Hi, my 11 year old son was diagnosed with Autism last year after years of waiting and assessments.
My sons diet and the range of food he eats isn't good. He sticks to 1 - 3 meals. His "meal" at the moment is frozen cheese garlic bread. I am really struggling to get him to eat different things and wondered if anyone had any suggestions on meals I could try him with?
Thanks in advance.
Hi, I am autistic and one of my 3 meals a day consists of either yeast free flatbread heated up under the grill and then covered with garlic and baked over with cheese (I also like rosemary with it), occasionally I toast/grill pumpernickel bread, or dry cracker bread with cheese slices. I also like pasta baked over with cheese, especially when the pasta becomes crunchy. Another crunchy food I like are lentil crisps.
Maybe you could experiment with trying to offer different types of the same thing, "bread", whether there are any types that are less fatty and salty and have more fibre. I use about 1/3 brown pasta, the rest white one.
My parents offered a lot of food at the dinner table and hoped we would gradually just join in if we noticed something that met our texture preferences and taste preferences. I found a taste for in particular oats (one can also make them crunchy in a pan), and for rice, which one can also make really nice crunchy with eggs and curry in a pan. You could do cheese fondue or baguette baked over with cheese in the oven. Then you can try bread that is not made of 100% white flour.
One can make own pizza on a flatbread. Some people like pizza bread with either garlic and olive oil or tomato passata and olive oil. It is so dry that it will crunch which was really important to me (and still is).
I do sneak vegetables in, like cocktail tomatoes, when they are sweet and sweet bell pepper, like yellow or orange ones, all cut into tiny cubes and added onto the crunchy bread base, but that is a delicate matter to find what an autistic person might like. If one likes it sweet, carrot pieces and sweetcorn are options to add. Corn can be nice popped in a pot as well. Better to taste vegetables separately, outside the actual meal, before adding any, and not unexpectedly.
Sometimes I also top my bread with a bit of cooked rice and well cooked lentils or chickpeas. These are harder to digest, though, and might lead to unpleasant flatulence.
Fruit that are too sour or too sweet have been unappealing for me. Not fully ripe bananas are my to go fruit.
Walnuts fresh out of the shell are my preferred nut. They are buttery mild with a gentle bitter taste, what I like. Cashew are possibly more for people who like it sweeter and buttery.
I also like different salads, just adding leaves to my bread or noodles or rice, from a separate plate.
It is important for me to not have things mixed on a plate, but put my bits together myself and keep them separate. Maybe pop a bowl with washed ready to eat different green leaves on the dinner table and take from eat yourself and see how it goes. But I think at that age most children do not appreciate greens that much.
When somebody likes soups that is another option. One of my other meals is always a soup like consistency. When one likes a soup stock from the spicy taste, one can vary the contents, and anything can go in, peas, corn, lentils, egg etc. I like having a nice liquid and then visible different bits in it and one can of course also use croutons (possibly at the less healthy end). Some people prefer smooth thick soups where everything is mixed. Then one can have soups based on pumpkins, peas, sweet potatoes etc. Maybe worth a try to produce one and see whether that is appealing when he watches you eating.
I would not thematise the topic, we never did and it made it more relaxed and one needs to feel relaxed to eat well. When one feels anxious or stressed, that seems to end the appetite.
Wishing you a lot of luck and success and either way enjoy having a varied dinner table even if that did not tempt you son at this time.
Hi, I am autistic and one of my 3 meals a day consists of either yeast free flatbread heated up under the grill and then covered with garlic and baked over with cheese (I also like rosemary with it), occasionally I toast/grill pumpernickel bread, or dry cracker bread with cheese slices. I also like pasta baked over with cheese, especially when the pasta becomes crunchy. Another crunchy food I like are lentil crisps.
Maybe you could experiment with trying to offer different types of the same thing, "bread", whether there are any types that are less fatty and salty and have more fibre. I use about 1/3 brown pasta, the rest white one.
My parents offered a lot of food at the dinner table and hoped we would gradually just join in if we noticed something that met our texture preferences and taste preferences. I found a taste for in particular oats (one can also make them crunchy in a pan), and for rice, which one can also make really nice crunchy with eggs and curry in a pan. You could do cheese fondue or baguette baked over with cheese in the oven. Then you can try bread that is not made of 100% white flour.
One can make own pizza on a flatbread. Some people like pizza bread with either garlic and olive oil or tomato passata and olive oil. It is so dry that it will crunch which was really important to me (and still is).
I do sneak vegetables in, like cocktail tomatoes, when they are sweet and sweet bell pepper, like yellow or orange ones, all cut into tiny cubes and added onto the crunchy bread base, but that is a delicate matter to find what an autistic person might like. If one likes it sweet, carrot pieces and sweetcorn are options to add. Corn can be nice popped in a pot as well. Better to taste vegetables separately, outside the actual meal, before adding any, and not unexpectedly.
Sometimes I also top my bread with a bit of cooked rice and well cooked lentils or chickpeas. These are harder to digest, though, and might lead to unpleasant flatulence.
Fruit that are too sour or too sweet have been unappealing for me. Not fully ripe bananas are my to go fruit.
Walnuts fresh out of the shell are my preferred nut. They are buttery mild with a gentle bitter taste, what I like. Cashew are possibly more for people who like it sweeter and buttery.
I also like different salads, just adding leaves to my bread or noodles or rice, from a separate plate.
It is important for me to not have things mixed on a plate, but put my bits together myself and keep them separate. Maybe pop a bowl with washed ready to eat different green leaves on the dinner table and take from eat yourself and see how it goes. But I think at that age most children do not appreciate greens that much.
When somebody likes soups that is another option. One of my other meals is always a soup like consistency. When one likes a soup stock from the spicy taste, one can vary the contents, and anything can go in, peas, corn, lentils, egg etc. I like having a nice liquid and then visible different bits in it and one can of course also use croutons (possibly at the less healthy end). Some people prefer smooth thick soups where everything is mixed. Then one can have soups based on pumpkins, peas, sweet potatoes etc. Maybe worth a try to produce one and see whether that is appealing when he watches you eating.
I would not thematise the topic, we never did and it made it more relaxed and one needs to feel relaxed to eat well. When one feels anxious or stressed, that seems to end the appetite.
Wishing you a lot of luck and success and either way enjoy having a varied dinner table even if that did not tempt you son at this time.
