Full-Tilt Parenting: Strategies, Insights, and Connection for Parents Raising Neurodivergent Children

Functional nutrition practitioner and ADHD life coach Amy Jones joins me to talk about something that can be surprisingly complicated in neurodivergent families: feeding ourselves and our kids. Amy explains why the challenge for so many neurodivergent people isn’t knowing what we’re “supposed” to eat, but figuring out how to actually make nourishment happen when executive function, sensory preferences, appetite changes, decision fatigue, and low-capacity days are part of the picture. We also talk about supporting blood sugar, making food more visible and accessible, reducing mealtime stress, and creating simple, low-friction systems that make eating more doable for both kids and adults. About Amy Jones Amy Jones is a Certified Functional Nutrition Practitioner, Certified ADHD Life Coach, and Certified Teacher who spent nearly 20 years in education before moving into functional nutrition and ADHD coaching. She supports neurodivergent adults, parents, and overwhelmed families who are struggling with food, energy, executive function, and daily functioning. Amy is also a late-diagnosed ADHD adult and a mom of two neurodivergent kids, including a son with ASD and ADHD, which shapes her understanding of food, routines, capacity, and family life. Her work focuses on the gap between what people know would support them and what they can actually access in daily life. Through functional nutrition, ADHD-informed coaching, and practical food systems, Amy helps families understand why feeding themselves and their kids can become harder when ADHD, decision fatigue, sensory load, appetite changes, and low-capacity days affect daily functioning. Amy is the creator of the Accessible Nourishment Framework and WTF’s for Dinner, a food system designed to reduce food-related decision load and make nourishment more manageable. Things you'll learn from this episode How ADHD, dulled interoception, and stimulant medication can make hunger cues easy to miss until irritability, brain fog, or dysregulation shows up Why combining protein, fat, and fiber can support steadier blood sugar and more consistent energy throughout the day How standard nutrition advice can create too much executive function load for neurodivergent people and families Why micro shifts, meal assembly, and pairing new habits with existing routines can make nourishing ourselves more doable How respecting sensory preferences and safe foods reduces mealtime pressure and supports a healthier relationship with food Why making food visible and accessible and using shortcuts like standing grocery orders, meal kits, and planned takeout can provide essential scaffolding on low-capacity days Resources mentioned Amy Jones website Your Guide to What To Do When Food Feels Like Too Much Amy Jones on Instagram Amy Jones on Facebook Amy Jones on Threads Amy Jones on LinkedIn Amy Jones on Pinterest Amy Jones on YouTube Amy Jones on TikTok The Joy of Cooking Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

I really enjoyed exploring unschooling, deschooling, freedom, and liberation with Akilah Richards, host of the Fare the Free Child podcast and author of the book Raising Free People: Unschooling as Liberation and Healing Work. I reached out to Akilah after seeing her TED talk, which led me to her book, and then her podcast, and I knew I wanted to invite her to join me in conversation. A recurring theme in this podcast, and in Tilt, is doing our own inner work as parents, and I love how Akilah talks about relating our own reparenting to freedom, decolonization, and liberation. Akilah shares her personal story of going from traditional schooling to unschooling to deschooling, and how she and her husband came to consider the idea of raising free people, what that means, and how they’ve navigated the realities of making unconventional choices that can sometimes make other people uncomfortable. She also shares how they think about the success and what a fulfilled life looks like for her family, as well as how her work aimed at decolonizing parenting has resonated with people worldwide. You'll learn: What it means to be raising a “free child” and why it can be a threatening or uncomfortable concept for many people What “mad question asking” is and how parents can use it to get unstuck How unschooling is tied to decolonization What “deschooling” is versus “homeschooling” and “unschooling” What “confident autonomy” is and why Akilah considers that a hallmark of “success” in her children How Akilah and her partner dealt with the barriers (social, cultural, and more) when they chose the unschooling path for their family What a “savor complex” is and how it can transform the family experience Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Journalist and author Jessica Slice comes back to the show to share her family’s experience with PANS, or pediatric acute-onset neuropsychiatric syndrome, which began when her daughter experienced a sudden and severe change in behavior and functioning following a viral illness. Jessica recently shared her story in a viral article in New York Magazine, and today she takes us deep into what happened to her daughter, the medical dismissal her family encountered, and the long path toward getting a diagnosis and treatment. We also dig into why PANS and PANDAS remain controversial, what researchers believe may be happening in the brain, and what Jessica learned through both her family’s experience and her reporting. And importantly, we talk about what parents can do if their child experiences a sudden, dramatic onset of symptoms that they suspect could be PANS or PANDAS, including where to begin and how to advocate for care. About Jessica Slice Jessica Slice is a journalist, author, and podcaster. Her book, Unfit Parent: A Disabled Mother Challenges an Inaccessible World was one of NPR’s top books of 2025. She has been published in Modern Love, the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, the Atlantic, the Guardian, The Globe & Mail, LitHub, Alice Wong’s bestselling Disability Visibility, Slate, Glamour, Cosmopolitan, and more.She’s been featured in Vogue, The New Yorker, PBS, NPR, The Cut, the BBC, etc. She is the co-author of Dateable: Swiping Right, Hooking Up, and Settling Down, This is How We Play, This is How We Talk, and the forthcoming We Belong which was co-authored with the late Judy Heumann. She lives in Toronto with her family. Things you'll learn from this episode How Jessica’s daughter’s sudden, dramatic loss of functioning after a routine virus ultimately led to a PANS diagnosis Why PANS symptoms can be mistaken for psychosis, autism-related behavior, or other mental health conditions, potentially delaying appropriate care How PANS differs from PANDAS and why infections beyond strep may be associated with sudden-onset neuropsychiatric symptoms What researchers are exploring about immune dysfunction, the blood-brain barrier, and the basal ganglia in understanding PANS Why controversy, conflicting medical guidance, insurance barriers, and treatment costs can make accessing care extraordinarily difficult for families How parents can advocate for evidence-based care, evaluate trustworthy medical information, and keep pushing when their child’s sudden changes aren’t adequately explained Resources mentioned Life with PANS: When a Virus Causes Psychiatric Symptoms (Jessica’s story in New York Magazine) Unfit Parent: A Disabled Mother Challenges an Inaccessible World by Jessica Slice Jessica Slice’s website Jessica Slice’s Whatever What Is (Substack) Jessica on Instagram Jessica Slice on What We Can All Learn from Disabled Parenting (Tilt Parenting podcast) PANS/PANDAS Physicians Network Page PANS/PANDAS Support Groups Allison Raskin on the Made Visible podcast Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Beth Gellman-Beer spent her whole career fighting for kids with disabilities — first as a student written off as “lazy,” then as a federal civil rights attorney who found her dream job protecting students like her younger self. But on one ordinary night, a phone call changed everything: Her entire office had been eliminated. In the premiere of Zero Reject, reporter Anya Kamenetz traces Beth’s journey from an unfair fourth-grade classroom to the front lines of a sweeping overhaul at the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights — the agency families turn to when a school isn’t meeting their child’s needs. Anya breaks down the reduction in force that gutted OCR’s staff, what it means for the 25,000 families still waiting for a response to their complaints, and the plan to dismantle the Department of Education altogether. With fewer people to enforce the law, what happens to the students the system was built to protect? https://lnk.to/zerorejectFD!fulltiltparenting Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Psychologist, speaker, and author Dr. Mona Delahooke talks about her new book Brain-Body Parenting, and the power in understanding and responding to children's complicated behavior as a symptom rather than a problem. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices