Meal ideas for sensory child?

[TheFoodieMumwithTheFussyKid]

DC is 6, has sensory issues, dyspraxia and dyslexia. Struggles to use cutlery (even the special dyspraxia cutlery) but will give it ago.

The list of foods they'll eat is currently getting smaller and smaller. They do not like any kind of sauce or gravy.

They will not eat homemade food much to my disappointment as I love cooking. They won't eat school dinners at all.

Foods they will eat:

Meats
Chicken
Turkey
Ham/Gammon/Pork (but not bacon or sausages)
Cod
Haddock
Salmon

Vegetables
Peas
Broccoli

Fruit
Bananas
Apples

Carbs
Pasta
Waffles at a push
Chips sometimes
Any kind of cold chocolate cereal but no other cereal either hot or cold

Dairy
Milk
Cheese (but not melted or in a sauce)
Will eat eggs in pancakes or cake but not on their own/in an omelet

Things she absolutely won't eat
Any kind of bread/wraps/crumpets
Any kind of sauce or gravy

Things she sometimes eats and sometimes doesn't
Potatoes without the skin on
Rice

If I've missed anything I'm happy to say yes or no to her eating it.

I desperately want her to have a variety in meals with her restrictions so any ideas helpful please. I can adapt the meals to things I eat so, I can do a roast dinner with the chicken and vegetables she'll eat then do potatoes and gravy for myself.

So throw ideas at me? As I said she won't eat anything I make myself, I attempted chicken nuggets from scratch and she rejected them.

Hopeful bump

I probably won’t be able to help much. I have 2 with sensory/food issues & we more or less leave them to it. We make something we know they’ll eat & they get a kids chewy multi vitamin. Occasionally throw in something new in here & there, but this is usually left so admittedly don’t do it often.
We have bigger battles than food so didn’t want to turn dinner time into another fight.

Does she eat well if you make something she’ll like?

We also struggle with cutlery here although I suspect that’s more a matter of enjoying eating with fingers than because it’s difficult 🤦‍♀️

We also gets the kids to help make our dinner (we usually have something different), which sometimes helps.

There’s an Instagram account called ‘kids eat in colour’ which has really good advice.

We serve one ‘safe’ food. And then small amounts of the rest of the meal.

So if we were having say spaghetti bolognaise. My daughter would have plain spaghetti which is one of her safe foods. And then she would have a small amount of bolognaise to the side. Used to be on a separate plate. Now it’s on the same
plate.

No comments either. She is free to try the new food or not.

It works in surprising ways!!! She does now eat a much wider variety!

Good luck OP- I know how stressful it can be.

@Rexasaurus

I probably won’t be able to help much. I have 2 with sensory/food issues & we more or less leave them to it. We make something we know they’ll eat & they get a kids chewy multi vitamin. Occasionally throw in something new in here & there, but this is usually left so admittedly don’t do it often. We have bigger battles than food so didn’t want to turn dinner time into another fight.

Does she eat well if you make something she’ll like?

We also struggle with cutlery here although I suspect that’s more a matter of enjoying eating with fingers than because it’s difficult 🤦‍♀️

If there is something she doesn’t like on the plate she won’t touch the entire meal so I sent out a safe food on with new stuff and she can randomly decide she doesn’t like something anymore and then reject an entire meal.

She will eat it if it’s something she likes and is safe though. But it’s frustrating as it’s just me and her at home so I don’t want to be making 2 meals of everything so basically want ideas of how to adapt my meals for her

My son has sensory food issues, very similar to your daughter and the two tips I would give is firstly learn to accept that they will eat a very repetitive menu- it helped de-stress everything for me when I gave in to letting him eat the same meal four times a week- it is chicken, broccoli and rice- he even takes it in his packed lunch!
The other thing that helped us / him was using a divider plate. He was more willing to eat things as long as they came no where near each other and as Pp said by keeping at least one safe food in there (I would usually do two) and then adding a third more controversial food - like pitta bread 😂 but not pressuring around him eating that.
Also I love to cook and would be a bit offended / miffed that he wouldn't eat my lovingly prepared dishes but then accepted my cooking wasn't the issue and that he just prefers bland segregated repetitive foods...

