Published on 12, July, 2020
First off hello everybody this is my first post on the NAS community. My name is Ashley and I am a parent who is waiting for an official diagnosis for my son but I am sure he has autism.
I am looking for advice on getting him to eat healthy foods. He likes carbohydrates and ice lollies and sweet things but he won’t eat a variety of things I give in and give him these things because I don’t want him to go hungry and lose weight. Is this the wrong approach? I do try to offer different things but he won’t eat them. Any advice would be appreciated.
90% of modern cooking is the process of taking chewy / crunchy foods and making them soft / gooy. Have you tried offering him a selection of uncooked fruit and vegetables? Oranges, honeydew melon (firmer texture than water melon), lettuce, carrots, crunchy apples (like granny smiths) and crunchy pairs? Nectarines? It might simply be that most cooked healthy food is too soft / sticky / goopy / slimy for him.
More generally when you offer him new food don't make it the main meal. That makes him fel like you're twisting his arm to get him to eat it. Offer him a micro portion along side something you know he already likes. Resist the urge to offer the same food over and over hoping he'll change his mind. Try to separate food out on the plate so if he decides he doesn't like the one thing he doesn't reject the whole meal. Particularly keep wet and dry foods seperate
I will try those suggestions, I notice he likes things when I am eating them like grapes or soup so I end up giving him some of mine. Recently he has seemed to have gone off stuff that he normally loves like fish fingers or home made pizzas. What happens if he refuses the whole meal? Would you make him something else or let them go without until the next meal?
I won't generally make food for other people. In this conversation I'm the autistic person. I don't cook for others unless we pre agree what I'm cooking.
I don't know what happened in your specific case but sometimes a brand changes its recipe or you change an ingredient in something and it becomes completely unpalatable to the autistic person ... and if its a child who feels under presure to eat what they believe will or at least may taste revolting they'll get food adverse and just start rejecting all food of that type. Maybe he does like fish fingers but only a certain brand or prepared a certain way. Take me I 'like' bacon, but only bacon the way I cook it. With every scrap of fat cut off and done until it has an almost leathery consistency. Most people ask me if I like bacon or want some bacon I'll say no. It's too much fuss trying to explain how it needs to be done exactly just so for me to enjoy it.