trying new foods - small but significant steps

[westie]

My little one (ASD) has quite a restricted diet (lives mainly on pasta, tinned spaghetti, and dry cereal!) and bread in any shape or form (i.e. toast etc) is definetely off the menu.

 

This has always been the case however a months ago in the supermarket cafe he had spaghetti bolognese kids meal, which always comes with one slice of garlic bread (spag bol is his usual choice and the only thing he will eat there)

He started saying he wanted to eat the green bits on the bread (tiny chopped herbs or something that are lightly sprinkled on top) and he started trying to pick them off. Then a couple of weeks later we went with his aunty and again he chose same meal. This time he came out with "I am going to eat some break" and he actually took a small bite !!! After this we tried him with toast but he would not, and still will not, not touch it.

But again a couple of times when we went to same cafe he did try a bit of the garlic bread - not a lot but we were still pleased.

And yesterday we went for tea and he ate THE WHOLE PIECE OF GARLIC BREAD!!!!

How cool is that!

 

Small breakthroughs, but significant for him. He still faddy but it does give us hope that if we give him the option of eating things he would not normally try without pressuring him if he does not then we may be able to introduce new (and healthier) things to his diet.

 

Making a packed lunch for him is difficult but we are trying: Fruit juice carton - apple/ orange, processed meat (ham - he eats this sometimes) and breadsticks rather than a sandwich, raisins (he has not eaten these yet, but I live in hope!) school bars and/ or yoghurt covered fruit flakes/ or rich tea biscuit and a yoghurt......

 

I havent put crisps in his lunchbox since first day as he will eat them and leave the breasticks etc.

 

What do you other parents with "fussy eaters" put in lunchboxes???

 

[Sally44]

My son is now probably quite a broad eater. Didn't used to be like that. There are still some things he will not touch because of their texture or smell. Eg. he won't eat peas, beans, mushy peas etc, or fruit because of the 'skin'. But we have managed to get him onto carrots, brocoli, cabbage and even brussels.

The approach we always took was not to make a big fuss about any 'new' food. But we would tell him what it was and we would insist that he 'tried' it. And we always let him have a paper napkin so that he could spit it out if he thought it was horrible. This helped him have a go.

One thing we have found unusual is that when we go into a different environment he will try foods he normally would not touch in another environment. Something similar might be happening to your son as he tried the foot in a cafe. And we have found that eventually my son will eat the 'new' food at home as well.

For example on holiday he ate salad! I would have had to threaten him with death to get him to even put his tongue on it at home. He also seems to 'not know' what a food item is in a different environment. Not always. But a food he knows and recognises at home he might say he does not know what it is in a different place.

Anway, it is all good stuff for your child to be trying something new.

[bikemad]

My lad will only eat about 6 items of food n then only if cooked a particular way otherwise he involuntarily brings it back up.....his packed lunch is 5 Tucs(he dont eat bread in any form), dairlea dunkers the nacho ones, a yoghurt pouch, a bottle of flavoured water, ready salted hulla hoops and sometimes a penguin cake bar. We are the same the only way my lad will ever try something new is if it is his idea.......til recently it was 5 items of food but he got braver n braver n now will eat 2 chicken dippers so long as they are battered and not breaded n cooked til crispy.

[Nikkih]

Our son is now 12 and hasn't eaten a sandwich in 2 years. His lunchbag consists of some dry coco-pops, 2 custard creams, 2 bourbon biscuits, a packet of wotsits and a bottle of orange juice.

 

He has a severely restricted diet and will only eat a praticular type of sausages, heinz beans, birds eye waffles, homemade leek & potato soup, heinz spag bol or homemade spag bol. Its so bad that if the homemade soup or spag bol is slightly different he won't eat it. He does also eat dairylea cheese strips but only at home, he seems unable to eat them in school. He will occasionally have toast with jam or toasted roll wth cheese at home but won't touch bread or rolls unless they've been toasted.

 

It's really hard having a fussy eater and it's one of the things that impacts the most on our lives. My sympathies go to anyone with a chld on a restricted diet.

[NobbyNobbs]

well done westie on the food success. i had just a marmite sandwich for lunch when i was at school. i hated the smells of other peoples packed lunches. the smell of wotsits mixed with orange on another persons hands is the most repulsive thing i've ever come across. i think with fussy eaters (of which i'm one) its so incredibly personal its hard to suggest anything because different aspects of foods affect different people.

