizures, or significant behavioral changes—it’s important to recognize that neurological healing starts with foundational shifts in the body.
Neurologically-focused chiropractic care addresses the root cause of nervous system dysfunction, often caused by subluxation, dysautonomia, or a “Perfect Storm” of early stressors. As the nervous system begins to rebalance, there are several early signs that indicate the body is on the right track.
Want to go deeper on this topic? Listen to this episode on The Experience Miracles Podcast, where Dr. Tony covers the subtle yet critical indicators that show a child’s nervous system is beginning to heal, even before major symptoms improve.
These soft signs are the early and often subtle changes that reflect improved nervous system function. They serve as a key indication that chiropractic adjustments are helping to restore neurological balance and resilience.
Some of the most common Neurological Soft Signs include:
These signs indicate that the central and autonomic nervous systems are starting to reset and reorganize, allowing the body to regulate better. By recognizing these small victories, parents can feel confident that their child is progressing, even if more significant behavioral or brain-based changes take time.
We emphasize that soft signs are part of the process of neurological restoration and a foundation for more noticeable transformations down the road. These initial improvements pave the way for more advanced healing, such as better communication, motor skills, and emotional regulation.
Chiropractic adjustments work to remove the neurological interference caused by subluxation and neurological dysfunction, allowing the brain and body to communicate effectively. When the nervous system is restored and back in balance, the body can begin to heal itself naturally. The soft signs are the body’s way of signaling that it is adapting and regaining function, leading to long-term health improvements.
While most medical and even often holistic providers believe that common neurological conditions like Autism Spectrum Disorder, ADHD, Anxiety, and Epilepsy especially are “brain-based” problems, and therefore all treatments and care options must aggressively and directly target the brain, the truth is most of these conditions have their roots in the body or more “basics” of functions that are thrown off track first.
The motor system, sensory system, digestive system, respiratory system, immune system, and other “bodily basic functions” are essential and foundational to having a healthy brian and overall nervous system function. So true root cause healing of even “brain-based” conditions must actually begin in the “body” and with the “basics” to be more effective, especially in the long term.
This is also why certain treatments or therapies that target brain function first, before the foundational issues of subluxation, nervous system dysregulation, and dysautonomia are addressed often “destabilize” the brain-body connection even further. Many parents report to us that when their children undergo intensive “brain-based” treatments like lasers and primitive reflex integration early on in the healing process, things like sleep, sensory issues, motor tics, and seizures often get worse not better.
This conversation of properly “sequencing” various care options and healing modalities is perhaps the most important conversation we can have with parents today. Where information and access to various options (awesomely) is at an all time high.
It’s very important that parents are informed about how essential starting with the basic foundations of nervous system function and restoration really is. This can often take weeks or even months to see breakthroughs in the Neurological Soft Signs and INSiGHT Scans for tough cases, and it’s important to wait on layering in other targeted therapies like detoxification, speech therapy, OTs, and so forth until these foundational changes are seen first.
Here is a real life example of one of our perfect storm intensive program patients seeing incredible changes with his neurological soft signs:
While soft signs are encouraging indicators of progress, objective changes in nervous system function are best confirmed through INSiGHT Scans. These scans provide valuable data on how well the nervous system is functioning by measuring factors like muscle activity, thermal patterns, and heart rate variability.
Positive changes on these scans demonstrate that the nervous system is moving toward optimal balance, resilience, and restoration. Tracking functional improvements objectively helps ensure that progress is happening in the right direction and provides the scientific validation that parents and practitioners need to see.
Here is an example of HRV (Heart Rate Variability) scans improving as care progresses, indicating vastly improved adaptability, resiliency, and overall neurological function:
As care progresses, parents may observe additional neurological milestones such as:
The journey to recovery through neurologically-focused chiropractic care is unique to each child, but recognizing these early signs of improvement can give parents confidence and hope. With continued care, the body can reach its full healing potential, leading to long-lasting, transformative changes in a child’s health and well-being.
While every parent naturally wants to see big breakthroughs as soon as possible, it’s crucial to understand the importance of these early neurological soft signs. They are a powerful indication that your child’s body is on the right path to healing and recovery. Through continued care, the nervous system will continue to regulate and strengthen, laying the groundwork for greater neurological restoration and optimal health.