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
Just one thing to add. Eating disorders and autism go together A LOT.
People think eating disorders are just anorexia and bulimia, but there are lots of others including a binge eating disorder and comfort eating.
I was taken with the part where you said your littel boy took the sausage out of the sausage roll. It is most common for comfort eating to involve startchy foods like pastry, bread, chips, rice, pasta, crisps etc. with a fatty savoury addition like butter, cheese etc. The body gets a "comforting" feeling from these type of food, a true physiological response, and the more this response is achieved, by eating more of these, the stronger the addiction to the foods.
I fully realise that because your son is so young it will be very difficult to change things, however, using more protein can help (it willl take the body about a week to start to lose the craving for the feeling). Also, bear in mind that many people with autism are super tasters and vegetables, especially for children can have way too strong a flavour. If he can eat one or two of the milder vegetables that's enough for now.
I hope this reply is of some help. Maybe you can find out if it is some sort of comfort eating.
Lastly, remember that physical exercise is for health and fun not for weight loss. No-one will lose weight from physical exercise unless you are training as a professional athlete would do (physiologists are always trying to impress this fact on doctors and weight loss peddlars). Only reducing food intake will reduce weight.