 

that said Nikkih the foods youve listed instantly said to me dry, firm but crumbly and sweet. i know you've probably been through all of this but if its any help i'd look at other foods that fit that bill. off the top of my head mini cheddars (they do different flavours) or the little salted party crackers and crackers for cheese feel and taste in that category for me. i'm probably wrong but didn't want to not say anything if theres any chance its helpful.

[Sally44]

They do say that the sense of smell is very important regarding taste. Infact that is why when we have a cold we sometimes cannot taste anything. So, if a child has oversensitive smell, I can imagine it impacts on what they can eat. And the sense of touch impacts on the kind of textures they can tolerate. And as mentioned by Nobbynobbs, the smell of the 'dinnerhall' or 'restaurant' may mean they cannot eat there. My son has run out of restaurants and been sick because of something he could smell. It turned out to be mushy peas!

 

My son now stays school dinners. But previously he used to have sandwiches because dinners were out of the question. He would eat bread, but that was it - just bread, or rather cheese sandwiches. If allowed to he would have lived off cheese sandwiches and milk.

 

At his new school they have just introduced a new dinner system where the children 'choose' whether to have a hot meal or a sandwich. This is causing problems because firstly he finds it hard to 'choose' and gets upset. Then he doesn't understand what the other food options are. And if he is told he can have a sandwich, then that is what he would eat every day. So i've made it very clear to school that I do not want him to have the choice of making a sandwich. TBH this sounds like rather a backward step for a school that has a high proportion of pupils with an ASD. I don't know what they are hoping to gain from this system.

[westie]

Thanks everyone for your reponses.

 

I do give him multivitamin and omega 3, and he has been presribed iron by the paediatrician as he was slightly anaemic and now he has to take a maintenance dose until/ if he does start eating a more varied diet. He is in healthy weight range and is growing, and his blood tests show no other deficiencies so we are pretty lucky really.

 

It was the paed who suggested hard crackers/ breadsticks as a replacement for bread and he does generally eat them!

 

He does also eat some things in one environment that he will not in another - for example when he used to go to a childminder he would eat sheperds pie at hers and he would not eat it anywhere else - that's just one example. And as you said he ate the garlic bread in the cafe, but will not try it, or toast - a similar texture - anywhere else!

 

He hates dropping food on himself (sauces from spaghetti/ bolognese) and removes his clothes/ gets very distressed by this and at one point would want me to feed him, but we have worked on this with a reward chart for feeding himself and he is a bit better now and will feed himself spaghetti.

 

He doesnt really eat food which requires using a fork and knife which means he is not skilled. The occupational therapist came up with the suggestion to let him practise by cutting up play-do as it is important to develop these skills.

[Tempus]

I'm 18 now and have had a limited range of foods that I'll eat all my life. I know my mum despairs about it, and it logically doesn't make that much sense to me -- it's mostly textures that I'm averse to but in the case of some things (such as fish, melted cheese and eggs) it is also the smell. I pretty much live on pasta (I'd say I eat it 90% of days).

 

He doesnt really eat food which requires using a fork and knife which means he is not skilled. The occupational therapist came up with the suggestion to let him practise by cutting up play-do as it is important to develop these skills.

 

This quote is the main reason I wanted to post; I guess that those sorts of skills are important in a way, but I am still unable to use a knife and fork properly. I can use a knife in the wrong hand ineffectively if there is some very tough meat or similar -- but other than that I just use a fork (in right hand) without a knife. It's never caused me any real problems in the long run; I can cut practically anything with the side of the fork. I know that up to the age of 10 or 11 I quite often just used a spoon instead of a knife and fork for a lot of meals. Just wanted to point out that as these things go it's not that important as a skill to be able to eat properly -- rather to just eat foods that contain at least nutritional value.

[JsMum]

Wounderful news, as mum who has a son with a very selective diet and clinically underweight due to his eating difficulties I can only feel a similair sence of joy and overwelment, it is such a big thing because its a step closer to ensuring they have a variety of different foods, I found a lot of similarities of your sons issues in my own child, its remarkable really, my son is 12 and growing taller by the day, he is very energetic and so having spare calories is of a great benefit for my son, Its a breakthrow and hopefully now he experiments with tastes and smells, textures and tempretures it will develop into a better overall diet, improvement at this stage is like magic.

