Did some ND children starve before chicken nuggets were invented?

[BusWankers]

I'm not being horrible, genuinely curious.

You read on here how a child who has autism or some other issue, will only eat safe foods. Usually a lot of things like chicken nuggets, a particular brand of cheese and onion crisps, Nutella, supermarket pizzas (UPF mostly)

Do we think children in the 1920s just went hungry? Or perhaps they were forced to eat foods they didn't like. After all you do hear stories,of adults even now being made to sit at the table and choke down food etc.

I grew up in the 80s, probably ND and my safe foods have always been pasta or jacket potato with butter and cheese or mash potato and gravy.

I do eat more than that now but when I'm feeling particularly done in or want something simple I'll go for one of those options.

So to answer your question, no I didn't starve.

This kind of attitude is unhelpful. There are children with certain issues (and I have 2 of them) who would starve themselves to death. As it is they are at an age they'll eat just enough to keep them alive and growing slowly but they have very little body fat.

I had a cousin who would only eat rice crispies and that was over 30 years ago

favourite meals, mince and potatoes for instance, bread and butter/dripping

I have autism and back in the 70s I was forced to sit at the table and eat the food in front of me. This often meant sitting there for hours with a plate of cold mashed potato trying to wish it away. As a defiant teen I stopped eating completely for weeks on end and then binged on 'broken biscuits' until I was sick, then starved again. I've struggled with an eating disorder all my adult life as a result.

I was at school in the 70s with a boy who would only eat ginger biscuits.

My younger sister ate only bread and jam for 6 months once (70s). She could have done that in previous time periods.

Fortunately my parents didn't make a fuss. She now eats a range of foods.

Well I'm older generation and autistic - my chilhood was in the 1950s and 60s.

As pp has said food was pretty straight forward and pretty plain basic back then.

And generally the attitude was Eat what you are given. And Children in Africa are starving so you should be grateful for what you've got.

The meal table was a bit if a battle ground in which generally my parents won. I had three victories:

Rabbit. Because my brother told me it was Tufty, my neighbours pet, and I cried so much I was allowed not to eat it.
Tripe. Because it physically made me sick.
Brussels sprouts . Because I made such a fuss every time they were served, which was regularly, they got fed up of the arguments.

I dont know that the battles over food damaged me any more than the rest of my childhood. It was just another one of the hells of life.

You’re brave, OP - it’s almost illegal to try and challenge the autism/adhd orthodoxy!

I think we’ve lost sight of normal childhood eating, that can include long periods of limited diets. I have a cousin who subsisted for many years on bridge rolls, smoked cheese, Ribena and petit filous. Now a complete foodie, but in this day and age he would undoubtedly have been given a dodgy ARFID diagnosis and unwittingly prevented from growing out of it. I had similar periods myself.

My dad who is 80 and I am sure is ASD is quite ‘fussy’ over food and always has been, his sister laughs about what he was like as a child around food his mum would cook and wouldn’t eat some meals, choosing to have bread and jam instead!!
Nowadays, he is very much a meat and potato man, having most meals on repeat.

Checj out happyhandsharriet on Instagram. Little girl literally starves herself if she cannot have one brand and flavour of crisps. Doctors didn't believe it and done a starve experiment thinking she would eat what they put in front of her - she didn't. Now they have fitted a gastrostomy fitted and is thriving.
Some of the judgemental posts on here clearly have no in experience with the matter

For those berating me, I’ll just remind you that I am autistic and had issues with food. I barely ate as a child, but I ate enough to keep me alive.

So I’m coming at this from a place of experience. I’m not saying this is the case for ALL, but there will be a LOT of autistic children who would adapt to eating what was put in front of them in time. But it’s that period of time that parents are, rightly, concerned about.

I'm quite sure there were equally restrictive eaters.

I'm going to speak out something that I would never say in real life - but what if the parents just didn't give it to them the first time?

I know a family with 3 kids with autism, oldest 2 have profound learning disabilities. 3rd child has autism too but needs less support with daily life and is verbal etc. but he has to have a lot of McDonald's, as all 3 children do.

I just wonder if they hadn't introduced it at a young age. Having had that experience with their older ones wouldn't it have been better not to?

My best friend as a child in the late 70s early 80s only ate fish fingers, chips and peas. Grew up to be an astrophysicist. We didn’t know anything about autism then but I’m willing to bet money he was.

Children in the past didn’t sit there and refuse to eat until the chicken nugget had been invented. They would have had their own version. Plain chicken breast or white bread and dripping for example.

There is a high crossover between autism and anorexia, so I think some of these children would have died, yes. I have always been revulsed by meat and fake meat. When forced to eat it as a child I would involuntarily vomit. I wasn’t being picky. I would happily live on cheese sandwiches now.

^ this. Autistic brother who was a child in the 80s had a diet of rice crispies, bananas, white bread, chips

A colleague who would be mid 50s now had a similarly restricted diet as an adult in the early 2000s

I don’t think we should conflate being forced to clear your plate/eat tripe with only eating safe foods.

Years ago, you were dished up your meal and if you didn't eat it you sat there til you did. That's what happened in our house anyway in the 60s

We are actually lucky aren't we that we have these high protein, homogenous, easily available bland foods for our restricted eaters.

Probably better to live on chicken than bread or rice - if you struggle with food they're more calorie dense.

A friend of mine had a son (who would be late 50’s now). He only ate crisps and chicken. He went on a school trip and she expressed concern. The teachers were confident that he wouldn’t starve and would eat when hungry. They sent him home after three days because he would have starved!! I also know a friend of my parents only ate chicken and chips. She would have been a child in the 1940’s. It’s not a new thing brought about by weak parents - which the thread is implying - it’s been around for decades. We just have a name for it now.

That’s what happened in my friend’s house in the 70s. The family Jack Russell under the table was very happy gradually being fed shepherd’s pie or spaghetti bolognese under the table because my friend’s Mum got bored of watching me not eat for 4 hours and didn’t closely supervise after the first half an hour. So it was more a case of “you’ll sit there until the dog you eat it.

I was just thinking the same. Chicken nuggets are a source of protein.

I was a faddy eater as a child but my dps never did that in 70s. Horrible thing to do.

however they would try at school

i remember dm writing my dislikes for a Brownie holiday and then being in tears because they wanted me to eat cooked tomatoes. We didn’t eat those at home. The leader was so nasty about it

I’m 63. Diagnosed with Aspergers as a (very) mature adult.

I disagree. As a child I survived on Cadburys Chocolate digestive biscuits, fish fingers and potato croquettes. The Dr advised my mum, “If that’s all she’ll eat, give her more of that”. As I got older I progressed. But, I never ate “wet” food. If I had to, it wasn’t allowed to “mingle” on the plate. Food categories couldn’t “touch”.

I drove my mum bananas!

I don't think it's weak parenting at all. I think it's fascinating and complicated.

I wonder if the modern idea if having a hugely varied diet is making it more of an issue/easily noticed?

Like a lot of you say, the British diet was quite bland and consistent. Eg meat, potatoes, plain veg etc. consistent and plain.

But now ewe expect kids to eat spicy food, mixed up food, Bolognese, stir fries, sushi, tacos, curries, noodles... A huge variation in texture, flavour, seasonings etc.