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4 year old eating won’t eat anything

NAS75480

Hi 

I have a 4 year old little girl she has autism I’m really struggling my o get her to eat and also try new thing, at tea time worn eat anything at all she use to get chicken dippers and breaded chicken now she won’t eat much won’t all she’s eating is either sausages or mash waffles corn tea a won’t eat any kind of meat or fish even if it’s coated in something worried she not getting enough she craves sweet stuff all the time she wont eat fruit or veg she doesn’t like the texture and won’t eat any one pots has any parents got any ideas please that I can desperate 

Parents

  • I understand how scary it is when your kids won't eat. I think this is something a lot of autistic people have problems with, my mum tells how I lived almost exclusively on trifle and cocktail sausages until I was about 5. My daughter is still has a super restrictive diet and it still worries me. We took her to the doctors because we were so worried and ended up getting referred to the paediatrics department at the hospital and a dietician there. Which in turn is how she got referred for an ASD assessment. She saw them for 3 years and I can't say either were much help when it came to how to broaden her diet, though they were very supportive.

    The only way we have ever had any success in getting her to try new things is to just put a small amount in a separate bowl at dinner time and gently encourage her to touch it. When she could handle that we went to smelling it, then licking it. It was a VERY long and frustrating process, but it did result in her eating chicken nuggets and processed cheese. Up until that point she would only eat a small selection of fruit and veg, which sounds great in theory but in reality had very few calories and no protein at all. 

    One thing we were advised repeatedly was to try giving a multivitamin or supplement drink. Didn't work for us, as she wouldn't go near either (and honestly, they smelt that bad I didn't really blame her!) but it's always worth a try if you haven't already.

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  • I understand how scary it is when your kids won't eat. I think this is something a lot of autistic people have problems with, my mum tells how I lived almost exclusively on trifle and cocktail sausages until I was about 5. My daughter is still has a super restrictive diet and it still worries me. We took her to the doctors because we were so worried and ended up getting referred to the paediatrics department at the hospital and a dietician there. Which in turn is how she got referred for an ASD assessment. She saw them for 3 years and I can't say either were much help when it came to how to broaden her diet, though they were very supportive.

    The only way we have ever had any success in getting her to try new things is to just put a small amount in a separate bowl at dinner time and gently encourage her to touch it. When she could handle that we went to smelling it, then licking it. It was a VERY long and frustrating process, but it did result in her eating chicken nuggets and processed cheese. Up until that point she would only eat a small selection of fruit and veg, which sounds great in theory but in reality had very few calories and no protein at all. 

    One thing we were advised repeatedly was to try giving a multivitamin or supplement drink. Didn't work for us, as she wouldn't go near either (and honestly, they smelt that bad I didn't really blame her!) but it's always worth a try if you haven't already.

Children