My first reaction is well done that’s quite a long list of foods!

I would introduce new foods can be on a separate plate very slowly.

Maybe cook yourself a dish you like and say how lovely it is and she may ask to try it eventually.

Meze type meal with some bowls of safe food and some new.

You need patience with this an awful lot of patience. I do mean years.

I would also expect to make two different meals as I really don’t want to eat the plain food of my DS. I actually found it a lot less stressful to think right I can just make him pasta and cheese and then I can eat a salad.

Hemoton Divided Plates 4 Compartments Plastic Divided Dinner Tray Rice Tray Tableware for Home Restaurant Dinner Yellow https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B085WLKLP2/ref=cmswwrcppapiglttfabcXT9QYG9AF35X1K3K5V86??encoding=UTF8&psc=1
This is the divider type of plate we used

@MavisMonkey

My son has sensory food issues, very similar to your daughter and the two tips I would give is firstly learn to accept that they will eat a very repetitive menu- it helped de-stress everything for me when I gave in to letting him eat the same meal four times a week- it is chicken, broccoli and rice- he even takes it in his packed lunch! The other thing that helped us / him was using a divider plate. He was more willing to eat things as long as they came no where near each other and as Pp said by keeping at least one safe food in there (I would usually do two) and then adding a third more controversial food - like pitta bread 😂 but not pressuring around him eating that. Also I love to cook and would be a bit offended / miffed that he wouldn't eat my lovingly prepared dishes but then accepted my cooking wasn't the issue and that he just prefers bland segregated repetitive foods...

We have a separator plate but she can’t cope with a good she doesn’t like being on the plate at all and will reject the whole meal if there’s on bit she doesn’t like.

She won’t try anything new. Me saying my food is nice will just make her reject it more.

She refuses to even try the school dinners even when it’s a dish she likes like fish fingers she won’t even try them there.

It can be very frustrating.

Pasta primavera, it's basically pasta with green vegetables, you could use the peas & broccoli that they like, maybe serve with a bowl of grated cheese for sprinkling on. Later you can try other green vegetables, courgette or Romanesco cauliflower (very like broccoli).
If you use pasta shells or small spirals it could be eaten with a spoon.

Salmon baked in foil, keeps the salmon moist without a sauce, you could add tartare sauce at the table, served with a suitable vegetable.
Would also work with fish like lemon sole or sea bass.

But just reread your post and seen about not eating home made food, so are you looking for ideas for ready meals or similar?

@AdaColeman

Pasta primavera, it's basically pasta with green vegetables, you could use the peas & broccoli that they like, maybe serve with a bowl of grated cheese for sprinkling on. Later you can try other green vegetables, courgette or Romanesco cauliflower (very like broccoli). If you use pasta shells or small spirals it could be eaten with a spoon.

Salmon baked in foil, keeps the salmon moist without a sauce, you could add tartare sauce at the table, served with a suitable vegetable.
Would also work with fish like lemon sole or sea bass.

But just reread your post and seen about not eating home made food, so are you looking for ideas for ready meals or similar?

Homemade I can dress up as a ready meal if possible! I know that’s lying but I love cooking and it’s my favourite thing to do to destress!

I've bought dinner plates with separate compartments for all the different parts of the meal. So carbs goes in one compartment, then meat/fish, then veg & pud. This works for my children, I do a deconstructed lasagne for one. Try it and see if it works, my dc will only eat food that doesn't touch each other.

Sorry just saw that you have got a separator player.

Argh it's so frustrating isn't it!! Dressing things up as ready meals is a good idea to try.

My son is 9 now and has gotten better than he was when he was younger, although I get really annoyed when he randomly decides to drop one of his staple safe foods, such as fish in any shape or form....

