food issues

[jollypig]

how do you manage to get an autistic child to eat anything near a balanced diet ?

she wont tolerate "sloppy" food ie gravy /any kind of sauce/soup etc

add into the mix that she will eat if allowed one particular food constantly then will suddenly "hate" it and never want it again !

[justine1]

how do you manage to get an autistic child to eat anything near a balanced diet ?

she wont tolerate "sloppy" food ie gravy /any kind of sauce/soup etc

add into the mix that she will eat if allowed one particular food constantly then will suddenly "hate" it and never want it again !

Hi

My six year old is the same.He will not eat stews or have gravy on his roast dinner, but he eats quite a balanced diet.He was really bad as a baby until two years ago,I left my husband,me husband would "force" him to eat what was in front of him,it was not a nice experience.After I left Sam was more interested in food and actually was happy to try most foods.He had never eaten chinese food,vegetables and meat,now he does.

 

It may look odd when he has spaghetti with no bolognaise but I give him something on the side like fry up those cheap frying steaks and he loves carrots cooked and raw.He eats all fruits,but not keen on bananas cause its mushy.I have learnt not to cook him an entirely separate meal but I wont give him things he wont tolerate,like rice,so when we have fried rice with a chinese meal he wont eat the rice but he will have his sticky ribs(which is his fav at the moment)and chicken balls.So he is having what we have most times.

 

My four year old is far worse,he has been living on cereals and spaghetti(with his dads mince&sauce)for 18mths,before that he was going 6mths on just cereals.Yet his blood tests he just had came back quite normal (slight iron deficeincy)and he is spot on for his weight and height.So I guess we worry to much.

[baddad]

Hi jolly pig -

If you can find the episode on 'catch up' Jo Frost had a programme the other week with a kid who would only eat bread - well worth a watch.

Some of the 'tips' and a few of my own mixed in:

Sit at a table as a family.

Engage the child in preparing the food and laying the table, giving lots of praise etc as appropriate and allowing them to 'experiment' with ingredients - i.e tasting raw veg etc ('can you taste the difference?' is a great way of getting then to try the veg at the table if they've tasted it raw while cutting up)

Give one plate of food, the same thing everyone else is eating, and no alternatives - this includes giving biscuits/crisps etc an hour or so later because they 'must be starving' having not eaten.

Don't discuss food or make/allow to be made any issues surrounding food.

Don't force the issue or demand they eat everything on their plate

Enforce time out on the 'naughty step' for any unacceptable behaviours, always returning to the table afterwards.

If possible, ask friends of hers who don't have food issues around for meals and ask their parents to reciprocate occassionally - peer role models can make a HUGE difference.

Don't model any food issues of your own (are you 'on a diet' or a 'fussy eater' yourself? Moan about your weight/shape?)

Do not allow the child to leave the table until everyone else has finished and is ready to leave the table.

keep calm, cool and collected, however difficult it gets.

 

Hope that's helpful

 

L&P

 

BD

 

Oh PS: If you don't tackle this now it will get more and more ingrained/difficult, so if you say it's too hard/not working/different because she's autistic etc etc you'll be making a much bigger rod for your own back.

Edited May 8, 2010 by baddad

[jollypig]

thank for your replies, she is 13 so some advice ie naughty step is not an option, she does like to bake but anything resembling a meal is an issue, she will eat carrots + lettuce untill the cows come home .

[justine1]

Hi jolly pig -

If you can find the episode on 'catch up' Jo Frost had a programme the other week with a kid who would only eat bread - well worth a watch.

Some of the 'tips' and a few of my own mixed in:

Sit at a table as a family.

Engage the child in preparing the food and laying the table, giving lots of praise etc as appropriate and allowing them to 'experiment' with ingredients - i.e tasting raw veg etc ('can you taste the difference?' is a great way of getting then to try the veg at the table if they've tasted it raw while cutting up)

Give one plate of food, the same thing everyone else is eating, and no alternatives - this includes giving biscuits/crisps etc an hour or so later because they 'must be starving' having not eaten.

Don't discuss food or make/allow to be made any issues surrounding food.

