Fussy eater in italy

Have a lovely time @Lovehummous . 🩷

It's a good idea about having translation cards saying 'my child is.. and cant eat...' etc. Allergy UK do brilliant cards relating to allergies and you pay a small fee for 3 cards that say different things (my child can't eat; my child has to go to hospital etc) in 30 different languages. I have bought Greek, French and German allergy cards. £20 for a set of 3 credit card laminated cards

I don't think the various autism charities do that (at least not that i have seen) but it would be a great opportunity for them. They would have to be bespoke of course so maybe more expensive than makes it worth their while.

OP- I think looking at the list your child will eat that you will be fine in Italy with some great advice on here (Particularly from @Cormoran ). But take a load of safe snacks also. I have a colleague whose child is very restricted including only eating a single type of yoghurt. They spoke to the airline and could take a cooler on board filled with enough yoghurt to get him through if he ate nothing else.

Well, good thing my post wasn't meant for you then, isn't it? 🤔
(not, gently, btw) 🙄

I'm so sorry you are getting these replies, some are really disgusting. I don't have an autistic child myself but I teach many kids that are. If I were you, I'd move away from this thread, the nastiness is horrible. I think there is a section on mumsnet for SEN and you'll hopefully find helpful advice there.

I’m the ignorant, privileged, awful , bitter old shrew twat and that was in the first 10 minutes.

@Wiltingasparagusfern

“bitter old shrews”

the posters that you are referring to here… I don’t agree with what they are saying in response to OP, but calling them “bitter old shrews” is both ageist and misogynistic.

Here are some links to Familia supermarket website in Mallfoto. Even on my cheap Samsung phone, (devices may differ etc) they offer the translate button and I made a kind of fake shopping list for you.

I can't find dinosaurs, but there is quite a good range of nuggets and Findus products if you have any kind of self catering option.

https://www.cosicomodo.it/familasud/bisceglie-kolbe-hdz1/reparti/gelati-e-surgelati/carne-e-pesce/c/20048

There’s another supermarket called Dok. Also with English translation:

https://www.supermercatidok.it/dettaglio-volantini/?idpdv=85&last=no&pdv=MOLFETTA%20-%20VIA%20S.%20F.SCO%20D%27ASSISI%2C%2065

If your son will only eat THE THING and not accept any imitations. This might all be useless but you can have a bit of a scroll and see if it's any good.

Wishing you the best for a happy holiday x

Honestly, if all he eats for three days is garlic bread, plus snacks and breakfasts etc. he’ll be fine.

If there’s one word I’d love to ban from this site it’s “gently”.

And it annoys me that there’s people out there that actually think just because someone has a life long condition/disability/illness they shouldn’t go on holiday. My uncle (wheelchair bound, doubly incontinent, sometimes tube fed) went abroad every year. Couldn’t eat the food as it would usually be served- on the occasions he wasn’t tube fed it would need to be puréed- but still enjoyed his holiday. Less able people are able to enjoy their holidays…

Another comment : white pizza or pizza bianca, in some areas of Italy, is not just the base with oil and salt, but means no tomatoes, and it might come with mozzarella, so make sure to ask or just say " solo olio e sale, niente mozzarella" meaning just oil and salt, no mozzarella.

Thank you for that explanation.

Huh? Researching and making a plan for safe foods is “working it through”. I don’t mean magically making an autistic child eat unusual foods. The op has now explained the reason the planning has occurred in this order.

My first sentence was intended to be helpful. I appreciate my second half wasn’t, I couldn’t understand the order of your planning, which you’ve now explained. I apologise for being unkind.

What part of "it can't be worked through" do you not understand, exactly?

It's a bit like telling someone with asthma to just "work through breathing".

Exposure to distressing stimuli has been generally found unsuccessful in helping autistic people to overcome sensory aversions of all types ( I work in this field). In fact it usually makes things worse.

Explicit teaching and practicing of coping strategies (such as planning how to manage exposure to distressing sensory stimuli) is generally the go to approach.

If there are reasons why someone really needs to increase their tolerance there are ways to address desensitisation but it never involves repeated exposure in the hope that this will e velop tolerance... It just strengthens the synaptic connections that cause the adverse reaction and often people then have the distress just at the prospect or thought of the stimulus.

but surely you work that through before booking. Just feels an odd way around and makes life harder. That’s the bit I can’t quite understand.

I live in Italy.

all the things you have listed above as snacks, you can easily buy in any supermarket. So worst case, he can live off his snacks for 5 days.

pp above have been really helpful and listed the main things you can get in addition - chicken in breadcrumbs readily available,pizza bianco, any kind of bread at all including flatbreads.

i’d say the main thing is to relax about it as much as possible, and not make it a big focus of the holiday. Then you may find he gets a bit more open to things. My boss has just informed me today about her annual 10 day fast, and she is still here!

If a child with Arfid did not have a sensory impairment would treatment include exposure, that is if treatment is available?

My autistic DS eats less variety than you have listed and we always get by ok abroad - we do self cater so that we can cook some of his safe foods and we take loads of stuff we know he eats and there is always cereal as a back up. He will try new things from the supermarket (foreign varieties of stuff he might eat like cereal bars). Not tried Italy yet so can't recommend what you might be able to get there but hope you have a fab trip

Do you really think that things don't exist until you find out about them?

The term before AFRID was selective eating disorder. It may have been called something else before that or it may not have been studied/named before that. That doesn't meanit didn't exist .

And before that the entire nation lived on plain and repetitive food choices.

I hate the difference in the way people treat neuro disabilities and physical.

I say that as a parent of 3 autistic children (who range from no food issues to AFRIDA despite me approaching food the same way with all of them). Also as a professional who has spent over 20 years working with children with Autism.

I have a bowel condition and have to put a similar amount of effort into planning food as the OP so I don't flare up.

Nobody would ever suggest that it's not worth travelling because I have to do this.

Yet the nasty undercurrent to some of these comments is that really this is a made up condition because the OP is a lazy parent , therefore they don't deserve to go on holiday to an interesting place.

It's prejudice. Nothing more nothing less.

‘Children’s food’ is not a thing in Italy; there’s just ‘food’.

I don’t know these towns specifically but I do know the general area. If you go into traditional bars (coffee shops sort of) and trattorias you might struggle but I would have thought you’d be ok in Molfetta as it is a big enough place and will definitely have plenty of supermarkets and almost certainly a McDonald’s or two. There will always be bread/breadsticks available everywhere. One of my favourite things are taralli which are like little savoury biscuity things which my toddler also loves. They usually come flavoured with fennel seeds but you can get plain ones and you’ll find them everywhere in Puglia. It’s a wonderful place and June should be a nice time of year as it won’t be too hot - have a great holiday!