Published on 12, July, 2020
My son was diagnosed with autism last year and I'm new to this forum. I would really appreciate some advice on how to make meal times less stressful.
He tends to prefer soft foods and doesn't like things mixed up (so a casserole which has meat and veg in a sauce is a no go). Meat and veg separated on the plate seems work better; but actually he really struggles with eating veg; he doesn't like the textures. So if we insist he eats even a piece now, he screws up his face and looks like he wants to be sick and can go into meltdown...
Fruit is not such a problem luckily (but he will only suck the juice out of satsumas/clementines pieces - doesn't like the skin) and pears need to be peeled. The texture of food really does cause problems for him.
We've recently tried putting the food into dishes (rather than plating up for him), so he can help himself, in the hope that it would make things less stressful for him; but now he really will only choose the meat or pasta (beige food) with mayonnaise!
So my question is, if he eats meat, fruit, lots of milk/yoghurts, bread/pasta, but pretty much no vegetables should we just let him be? It's tricky because we don't want his younger sister who is 3 to be influenced by his habits. And ideally don't really want to be cooking different meals for them both.
I think he is generally healthy, but worried he might not be getting enough vitamins etc. I guess we could give him some supplements, but not sure what?
Any advice, greatly received. Thanks :)
I would say let him be. Don’t make mealtimes stressful.
Fruit, meat and milk is enough.
Does he like soup?
My older son has extremely limited diet.
He eats: milk chocolate, toast and butter, Philadelphia cheese, marmite and plain or chocolate covered biscuits. He drinks tap water only. That’s it. He is 11. He eats half of the bread loaf for lunch at school, the other half is for breakfast and dinner. He never ate meat, fruit or veg in his life. Never ate hot dinner.
My younger one is very picky eater and doesn’t eat any vegetables or pasta but loves fruit and meat. He is perfectly fine.
My older one (when he was about 4) had a period of being extremely tired and GP referred as to dietician but she said not to worry too much (his weight and height was ok). We did a blood test and it turned out he had iron deficiency. Since then he gets vitamin supplements (with iron) But since yours eats meat and fruit I wouldn’t worry about it (unless he’s extremely tired all the time)
Both of my boys are healthy and my only concern is now that my older one is often hungry (how many bread will he end up eating?♀️)
Thanks! Sounds like you might need a bread maker lol!
He used to like soup, but not so much now unfortunately. I did consider blending some veg to make a pasta sauce, but I imagine he’d only end up eating a very small amount of it or would try to wipe it off the pasta!
He’s not overtired, but good to know to watch out for iron deficiency.
thanks!