 

JsMumxxxx

 

[Daisydot]

My son has always had a restricted diet. Will eat dry bread and dark toast, chips, nuggets, fish fingers, certain crisps, yoghurt, heinz spaghetti & sausages, ready brek and a few variuos biscuits & cakes. Maybe if we are lucky he will nibble a little tiny bit of apple. Last Christmas we treated ourselves to a large piece of fillet beef - we were sitting at the Christmas table and would you believe it, the little wotsit decides he likes fillet beef ! Ate quite a bit !!! We were delighted he had eaten some good protein but now we have to buy fillet steak, which he has when we have a roast dinner.

 

I think with my son its smell and taste. He smells a lot of things before he decides to eat them.

[trekster]

Hello

 

"Cant eat wont eat" describes the condition as selective eating. Only none neurodiverse folk should be labelled as faddy or fussy eaters. The reason for this is either sensory stimulation or it gives them a high.

 

I've always had a fairly varied diet and only after being gluten and milk free for a number of years was i able to tolerate garden peas. They used to remind me of eating grass and used to taste gritty, now for some reason I am able to eat them.

 

Good that hes able to eat other stuff apart from his cravings, maybe some grated carrot or veggies on the side of the plate could be the next step.

 

Alexis (DipHE diet and health, final paper "diet and autism: is there a link?")

[trekster]

My son is now probably quite a broad eater. Didn't used to be like that. There are still some things he will not touch because of their texture or smell. Eg. he won't eat peas, beans, mushy peas etc, or fruit because of the 'skin'. But we have managed to get him onto carrots, brocoli, cabbage and even brussels.

The approach we always took was not to make a big fuss about any 'new' food. But we would tell him what it was and we would insist that he 'tried' it. And we always let him have a paper napkin so that he could spit it out if he thought it was horrible. This helped him have a go.

 

You have the right approach there, the more pressure im given to eat anything the less able i am to manage it. The anxiety and time pressure is just too much for me. Some parents have encouraged their kids to lick something 1st ,then put in their mouth the next time, then bite a bit off, then chew and swallow. If people had clapped for me when i ate something it would put me off eating it as the pan of the applause would be too much.

One thing we have found unusual is that when we go into a different environment he will try foods he normally would not touch in another environment. Something similar might be happening to your son as he tried the food in a cafe. And we have found that eventually my son will eat the 'new' food at home as well.

 

Now that is interesting, maybe its because everyone else is eating so the focus is less on him? At home also there could be other distractions around something you might not notice like a lawnmower next door or the buzz of the fridge.

For example on holiday he ate salad! I would have had to threaten him with death to get him to even put his tongue on it at home. He also seems to 'not know' what a food item is in a different environment. Not always. But a food he knows and recognises at home he might say he does not know what it is in a different place.

Anyway, it is all good stuff for your child to be trying something new.

 

Could be because it is made to look yummy in a cafe and the mixture of colours and their symmetrical arrangements encourage the kid to eat the food?

 

Alexis

 

 

[Maria-Alex]

My son is the same, he has very strange eating habits.

 

He wont eat anything with a sauce or gravy. Tinned beans need to be strained as does spaghetti. Anything broken wont get eaten.

 

He does eat Fish Fingers or Sausages with chips/smiley faces/waffles with peas or sweetcorn, which is the only things he will eat at dinner time. They cant touch each other on the plate either.

 

He doesn't eat breakfast very often, but when he does it has to be dry with milk in a cup separately.

 

Lunch times he only eats a Jam Sandwich.

 

Although he doesn't eat a great deal of food he is a healthy weight and is full of energy.

 

It did take us along time to get him to eat the above types of food as before it was only stuff like pasta and noodles, we would put a mouthful sized amount of new food type on his plate, if he ate it then we praised him for it, if not then it went in the bin and we didn't fuss over it. We would sometimes make a deal that if he tried just one small piece of new food then he would get a 'Good Try' star on him reward chart. We would never over fill his plate either, he would have half the amount of a normal boy of his age. But it worked and he has a reasonably diet now.

 

Just don't try to rush it.

 

[pookie170]

I agree, the best thing to do is relax and not push your child too hard. My aspie son has always been very faddy and I worried hugely about this but when I brought it up with his psych she checked with the dietary team who said he was getting pretty much everything he needed from his limited diet, except for protein. So we just give him more of the types of protein that he likes.....