Don't force the issue or demand they eat everything on their plate

Enforce time out on the 'naughty step' for any unacceptable behaviours, always returning to the table afterwards.

If possible, ask friends of hers who don't have food issues around for meals and ask their parents to reciprocate occassionally - peer role models can make a HUGE difference.

Don't model any food issues of your own (are you 'on a diet' or a 'fussy eater' yourself? Moan about your weight/shape?)

Do not allow the child to leave the table until everyone else has finished and is ready to leave the table.

keep calm, cool and collected, however difficult it gets.

 

Hope that's helpful

 

L&P

 

BD

 

Oh PS: If you don't tackle this now it will get more and more ingrained/difficult, so if you say it's too hard/not working/different because she's autistic etc etc you'll be making a much bigger rod for your own back.

I tried all of these things with both my boys.Sam will only eat at the table when eating thats where he feels comfortable and we have always eaten at a table even before the kids came,so it comes naturally to us.Sam is the type of child that you have to leave when he is ready to try something he will.He wouldnt touch certain foods when he was little though so preparing foods etc was nt an option but he does it now.

 

Dan on the other hand...My mother came here last year and she has many years experience so she worked through most these(and other)techniques and Dan tried new foods,not eating but tasting,then when she left(about 4 weeks later) we were about to move so he stopped eating/trying foods again and nothing has worked since.Now he can only sit with us for 5min max.He actually has his own table and chairs(meant to use it for his drawing)so he eats there most of the time.I try my best but there is only so much I can do.Naughty step doesnt work with him either cause he "makes himself" fall asleep,or when his time is up will come to the table and fall asleep!!!Even the school tried everything and again nothing worked,they are even baffled!!!

[KezT]

offer a balanced meal each time, but don't get stressed by what she does/doesn't actually put in her mouth.

 

most importantly, don't offer alternatives. if she ate nothing at lunch time, she just has to wait until supper is served, no matter how hungry she complains she is (unless advised she is worringly underweight in which case seek medical intervention).

 

As she is older it is harder to control, as she may get food from friends/shops etc. try explaining nutrition to her and the importance of a balanced diet - involve her in the choices.

[got the tshirt]

This is a challenge in our house to. I too only cook one meal and Dd3 is encouraged to try new things. She is actually not bad at trying new stuff because we have a rule that if you have tried something and don't like it you dont have to eat any more of it [ at that time]. My health visitor suggested to me to balance her diet through a week not a day and actually although her diet is quite resricted she does eat a variety of stuff through the week, we found this advice helpfull as it took some of the day to day pressure off. Most of all I would recommend making as little fuss a possible around food, especially at the age of your daughter as she maybe trying to assert herself and using food to do this. Good luck

[sesley]

because its one of our challenges that goes with constipation,because of his diet. My person won't eat fruit and veg and only eats veggies i hide in a basic mince ragu sauce,coloured red and with spices like chilli and cumin in. I have however manages to mix in marmite into it as well and he gives me thumbs up,if he likes the taste. My 10 year Asd person lives on baby textured food, no lumbs and to a specific formula. However i put a fish finger on his plate with chips and he ate half,though he liked it ,he said not with my chips You liked the taste i asked ? yes but not with my chips,ok i though on a seperate plate next time. i everyday that he will change and tuck into a juicy burger or pizza.

[chris54]

offer a balanced meal each time, but don't get stressed by what she does/doesn't actually put in her mouth.

 

most importantly, don't offer alternatives. if she ate nothing at lunch time, she just has to wait until supper is served, no matter how hungry she complains she is

 

In our case that just dont work.

 

Not so bad now he is older, but if there is something on the plate that is on the X list then the whole meal is rejected.

And as far as going hungry until the next meal, that is part of the problem in as much as our son does not seem to notice or maybe I should say register that what he is feeling is hunger, That what is needed to feel better is to eat. Once again as he is getting older this is less the case but as a baby if he was hunger he would not eat because of the discomfort he felt in being hunger. I know that all sounds back to front but that is how it was and still is to some extent.

 

He will at other times eat so much you wonder where it is all going.

