eating

[nicki41971]

Hi, can anybody give me a bit of advice please? i now know that limited diets is another problem that can come with ASD but is there anyway of it getting better?? My son 2.5yrs is such a fussy eater he generally eats bread (toast for bekkie, dairlea sand for lunch, bread & butter for tea) don't get me wrong i don't just give him this, i do put proper dinner in front of him every night, we all sit around the table as a family etc etc but nothing seems to work, we have stopped giving him the bread at most dinner times but this means that he goes from lunch till breakfast the next day without eating anything. he has very little else. sometimes he'll have a pack crisps after sandwich, & maybe an ice pop during day but thats about it ( unless we go to bakers then he'll have a cinamin whirl!!!!! ) he does seem to have plenty of energy though & is growing well buuuttttt. Anyway does anyone know if they go through this when he starts his therapys etc or is it something you just have to put up with?? i'm gratefull for any advice you can throw at me.

[Paula]

Id try not to worry too much.

 

My son is now 12 and he went through a stage when younger of only eating ready brek and sandwiches if i was lucky.Now hell sit down and eat a full sunday roast dinner and even gives vegtables a try.

 

His odd early diet and subsequent limited diet has done him no harm.Hes a great big strapping lad almost as tall as his dad.

 

He still likes odd combinations though like chips dipped in milk and grapes in tomatoe soup.But at least hes eating grapes.

[Bullet]

Ds1 is ok with tastes, quite adventurous sometimes, but he rejects any crunchy textures and also any fruit unless it's pulverised. He's also decided to start eating with his hands. Perfectly capable of using a fork or spoon, but he just scoops the food onto it and then takes it off with his hands. This is everything - yoghurts, weetabix, baked beans. Ohhh, the mess

I am of the opinion that as he's eating the food, not to stress about the small issue of HOW he eats it.

As for mixing food types together, I never knew that could be an ASD characteristic, but I still do this! Not as much as when I was a child (bananas and mustard was one concoction), but I still love experimenting with different combinations.

[justamom]

My son was very much like Paulas, started off a extremely fussy eater and its gotten better over time. He used to eat so much butternut and carrots when a baby that he actually turned orange (Betacarrotein something or other). I used to worry too but I just made myself ill and ended up making about 4different meals just to get him to eat something.

 

He is still very fussy and smells and the look of food but get better with age...

 

justamom

[jb1964]

Justamom,

 

Just like the other posters, my daughter was extremely picky with foods up until the age of around 10 and has been monitored for both her height and weight because of the amount she eats - she's now 12. We used to give her 'Build-up' for added vitamins etc.

 

She will now try different foods - and will eat a small range of veg and other foods that I never thought would get passed her lips. She was 4 stone at the beginning of last year - and has put on a whopping 1 stone in the past 12 months which I'm over the moon with.

 

I think from other posts as well as our own experience it does get better as they get older, good luck.

 

Jb.

[sue1957]

Had the same problem with my son. It stopped when we changed his toothpaste, he is VERY sensitive to fluoride. (Our water isn't fluoridated). Within a few days he started to be a lot less rigid with what he was eating (it previously had to be white bread, every speck of crust removed, etc). He started eating a much wider range of foods, and as a bonus he became much less light sensitive as well.

[Lynden]

Hi Nicki

 

Logan is identical. His diet is horrendous and we have been referred to a dietician who couldn't really help as we were giving him the right things, he just wouldn't eat. Textures are a big thing with Logan so he likes crunchy things, dry cereal, crisps, apples etc.

 

He hates bland food, and will eat the likes of spag bol if its really flavoured. Otherwise we just persevere. We keep trying him every meal time and hope that one day it'll finally work and he'll eat properly.

 

It is a worry for me because he's already been referred to a specialist for his weight and got signed off the end of last year, and then he's gone and lost 1lb again so now he's exactly the same weight as he was at a year old (he lost then regained).

 

Lynne

Edited March 24, 2006 by LLaverty

[melly]

The small boy is also down to the weight he was when he was just over 1. I spent a week worrying about it but have come to the conclusion that it can be an aspect of ASD, as all the other posts show. And we just have to keep persevering (sp?).

 

There are vitamins and mineral, build up drinks, calcium suppliments etc if ness, but it sound like its just something that has the potential to get better with time. I would imadgine as they get older and can explain what it is they like or don't like, ie texture, colour, wrong combinations etc our lives will get better.

 

Good luck tho!

[Stephanie]

Hi Nicki

 

I posted a similar post ... about the same thing, only my son is 5, he just eats bread stuff too. He has been fussy since he was 2 years old. Other foods have been and gone but the bread (toasted for 3 years, but now he is off that and has moved on to sandwiches with dairylea or sweet fillings) is the main food. If we run out of bread in this house - CRISIS! He just eats rubbish, it really bothers me.

 

Does your child have red ears??

 

GF/CF diet is something I am looking into but he is too fussy to go on it right now.

 

I had some great advice on my post, check it out.

[nicki41971]

Hello again & thank you for your responses, another thing with this eating lark is out of all 4 of my kids he was the one that would try different things when he was about a year old, he ate quite well back then, the only thing he couldn't seem to do is the going on from pureed food to food that was a bit lumpy we kept trying to introduce it but it was no good. He would eat finger food though & things like pasta, spag bol, etc anything that he could scoop up himself. So what happened to make it stop, how did he go from that to virtually nothing but bread, i could count the amount of different things (nothing in dinner type foods) he eats on my fingers & still have some fingers left over!! I hope they do get a bit better with time as there is nothing healthy in his diet (he used to eat fruit pureed or normal the normal went but he would still eat the pureed (4 mth food) but recently he started refusing that so eats nothing healthy at all) i've tried giving him vitamins in his milk (he has a bit before he goes to bed) but he seems to know & refuses it, he only drinks water so can't put it in there. Oh the joys, he also gets constipated on & of with loose bowels in between so i'm thinking that has to be because of his diet!! oh what to do !!! sorry thats what i feel like i'm doing does anyone else feel like this?

[Stephanie]

Yep, I know where you are coming from.

 

It is very common for ASD children to be good eaters up until they reach 2 or so - mine used to eat anything but now there are about 10 things he eats and he refuses to try anything new.

 

Have you spoken to your HV about it. mine visited with a Nutritionalist - and gave some really good advice on things to do (she helped me move him on to sandwiches to prepare for school because there is no way he would eat school dinners).

 

I am dreading Easter - going to my "supercook" sisters ... I know all he will eat will be sandwiches (and easter eggs) for 3 days. My family dont know he has ASD so they think he is the fussiest kid in the world and that I am the worlds worst mother for feeding him rubbish all the time! The pressure is really on.

 

Have you looked into food intolerances or the GF/CF diet? I am doing so at the moment, there seems to be a lot in it. I am looking at making small changes like moving to Jersey milk and swapping to pineapple and pear juices rather than apple or citrus. Small steps, I know.

 

You tried your son with the chewy vitamins ABCE?? or the teddy bear gummy packets from Boots? My son loves those, he also has an Eye Q Smooth everyday (yuck!) .. as he has never tried fish, he can't make a comparison with the taste.

 

If he eats yoghurts, you could try stirring vitamin drops in those.