what do your asd teens eat in a day?

[foodfinishing]

hi everyone. posting here so more people see this! I always felt so guilty about what my asd dd eats in a day because it is terrible, but for ages she would hardly eat, so i’m glad we are now at the point where she will reliably eat a good amount each day, as long as we stick to what she’s ok with, and don’t try to change it.

thought this would be a nice kind of support thread for those with a teen who is extremely fussy (mostly due to asd, but also those who have deep rooted picky eating well into teen years etc)

today she’s had -
chocolate pillows cereal (basically a knockoff version of krave!) with milk
mini spring rolls with soy sauce
roast potatoes

Barely anything. He isn't particularly fussy, more that he just doesn't seem to feel hungry (or recognise it, or he is distracted by his hobbies!)

she’s also quite immature, as in she likes a lot of things that i would class as ‘kids’ things. such as watching adventure time with her breakfast, playing minecraft etc. was wondering if anyone else’s dc was like this?

How old is she?

16 :)

When I was a teenager (I’m autistic) I had a very restricted diet and like your daughter ate a lot of “kids’” foods. I continued eating what I was used to, and prepackaged things like pop tarts, cereals, super noodles and things like potatoes are the same every time. No nasty surprises like with fresh fruit and veg where one might be squishy, the next sour, the next sweet etc. You know what you’re getting! As an adult I have a much wider diet, though due to executive function issues tend to eat the same things as holding down a job, living alone and having to manage the house just means I don’t have the capacity to even think about what to eat. I still have the same sensory issues but have learnt to make smoothies and things as the whole glass tastes the same, or put veg in a curry as they mostly taste like the sauce etc.

Don’t worry, I would say you’re doing the right thing by letting her eat what she’s comfortable with as I can’t imagine how stressed I would have been had my parents forced me to eat other things. Like you, they were just glad I was eating something and at the time I wasn’t even diagnosed.

I don't think she's too young for Minecraft. I have an autistic family member and she sounds pretty similar when it comes to food. Honestly she wouldn't eat unless you told her too as she just doesn't think about food.

@Megmargs

When I was a teenager (I’m autistic) I had a very restricted diet and like your daughter ate a lot of “kids’” foods. I continued eating what I was used to, and prepackaged things like pop tarts, cereals, super noodles and things like potatoes are the same every time. No nasty surprises like with fresh fruit and veg where one might be squishy, the next sour, the next sweet etc. You know what you’re getting! As an adult I have a much wider diet, though due to executive function issues tend to eat the same things as holding down a job, living alone and having to manage the house just means I don’t have the capacity to even think about what to eat. I still have the same sensory issues but have learnt to make smoothies and things as the whole glass tastes the same, or put veg in a curry as they mostly taste like the sauce etc.

Don’t worry, I would say you’re doing the right thing by letting her eat what she’s comfortable with as I can’t imagine how stressed I would have been had my parents forced me to eat other things. Like you, they were just glad I was eating something and at the time I wasn’t even diagnosed.

thank you that gives me some hope that she will expand her tastes in the future!!

Used to be barely nothing but realised he had bowels issues and needed surgery. Since then loads but all bland beige stuff. No fruit or veg.

oh no, hope he is better now

My daughter is 18. She's had

Cornflakes
Cheese sandwich
Orange club
Tofu with rice (didn't eat the rice as it was 'mushy')

Not loads and not particularly healthy but I haven't stressed about what she eats since she was about 10 or 11. She doesnt eat any fruit or veg but is trying more things as she gets older. We've added paninis, bagels, peanut butter, curry, stirfry with noodles in recent years. They're usually specific brands.

Sounds good. Dd has been hospitalised twice to be put on a drip for under eating (not anorexia) so I take the any food is good approach. Dd is vegetarian, hates vegetables! Currently lives on rice and dal which I batch cook or noodles. Very worried because she leaves home for another go at university, (dropped out during lockdown)

Oh and a litre of sorbet a day

gosh, she’s never been hospitalised but has had stomach issues since the age of about 13, too much acid in her stomach and it was incredibly painful for her, couldn’t drink coca cola (her favourite) for a while but thankfully some meds (after years of fighting for them!) have helped (now she drinks monster most days! ).
When she was younger, her friends would look in amazement when they were offered Coca Cola! The fact is this was the only drink she’d have, since she was a baby she would gag on water so at one desperate point where she hadn’t drank anything for about 2 days we gave her some Coke and she finally drank. Since then, she’s had one a day, just to keep some sort of fluid going down. She is skinny, and seems to be healthy, so if it means she’ll drink, then i’ll feel no shame.

Ds14 has had cereal wheetos knock off a pizza iceland hotdog stuffed margherita and some football snacks despite not watching the football and as many iceland corvettes as he can get past me 2 on my last count. Dd19 has had an assortment of snacks that she bought round the shop. At least she went out. I don't worry about it and chuck them a gummy vitamin once a day. I've had stages where they wouldnt eat due to stress and nowadays just because of forgetfulness. So I try not to think about it too much.

Corvettes=cornettos

Takeaway margarita pizza, peanut butter on bread, crisps. Almost certainly branflakes with raisins for breakfast. Branflakes were a surprising hit, they're quite sweet.

DS actually eats quite a lot of veg but not consistently. He will eat an enormous pile of cooked carrots or half a cauliflower at once. So we just do that some days and not others, and hopefully it evens out over a week.

Minecraft at 16 sounds fine to me. It's all the rage in my DD's Y9 group, and DS spends hours building automated farms, machines, rollercoasters - programming really. I have friends who play it with their DC. It's so open ended, it's not a "jump through the hoops" thing so I'm not sure it needs to get outgrown.

hahaha my dd does something like that! she’ll eat a whole bag of sweet peas about once a week, but other than that, ketchup is as far as it gets!