Is it ok for an autistic person to live on fish fingers, alphabites and spaghetti hoops

[flowerpot13]

If anyone reading this happens to be a nutritionist, is it ok for an autistic person to mainly live off birdseye fishfingers, alphabites and spaghetti hoops - Even if they are capable of eating other things but don't like it.

You’d want to add a multi vitamin to that

Well it’ll keep you alive. But nutritionally pretty awful.

Being autistic doesn't give you different nutritional requirements to other people lol. They need the same nutrients as everyone else!

No it’s not ok in that it won’t supply all the nutrients that person requires (autistic or not)

No. Google what a healthy diet is.

If you supplement with multi vitamins and things like milk to drink then yeah it's ok. Not great....but ok.
That was pretty much me for a few years as a kid.
I eat more variety now.
If the person is losing/gaining too much weight then they should talk to a doctor.

There's some nutritional value in fishfingers, depending what sort and how they are made, but none at all in spaghetti hoops. I don't know what alphabites are: Google tells me it could be preformed potato bakes, or cereal. Neither look like they have any nutritional value other than just calories to keep you going.
How is this person expecting to get a range of vitamins and roughage? There would also be a concern about UPFs.
But you know this, OP, otherwise you wouldn't be asking.

Does the person have ARFID?

Ds does and it’s a nightmare getting anything into him.

It makes it very difficult to eat anything other than safe foods. There are ways to introduce foods and expand the diet, but the person very much has to be a willing participant.

As it stands fish fingers, alphabites and spaghetti hoops aren’t the worst I’ve heard. Multivitamin would help.

It’s better than dying from not eating…

What do you mean by OK? Healthy? Nutritionally balanced? Socially acceptable? Avoiding malnutrition? What do you mean?

If it is likely that trying to impose other foods that the person is ‘capable’ of eating onto them will end up in more harm being done to them (directly or indirectly) than if it wasn’t tried, then sticking with mostly those three things is probably the best option.
If other reasonably healthy things (esp a multivitamin and some milk or cheese) could be added without much side effect other than grumbling about preference, then that would be a good choice for longer-term health.
If the other things that might be added are just chocolate cake and fizzy chewits, then maybe don’t worry about adding them in.

As far as restricted diets go I actually don't think it is that awful it has protein in the fish fingers etc. I have worked with young people with AFRID where it has been much more restricted. I would maybe try to add multivitamins and try to add dairy and fruit or veg but I know that is easier said than done.

It would be helpful to them to introduce some variety somewhere.
I’m no expert but that diet lacks fibre and certain nutrients.
If they can eat some vegetables alongside it- carrot sticks, celery sticks, pepper strips. Apple, orange, kiwi, melon…it would be a big boost.

Every extra food they include is a win! Well worth trying.

Depends if they have ARFID or not. Fed is best if that's the case, and starvation is bad for everyone. Different autistic people will react differently.

Intentionally trying to broaden one of my autistic DC's diets will result in them stopping eating most of their original foods and not even trying any new ones, so it would be a disaster to try to change it. My other DC would be more open to changes. You need to know the person well.

Sensory issues with food are super common in autism, and other related challenges are too.

It's not exactly ok but it's not uncommon. My autistic young adult son is pretty restricted, Mcnuggets feature highly. I buy him the chewy Bassets multivitamins. Sometimes you have to pick your battles in the context of overall wellbeing. However it's unlikely someone on that diet will suddenly start munching celery sticks! Try not to make it a cause of even more anxiety.

It's better than nothing but I'd try to add some fruit or veg and a glass of milk in there.

Spaghetti hoops count as one of your 5 a day. It's the tomato sauce.

As PP said, it’s not nutritionally great, but does have some redeeming features eg fish for protein, cooked tomatoes provide lycopene needed for prostate protection for men, good sources of overall calories etc. It’s a tolerable short-term diet but absolutely not a good one for long term health.
There is plenty of room for improvement though, for example:.
For calcium, could you add dairy or eggs? Even a milkshake would be helpful.
For fibre perhaps fruit (fresh and dried), & various veg (even if in part processed form such as coleslaw or pre-prepared mixed veg eg frozen or tins)
Can you add bread or toast? There are a multitude of options from there.
For potassium try bananas.
Vitamin C can be found in orange juice.
And so on.

Tbh I’d be worried about iron levels (energy) and certain water soluble vitamins such as the B group which affects the nervous system. Low levels of these can be extremely dangerous.
So a quality multi vitamin & mineral supplement is essential.
If it is arfid, have you / they spoken to a dietician about their nutritional exposures?

Expand on ‘mainly’.
do they drink orange juice to get vitamin c?
The hoops are fortified but you still need to check for iron, calcium and B vitamins.

Can they be gradually and gently encouraged to try new foods? E.g. baked beans instead a spaghetti hoops sometimes? That would at least add fibre and extra protein. Definitely a good multivitamin needed, and I'd try to access help via the GP.

It'll keep you alive and probably reasonably healthy tbh.

If they can eat other things then they should probably should. I'd at least try to get some more fruit and veg in there.

Are they eating this for all three meals a day?

Assuming this is arfid which is commonly associated with autism. No one is going to tell you it's an ideal diet. But if it's all someone can eat, then it's all they can eat. Autism in general is still poorly understood and we don't have reliably ways to treat arfid, we have suggestions we can make but if it is severe they just don't work. There's no value in forcing or bullying someone into eating other foods, it just causes distress.

This diet is good enough that it wouldn't justify intervention such as tube feeding, which carry their own risks.

How old is your DC? As an adult and in charge of my own food I lived on southern fried chicken, potato waffles and baked beans. Not ideal. But I'm not a child and my nutritional needs are not the same. Do you have a case worker you can speak to?

Edited to add that I am AuDHD.

Add a daily iron supplement alongside the multivitamins.

Is this you or someone else OP? Have you/they been diagnosed with ARFID. My friend went private to get help for her son who had this as she found there was very little help on the NHS. At one point he only had 2 foods he would eat.

I had to look up what ARFID was but this was how my son (autism/mld) was for years and how I (Asperger’s) was until 19- I think for him some sensory/swallowing issues and mainly anxiety about anything new so he lived on chicken nuggets, potatoes waffles, milk, weetabix, yoghurt and squash until he started school then expanded in to toast as that’s all they could get him to eat at lunchtime. They wanted me to give him a packed lunch but I asked them to give him a few terms as I had a feeling he’d eat more once he settled and made more connection between hunger and food (Autism and some MLD). He did start to eat more variety (not much) by the end of the second term. They never pushed him - all on his terms.

I never made him eat things he didn’t like. Couldn’t do all the usual things that you’re supposed to try, partly because I couldn’t afford for food to be rejected as pretty broke, and partly because I was on my knees with exhaustion myself.

This all complicated by a severe egg white allergy dxd at 5 ( which we realised he’d been building sensitivity to since three)
anyway, the reason I never pushed it was because I had similar issues and it was treated as bad behaviour by my parents and the school and consequently I was very restricted until I went travelling at 19 when necessity forced me to eat different things (still only 5 things but different 5 things!), then as I got older, less anxious and more autonomous I expanded my repertoire. Both my son and I eat pretty much anything now!
.
Food issues and Autism commonly go hand in hand. The best thing you can do is try not to worry to much and get a multivitamin in there somewhere (I didn’t, because I couldn’t afford it and he ate cereal with milk so I knew he was getting the vits, plus he was growing, had loads of energy etc).