Having said that, as he gets older, he's trying more things. Not always a success, but it's a step in the right direction at least.

Its still quite difficult to eat out as he may order something like fish and it isn't prepared the way he's accustomed to, so that goes uneaten.... but we have our small triumphs too.

Funnily enough, westie, my lad still has fairly poor skills regarding use of cutlery, simply because the foods he has eaten haven't required cutting up! But again, we're making progress...he'll get there in the end!

Glad your lad's making progress too- it's funny, I remember wanting to jump for joy when my lad tried a new food (I still do!) and excitedly telling a friend about it...and they just give you a bemused grin as if to say, 'Erm, yeah, he's eating chicken fillets.....he's NINE though, what's the fuss about???'

But we getcha!!!

[Mandapanda]

Hi westie

 

This is all very familiar! My youngest has done every bread thing I can get, he's been through 'phases' of each thing and usually goes off one when I've just bought a load!! We've done scones, scotch pancakes, muffins, croissants, bread, rolls, breadsticks, ciabatta, pitta bread, currently he only eats Cheese Melts (but they mustn't be broken at all!).

 

My eldest never liked food 'contaminating' other food. We used to have to put lasagne on a separate plate so it didn't spread onto his other food. He always cuts his food symettrically. He doesn't like pies cos they 'fall apart' when you cut them and get messy. When he hit about 13 he had a growth spurt and became more hungry and started eating pretty much anything we put in front of him. Just hoping this will happen to the youngest, who's recently turned 13.

 

 

[KezT]

DS would live off pasta and maybe nasty sliced white bread if it was up to him, but we've always taken the attitude that mealtimes are a social occasion and he has to learn to participate. He has rewards for trying new foods - all he has to do is put one (reasonable size) piece in his mouth and chew at least once He used to need to have new foods introduced dozens of times before he would do that, but now he usually tries a new food on the second or third time we make it.

 

Some have been great successes Some have been spat out. These will usually be tried again at some time in the future - we have explained to him that tastes change over time, and he accepts this now - especially since he goes off foods as well as starts to like them - and we accept both ways.

 

I am lucky in that he is, if anything, slightly large for his age, so I never felt desperate to get food into him (although there have been times I was worried!), but I have also always said that if he does not eat the food he is given, there are no alternatives. Partly becasue I refuse to get into the habit of cooking 5 meals for 5 people each night! but partly because I think it is important to eat what is available, and not give children free choice all the time. All my kids can eat fruit, yoghurts, veggies and water at any time during the day tho (DS doesn't much, but sometimes he decides he likes a fruit!)

 

we also work hard on using cutlery properly - still not really there, but working on it. This is more about helping him not to be bullied TBH - and hopefully to help him attend all those social food functions that exist in adult life - restuarants, dinner parties, dates......

 

At school he has school dinners. I never gave him a choice - a cooked meal is more nutritious, more hygenic and much cheaper than any packed lunch I would do - never mind the time saved! He is not able to do this on his own yet - still needs individual assistance to help him chose (otherwise he choses bread, pasta and potato each day!), and also to remind him how to eat - he has a tendancy to stuff food into his mouth so fast that he chokes on it.

 

I think most foods are more about texture than taste. On the few occasions he has explained what he doesn't like it has been texture - he also eats the most disgusting combinations of mushy foods! But on the whole, we have more successes than failures, and he is eating a good variety of foods. I feel this is such an important thing for us to teach theem as children - they will probably have less varied foods when grown up anyway, as they get to chose & cook it themselves, so I want to know I have started them off with as many choices as possible. I have seen too mnay people have serious health issues over restricted diets

 

Glad you have had some success. Hope you can build on it

[wishingwell]

DS ate the same packed lunch for 7 years. It had to be exactly the same contents and prepared the same way to enable him to eat it. If i added something new he could not eat any because it was ruined and he was a very hungry little boy. Been referred to dietitians who where not at all understanding when i explained how serious it was they insisted he would never starve no but he made himself ill on a number of occasions. Many rows in the home over him not eating and his father trying to force feed which I totally disagreed with and refused to allow. Reverted to getting him a tonic to improve his appetite which did help but he could only eat a very limited diet. On moving to secondary school things have slowly improved I can only suggest that the food is now presented better. He is now trying new food on a regular basis which is something I for. Curry and rice is the latest. No-one really knows how happy I feel to see this fantastic change in his eating habits.

