Autistic teenage vegetarian daughter refusing prescription meds.

OPs daughter is 16, she will need to give consent for treatment/referrals etc

No doctor is going to do something/give something/treat something/refer for something without her consent.

And its pointless anyway, what sort of therapy or intervention/education session could take place with either her not turning up or she turns up and just sits there saying 'no thank you I dont want this service'.

You can get a liquid vit d supplement on prescription - my son is taking it. You can mix with a drink or just take in a medicine syringe like calpol. He’s on a very high dose for a couple of months. If you can get some things in liquid form and only have tablets when there’s no alternative that might be a little easier. My son is autistic and struggles with tablets. He is totally fine with needles though and positively loves a vaccination.

the liquid vit D we have is THORENS and only contains colecalciferol (vit d) and olive oil

Vegan option on Amazon vit d3 too

This is the one I use hux d3. 20000 iu Vegetarian.

And my dd used sunvit 400iu

I really wouldn't bother consulting a dietician, ime they know less than the patient. However a pharmacist will get able to tell you which supplements are vegetarian/ vegan. Some surgeries have a pharmacist as a member of the team but any dispensing pharmacist will be able to tell you and find suitable supplements. You might have to stand your ground to be heard, though.

Yes I agree. My DD also won't eat bits with gelatine in. But there's good advice on here and options for her for versions without gelatine and hopefully through taking vits regularly she can keep on top of this.
Good luck! X

Better You B12 spray states it's vegetarian, as does the Better You D spray. Both on Amazon.

Until she is 18 you are responsible for her medical decisions. Of course it is better that she makes those decisions herself but if she is risking her long term health then this needs to be addressed.

My autistic teen has a very limited diet, she has to supplement folic acid and vitamin d.

We found out she was having vit d issues as her joints were hurting, prescription strength to get it resolved and then OTC stuff to maintain. Then she passed out one day, she was folic acid deficient , another prescription strength course but now a regular OTC multi vitamin is proving to maintain things (blood tests have confirmed).

There are so many good multi vitamins available, once you have got passed this blip hopefully a daily dose of a quality multi vitamin will help long term. DD will have to take them for life unless she suddenly starts eating fruit and vegetables (they make her retch so unlikely!)

Former prescriptions clerk here, people used to request vegan medication often. It’s a ball ache and the doctors practice and pharmacy won’t love you for it but I’ve never known a medication not to have a vegan form or suitable alternative. You need to let them know you require this, the doctor isn’t going to be trying to source this for you they don’t have time. The pharmacy team will be able to but tell them asap so they don’t have to do it twice.

Get her to drink orange juice with iron pills. It helps absorption. Also, she may need laxatives and iron can bung you up

Op - I am someone who naturally has very rigid thinking. (Probably undiagnosed ND.)

One thing that I have realised is that when I am tired or ill it is much harder for me to think about my rules and whether they are sensible or whether I should break them. (“Yes I always go for a walk at lunchtime and it does make me feel more awake but there is currently gale force winds and horrendous rain so maybe I should delay. But I always go. Oh - I’ll just put my hood up.”)

She sounds physically very ill right now so is not going to be able to make those types of decision. Don’t think about the future and the fact that what she is doing is long term very problematic - just do what you practically can to get her feeling a bit better.

OP I am veggie but not as strict as your daughter.

is she restricting her diet in other ways? Did the GP ask wider questions and put her diet and health into context? Because it’s not uncommon that autism and eating disorders go hand in hand, and it’s also a known thing for restrictive diets to become anorexia in adolescents.

I think the GP might need to widen out the issues your daughter is dealing with - she needs help to pull the different issues apart

Ferrous numerate, bit D and bit B12 are vegetarian.

I use the b12 and vitamin d sprays, very easily taken and tolerated. The situation may be difficult but you need to respect her views re gelatine.

Can you remember the item of the ingredient, because thats really unusual, these things are checked so much, is it possible she made a mistake?

What was the ingredient? I’d go back and explain they’d prescribed the wrong medication.

This actually sounds horrendous! Im sorry, now I've got the full picture I can really see your difficulties - it goes way beyond vegetarianism. Sounds more like obsessive compulsive thinking than eating disorder, since it's to do with touching keys or being in the same room?

You can request the vegetarian options with the pharmacist, lots of people won’t take medication that isn’t. For health, compassionate and religious reasons, it’s not an unusual request.