 

Different foods must not touch each other on the plate, but he will often mix them up befor eating.

Often he will deconstruct a sandwich and eat the different elements separately.

Also he can be a very slow eater, I say can be, it is more a case of not keeping focused on what he should be doing, eating. If you dont keep an I on him you will realise that he has forgotten to eat and is just moving the food round the plate.

 

Fortunately all this is becoming less and less of a problem as time goes by.

 

Fortunately he has always liked fruit and veg (different one go in and out of favor) but not necessarily on the plate at meal times, some veg he will eat raw which to me would seem horrible, but if he want to eat them then I'm not going to stop him.

 

If we go to my wife mums, we always have a problem at meal times, when if we go to my sisters he will eat almost anything she puts in front of him. I think that is to do with the atmosphere in the house.

 

I cannot say that he has the same meal as us but I always incorporate some of what he has in our meal and some of what we have in his meal so there is some resemblance between what we all have on our plates, especially as my wife and myself like different things anyway. We have always sat at the table together, as soon as he was old enough to sit in a highchair he would be at the table at meal time with food in front of him.

 

Haven't got any answers, all you can do is try the suggestions that been made and see what, if any, works for you.

Edited May 9, 2010 by chris54

[Lynden]

Similar to Chris54, our LO doesn't register the sensation of hunger so leaving him till he is hungry is pointless. He's gone days without eating before, and if he is stressed at all, eating is the first thing that will stop. We have had huge issues with his weight in the past as he's dropped below the centiles a few times. He has prescription calcium supplements, and fortified juice so I know he is getting what he needs. I also think how you treat eating issues depends on where on the spectrum your child is and what their level of understanding is.

 

We do similar to sesley though and try and balance it over the course of a week. He has a very restricted diet, and it doesn't really fit in with family meals so although he sits at the table with us he rarely will eat the same as us.

 

Lynne

[darky]

I have had a tricky time with my daughter. She is 11 now and much more willing to try. She didn't like food with different textures like tomatos because they have a skin, and they have a squishy bit with seeds. Same with yogurts and bits. It was always difficult to get her sat down eating a varied meal, and it took a very long time to get her to. I am lucky in that she enjoys being involved, and doesn't read my intentions as trying to trick her. (I have noticed children sometimes do) So I get her helping me shop, weighing food which she loves, and helping me prepare food and answer any questions I could about where it all comes from.

 

I shamefully used to use my son, who was also eager to help prepare food, and he was always willing to try anything, and most of the time he used to do the hard work for me in the form of a bit of sybling rivalry. She didn't like being out done by her brother, so would often grab a bit and eat it just to annoy him I think Once she had eaten that, she was often willing to have a little on her plate, she may or may not eat it all, but accepting it on her plate and trying it was half the "battle" Even now, when I am preparing for example a salad, she will willingly eat lettuce and cucumber, but reluctantly tomato. So I give her the lettuce and cucumber, and more often than not, she will eat a bit of tomato when I am preparing it, and maybe a bit on her plate. It's all ongoing though. She will eat raw onion, but doesn't like cooked. She loves raw carrot, but hates cooked baby carrots, but the way I see it, she does actually eat carrots one way or another, she eats onions one way or another. When I was young, there was a lot I really didn't like, but as an adult I love. I do my best without making too much fuss, and actually my girl eats a more varied diet than I did. It's really tricky to try different things all the time without making too much fuss about it. Jo Frost really does have some brilliant tips to get children eating well. On Embarrassing Bodies not so long ago they showed a young boy who had sensory related food issues and how they helped the family. You might get some tips from the website. One other tip, I found home made pizzas a wonderful way of trying new foods. My girl is quite creative and loves decorating her own pizzas. I chop up lots of different veg, she chooses what she wants. Colour and artwork means more than taste to her in the end. She is very proud of her creations, as long as Mum is prepared to try some!

[jollypig]

thank for all your replies- she can go all day without eating and appears not to feel hungry ever !she regularly brings her packed lunch home uneaten but wont go back to having school lunch although she has said if we get her into the special school she will try school dinners.