I only cope by cooking lovely meals but deconstructing / changing his. We will look through cookery books together and he will suggest what he might eat and what alterations to make for him. We had a homemade curry the other night and he ate the chapati, the rice and some chicken tikka- all separately and non touching and the rest of us had the same but with the curry sauce. As another pp said serving things meze / family style helps as well as then the non-safe foods stay away from him but occasionally he will randomly try something.

A few random ideas-
One of our failsafe meals that might work for your DD is kebabs- I marinate chicken in a yogurt, lemon, garlic and paprika mixture.
Spaghetti carbonara with chicken added - only egg as the sauce, no cream obvs; he won't eat bacon but will accept pancetta
Pasta and turkey meatballs - I hide some veg in the meatballs; the rest of us have a tomato sauce but my son just had a teaspoon of pasata mixed in with his pasta (so you can't even register it's there)
He would eat fish cakes for a while but now refuses them - maybe your dd would go for them
He will eat bagels toasted but not other breads so might be worth trying, they have quite a different texture
Weirdly he loves gyoza (frozen ones, he won't touch my homemade efforts)
We have Mexican night sometimes and he will eat chicken (cooked with a mild fajita seasoning) in a taco with approved veg; he won't eat tortilla but tacos are ok

And just to give a bit more hope to persevere my sons favourite food in the world is tuna maki sushi- not sure your dd would go for this but it always makes me laugh that my ds loves this when it goes against so many of his food rules

Have you tried cutting food into shapes? That's how I finally got mine to eat sandwiches. She was willing to try them since they were in tiny bite size love hearts.

Your list of safe foods sounds pretty good overall though.

Won't eat any kind of bread but will try bagels as I haven't tried those yet great idea!

She's randomly decided she no longer likes cereal this morning so she's literally having an apple for breakfast, it's not enough.

She will eat pasta and then grated cheese but not together, never together. So I can try that.

She does like meatballs but not homemade ones, but I could speak to the butcher as she likes the butchers meatball and see if he can sneak some veggies in there somewhere (he's also a very good friend of mine so I'm sure he'd try).

Ooh and try pancakes.
We make a big batch at the weekend and freeze most of them then they just take a minute to defrost in the microwave. I like the experience of making them together so they tick my cooking feel good box and I can make them with lower sugar than shop bought and then we serve them with what fruit he will agree to eat that day.

Have you tried the sandwich thins? They're a lot easier to eat than sliced bread.
Soft cheese such as philadelphia? You could try dunking bread sticks, oat cakes or carrot & cucumber sticks in it.
Babybel
Risotto if she'll eat rice? Chicken & pea risotto is good, a great way to use up the leftovers from a roast chicken.
Sweetcorn? Kids tend to like the tinned stuff if they like peas.
You could make those baked egg muffin things for breakfast if she's gone off cereal.
Yogurt? The squeezy tube ones might be easier than a spoon in a pot?
If she eats meatballs then would she eat a beef burger?

@emmathedilemma

Have you tried the sandwich thins? They're a lot easier to eat than sliced bread. Soft cheese such as philadelphia? You could try dunking bread sticks, oat cakes or carrot & cucumber sticks in it. Babybel Risotto if she'll eat rice? Chicken & pea risotto is good, a great way to use up the leftovers from a roast chicken. Sweetcorn? Kids tend to like the tinned stuff if they like peas. You could make those baked egg muffin things for breakfast if she's gone off cereal. Yogurt? The squeezy tube ones might be easier than a spoon in a pot? If she eats meatballs then would she eat a beef burger?

She doesn’t like sweetcorn

She eats burgers sometimes so will try those.

Soft cheese I’ve never tried her on so will try that thank you

It's so difficult, my DS has a much smaller list of 'safe' foods, mainly cereal, I'd love to be able to cook him something he'd enjoy!
I think they prefer bought/packet food as it's very uniform and always the same whereas homemade things can vary a bit.

I'd second the PP suggesting the 'kids eat in colour' account, I've also found a site called 'your kids table' really useful, it's written by a paediatric OT.

A little bit of pesto through pasta? That's lovely with chicken and brocolli.

@emmathedilemma

A little bit of pesto through pasta? That's lovely with chicken and brocolli.

