Safety First Feeding: A Parent Course for ARFID
Support your children with confidence, compassion & clarity.
This is more than just a course or training.
It’s a framework for change — designed to help you understand Avoidant/Restrictive Food Intake Disorder (ARFID) through a trauma-informed and neuro-affirming lens, so you can truly support your children in ways that are safe, respectful, and effective.
Round one is now Evergreen and available to purchase
Whether you're newer to ARFID or know a lot about this space, this course will meet you where you are and take you deeper.
This course is designed for parents or carers of children who have complex relationships with food and eating. Whether it’s ARFID or feeding differences this course gives you the depth, tools, and confidence to support your loved one meaningfully.
Who is this course for?
This course is:
Grounded in lived experience, research, and real-world practice
Created with a neurodivergent-affirming and trauma-informed foundation
Focused on reducing harm, building trust, and supporting autonomy around food
Rich in practical tips, reflective prompts, and actions you can use immediately at home
Designed to help you feel more confident, more competent, and more aligned with the kind of care you want to give your loved one
A 5 week course that will include:
Pre-recorded lessons will be released each week. (There will be 1 or 2 depending on the length) You can watch these at your own pace!
Downloadable reflective activities
Printable resources you can use at home
Confidence that you’re supporting your child in a safer and more affirming way
1.5 hour live call - where you can ask questions and connect with community. Date and time TBC.
6 months access to the full course content
Bonus
A panel with 2 parents navigating life with ARFID children.
An ARFID lived experience panel with some absolute legends.
Parent Course Content & Format
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Unpacking ARFID & Neurodiversity Affirming Care
In Week 1, we lay the foundations by exploring what Avoidant Restrictive Food Intake Disorder (ARFID) really is, and just as importantly, what it is not. We’ll look at how ARFID is defined in the DSM-5, where those diagnostic criteria fall short, and why many people (especially neurodivergent individuals and those in larger bodies) are often misunderstood and dismissed.
We’ll unpack the three ARFID profiles (avoidant, restrictive, and aversive), explore the wide range of psychological, behavioural, and physical signs, and highlight why ARFID doesn’t have one “look.” You’ll learn how trauma, sensory processing differences, neurodivergence, medical and gastrointestinal conditions, and systemic pressures can all contribute to ARFID development.
This week also introduces the neurodiversity-affirming framework, reframing ARFID not as something to be “fixed,” but as a lived experience that deserves understanding, accommodation, and respect. We’ll discuss why multidisciplinary, trauma-informed support matters and discuss who can diagnose ARFID.
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Supporting ARFID
In Week 2, we focus on what support really looks like for children and teens with ARFID and why there is no one-size-fits-all approach.
Across two videos, we explore when a tube or PEG feeding might be necessary. What the evidence does (and doesn’t) say about ARFID support, why many traditional feeding and eating disorder approaches can be unhelpful or even harmful for neurodivergent kids, and how a neurodiversity-affirming lens changes the way we think about “progress” and “recovery.”
You’ll learn how sensory differences, interoception, nervous system regulation, trauma, executive functioning, and autonomy all play a role in eating and why safety (emotional, sensory, and relational) must come before food changes.
This week is about reducing pressure, rebuilding trust with food and bodies, rejecting neuronormative feeding rules, and understanding how to support your child in ways that are compassionate, realistic, and sustainable.
Above all, this week aims to help you feel less alone, less confused, and more confident that supporting your child as they are is not only valid, it’s essential
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ARFID and Its Intersections
In Week 3, we explore how ARFID intersects with neurodivergence, medical conditions, and trauma highlighting how these factors influence eating, feeding, hydration and mealtimes.
We’ll discuss:
ARFID and Pervasive Drive for Autonomy (PDA): How internal and external demands, like hunger, sensory experiences, or social expectations, can feel threatening to a PDAer, activating fight/flight/freeze/fawn responses and making eating feel unsafe. We will discuss practical strategies to reduce pressure, honour autonomy, and create predictable, flexible, and sensory-safe environments that allow the nervous system to settle and support natural eating.
ARFID and OCD: How obsessive fears about food, contamination, or “just right” experiences can impact eating, and how a neuro-affirming, safety-first approach supports regulation and trust rather than enforcing rigid rules.
