...to tell you about my son’s eating?

[Merryoldgoat]

My DS is 5. He’s awaiting assessment for ASD but he’s very high functioning so there’s some doubt about whether he’ll actually get any help.

Day to day he’s quite easy to cope with but the one biggie has been food. Up to last summer all he’d eat was:

Fruit purée pots
Yoghurts
Peanut butter sandwiches
‘Crunchy’ stuff (rice cakes, crisps, chips etc).
The odd toddler tray meal
Some cake
Some biscuits

Getting him to try anything new was an utter nightmare and frequently ended in tears for both of us.

My DH and I decided that we really had to make an effort and we’ve slowly but firmly introduced him to ‘new food’ in a calm way.

He’ll now eat the following in addition to what he used to:

Chicken nuggets
Fish fingers
Apple
Banana
Pizza
Cheese Sandwiches
Jam sandwiches
Home made Cottage pie
Home made macaroni cheese
A side of mixed vegetables if mashed up
Homemade Bolognese pasta

I could cry when I look at that list. I know it’s not the ‘healthiest’ but we’re now at the stage where he trusts us enough to try new things and I know we’ll slowly get there.

The possible ASD diagnosis doesn’t bother us at all - he’s our son and I love all his quirkiness and we’ll get through it but GOD the eating issues had me so scared for him.

Sorry for such a mundane post but as I watched him eating his apple after dinner this evening I realised how far he’d come.

That’s amazing welshmist!

And sounds like a good excuse to look at the Kuoni brochure...

That's really great. Both my husband and a friend of his are terrible eaters - literally eat no more than 10 things. They are both almost definitely autistic but are undiagnosed. My MIL feels great guilt that she couldn't get DH to eat more and it has definitely affected his life. So you should be very proud of yourself :) My DS is autistic but loves all food so much that it's a struggle to stop him. I feel proud that I've managed to stop him gaining too much weight in the last 2.5 years. Sounds silly but if I didn't (subtley) control his intake he would be the size of a house :( It's very hard.

@Titsywoo

I know - I’m obese so it’s extremely hard to foster healthy eating when my own eating is so disordered.

Thankfully DS is really active and seems to stay quite trim. I do keep an eye out though.