Won't touch pesto too much like sauce. I know it's seen as a godly food on MN but my DD literally gags when near a sauce, gravy or similar.

DS has dyspraxia (and verbal dyspraxia) and still doesn't eat sandwiches or bread or doughnuts (struggles with some cakes) at 14 years old. The only bread he eats is baguette and garlic bread. Your list isn't bad at all. A pain, but food from all groups.

My tip is to keep this list, and serve food on it regularly. If you don't give her rice for a couple of weeks, for example, she is more likely to forget about the texture and reject it next time. So serve all food, regularly.

Then start mixing it differently. The pasta with peas and broccoli with bits of ham is a good example. It's all the food she likes, but prepared slightly differently. You can even put it separately on a plate and let her choose if she wants it mixed or not.

Then try to introduce something slightly different, but slowly. For example, if she likes chicken nuggets, try 'giant' chicken nuggets (breaded chicken breasts, such as these www.tesco.com/groceries/en-GB/products/297683100. Then she might try a more grown up version of chicken schnitzel.

If she likes chips, Potato waffles are useful if she'd try that. She can eat it with her hands. If she doesn't like gravy or sauce, then that's fine, honestly I wouldn't bother. It's the mixing of textures she probably struggles with.

DS doesn't eat spaghetti but is perfectly happy to eat fusilli for example. Pasta sauce has to be smooth (it's exactly the same ingredients, except blitzed together).

Give her food that she likes, but present it differently. Chop her banana in bits and give it to her with a fork. Cut the apple in slices. Just so that she gets used to trust that you will give her food she will like, just in a different 'format'. You could eventually have her to help you prepare ham and pea soup, for example, with the ingredients that she likes. If she helps you prepare it, it might work better.

@QwertyGirly

DS has dyspraxia (and verbal dyspraxia) and still doesn't eat sandwiches or bread or doughnuts (struggles with some cakes) at 14 years old. The only bread he eats is baguette and garlic bread. Your list isn't bad at all. A pain, but food from all groups.

My tip is to keep this list, and serve food on it regularly. If you don't give her rice for a couple of weeks, for example, she is more likely to forget about the texture and reject it next time. So serve all food, regularly.

Then start mixing it differently. The pasta with peas and broccoli with bits of ham is a good example. It's all the food she likes, but prepared slightly differently. You can even put it separately on a plate and let her choose if she wants it mixed or not.

Then try to introduce something slightly different, but slowly. For example, if she likes chicken nuggets, try 'giant' chicken nuggets (breaded chicken breasts, such as these www.tesco.com/groceries/en-GB/products/297683100. Then she might try a more grown up version of chicken schnitzel.

If she likes chips, Potato waffles are useful if she'd try that. She can eat it with her hands. If she doesn't like gravy or sauce, then that's fine, honestly I wouldn't bother. It's the mixing of textures she probably struggles with.

DS doesn't eat spaghetti but is perfectly happy to eat fusilli for example. Pasta sauce has to be smooth (it's exactly the same ingredients, except blitzed together).

Give her food that she likes, but present it differently. Chop her banana in bits and give it to her with a fork. Cut the apple in slices. Just so that she gets used to trust that you will give her food she will like, just in a different 'format'. You could eventually have her to help you prepare ham and pea soup, for example, with the ingredients that she likes. If she helps you prepare it, it might work better.

She absolutely loves cooking and really helps with it she just won't try new things.

She's a bit hit and miss with both waffles and chips, she can love them one day and then I serve them again and she hates them and vice versa, she can hate them one day and love them the next,

I love the idea of "giant" chicken nuggets, there's actually breaded chicken on the school menu but I;ve never presented it like that so I will try it thank you!

She's dropped ham, gammon and pork now too, including sandwich ham which leaves my lunch options limited for school - she was having a packed lunch with a few slices of ham, a babybel or cheesestring, one of the fruits she'd eat and a chocolate bar. Not now.

She also wouldn't even try the breaded chicken, I said it was a giant chicken nugget and she refused to even try a tiny bit and started retching, so back to the drawing board with that one too.