Do you want to explain to anyone that's listening what is ARFID and maybe the other terminology as well so they understand the difference?

I think that's probably the best way to kind of identify those different categories.

And, you know, that's probably my categorization of them.

So the way I think ARFID is the one that we hear the most about and definitely kind of out there on social media or whatever, I think the term ARFID can be thrown around a lot.

to describe a child who is really struggling with food and eating.

But interestingly, then when you do, if a child or a family do attend for like a diagnostic appointment with a feeding clinic or a team or their local therapist or whatever it is, what we might think might be art, it might not always be when you kind of drill down into the diagnostic criteria.

And I suppose that's why I'll talk about autism and ARFID kind of together if that's okay because you know I've worked with thousands of autistic children and families in my career and I would say most of those children would have some what I would call eating differences are they very severe eating challenges not always and so The latest evidence does say that 89% of autistic individuals present with eating differences but not all of those will be severe enough or restrictive enough to warrant a diagnosis of an eating disorder which is technically what ARFID is.

I was like, oh, God, what would you hope to get from a specialist feeding based team? If you believe your child has, say, our food, for example, what might you hope to say in terms of supports or speciality? What would you hope to obtain? The

So should I be worried about knowing the label or the content or the fat content?

Can you talk a little bit about? Absolutely.

And I suppose I'd be the first to say that this is a really complicated area.

And I think anybody who claims to have a solution or a fix, in my opinion, it's not that simple.

So, and the first thing I'll always say is please consult your core registered health professional in this regard, if you are concerned about, you know, your child's nutrition or the content of the food they're eating.

The reality is, and I know this from speaking to dietitians every week, that a lot of the food that we all rely on nowadays is processed in some way and processed doesn't mean bad.

So the sliced pan that you have in the kitchen is processed in the oats that you eat in the morning are processed, like certain types of processed foods can be healthier as a result of being processed.

ARFID