Published on 12, July, 2020
Hi there. Our six year old son has just received a diagnosis of autism (it's been a long old process). We have awful problems with his diet; he used to eat a really wide variety of food until he was about 4. Now all he will eat is milk loaf with either nutella or peanut butter (he eats this rarely now), cheese straws, pain au chocolate, crackers and sweets. He refuses to eat fruit - up until recently he would eat raspberries. I'm at my wits end. When I try to encourage him to try new foods he just point blank refuses and also refuses any further mention of the subject. Does anyone have any suggestions. He is extremely stubborn and if he says no then that's the end of the matter as far as he's concerned. I've tried everything I can think of and nothing seems to work. I really feel as if I'm failing him and this contributes to my depression. Any help gratefully received.
I continue to have problems with my daughter who is 14, but if I'm honest, I could do better in trying to encourage her to eat more healthily/ try a wider range of food. It has helped to understand her objection to some foods - she doesn't just dislike them, she is disgusted and revolted by them. It would be like tolerating maggots on your plate. For me, it would be like someone trying to get me to eat a spoonful of semolina. That just AIN'T gonna happen EVER! She used to eat apple if I carefully sliced it avoiding the plasticy bits in the middle. So I'm going to try getting her to eat apple again. I can't remember the exact fact but your tastebuds renew every 2 or 3 weeks I think, so it can take this long to accept a new taste. So the idea is that if you even just lick a new food every day, you will get used to it. The thing that has stopped me doing this in the past is my laziness and lack of energy and lack of self-discipline. If the revulsion is texture-based then I don't know how to get past that. I guess my advice would be to get him to tolerate the food he used to like gradually again without any pressure to make him eat it. To squish raspberries and mix them in a yogurt for you to enjoy. He might get to like the smell, he might accidentally get some on his hand an lick it off? As you can tell, I'm NO EXPERT! I'm literally trying to figure out what to do myself. Just replying to you has made me feel more motivated to try and get my daughter to eat apple again this summer. Good luck x