food always the same food

[suedenley]

my ds will only eat a limited number of foods they have to be the same brand and he wont deviate even if it means going hungry also has issues with food position needs specific plate and very concerned about germs and contamination key worker is going to introduce story book about ds to encourage him to try other foods has anyone heard of this and has this or anything worked for you please

[Jimjamskeepingoffvaxthreads]

Ds1 (severely autistic) had a very limited diet for years. His school did a lot of work with him in this area and he now eats amzing things. They started by putting a tiny bit of baked bean sauce between two small crisps (about a 1/4 normal crisp)- a crisp sandwich. Gradually they increased the size of the pieces they put between the crisps, and ds1 will now eat mashed potato, bolognaise, curry, baked beans, ham etc all using this method. Occasionally he will eat food off a spoon rather than via crisp sandwiches. It's slow but progressing. For years he ate only gluten free toast, gluten free pizza (cheese and tomato) and buckwheat pancakes- so he has made huge strides.

I;d recommend 'can't eat won't eat' published by Jessica Kinsgley- it will let you know you're not alone.

[suedenley]

thanks jimjams i will get that today ive never owned so many books before ive read so many i can diagnose aspergers at a hundred paces these days but apart from small snippets ive not seen any about food so thankyou again

[jenk1]

yes my DS is like this, he has AS and has a weekly "food schedule" and woe betide anyone who tries to change it.

The last time we tried he sat in the back garden crying and refused to eat.

It goes like this
Monday Cheese and Tomato pizza, no bits of tomato and only mild cheese.
Tuesday Burgers and smiley faces(he inspects the make of the burger before he will eat it)
Wednesday Sausages and chips-again he inspects the packaging
Thursday Ham toasted sandwiches
Friday Takeaway from the chippy same thing and we are not allowed to try a new chippy as he knows the difference in taste(DH usually ends up going to 2 as we dont like the one that DS eats from!)
Saturday is DS choice which is always ...PIZZA
Sunday he goes to my mums and she makes him home made tomato sauce(no bits) and he has spaghetti and mild cheese and he will only sit in a certain chair etc.
As you can see he eats practically no veg but he does eat fruit and healthy snack bars if hungry and i give him vitamins.

So no, you are not alone!!!!

[jenk1]

Oh fogot to add my mum "hides" veg in the tomato sauce by blending it!!!

[Tiggiwinkle]

My DS (aged 7 and AS) also eats a very limited range of foods. The more stressed and anxious he is, the smaller the range of foods he will eat becomes. On very bad days, we get down to a particular brand of cereal and milk 3 times a day!
He also worries about contamination. He will usually only allow me to prepare his food, and has checked sell-by dates since he was 5!

[bambi06]

my ds age 6 1/2 has been like this since he was about 10 months old..i kept a diary! now he only eats, wholemeal toast with butter and marmite[no holes in bread and he cant visibly see the butter!!] weetabix mixed with 1/2 pt milk/two spoonfuls of ground almonds[he thinks its sugar tee hee!] 1/2 jar of apple fruit puree..thats breakfast...lunch...1 plain bread roll which has to be broken in a certain way..1 banana..1 apple.. occasionally a yog[of course always the same type] tea is weetabix again the same..he was eating mc cain home fries up to recently but hes def trying to elimate them from his diet so we have battles there. if he manages to elimate something from his diet he NEVER goes back to eating it!! weve done great ormond street hospital feeding programme..he defeated them and we came away no better off! weve also done other feeding programmes with scrap books/stickers etc but he wont budge from his diet but looks and is actually very healthy apart from occasional bouts of ibs similar symptoms...hes big for his size and eats a lot of what he likes but is incredibly fussy too about how things are on his plate ..things cant be messy plus he wont come and sit with us to eat if our food is especially smelly and generally he prefers to eat on his own...school have managed to get him to eat a banana at snack time which is a big acheivment as normally he wouldnt interact at this time but he wont participate in cooking activities!..weve been told to keep trying but i dont really want to stress him anymore at mealtimes plus its stressing enough for us anywAY. and we know that if we held off his regular food in order to get him to eat he would starve himself and im not joking!! weve got to the stage of just giving him what he wants and will be glad when hes older and perhaps we can get him to understand the importance of a varied time but im not holding my breath..he says the he wants to try sometimes but his brain tells him NO! SO POOR thing he already has this internal battle going on .

[suedenley]

thanks everyone,
its amazing to think that other people are going through this when doctors heath visitors and teachers treat me as if im pandering to him as if theyve never come across this before.
ds's keyworker has just refered to phycologist as she feels its to severe an "eating disorder" for her to deal with alone.ds eats speedy snacks beefburgers, fries to go, white bread extra thick only meatballs in tom sauce and plain rice chicken breast dissected for BITS yorkshire pudding 3 no more no less and weetabix drowned in milk mushed up only oh and turkey ham bernard matthews only if anything is placed on one of his plates no amount of washing it will decontaminate it,it has to go in the bin everything goes through his strict quality control and he takes the "bady ends" of his burgers basically the outside edges.the fries to go, the only potatoe product he eats also have the ends taken off he eats no fruit veg or anything good for him basically we cant eat out anywhere and when we went abroad last year it was an absolute nightmare he just ate chocolate and plain rice he doesnt even eat crisps. you have to make sure the food is positioned carefully and that nothing touches each other, always ask where the ketchup has to go never put it on the food also has to be seperate or major meltdown.if he thinks anyone but me has as much as breathed near the food he wont eat it.he has eliminated things from his accepted list too and will never eat them again.This is where the school refused him to go on the residential i was prepared to send his food which as you see is easy to prepare but they said that with a doctors letter they would give a bland diet, which is missing the point unless he has the same brands he wont eat,so thank you for your messages of support its good to know its not just me and that i didnt do anything wrong,apart from listen to his health visitor when he was one who said let him eat what he wants he will grow out of it......