Trying Food

Like with many autism things, the research has been done on children, so a lot of this refers to 'children'. I apologise for that. Ignore it though it works for adults too.

OK, so this is a very in depth booklet that might be a bit overwhelming: https://keltyeatingdisorders.ca/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/CBT-AR_workbook_12.4.18.pdf but you could definitely work through

this is a good article you may find useful on someone else who has been on this journey

https://www.autism.org.uk/advice-and-guidance/professional-practice/autism-eating 

This is a shorter guide for teens that I think is a good one to self guide with:

https://youngwomenshealth.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Food-Chaining-for-ARFID.pdf 

In short, there are two main techniques for food widening. The 'food hierarchy' and 'food chaining' and these work best if you combine them.

Food chaining works around using foods that are similar to foods you already can eat. 

So for example you might already be able to eat oven chips, from which you could try mostly oven chips with one 1 hash brown (using the food hierarchy if necessary) and then maybe try some loosely crushed potatoes

Food hierarchy works on the steps it takes to actually eat a food, from tolerating its presence in the room to eating it. It can be split into 5 steps with 12 or 32 sub steps. 

The 5 main steps are 

Tolerate 

Smell

Touch

Taste

Eat

The 12 smaller steps, which I prefer personally

1. Tolerate food in the same room

2. Tolerate food on table

3. Tolerate food on plate

4. Touch food and throw away

5. Smell food and throw away

6. Kiss food and throw away

7. Lick food and throw away

8. Lick food x times and throw away (usually 5 times, but work up)

9. Break food with teeth and throw away

10. Chew food x times and throw again (again work up)

11. Eat a small piece

12. Eat an entire piece

A really important aspect is also keeping the food in your diet once you are prepared to eat it. If you don't use it you lose it.

Something mentioned in the article of someone's experience is that relaxing methods like breathing exercises, mindfulness, or distraction can be useful to combat the anxiety when acting with new foods

Feel free to ask questions, that was an info dump sorry it's the autism 

Like with many autism things, the research has been done on children, so a lot of this refers to 'children'. I apologise for that. Ignore it though it works for adults too.

OK, so this is a very in depth booklet that might be a bit overwhelming: https://keltyeatingdisorders.ca/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/CBT-AR_workbook_12.4.18.pdf but you could definitely work through

this is a good article you may find useful on someone else who has been on this journey

https://www.autism.org.uk/advice-and-guidance/professional-practice/autism-eating 

This is a shorter guide for teens that I think is a good one to self guide with:

https://youngwomenshealth.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Food-Chaining-for-ARFID.pdf 

In short, there are two main techniques for food widening. The 'food hierarchy' and 'food chaining' and these work best if you combine them.

Food chaining works around using foods that are similar to foods you already can eat. 

So for example you might already be able to eat oven chips, from which you could try mostly oven chips with one 1 hash brown (using the food hierarchy if necessary) and then maybe try some loosely crushed potatoes

Food hierarchy works on the steps it takes to actually eat a food, from tolerating its presence in the room to eating it. It can be split into 5 steps with 12 or 32 sub steps. 

The 5 main steps are 

Tolerate 

Smell

Touch

Taste

Eat

The 12 smaller steps, which I prefer personally

1. Tolerate food in the same room

2. Tolerate food on table

3. Tolerate food on plate

4. Touch food and throw away

5. Smell food and throw away

6. Kiss food and throw away

7. Lick food and throw away

8. Lick food x times and throw away (usually 5 times, but work up)

9. Break food with teeth and throw away

10. Chew food x times and throw again (again work up)

11. Eat a small piece

12. Eat an entire piece

A really important aspect is also keeping the food in your diet once you are prepared to eat it. If you don't use it you lose it.

Something mentioned in the article of someone's experience is that relaxing methods like breathing exercises, mindfulness, or distraction can be useful to combat the anxiety when acting with new foods

Feel free to ask questions, that was an info dump sorry it's the autism 

WOW!!! Thanks, I will look at all of these!