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.

There's a British/African mum on social media whose DS is autistic and his safe food is rice. Other kids eat plain pasta or with butter or cheese. All predate chicken nuggets.

I lived off mashed potatoes with cheese, pasta with cheese. Jam sandwiches.

Good question about growing out of ARFID. I won't explain this very well so hope my language doesn't offend. My view with my own daughter is as she has grown older, certain autistic traits have become more pronounced and others have lessened. I wonder if with maturity she will be more able to try different foods and have a more full understanding of a balanced diet and eat a greater variety for that reason.

My husband only ate one brand of biscuit for much of his childhood but is generally a good eater now. He still wouldn't say he enjoys food - he finds it a massive chore and there's a lot of things he wouldn't ever eat, but equally there's a lot he will.

This is something we realised with our relative. When we were told he ate all her sausages for example in one setting it was frustrating when she refused them at home. But it had to be the exact same, same brand, same box, cooked the same. It wasn’t as simple as just liking sausages.

Oh they won’t, a cousin would only eat peas and this round bread, I think it’s called milk roll. His particularly cruel aunt denied him these things when his parents were on a long trip to visit their own parents, he ended up hospitalised, I don’t know how long it took (I was only 9). He’s now an adult and has a PEG, as a teen people often thought he had severe anorexia or was going through difficult medical treatment like chemo as he was so dangerously thin.

The poem The Story Of Augustus tells the story of a little boy wasting away because he refused to eat. This was written in 1845, so I’m assuming that food refusal/ Arfid always existed through the ages, just far less understood then than it is now.

I hope this worked for you. To an Arfid parent it sounds very damaging.

dh (now in his sixties) was just very skinny as a child and pretty sickly by all accounts. He did eat porridge until his well meaning mother decided to hide an egg in it. She was probably desperate to get some nutrition in him but, of course. it meant porridge was a no go after that.

Yes, I’d like to introduce AFRID into the conversation. Ah I see someone else has already mentioned.
amd anorexia. Different but still evidence some people will die rather than eat.

Yes, this I find bizarre, particularly with drinks. I have a friend who gives their baby squash because "they won't drink water" ,baby is 10 months old.

Now that feels like madness. Because a baby shouldn't know what squash is imo, and if COURSE the baby wants the sweet tasting liquid over the water,and will always pull a face when the offered liquid isn't squash, because they're confused.etc

But, same cannot be said for things like the food issues we're discussing.

My Dad (with no "diagnosis", but ND child and grandchild) tells us with amusement about one summer in his childhood in the 1960s where he only ate sausages and refused anything else.

I agree with posters abovethat luckily for him, most food back then was simpler too. The rest of his childhood food would have been very basic as they didn't have much money and my Grandmother was a shit cook in my limited experience of her.

Why do you think it’s goady ? Others are taking part and it’s an interesting read. Surely anything that helps us learn is of value. Or are you just going to shout ‘goady’ and run ?

Thank you
Will look it up

I’m a retired foster carer. We took a child with ASD for a short time. They were shockingly underweight hence the reason for being placed with us. Social services were adamant that their parents were starving them. They simply would not eat anything but milk and chopped up apples. We tried for three weeks before they needed hospitalisation. Thankfully they picked up with some tube feeding to keep calories up. Your comment is very wrong.

Ive just been goggling the term 'picky eater" as i realised that term was used a lot when I was young (it does seem a bit different to afrid, but also similar) anyway there was a whole book about it in 1957 but lots of references in literature going back a long time. I hadn't got to this poem yet. Very interesting.

They probably had other safe foods. My DN is showing ARFID type behaviour and he was never given nuggets and UPF so his safe food is bread and rice. It's not the nuggets that keep them going it's whatever their safe food is.

New someone growing up who basically only ate honey sandwiches.

I thought that poem was a cautionary tale? Much like the Hillaire Billoc poems, rather than an observation?

But maybe it was, maybe the poet observed "fussy" children and had the "they'll eat if they're hungry" opinion?

Yes definitely (am a historian by background). We have a completely unprecedented variety of food available to us. There's also a social status element which many middle class Brits have unconsciously imbibed. A strong preference for samey, bland or traditional British food is low status and associated with people who are 'unsophisticated', elderly or even a bit racist. Not wanting to eat a very wide variety of strong flavoured food is pretty much a moral failing (I say this as someone who likes variety!). Whereas back in the day no one would have judged you for bringing a sliced cheese sandwich to work every day for three decades.

There is a child in my daughters nursery room who could 'only drink juice' according to the parents. The mum made a huge deal out of this when staff post blank refused to give juice. She complained. Tried to get other parents to support her. Said her child would be dehydrated.

Turns out child happily drinks water at nursery.

Yeah, this is bollocks. An ASD child with ARFID will waste away before eating something 'unsafe'.

OP is asking a genuine question and genuinely curious. I don't see it coming from a place of ill intention. I have children who are fussy with their food. 9yo is coming around to trying different foods these days. 7yo is very picky ( still to get a formal diagnosis of ASD). It's a fascinating topic.

Same. I’m not autistic but as a child there were very few foods I actually enjoyed. I have very few memories from my childhood, it was abusive in many ways, but I do vividly remember sitting at the table with food in front of me for what felt like hours. My body weight would have put me in the failure to thrive category but rather than ‘pander’ to me, my parents decided the better approach was to force and punish. Funnily enough, that approach wasn’t effective.

My child has SEN and I’ll never, ever force them to eat food they don’t want to. So yes, their diet might be restricted but they eat. They won’t have any issues with food in their future that I’ve created and they’ll never have memories like I do.

What...have an open and interesting discussion that provides different points of views, experiences and understanding?

Yes, ever so goady...

Born in the 50’s, I and all of my siblings ND.

We were forced to eat what was put in front of us. If we didn’t the plate would be taken away after 30 minutes and we would be sent to bed without food.

The same plate would then be served cold for breakfast, lunch and dinner until eaten.

All of us now have very pronounced food issues. I literally can’t eat eggs. I vomit if they are put in front of me, so many memories of 24 hour old cold, congealed fried eggs. Also meat chops, Melon, Cucumber etc.

The worst though is my relationship with food caused by being sent to bed hungry so many times. Food security is a massive thing for me. I don’t like going somewhere where I don’t know where my next meal is coming from.

I also get very jittery if I am in a situation where I have no control about what is put in front of me and know it will be rude to leave something.

I understand how ridiculous this all sounds when there are so many hungry people in the world, but it is a classic example of why we should never force children to eat things.

I am very careful not to force my DC, DGC. Especially my DGS. I cater for his special cereal, noodles, broth etc and make no fuss. Interestingly he is gradually becoming more adventurous in his tastes and food is never the battlefield it was in my youth.