Zoe Connor dietitian/researcher (she/hers)

Reclaiming Autistic Food Identity: Feeding Shame and Swallowing Stigma - The Autistic Advocate In this article Kieran Rose discusses reclaiming Autistic food identity and how Autistic people are so often shamed for the way they eat.

This insightful post by @kieranrose.bsky.social is essential reading for anyone involved in supporting/researching eating or ARFID in autistic folk theautisticadvocate.com/reclaiming-a.... A reminder to challenge your own assumptions/values/biases + remain curious as to how others experience food.

I've recently started a WhatsApp group and I'd love you to spread the word.
Check out the details below and please share!

@builduprdns.bsky.social @dietitiansaus.bsky.social @chattydietitian.bsky.social @zoeconnorrd.bsky.social @priyatew.bsky.social @bda-dietitians.bsky.social

Love this :)

A study looked at how autism is talked about in textbooks vs self-advocacy

As usual, autism was viewed through a “pathology lens” so “requiring intervention & correction”

It’s not just #autism research. When writing about autistic people in ANY way, pls include the voices of actual autistic people

How To Talk About Autism Respectfully · Public Neurodiversity Support Center A Field Guide for Journalists, Educators, Doctors and anyone else who wants to know how to better communicate about Autism.

Hey! Bluesky! Learn you about some Autism!

I wrote this piece after a conversation with CNN's Sanjay Gupta, and it's received tremendous feedback from both Autistic people and from educators, doctors and journalists who have learned from it.

Read it!

coda.io/@mykola-bilo...

I'm speaking this Saturday to a mix of professionals and parents on being PDA and food and eating.

I'm sharing my experience of #burnout and when eating was too hard and what I have learned to support others now.

What would you want the audience to know?

#PDA #autism #mentalhealth #nurse

New study- Brighton and Sussex Medical School - are you interested in taking part in brain body research?

We have been asked to share this interesting brain body research on ADHD Autism and Gait.
Email M.porter1@uni.bsms.ac.uk for more info or take part!
#Neurodivergence #autism #ADHD #autistic #study #getinvolved

Something is very wrong with a system that fails to support those who are most vulnerable when they are in need.
None of the findings are a surprise to me sadly but let’s hope change is coming in the form of better resourced services. 9/9

Anna Freud Anna Freud has developed and delivered pioneering mental health care for over 70 years. Our aim is to transform current mental health provision in the UK by improving the quality, accessibility and ef...

Recommendations include healthcare professionals providing reasonable adjustments. The webinar will be available on their channel soon: www.youtube.com/channel/UCN8... 8/

Anna Freud Anna Freud has developed and delivered pioneering mental health care for over 70 years. Our aim is to transform current mental health provision in the UK by improving the quality, accessibility and ef...

Suicide or deliberate self inflicted harm was the cause of death in 35% of the autistic children in the report. 7/

Parents struggle to attend all the appointments their child is expected to attend. 6/

The report was thoughtfully discussed by 3 other speakers. Things that struck me - children from more disadvantaged backgrounds are over represented ie die more often. 5/

He was one of the 818 children included in the recent National Child Mortality Database
Programme Thematic Report www.ncmd.info/wp-content/u... 4/

It was a sobering listen —first an account from a parent whose late son was let down horribly by health, education and social care. 2/

Tuned into the Learning from deaths – Children with a learning disability and autistic children webinar today. #autism 1/

Large stack of books, positioned on the right, in front of a white background. On the left is a black rounded rectangle containing white text reading, "How Wikipedia Misleads People About Autism by Fergus Murray, at TPGA "@ThinkingAutism | tinyurl.com/AutismOnWikipedia"

How Wikipedia Misleads People About Autism: "When a subject is objectively contentious—as is the case with autism—the editing gets tricky. Still, there is no excuse for Wikipedia being so badly out of date, given its impact." @ferrousmu.bsky.social, at TPGA:

thinkingautismguide.com/2024/11/how-...

I hope it helps

Neurodivergence, intersectionality, and eating disorders: a lived experience-led narrative review - Journal of Eating Disorders Autistic people and those with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder are at a high risk of developing an eating disorder. While there is limited evidence on the relationship between other forms of ...

Great to see this review of neurodivergence and eating disorders coming out from Eating Disorders Neurodiversity Australia: link.springer.com/article/10.1... 🧪 #eatingdisorders #autism #ADHD

Thanks for sharing.

I posted lots about the #appetitestudy conference today in Birmingham UK led by @profblissett.bsky.social.
Fab day. Lots of great learning about #eatingbehaviour #psychology #research. And importantly a great lunch and friendly crowd :) 🧪 I was going to collate my posts below but have no idea how!

- I also wonder if sometimes children with avid eating have unmet needs that they are meeting via sensory seeking via eating. It’s complex!

Thanks for a thought provoking and inspiring day @profblissett.bsky.social et al.

Feeling lucky to be working alongside so much greatness :)

..to recognise whether avid eaters are appearing to be avid because they are just eating enough to meet their true appetite needs to be the right weight for them versus it being something to be tackled.

But I also know it’s hard to manage the constant wanting of food! Particularly in food poverty

- some great discussion about where does neurodivergence fit in and highlighting the growing interest in researching this.

- I wonder if equating fatness and weight gain with health (which I don’t agree it is but recognise that this is the paradigm most research funders align with) misses the need

- respectful of the challenges parents face in feeding their children

- so much respect for all the work that has gone into this - I can’t imagine the painful details in planning all of this work and the joy in seeing it all completed

- I hope the team secure funding for the next steps!

My reflections on the #appetitestudy conference 🧪

- an amazing body of work looking at avid eating in littles from all sorts of angles that I don’t pretend to fully understand!

- great collaboration between different experts in different centres in the UK :)

We can’t change their child’s genes but we can help them manage in the moment - through educating about strategies that can help - distraction, structure, etc.

All outputs of the study are available at appetite-research.com and recordings of all the talks will be available too.

Jackie Blissett presenting a slide entitled targets for intervention

Finally @profblissett.bsky.social wrapped up a great day of learning about the #appetitestudy.

Managing avid eating is important to parents as it is a major area of conflict for them.

Parents wanted any intervention to be positive and non-judgemental

They also expressed that avoiding emotional and instrumental feeding would be challenging mainly due to their own relationships with food.