Published on 12, July, 2020
Hi,
I am new to this forum. My daughter is 4 years old and was diagnosed with autism in July 2011.
She has an extreemly restricted diet and up to 3 weeks ago would only eat Petits Filous Yogurts and Biscuits (Heinz Biscotti, and Tesco Rich Tea).
Petits Filous have recently changed their packaging and now she will only eat Hinz Biscotti and Tesco Rich Tea biscuits.
However, she has began to eat less and less biscuits as the days have progressed and today has only eaten about 10 biscuits all day.
She drinks robinsons squash reguarly. We do give her minadex but this has recently been discontinued.
I really need some advice, I know that autistic children have restricted diets but I havent been able to find example of any that are this restrictive.
She seems extreemly tired, she was full of energy before when she ate the yogurts but now she looks very pale and is losing weight. She starts school in 2 weeks at an autistic resource base school but I'm worried she wont have the energy.
I have booked an appointment to see the GP on Monday to discuss any suppliments such as meal replacement drink that we could possibly give her but these would need to be mixed in with her orange squash so they couldnt be milkshake based and I dont know if supplement drinks exist which are fruit juice/squash based??
My health visitor is out of her depth and says they cant help and our local dietician says their refferal list is closed due to too many cases.
I have got a paediatrician appointment on the 5th October but this is quite a time away yet.
Thanks for reading this,
Please help, I dont know what to do......?
Might be worth trying to find a corner shop or similar that has some old stock of Petit Filous in the old packaging then spooning the new stuff in before giving it to her? If you spoke to the company they might be able to give you some of the old artwork to modify a new pot...
Longer term, we had a nightmare with our son's diet - not that he wouldn't eat things but that he just WOULDN'T feed himself anything at all (at the age of 3+). In the end, we got help from a specialist nurse attached to a clinic at Leeds General Informary that supported children with eating problems of all kinds. She was brilliant! One thing she suggested that worked fantastically for us was starting with something he really liked and then gradually moving outwards in a spiral to get to unfamiliar foods. For example, after accepting it on a spoon, he eventually agreed to pick up and eat a fragment of chocolate button, then half a button, then a whole button, then a chocolate star, then half a piece of chocolate, then chocolate cake, then a small chocolate biscuit, etc, etc. It was slow and frustrating for the first 6-8 weeks and then it was like the damn opened and he was off!
2 other things you might like to try: Firstly, grade some common food from 1-10, where 1 is something she'd never touch and 10 is something she'd definitely eat. Sometime that *isn't* a mealtime (so there's less pressure all round), offer her a food that you've rated as a "9", and if she tries it, she immediately gets a "10" food as a reward (and make the deal clear).
Secondly, a "treat bag" wth different treats that aren't normally available to her (watching a favourite DVD, playing a game, going for a swim, etc) and she gets to pick one out for trying (NOT necessarily eating) a new food.
I would add that for us, we are able to insist that our son tries a food (he is very intelligent and open to negotiation). Not that he eats more than a tiny bit, but that he gives it a go. He gets lavish praise when he does, and he has gradually accepted that we won't push it too far in one go - we are really still spiralling outwards from the foods he does like. He will also eat more if we have a "picnic", which can be on the floor in the living room but he still loves, and if we eat the same food together.
Good luck - food is SUCH an emotive issue!