My son goes through days with no food only biscuits.

My son is 3 years and 7 months old diagnosed With ASC last year and he is non verbal. Can will say numbers 1-10 randomly and he can say car bus cookie and he calls me “Na” he can nod and shake his head for yes or no. He attends an ASN nursery part time. 

My son will eat the outside of a chicken nugget, chicken goujons (homemade) garlic bread, chicken with gravy, strawberries, a crispy roll with butter or a tiny amount of a sausage. He only drinks water or milk (from a bottle) He will eat a slice of toast for a snack in nursery but won’t eat toast at home.

Now what worries me as we go through days and days where he won’t eat the foods I’ve just mentioned and will only want to eat cookies and drink water or milk.

There was never any issues with food prior to last years lockdown and he ate a much healthier and varied diet but each week seems to get less and less food. He has also started to line foods up row of 4 chicken nuggets or a row of 3 biscuits. 

My sons dad has said that don’t give him any biscuits at all and on the odd occasion I have done this just to see if he will eat and the result is still the same he can’t/won’t eat.

Thank you in advance for any responses. 

  • We did do loads of baking last year during lockdown, made our own bread, cupcakes and shortbread. That’s something Id been keen to do again and The kids loved joining in. 

    Thats a fab idea to use honey instead of sugar and adding oats. I’m going to try the flap Jacks and google some other honey biscuit recipes as I would usually use sugar. Feel free to send any recipes lol. 

    Thank you for your helpful information and suggestions. 

    :) 

  • Little suggestion - be careful with artificial sweeteners. They can be more damaging long-term to a child's health. Naturally sweetened products with fruit sugars, honey or maple syrup would be much smarter as they're less taxing on the liver to break down. Honey actually has a load of healthy properties - vitamins and nutrients, there are so many studies on how helpful it actually is to our biology. 

    Is it possible you could make biscuits? That way you can control what is in them - butter, eggs, flour (maybe oats), honey. There are so many recipes with honey. By looking at the ingredient list, at least he's getting a little protein and fibre, milk has a lot of nutrients as well especially full fat. You could make a batch with black currant AND bits of chocolate - currents have an amazing amount of nutrients and cocoa can have trace amounts of iron. Just a thought. 

    When my son was young I would also give him flapjacks and breakfast bars or some kind of energy bar if he was being a bit picky. 

  • We were less active last year due to my eldest child being a severe asthmatic and being in a shielding category until August 2020. We do have a trampoline in the garden and my sons at nursery part time. Although he only manages 3 hours per day. We have missed soft play (great exercise) which we attended twice per week and recently started back at flip out trampoline park they have an autism session.  

    He was and diagnosed in December last year and Hes went through a very stressful past 11 months being in a mainstream nursery and eventually the nursery and educational psychologist were in agreement that they were unable to meet his needs and he’s now started in an ASN nursery 3 weeks ago. 

    The paediatrician has put in a referral for dietician and she has said his food intake may pick up once he settles in his ASN nursery. She has said she isn’t concerned about him being under or over weight. 

    Yes he is a bit of a nibbler when he does eat a meal and will go back to a meal even if it’s cold. 

    thanks.

  • Thank you, that’s a good idea about  the sugar free biscuits. Feel a bit silly for not thinking of that myself now. 

    Still worried though that regular meals aren’t being eaten and disliking foods that he previously loved is happening more and  more.

  • Could it be where he's not as active as before covid so not building up much of an appetite and preferring easy to nibble food? 

  • wow. idk what to say but maybe hes some sort of sugar addict. try giving him sugar free foods that still taste good, that way he wont be too addicted to sugary stuff