My daughter only eats pizza. AMA

[IThinkILikeThisLittleLight]

She has ARFID

Posting to give some insight into what life with ARFID is like

I get the fussy kid, my dd would eat nothing but chicken nuggets and cheerios at 3, she's autistic. But I fought it, bribery is excellent and by 12 she was eating a few veg (far from all) and her not wanting to eat meat helped because I refused to serve her vegetarian food unless she ate vegetables and said she could nominate 5 veg she didn't like, still doesn't eat fruit! It's never too late to get more foods into diets, the difference between 14 when she went veggie and 24 was dramatic, she eats the vast majority and crucially will just push dislikes to the side without screaming, causing a huge fuss and refusing to eat anything else.

She's not diagnosed.

There's not really any help with it, doctors dont really know much about it.

It's very hard to get a diagnosis but we plan on going private.

We've never had to have a diagnosis because the issues around it have always been dealt with without a diagnosis
Like issues with her eating at school, the school know she has ARFID and never required any proof to make 'reasonable adjustments '

Fussy eating and ARFID are not the same.

https://www.felixeconomakis.com/arfid.php

Please watch the first few minutes of this video :)

I dont think cutting down upfs would really help autism in all honesty i think the hype around upfs seems to be the latest fad diet like gluten free or kale everything was a few years ago. Processed food isnt the devil like the media likes to make it out to be

As long as his diet is balanced (or as balanced as it can be) and he is eating, that is the main priority

Does ARFID exist in places where food is scarce?

Again for those who don’t want to understand -

ARFID IS NOT FUSSY EATING

Interesting. I wonder if I have this...

I used to eat quite a few different things but my diet has slowly become more restricted and now it's just the same few foods every day and it always has to be the same brand of a thing (e.g. Babybel, Morrisons Cheddar, Sainsbury's Ciabatta rolls, Copella Apple juice). I can't eat out.
With me it's linked to fear of allergic reaction (I'm asthmatic) and a choking/vomit phobia.
I'm very often hungry but can't eat much - it's not about weight or body image.

I have Generalised Anxiety Disorder and probable ASD.

Quite

@AnotherVice I wonder this also

Not quite the same, but my relative ended up somewhere where their safe foods weren't available. They physically couldn't eat anything that was there and ended up hospitalised.

I'm afraid I can't answer that, I have no idea but I assume that there are children with ASD and mental health problems in 3rd world countries that may be affected by ARFID.
It's not about the availability of food but the fear of it.

Many ARFID children are severely malnourished.

I do know there are children (that I know personally through support groups) that have been hospitalised and neat death with ARFID because they would literally rather be strapped to a hospital bed with a tube to feed them than eat.

I don't think this is an unreasonable question. But I don't think it's a complete question: in societies where food is scarce, young people are not likely to have the stressors or lifestyle where it's plentiful. The sorts of stressors that can cause food aversion.

Ultimately, this isn't about going hungry or food, really. I think it's about control, coping mechanisms, managing emotions. Perhaps in societies where food is scarce, people who struggle with these things manifest in other ways (running away, seeking isolation, lashing out, or seeking support from wider or more varied nuclear communities etc - I don't know, just imagining).

I imagine unfortunately those children would die young of malnutrition.

https://metro.co.uk/2024/01/13/boy-7-dies-gps-missed-severely-malnourished-20109890/amp/

This beautiful little boy died due to malnourishment caused by extreme ARFID. I dont understand why people are questioning it. It can be terrifying for poor parents dealing with this.

In countries where food is scarce then the child will most likely die and the CoD will be recorded as malnutrition, so I doubt you will find data on this. It's almost certainly the case, however.

It sounds like you really get her and validate how she feels in relation to smells and textures and change, etc. Has that always been your approach or has it been a learning process for you in terms of how to approach this? Are there other adults in your home/family and do you approach her needs in the same way?

That is tragic. RIP Alfie

Another ARFID parent here, I've got two of them. One diagnosed ASD/ADHD and the other going through diagnosis. My son would live off pizza covered in ketchup (has to be Aldi ketchup, he knows if it isn't). Fortunately, over the last year or two there has been some improvement. We did have two years when he'd only eat steak pie. Several years of only chicken dippers. If we went away, I'd pack the dippers and steak pie before anything else otherwise he just wouldn't eat.

It's the most frustrating and difficult to deal with thing. I also have the issue of compulsive eating of plain crisps. If I don't hide them, he will eat the whole six pack in a matter of minutes. It's one thing after another. My eldest child is being diagnosed as an adult. Her eating was horrendous as a child. She has now left home but I do worry about how she eats although she is incredibly slender. She also has issues with cutlery being "wrong". I hope your DD's diagnosis brings some answers OP, although you may have a long time of pizza ahead of you 🥴

I am 35 and I have ARFID too. Pizza is actually one of the foods I can’t eat. I used to be dangerously underweight but I’m now a healthy weight due to being prescribed weight gaining milkshakes from the doctors. I can only drink one particular flavour too which for some reason is getting harder to source over the last few months. Luckily I have a nice stock piled

Has she said what it is about other food she doesn't like? I've seen videos of people with ARFID and some its taste, others it's texture, some say its just the thoughts of the unknown, one had a fear of choking.

Yes of course it does. Those children probably die.

Good grief. Please educate yourself. ARFID is not "fussy eating".

Do you question if bullemia and anorexia exist in countries with scarce food?

It's an interesting question for sure.

For me, it’s both texture and taste which can affect different foods.

For example, boiled potatoes (no butter) is fine. Mashed potatoes would make me gag.

If I have jacket potatoes, I have to have it without butter, and I have my grated cheese on the side. I would then get a forkful of hot potato and cold cheese and quickly put it in my mouth before it melts. I also can’t chew my food too many times either as this will make me gag. I have to spit it out