ARFID and PTSD/Trauma: Understanding how past negative experiences around food, medical interventions, and more can create fear-based avoidance, and why trauma-informed strategies are essential.
ARFID and RSD: We will briefly explore what RSD is and how it can intersect with ARFID. Plus go through a couple of strategies that may help reduce feelings of rejection.
ARFID and Medical/GI Conditions: How reflux, eosinophilic oesophagitis, gastroparesis, or connective tissue and autonomic conditions (like EDS, hypermobility, POTS) affect digestion, appetite, and blood sugar regulation.
ARFID & Hypermobility/hEDS: Both HSD and hEDS can frequently co-occur with the Neurodivergent population. We will explore how this might show up for someone with ARFID.
ARFID and Burnout: Recognising how sensory, cognitive, and social demands, along with nutritional deficits, can contribute to autistic burnout and prolonged feeding challenges, and how supporting safe food intake can help nervous system recovery.
Also 4 bonus mini interviews: 1. Our Dietitian Ebeney talks about ARFID and Emetophobia
2. Our Naturopath Sam talks about gender dysphoria and eating disorders.
3.ARFID and cultural experiences with Yas De Silva.
4.ARFID, Anorexia Nervosa, body and masking with Annie Crowe
By the end of this week, parents will gain a deeper understanding of the complex, overlapping factors that influence ARFID and practical, compassionate strategies to support eating without pressure, prioritising safety, autonomy, and regulation.
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In week 4 we will share with you a client story about a child and parent navigating ARFID.
Bonus:
A pre- recorded panel with parents who have children with ARFID.
We will be joined by the wonderful
Hollie-Ann Newman (She/Her) from Neuroinclusive Education & Jenni Moore (She/Her) .
A pre-recorded panel interview with guest practitioners, all with their own lived and professional experience of ARFID.
We have these wonderful people joining us below:
Cody Robinson (She/Her) from New Leaf social work
Lumen Gorrie (They/Them) from Brains beyond Binaries
Brianna Thomas (She/Her) from The Psych Hive
Gabriel Lubieniecki-Maynard (She/Her) from Swan Centre
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Week 5 is a 1.5 hour live group call. A space for parents to gather with community, reflect and ask any final questions.
This will be held on the May 4th, 9:30am AEDT.
Course Pricing
$682 AUD includes GST (10%)
Key Learning Outcomes
Reduce mealtime stress and overwhelm (for child and parent)
Promote positive mealtime environments – reduce pressure, support connection, and create safe spaces for eating
Compassionate guidance in exploring and questioning assumptions, biases, expectations, and values you may hold about Neurodivergence, food and nutrition
Explore how to support individuals with ARFID while prioritising emotional and sensory safety around food
Learn about neuroaffirming care and why it’s so important
Help parents know when their child needs additional support and how to get that support (such as when enteral feeding might be necessary)
Understand ARFID, neurodivergence, and some of the intersections through an affirming lens (e.g PDA, OCD, Burnout, PTSD, RSD, hEDS and more)
Help parents feel confident without pushing intake or exposure
Meet your Facilitator
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I am a proudly neurodivergent, mother of two, Certified Practicing Nutritionist and founder of Whole Body Nutrition. My goal for Whole Body Nutrition is to utilise my lived experience and clinical expertise to educate and empower others. To spread the message that all bodies and brains are worthy and valuable.
Privacy and Intellectual Property Rights – Terms & Conditions
I appreciate your understanding and respect of my privacy and intellectual property rights.
Access to this course and its content (henceforth “this course”) is by registration only; you must be a registered attendee to access this course. Individuals registered into this course do not have permission to share access to this course via their own registration or access details, with any other person/s. If someone has shared access to this course with you, but you are not personally registered into this course, please contact me via margo@wholebodynutrition.com.au to let me know.
This course was created by, and is the intellectual property of, Margo White, Certified Practicing Nutritionist BHsc (Whole Body Nutrition PTY LTD) You may not audio record, video record, screen record, screenshot, photograph, transcribe, or AI summarise this course – in part/s, or in its entirety – under any circumstance. You may not save, copy, plagiarise, reproduce, distribute, share, or publish this course – in part/s, or in its entirety – in any form or in any context, nor may you upload it to/access it via any AI platforms, claim it as your own, sell it, or offer it for sale.
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Thank you! I hope you enjoy this course.