The Neurodivergent Naturopath

07/09/2026

𝗜 𝗸𝗲𝗲𝗽 𝘀𝗲𝗲𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗳𝗲𝗲𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗰𝗼𝘂𝗿𝘀𝗲𝘀 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗺𝗶𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗰𝗵𝗶𝗹𝗱 𝘄𝗶𝗹𝗹 𝗯𝗲 𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘀𝗮𝗺𝗲 𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗻𝗲𝗿 𝗮𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗿𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗳𝗮𝗺𝗶𝗹𝘆 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻 𝗮 𝗳𝗲𝘄 𝘄𝗲𝗲𝗸𝘀.

And yes, a child might add a new food to their repertoire during that time... But how they got there matters.

🔸𝗗𝗶𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝘆 𝗳𝗲𝗲𝗹 𝘀𝗮𝗳𝗲 𝗲𝗻𝗼𝘂𝗴𝗵 𝘁𝗼 𝗲𝘅𝗽𝗹𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗳𝗼𝗼𝗱?
🔸𝗪𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝘆 𝗳𝗼𝗹𝗹𝗼𝘄𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗶𝗿 𝗼𝘄𝗻 𝗰𝘂𝗿𝗶𝗼𝘀𝗶𝘁𝘆?
🔸𝗢𝗿 𝗱𝗶𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝘆 𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘄𝗮𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗾𝘂𝗶𝗰𝗸𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝘄𝗮𝘆 𝘁𝗼 𝗮𝘃𝗼𝗶𝗱 𝗮 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘀𝗲𝗾𝘂𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲, 𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗻 𝗮 𝗿𝗲𝘄𝗮𝗿𝗱 𝗼𝗿 𝗽𝗿𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗮𝗱𝘂𝗹𝘁𝘀 𝗮𝗿𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗺 𝗳𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝗳𝗲𝗲𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗱𝗶𝘀𝗮𝗽𝗽𝗼𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗱?

A child can appear to make progress while their nervous system is working incredibly hard underneath.

𝘛𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘮𝘢𝘺 𝘵𝘢𝘬𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘳𝘦𝘲𝘶𝘪𝘳𝘦𝘥 𝘣𝘪𝘵𝘦 𝘸𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘦 𝘧𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘣𝘢𝘤𝘬 𝘢 𝘨𝘢𝘨.
𝘛𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘮𝘢𝘺 𝘴𝘢𝘺 “𝘺𝘶𝘮” 𝘣𝘦𝘤𝘢𝘶𝘴𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸 𝘪𝘵 𝘮𝘢𝘬𝘦𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘪𝘳 𝘱𝘢𝘳𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘩𝘢𝘱𝘱𝘺.
𝘛𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘮𝘢𝘺 𝘦𝘢𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘧𝘰𝘰𝘥 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘨𝘳𝘢𝘮 𝘣𝘶𝘵 𝘳𝘦𝘧𝘶𝘴𝘦 𝘪𝘵 𝘢𝘵 𝘩𝘰𝘮𝘦.
𝘛𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘮𝘢𝘺 𝘣𝘦𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘦 𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘱𝘭𝘪𝘢𝘯𝘵 𝘢𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘵𝘢𝘣𝘭𝘦 𝘸𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘪𝘳 𝘢𝘯𝘹𝘪𝘦𝘵𝘺 𝘢𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘥 𝘧𝘰𝘰𝘥 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘶𝘦𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘨𝘳𝘰𝘸.

Neurodivergent children are often already incredibly skilled at masking discomfort to meet the expectations around them. We need to be careful that we don't accidentally teach them to mask at mealtimes too.

Responsive feeding takes longer because we are looking beyond whether the food made it into the child’s mouth. We're considering their sensory system, regulation, appetite, physical comfort, previous experiences with food, need for predictability and relationship with the people feeding them.

Maybe the first goal is simply being able to come near the table without their body moving into fight, flight or freeze.

