To be surprised this kid’s parents haven’t been prosecuted?

[AngeloMysterioso]

Teenage boy goes blind after being allowed to eat crap for the best part of a decade (BBC News link)

I mean surely this is tantamount to child abuse, or at the very least neglect? How does a parent allow this to happen? I mean you don’t have to be a nutritionist to know that chips, pringles and white bread aren’t exactly a balanced diet...

Mumma glad it worked for your dd but for someone like my son who wouldn't eat any alternative brand other than the one specific brand there is no hope of him expanding his range of food like you have. If I tried to replace the accepted brand of burgers he wouldn't touch them because he can see whether they are the right ones but then he wouldn't eat the right ones either as something like that makes that food unacceptable and when he only eats two different things then I don't have anything to replace them with.

For those who don't really get it, these are the sorts of things which affect my child's food intake:

• McDonalds fucked up once and put too much salt on the chips - he won't eat there any more

• the houmous at Nandos was a different consistency - won't eat there any more either

• the Healthy Eating programme at school said that butter is bad. Hasn't eaten butter since year 1.

• had an allergic reaction to a strawberry. Now will not eat any fruit at all.

When we go on holiday, we can't eat out. We skulk in our AirB&B and he eats bread and frozen chips (will tolerate other brands).

He is desperate to go to Japan but I don't think I'll be able to find him enough food to keep him going so we can't go.

Anyone who thinks this is just poor parenting can fuck off. It's exhausting and anxiety making. Even more ironically I love to cook and I'm really good at it :(

Sirzy, I hope your ds does well with his tube - does your ds struggle with it from a sensory point of view? It has been mentioned in the past for ds, but I can image him struggling with the practicalities of it, we have it in the background though.

I remember feeling relief when his paed said he thought he might not need a tube when he was aspirating into his lungs, and we worked on a dysphagia diet, with thickened liquids and pureed until his swallow improved. Now as we constantly struggle with his diet and see him lose weight and his growth falter, and he refuses supplements and fortified foods, I wish we had gone for the tube so that we had it to get some nutrients into him.

Aldi have recently changed their Rice Krispies. Ds knew straightaway.

My eldest was diagnosed with this type of eating disorders 5 years ago, once diagnosed discharged as our NHS area can only deal with anorexia or bulmia which were would not help her.. infact we were told it could make her worse to be in the same environment ..no help anywhere unless you can afford to pay for it.

Eventually diagnosed with autism she still only eats "safe" foods, no help with the autism as she was diagnosed at 17 so too old for child services and absolutely no chance of getting help from adult services she was literally discharged from the consultant and told that she had to fend for herself

I detest it when people make comments like this. I have an autistic son who is extremely picky. Absolutely nothing will make him eat something he doesn’t want to. He had a good diet for years but gradually dropped foods. He has no understanding of healthy eating. My youngest son also has a limited diet, it’s not always about neglect. My youngest would rather starve than eat certain foods. Again he had a very varied diet until he was about 4. Of course I could always hold him down and force feed him, that might work!

OrchidInTheSun your comment about school.....the Healthy Eating programme at school said that butter is bad. Hasn't eaten butter since year 1 struck a chord - ds has been prescribed various fortified foods and drinks over the years, which have mostly been rejected. We had success with one orange juice drink...as long as it was mixed with real juice. We were over the moon, it was the only vitamin we have ever managed to get into him (we have tried every single one I can find, in the chemist, online or prescribed) and it was very high calorie. Unfortunately he overheard his TA say that they thought it was the drink that made him sick (he has severe reflux and was having a flare up of symptoms) - he stopped drinking them, and has refused every fortified drink since.

Well Ds refused to eat the only brand of cheese and tomato pizza tonight that he has ever been willing to eat. He has one mouthful and said it tasted different. I then cut up an apple and he ate one tiny corner of one piece and said it tasted funny. He's 6ft 1 but very thin. He has definitely not eaten enough today to sustain him or give him energy. He has fainted once over the holidays and nearly blacked out a few times. He's eating the odd bowl of cereal and half a sandwich when I make one for him. He starts year 11 on Thursday and has a stressful year ahead.

Hired Ds has certain brands he will eat too. If they change or are out of stock, I would really struggle to get him to eat an alternative.

tbf, a lot of the "OMG my child is such a fussy eater!" threads on MN say something like

"Little Tarquin will only eat 3 types of pesto and 16 types of fruit, but vegetables only on a Thursday. My other child ate everything. This situation with T. is so impossible. Help!" I want to throttle them all

Food chaining is good. I was lucky that mine reacted a bit to peer pressure & to biscuit rewards. Took yrs though. I still get over-excited if he tries something new.

