Hi am new and surrounded by ASD but need urgent advice about my toddler

Hi I am married to my hubby who has recently been diagnosed with ASD and also it's possible my 12 yr old girl has ASD and Dyspraxia.

but my urgent concern is my toddler has been to see a Paed and he reckons that my boy has some strong Autistic traits.

he has some real issues with foods and he has dropped a couple of centiles and we suspect that he only likes food for example bread,biscuits,grapes and banannas. We've only just realised that he chucks most of his dinner on the floor.

REALLY REALLY need some advice and help!!!!!!

  • Most professionals don't understand autism. Wink Trust your instincts.

  • Hi today has been stress free at mealtimes we gave him dry cereal for breakfast which he loved,banana and crisps for lunch and he ate that and for dinner I offered him sausage,raw pepper,grated carrot and bread and butter. He ate the sausage and bread but not the veg he would chew it a couple of times and then spit it out he played with the carrot and pepper so we thought it best to let him play with it. 

    He also had a couple of biscuits mid morning and afternoon and a milkshake first thing and last thing at night. He also had some grapes after lunch and dinner as well. 

    We found that he doesn't like yoghurt or any food that's til wet or slimey.

    I hadn't thought of probiotic yoghurt drinks but will prob replace one of his milk drinks with that. 

    Couldnt Beleive how easy meal times were today will carry on the way were going and when we get next appt with Paeds then will mention it.

    I don't want to say much about it to my health visitor as she comes across as someone who doesn't understand ASD.

  • Can't better the advice given above.  You could also try blending/liquidising veggies into smoothies and you can mix fruit in to make it sweeter.  Carrot in smoothies is always yummy.  Does he like yogurts?  You could get the yogurts with added friendly bacteria to ensure his stomach is healthy.  It may be more about the textures than the tastes, so if he will only eat things liquidised that's better than not eating at all.

  • Hi, sorry to hear about your toddler's poor weight gain.  My older son also had eating issues - we thought it was a different cause but now I think a lot of it is sensory and possibly related to his (as yet undiagnosed) ASD.

    Things we found helpful were...

    - ignoring all heathly eating advice, eating anything was better than nothing.  we added vitamins to his bedtime milk to try to round things out, but if he wanted to eat nothing but pasta and biscuits for a week at least something was going in.

    - having strict rules about eating main course before he got pudding

    - using a lot of toddler jar food as the taste and lumpiness is consistent each time.  we even used stage 1 baby food if he would eat it.  smooth chocolate pudding was a favourite motivator

    - using counting to sooth him, e.g we will do 10 spoonfuls.  here is number 1, now there are 9 left. etc etc.  as a side effect his numeracy skills are phenomonal after a year or two of doing that at every meal!

    - using messy play to desensitise against slimy textures.  jelly is good, cooked pasta, cornflour and water, etc.

    - encouraging him to at least touch the food even if he would not eat it. its the first stage towards putting it in the mouth.

    - using dietary supplements which were prescribed, my son had high fat toddler milk (Infatrini)

    Good luck and I hope you get some good advice that works for you.