𝙔𝙚𝙨, 𝙖 𝙣𝙚𝙬 𝙛𝙤𝙤𝙙 𝙤𝙣 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙡𝙞𝙨𝙩 𝙘𝙖𝙣 𝙡𝙤𝙤𝙠 𝙞𝙢𝙥𝙧𝙚𝙨𝙨𝙞𝙫𝙚. But feeling safe, confident and connected around food is what supports progress that lasts.

02/09/2026

31/08/2026

The gut and brain are in constant conversation, and in children, that conversation can show up in ways we do not immediately recognise as gut related. It can look like trouble concentrating, irritability, anxiety, disrupted sleep, emotional outbursts, reduced appetite or suddenly refusing foods they previously ate.

The gut and brain communicate through the vagus nerve, immune signalling, hormones and compounds produced by gut bacteria. These pathways influence digestion and bowel motility, while also interacting with mood, sleep, cognition and the stress response. So when a child’s gut is uncomfortable, it can affect far more than their tummy.

Let's look at constipation:
Retained stool can create pain, pressure, bloating, nausea & early fullness. A child may eat less because there simply isn’t room, become more selective because eating feels uncomfortable, struggle to settle at night or have far less capacity to manage everyday demands.

A loop can begin:
Gut discomfort → dysregulation → altered digestion → reduced eating and food variety → changes in fibre, nutrients and the microbiome → increased constipation and discomfort. This loop can be especially relevant for neurodivergent children.

Autistic & ADHD children experience higher rates of constipation, abdominal pain, reflux & feeding difficulties. Sensory differences can influence which foods feel safe, while interoceptive differences may make hunger, fullness, pain and the urge to use the toilet harder to recognise.

Some children know their body feels wrong but cannot identify where the feeling is coming from. Others communicate that discomfort through movement, withdrawal, food refusal, irritability or what adults might interpret as “behaviour.”

The microbiome adds another layer. Gut bacteria produce compounds that interact with the immune and nervous systems, and research is continuing to uncover connections between microbial diversity, neurodevelopment, anxiety and OCD. We cannot separate the brain from the body and expect to understand the whole child.

29/08/2026

One of the biggest shifts in the way I understand children’s health was realising that sometimes, behaviour is actually the body trying to communicate.

A child usually isn’t going to walk up to us and say, “I don’t think I’m emptying my bowels properly” or “Eating is making me feel nauseous.” Especially when they don’t fully understand what they’re feeling themselves.

Instead, we might see irritability, emotional outbursts, difficulty concentrating, avoiding meals, eating fewer foods, disrupted sleep or becoming really distressed around toileting.

This doesn’t mean that every behaviour we see is caused by the gut, of course. But it does mean we need to stay curious about what might be happening underneath it. This is particularly important for neurodivergent children, who may experience differences in interoception, sensory processing and communication.

Constipation, reflux, bloating, nausea and abdominal discomfort can all affect appetite, sleep, emotional regulation and how much capacity a child has for everything else being asked of them.

Sometimes those signs are not as obvious as we expect.

Also, it's important to note that your child can even be pooing every day and still have retained stool or incomplete emptying.

17/08/2026

I’ve been struggling a bit more with my POTS lately and Sage just seems to know.

She’s always been incredibly tuned into me. When I’m getting a migraine, she’ll come right up and smell my breath, she seems to pick up that something is changing before I really do.

Lately, when I’ve been feeling particularly ordinary, she's been glued to me...This morning she just came over, lay herself across my feet and stayed there.

It sounds like such a small thing, but when your body is being difficult and you’re tired of feeling like you have to push through it, having this warm little body quietly choose to stay close hits differently.

She just knows her person isn’t quite right, I love this dog. ❤️

16/08/2026

Neurodivergent burnout doesn’t always arrive as a dramatic collapse.