I know a teen lad who still eats only 5 foods. I think vit A is in there, at least. X fingers he will continue to be well.

I’ve got a similar issue I’m a step mother to two beautiful children 14 and 5. We have the 14 yr old full time and we’ve had the 5 yr old for 9 weeks now mother won’t stop drugs and look after the kids yet we’re paying through court as social services words we do a better job of keeping the kids away from abuse from no food to heating in house to being in same clothes for 3 days to attacking the kids the list goes on I’m at my wits end but for now know they’re safe. She only gets 2hrs supervised and today said fuck off I’ll see the 5 year old next week I’m away home for the bairn to say mams lying she didn’t walk towards home it’s awful

As a positive to this fucking dreadful thread

I've always felt rather ashamed and shit about my sons diet but reading that there are many like him has made me feel a lot less alone

ultra Children's services aren't much better. As a mentioned before, an autism diagnosis means they basically wash their hands of you.

We have contacted social services to try and access any help.

As seen on mumsnet "just give them multivitamins and they ll be fine" threads...its not like he ate healtily then completely changed at 14, so yes I do believe parents have responsability there.

I thought it was only my son with a limited diet. Diagnosed with Crohns at 13 it has been a struggle to get him to eat. I suspect that there is also other undiagnosed illness but will never know as we have been offered little help. At over 6ft he is pitifully thin and survives on chicken, cereal and crisps. I am a senior nurse but have struggled to negotiate any support for him. Tonight I’m in a panic as ASDA is out of stock of the particular chicken.

Did you even read the thread before you posted that itson?

When you have a child who won't eat, who refuses food, whose food choices dwindle down to the bare minimum, who will literally starve themselves, you feed them whatever it is that they will eat because some less than optimum calories are better than absolutely no calories at all.

FTI, vitamin supplements are recommended by professionals. DS dietician recommended a specific multivitamin which meets all of the recommended daily vitamins and minerals and a minimum of two cups of whole milk a day. Luckily DS will tolerate both of these things at the moment, under duress, but if he refused when older I wouldn't be able to pin him down and force it down him.

My DH (likely aspergers but not diagnosed) has selective eating disorder. The only veg or fruit he gets are the tomato sauce and mushrooms on the pizza he eats a few times a week. Otherwise his diet is limited to chicken and various carbs. He is in his 40s and no health issues luckily. Don't assume these parents have been neglectful. It must be bloody hard. Luckily our DS (also ASD) eats everything but my MIL found it very hard and stressful and it hasn't got any better!

I wonder all the limited diets are limited to junk food. I mean you never find a child that only eats carrots apple and spinach , or that will only have artisan sourdread for example. Even on this thread all mention jaffa cakes, cereal, white bread.

I wonder all the limited diets are limited to junk food.

Oh, I get it now. You're just here to be judgemental and goady.

Well done you, hope it feels good scoring cheap points off parents of disabled children.

And trying to get the disgusting iron liquid down them 😫

Luckily one of mine is now so much better at trying things but at 3/4 he pretty much lived on toast, bananas and a specific tinned meatball that isn’t sold anymore

itson what exactly are you trying to achieve? apart from blaming us for ever giving our children anything another than carrots.

Our wonderful paediatrician once gave us a prescription for abi-dec (is that what it is called?) he had it once and ran screaming around the kitchen. Never tried again, I don't want to totally put him off ever taking any medicine.

Trying to achieve? Im commenting on a thread . Do you think the advice is correct, when a child starts giving signs of a reduced diet , to give them what they ll eat? Even if that means giving only processed food that we know have some addictive qualities especially on children? Do you think the correct advice for texture adversions is to look for the "right" textures in processed food rather then natural one? Its a genuine question.

This child didn’t have ASD, he was a picky eater. He was told when he was 14 that if he didn’t continue his vitamins and change his diet what the consequences would be but didn’t care then. It says in the article that his parents tried to get him to change his diet. Now he has gone blind and can’t study his course this has all come out presumably because he is an adult who is now suing the NHS. Hope he loses

Trying to achieve? Im commenting on a thread . Do you think the advice is correct, when a child starts giving signs of a reduced diet , to give them what they ll eat? Even if that means giving only processed food that we know have some addictive qualities especially on children? Do you think the correct advice for texture adversions is to look for the "right" textures in processed food rather then natural one? Its a genuine question

Read the thread. It's been explained multiple times and advice from professionals is that at every meal you should always offer "safe" foods that the child will eat alongside whatever else is being offered however many children won't tolerate anything other than their own particular safe foods.