Published on 12, July, 2020
Hi , my little boy who is 6 and has autism is very overweight . We have had to buy him age 10-11 elasticacted school trousers. I feel awful , I know he has such an issue with food and that he only eats a handful of things but most are the wrong things, he hasn't really wanted do much through the holidays, he has been swimming a few times and just explodes if things don't go his way. I feel exhausted all the time and to be honest I give in to him very easy. I know all the things I should do , for one not buy the pigging stuff. (Crisps and chocolate biscuits) .
i suppose I just wondered if anyone who had been through the same and could give me any strategies that they had used to help their children.
I feel like a complete failure as a mum , I'm supposed to be giving him the best in life instead I'm turning him into an overweight little boy who will probably end up with health problems if I don't handle it now. His waist measures 31 inches , which shocked the hell out of me.
sorry for going on and Thankyou for reading
Hi,
You're not a failure. He needs to eat, and I imagine if your child will only eat fattening things you'd feel there isn't much you can do. Food issues are common with children on the spectrum, I had them myself. Apparently, and I didn't know this until quite recently, I started refusing to eat a lot of things when we all went away to celebrate my grandparents' golden wedding anniversary. I was too young to remember that, but I do remember not wanting to eat anything I was given when I was a little older.
For a long time I'd only eat the outsides of things, and I think as long as I'd eaten something my mum was happy. But she started encouraging me to eat the insides of things too. I remember her cutting up sausages into tiny pieces, and I think I took to that well.
I'm still a very fussy eater at 18. Annoyingly, most of the things the rest of my family enjoys make my stomach turn just looking at them, but at least I eat now. Don't worry. You'll get through it.