Sometimes it looks like a woman who has spent years being incredibly capable suddenly finding ordinary life impossibly hard.... But the “suddenly” can be misleading. Often there were years of compensating underneath it:

- Masking.
- Sensory overload.
- Executive-function demands.
- People pleasing.
- Overthinking.
- Using urgency to get things done.
- Holding everyone else’s needs alongside your own.

Years continually adapting yourself to environments that weren’t particularly interested in adapting to you.

When you’ve spent years finding ways around your difficulties, it can be incredibly confusing when those strategies stop working.

You might start to think that you've become less capable but actually you’ve simply run out of room to keep compensating... And that changes how we should think about burnout. The goal shouldn't be to get you back to doing everything you did before.

So, how do we build a life that doesn’t require you to burn yourself out in order to participate in it?

12/08/2026

The week before your period is often when women notice changes in mood, energy, focus and emotional regulation. While there's no one-size-fits-all solution, supporting the foundations throughout the month can help your body navigate this phase a little more smoothly.

💜 Prioritise regular, balanced meals to support stable blood sugar.
💜 Include adequate protein at each meal to support neurotransmitter and hormone production.
💜 Aim for plenty of fibre from vegetables, fruit, legumes, nuts and seeds to support healthy hormone metabolism.
💜 Gentle movement can support circulation, stress resilience and overall wellbeing.
💜 Protect your sleep, especially if you know this is a time when you're more vulnerable to feeling overwhelmed.
💜 Reduce unnecessary demands where possible and allow yourself a little more flexibility if this is a challenging part of your cycle.
💜 Track your symptoms over a few months to better understand your own patterns.

If the week before your period consistently affects your mood, energy or ability to function, you're welcome to book a free discovery call. Together we can explore whether there's a bigger picture worth looking at.

10/08/2026

🌻 Notes from The Neurodivergent Naturopath
One of the things I've noticed over the years is how many women have spent decades believing they simply have to tolerate feeling awful every month.

They've been told it's "just hormones."... That they're overreacting.... That it's part of being a woman.

The more I learn about women's health, ADHD and PMDD, the more I wonder how many women have spent years blaming themselves for something they never understood.

I don't think we talk enough about how hormones can influence concentration, emotional regulation, energy and the ability to simply get through the day.
I get it, understanding what's happening doesn't change the symptoms overnight, but hear me out, it CAN change the story we tell ourselves. And replacing self criticism with understanding is often where healing begins.
💜

09/08/2026

For years, many women have been told that feeling miserable before their period is simply something they have to accept.

While some premenstrual symptoms are common, they should not consistently interfere with your ability to function, parent, work or enjoy your life.

PMDD is a recognised condition that affects some women far more significantly than typical PMS, and we also know that women with ADHD are more likely to experience it.

If this sounds familiar, please know that your experience is valid, and it's worth exploring further! 💜 If you're struggling with severe premenstrual symptoms, ADHD or you're wondering whether there's a bigger picture, you're welcome to book a free discovery call. Together we can explore whether a more personalised approach might help.

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07/08/2026

🌻Notes from The Neurodivergent Naturopath

This week, I finally got the piece of paper that confirmed something we all already knew... ADHD (I just wanted that formal diagnosis because I felt like I needed it).

But I also walked away with an extra diagnosis, of OCD. Now to be honest, it wasn't completely out of the blue. Looking back, there were plenty of little signs over the years that make a lot more sense now. For me, having a diagnosis isn't about the label (although that has its place when we're looking at support) It's about understanding myself a little better. It helps explain why my brain works the way it does, where some of my challenges come from and, just as importantly, what my strengths are. What it also does is, allows me to give myself more compassion and grace.

As someone who works with neurodivergent children and their families every day, I think there's something really powerful about continuing to learn about yourself too.
Because the more we understand ourselves, the more compassion we can have for the parts we've spent years wondering about.

And with women's health being our focus this month, it feels like the perfect reminder that so many women spend years without answers, especially when hormones, ADHD and mental health all overlap.

I'm looking forward to sharing more about that over the coming weeks. 💜