My autistic daughter won’t eat

My daughter is 6 in couple months. She’s hard to feed & prefers to eat sweets. Recently she’s refused to eat anything at all. She won’t even be persuaded with her favourite sweets to have something decent to eat. All she wants to do is to play her iPad. I give her laxido regularly cause she gets very constipated. She likes her chewable multivitamins. I also give her chewable iron & probiotic. I tried to give her Fybogel Hi-Fibre hoping that might regulate her gut but she hates taste of it. It’s so worrying. She can go without anything in her stomach for days. I’d appreciate any advice. Thank you 

  • I wish I could offer more advice but can only think of my childhood and trying to express my distress over food. I really hope you find a way to make mealtimes so much better for both of you. Please do not give up and keep trying and let us know how you get on.

  • Thank you for your reply and advice. And for sharing your own experience. It really helps to know how my daughter might be feeling. Her communication skills are the issue as well as last time she wouldn’t eat, we discovered she has got wobbly teeth, which must’ve caused her discomfort. She doesn’t communicate her needs. It’s really hard to know what is wrong with her. Thank you again for sharing and taking time to reply. I much appreciate it 

  • Thank you for your reply and advice. On few occasions school managed to get her to eat more in couple days than what she had at home for the whole week. She must be feeding on me stressing. I will try to make meals more fun. Thank you 

  • What appears to be fussy eating is not unusual in autistic people.  I am now in my sixties and retired and still do not eat what could be described as anything like a normal diet.  The smell, the texture and the colour/appearance put me off.  My mum was very worried about me, she even tried putting food in front of me and not letting me have anything else.  When I refused it was served up at the next meal, then the next and so on.  She gave in before I did.

    I would go home at school lunch time.  Sometimes I would only have a bowl of custard.  Eventually even that was crossed off!  I survived mostly on bread and jam, but there were other things I would eat such as a boiled egg or fish and chips which were served up once a week.  I would also eat some breakfast cereals which still sometimes make up my meals for the day.

    Is there anything your daughter will eat?  If she will eat bland stuff like bread she will not starve.  Cheese? Fruit? Raw vegetables ( I would eat raw cabbage and carrots). Chips?  Jacket potato.?  Breakfast cereal?  Porridge?  I consider myself easy to feed because someone could serve me up a couple of pieces of bread and some blackcurrant jam and I'd be well pleased.  Find out what she will eat and do the best you can with that.  Supplement with vitamins but don't overdo them, keeping to the dose.  And plenty of fresh air and play. 

    Any food at all is far preferable to nothing.  And be careful about hiding something in other food, or saying something is something else to what it is.  I was served up stewed rhubarb and told it was red apple.  I didn't eat either rhubarb or apple after that!

  • Hello,

    I am an adult and have the same issues and I only eat a limited selection of foods. It is such a difficult issue as I found it hard as a child to describe my sensory problems with textures and flavours. My grandmother got me to eat mashed potatoes by making it in to a ritual where we made faces in the mash so maybe this is a way to resolve the problem? I wish you well and hope your daughter eats something.

  • Thank you so much for sharing your experience and advice. 

  • i’ve been like this and had an emergency referral to CAMHS because i nearly died as a result of stopping eating. i would say contact your GP as soon as, because it’s serious. i didn’t start eating again until i wasn’t as stressed (my main stress was school)