DS and Food.

[Cariad]

It has got to the point where he will only eat peanut butter on toast (never untoasted bread, hates bread), sausage rolls, Mcdonalds and chocolate milkshakes. Oh and "Cafe cooked breakfasts" (sausage/beans/bacon/egg/toast).

 

It's driving me mad as I have two other children and they see him just eating these foods and want to do the same! He says he won't eat "New foods" and asks "Is it old food". He used to eat pasta and rice and sandwiches and spag bol etc etc. Now it's a total nightmare, he'd rather not eat at all!

 

Anyone else get this?

[jb1964]

Hi Cariad,

 

Our daughter has always passed through a limited food intake. She would eat a certain number of foods at any given time - then perhaps a 6mths or a year later she may try something else and move onto that. Always 'finger foods' up until around 12yrs - although even now each time she tries something different that she likes she stops eating the other foods - for the past year it's been chicken/salad tortilla wraps and nothing else - now all of a sudden it's chicken in a bap - although it always has to be the same, if it's a different (texture) sort of bread roll or something is cooked slightly differently..........

 

To be honest at the moment I'm just so grateful that she's eating anything as she was so underweight - she never seemed to feel hungry or thirsty and always felt sick - whereas now this past year or so she's started to become aware of when she's hungry/thirsty and she eats treble what she used to eat - except she doesn't seem to build up her awareness of her body saying it's hungry or thirsty - it's like all of a sudden 'I need food or a drink NOW'.

 

Take care,

Jb

[ellisisamazing]

El was fab as a baby, ate whatver you gave him! Then around 18 months old was refusing anything except Weetabix, Digestives and Toast!

 

Nowadays his diet consists of Toast, Dry cream crackers, breadsticks, fromage frais, sausage roll (except he removes the sausage, so pastry!), He will eat a sausage not in pastry though, but only the ends! ,popadums, plain biscuits, pringles (we have to limit them), Occasional slivers of wafer thin ham or chicken and lots of milk. He is seriously lacking iron and has to take a supplement plus Ensure meal supplement drinks that his dietician provides.

 

I am just grateful he eats something right now, but I always leave lots of fruit and other choices on the table....just in case!

 

He occasionally will sniff a "new food" with curiosity, so I live in hope!

[llisa32]

J is very limited in what he will eat, but from one month to the next.

 

One month will only be a certain brand of tomatoe soup, with bread cut just so, or soup with pasta in, or pasta and gravy!

 

Other months will just be fish dippers, a few months ago was only battered cod ('big fish!') but 'hates' that now

 

Other times has been egg mayo sandwiches for every meal and so it goes on:)

 

It's a pain when you buy a food in bulk thinking he'll eat it lots and the next day he decides it's on the 'hate' list and a different food is flavour of the month, but generally he alternates between soup, fish, pasta, cheese - with very occaisional bit of roast lamb, or chicken skin, or crackling! - he hates chewing so food has to be soft!

[wishingwell]

DS's food has been in control of his life since he started school??? I'm not sure why but it makes meal times a complete nightmare. The texture is very important food must be same brand and make and cooked the same way or he cannot eat it. In the early days I used to get very upset but i don't believe he has any control over this. Been to specialist dietitians who where absolutely useless. She told me that no child would starve to death, well where my son is concerned she is wrong he will die before he will eat food that is different to his normal limited diet. A special shop has to be done to keep him alive. And separate meals prepared for him (regardless of wither it is healthy or not.) He prepares to eat out rather than at home.

Maybe I'm doing something wrong!

[Bagpuss]

Huge probs in our house with youngest dd (6 ASD) and food. She will only eat a limited diet, and will not try anything which may look different.....even her toast etc has to be toasted to a certain degree, and her marmite spread on in an exact amount. At the mo she is eating marmite toast and fresh orange for breakfast. Marmite sandwich/roll, fromage frais, packet of crisps and milk for lunch. For tea it's a marmite sandwich again, with another fromage, some pickled onions and milk. Her supper is either marmite toast and milk, or milk with a couple of biscuits. We limit sweeties to one on a Saturday and one on a Sunday. She loves cakes and biscuits, so we have to keep an eye of those too. She will eat MD's nuggets and chips, and at home will tolerate sausages, waffles, smileys and dippers, but prefers cold food. She likes bananas and apples, so we encourage those as much as poss. I was worried about our older two children following her example, but they havn't. Our ds will eat virtually anything put in front of him, and our eldest dd is slightly more picky, but not to the extent on our youngest. I used to drive myself potty over youngest dd's diet. The stress levels in our home as a result were appalling. Meal times became a battle ground. I had a long chat with her paediatrician, and he put my mind at rest, and since then I've tended to chill out about it. I hope she'll try new things as and when she's ready. She bit a cherry tomato the other week, before giving them to the guinea pigs, and have a little munch on some tuna salad I was eating recently, so we live in hope

[Cariad]

Thanks for the replies, I think it is a texture thing also with the DS. He won't touch soup at all, he used to love it. He loves spaghetti hoops on toast though as he saw it on an advert and took a liking to it

[jlp]

We have real problems with my ds#1 to the point where we went to the Child and Family last year as he was skinny and losing weight - they said to disregard the 'no child will starve themselves' advice as where autism is concerned the child really would go without rather than eat something they physically can't. We were told just to give G what he will eat (also nightmare with regard to his younger brother). G is will only eat a small number of things and often only specific brands and types.

 

I was becoming really worried as I thought his circle of acceptable foods was becoming so small he'd end up with hardly any.

 

However we did back right off and only gave him food he could eat and very, very slowly a few things have crept in that he wouldn't eat before and that I couldn't ever see him eating (tinned character pasta and M&S Spag Bol!)

 

I was a very, very fussy eater as a child (was dragged to the doctors a few times) and couldn't bear 'wet' foods (dinners with gravy. beans, soup etc) or certain things touching. I did improve gradually once I left home and I'd probably pass for fine now although by adult standards I'm probably still quite particular - I can see myself very much in my ds food wise although he wouldn't know obviously how I used to be.

 

Hope things improve for you, it's so hard when all you want to do is feed them some decent healthy food. I hate planning meals in this house.

[Stephanie]

My son is a pain in the backside when it comes to food. I thought it would have got better by now, but it hasn't -- eats the same old things and wont try anything new.

 

I had him checked out by a nutrition specialist and he was getting all the right foods (unbelievably!) so they wouldnt help me further.

 

I am hoping one day he will just snap out of it.

 

If anyone comes back with any brilliant ideas I will be glad to hear them too.

 

Sorry for the hijack!