Published on 12, July, 2020
My daughter Paige is 23 now and she has always found eating difficult, in the sense that she’s not adventurous when eating as she’s afraid foods she doesn’t know will make her sick, and that if for one reason or another she feels unwell or has an effect after eating a food that particular food is put on to her “forbidden” list, never to be eaten ever again. Now Paige eats very little other than sandwiches, cheese, hot dogs in rolls and until recently tomato soup. The soup recently caused her heartburn so that has now also been added to her forbidden list.
Paige is not eating enough and I’m worried that she’s going to make herself very sick in the end. I’ve expressed my concerns to her but she says she’s too scared to try new foods or the foods that made her feel weird. I am worried and I don’t know how to help her with this. She won’t see her gp or anybody else about it. Please help me.
That what Cassandro said about seeing a dietician is a very good idea, I didn't know eating disorders came within their parish. I thought of a few other things that might be useful. I've no experience of this myself, mind you, though it's not the first time I've heard about it.
I put together a long sheet of advice the other day for an adult with autism who was struggling with talking to their doctor, based on my own extensive experience, and someone who'd had the same problem said it was good, so maybe some of it will be useful for making it easier for Paige to see a doctor. Here's the link: https://community.autism.org.uk/f/health-and-wellbeing/18887/pain/143937#143937
It's common, for some reason, for people with autism to have temperamental digestive systems. (Maybe you already know that, I don't know.) Not everyone, mine's fine, but a disproportionate number of people. So it's quite possible she does have something the matter with it that a doctor might be able to do something for. It might be that there isn't and she's just paranoid, of course, but it might well not be.
In the meantime, she should take a daily multivitamin. Unless what's in the sandwiches is something with a lot of vitamin C, she could literally get scurvy on that diet, like an old-time sailor. (Yes, this is occasionally known to happen, in people who eat nothing but junk food and things out of packets - doctors call it "bachelor's scurvy". Don't panic, it takes at least a month without vitamin C to develop any symptoms, but it does happen). That won't cover everything, of course - the fact that it seems to be simply not enough calories, for one thing - but it'll buy time for experimenting at her own pace. (It's OK, I've never heard of multivitamins making anyone sick.) If she is short of some things (iron too, maybe), she might actually feel stronger for putting that right and better able to face different foods and/or visits to doctors.
Discuss with her what she'll do if she does feel sick. Remember, it won't do her any actual harm, and she'll be back to normal within a day, or two at the outside. The human digestive system is very tough indeed and can handle most things. For a few years I was violently sick at least once nearly every week, as part of a migraine attack. I stopped bothering about it pretty quickly - in fact I'd get impatient for it to happen, since once I'd been sick the headache would go away!
If she does start to feel sick, Healthspan do these peppermint oil capsules that are absolutely magical at that. The instructions say to take one a day, but I think that must be for something else - I just take one capsule as needed if I feel sick, and it goes away. She might have a bit more courage to try things if she knew there was something she could do about it if she did feel sick. I don't know if other forms of peppermint like mint tea or mint humbugs work be as effective, I haven't tried. Actually, Zipvit do them too and Zipvit deliver particularly fast, which you might want if you're in a hurry. Note that Zipvit's peppermint capsules are half the strength of Healthspan's and say to take two at a time. Here's the links if you want them, and for multivitamins too while I'm at it, although your local chemist probably has those.
https://www.healthspan.co.uk/products/peppermint-oil
https://www.healthspan.co.uk/shop/vitamins-and-supplements/multivitamins
https://www.zipvit.co.uk/catalogsearch/result/?q=peppermint
https://www.zipvit.co.uk/category-a-z/multivitamins.html
People with autism often have to spend a lot of time forcing themselves to get used to things they hate, because they need to do them or just because people say they ought to do them because they're "normal" things to do, and they get to expect that. So remind her that this one might actually be OK, in fact probably will. Most of the foods she's been avoiding may actually be safe and it was something else that upset her stomach last time she ate them - something else she'd eaten, or some germs she'd swallowed somehow that were a fluke and wouldn't normally be there, or anything. She'd feel a bit silly if she avoided something nice to eat for weeks or months and there was actually nothing wrong with it.
By all means pass on any or all of this message to her if you think it'll help.