[Mandapanda]

No-one really knows how happy I feel to see this fantastic change in his eating habits.

 

I suspect some of us posting on this thread have a pretty good idea of how you feel !!!

[Sally44]

Thanks everyone for your reponses.

 

I do give him multivitamin and omega 3, and he has been presribed iron by the paediatrician as he was slightly anaemic and now he has to take a maintenance dose until/ if he does start eating a more varied diet. He is in healthy weight range and is growing, and his blood tests show no other deficiencies so we are pretty lucky really.

 

It was the paed who suggested hard crackers/ breadsticks as a replacement for bread and he does generally eat them!

 

He does also eat some things in one environment that he will not in another - for example when he used to go to a childminder he would eat sheperds pie at hers and he would not eat it anywhere else - that's just one example. And as you said he ate the garlic bread in the cafe, but will not try it, or toast - a similar texture - anywhere else!

 

He hates dropping food on himself (sauces from spaghetti/ bolognese) and removes his clothes/ gets very distressed by this and at one point would want me to feed him, but we have worked on this with a reward chart for feeding himself and he is a bit better now and will feed himself spaghetti.

 

He doesnt really eat food which requires using a fork and knife which means he is not skilled. The occupational therapist came up with the suggestion to let him practise by cutting up play-do as it is important to develop these skills.

 

My son also does this. On holiday he ate salad! But he also would not eat fish fingers (his favourite), because he said he didn't know what that was!!! So i've always thought that my own son included other sensory information that was not relevant to the actual event. And that he sometimes makes unusual or unrelated connections between things. Also, in a different environment familiar things are not recognised. Sometimes this works in your favour ie. at a different house they eat food they won't eat anywhere else. Sometimes just 'knowing' that can help. And there could be associated environmental factors that you have never considered that might contribute towards either making mealtimes more or less successful. The only advice I can give is to never assume you are both working with the same knowledge base or sensory experiences or information processing. Try to ask direct questions to get answers from your son. As he gets older he maybe able to shed some light on the situation. For example if he eats shepherds pie in one environment, get some of that same shepherds pie and present it at home. If he refuses it explain it is 'the same' as the one he eats at XXX. If he still refuses ask him "is it different". And he may come out with some information that is unrelated to the food according to you, but in some way it is part of his food experience and is preventing him from eating the same food in a different environment.

I also always give my son a paper napkin and encourage him to try things. Sometimes that might be just smelling it, or letting his tongue touch it. But we have managed to move forward from that to eventually eat some different food groups.

As he doesn't like to get food on him, is he generally intolerant of messy play ie. putting his hands in sticky, wet, gloopy stuff? There could be some other sensory over sensitivities that are playing a part and are making him anxious about which has a knock on effect in avoiding certain food types. An experienced OT can work on this and introduce playing activities that can introduce the sensory experience outside of 'eating'. For example finger painting.

 

[sesley]

got him to eat some ice cream today he would only eat it in the park and in a cone,today,we were in Ullapool having a lunch, ice cream came with older bros menu,older bro did not want the ice cream,so he ate it out of a tub and thoroughly enjoyed it its little advances that show a glimmer of light though he is still very stubborn at home. It seems things look worth trying out rather than any home provided food.

[KezT]

WOW DS ate a spare rib last night!

 

he picked it up in his hands and bit it off the bone!!!!!!!!!!

 

It involved quite a lot of wet wipes, but still......... Azn we've only been "encouraging" him to try them for three years Guess what he said?

 

It was deleicious and can he have it again tomorrow hope he doesn't get to upset when we give him chicken tonight instead

[Mirabelle]

Our DD(12) is a very fussy eater, to put it mildly. She's vegetarian, but doesn't like cooked vegetables, only raw ones. She only likes one type of Quorn, the southern fried chicken-type burgers. And she'll have veggie frankfurters, but only in HM pastry. She used to have quorn ham in her packed lunch, or cheese, but has gone off of both. All she has now is dry baguette style rolls with squeezy marmite (if filled in advance it "goes soggy", no surprise with no butter etc). It's not just food, it's drink too. Currently, she'll only have peach flavoured water. And most difficultly, she'll go off all of these things in time and it'll be a real struggle to replace them with anything.

 

And so on, I could list a whole lot more. Basically, she doesn't like eating and drinking.