To just feed her pizza?

Honestly I would have cried my eyes out over a messed with pizza.

I apparently spent a good chunk of my early childhood eating only Rice Krispies with skimmed milk, and bread and butter (well, St Ivel Gold), and I'm still here.

I always have a safe food on offer, with a few hopeful extras as well. Ideally I would suggest at least switching around the brand of the pizza so she's getting some "variety" (not nutritional variety obviously, but just not the exact same mouthfuls of food every single day) but it sounds like even that might be too far for her.

Just one safe food does sound really quite extreme. I think you're right to be considering the possibility of ASD or sensory processing issues. No harm in looking up ways of managing ARFID in ASD kids, even without the diagnosis.

Sounds fine. My autistic son has ate the same 3 dinners for the last 15 years.

Pizza, chicken nuggets and supernoodles. That is it.

I was told just feed him what he will eat. As he will starve himself rather than try something new.

It does sound like she has ARFID which is what I have.

Avoidance and Restricted Food Intake Disorder.

Let her eat what she will eat and then bring it up with your GP when you see them.

I have been given special shakes on prescription and because of them, I have actually gained weight.

It's better that she eats than doesn't eat. Can you have her eat veggies before pizza appears so she hopefully gets a bit more full on those?

I'd periodically add in an additional food to try on the side, but not mention it.

My brother (high functioning, on the spectrum) had a very restrictive diet for all of his childhood. Specific brand of ready salted crisps (although substitutions could be made out of sight), specific brand of sausages, fish and chips, specific juice boxes, mcdonalds, dairy milk... Zero fruit or veg. He would sometimes eat something very random if it felt exciting/was related to his interests though. Eg if you cooked shepherd's pie he wouldn't ever touch it - if he got on a plane and was offered shepherd's pie on a plastic tray, he'd ask for a seconds 😅

He's grown into a very tall adult and is much more adventurous (by his standards) than I ever could've imagined, so don't drive yourself demented.

My brother really really struggled with food - made my struggles look minimal. We were always told just to make sure he ate - I would try upping the milk and snacks if she's also sleeping badly.

Definitely keep the multivitamin - if you can get her onto a tablet one eventually they often have a better range but again no point hurrying this as much better she eats a gummy one than nothing.

@DomesticBlisters definitely Google ARFID, my son has a diagnosis of ARFID and he has very few safe foods, Doritos, McDonald's chicken nuggets and chips and that's it.
It is well worth reading up on it.

This is one of my fav imagines why asd kids go for same foods

That image makes so much sense and I have seen it before.

it also highlights to be how little sense DS makes when gala apples and carrots are his main source of food! (And the lack of calories has been a massive issue!)

Good luck!

just as a word of warning but don’t expect too much from the GP or dietican if you get a refferal. Sadly there isn’t a lot of support out there from proffesionals yet for autism related feeding issues/arfid

Hi DomesticBlisters I haven't RTFT just your posts. My ds was, and still is, just like this and it has taken years to expand his food choices. Relevantly he is also autistic and whilst food selectivity hasn't always been recognized as an autistic trait it has become more so nowadays.

The hardest part is thinking your dc isn't eating enough (which poss they aren't if you feel they are too thin) and you can resolve this by getting a daily Multi-vit (gummies worked for ds but you might need to experiment) and ensuring they get enough calories from eating the foods they will eat. I wouldn't rely on her eating at school but do a packed lunch instead; if she can eat her lunch in the school canteen that is a positive in itself.

Smell and texture are often involved, hardly surprising when autism affects the senses such as sound, taste, touch and smell.

The next hardest part is getting past the social pressures because others have difficulty understanding your dd's condition - you just need to ignore this, easier said than done I know.

It's a long haul thing usually but it can get better.

Feed her what she will eat and get an appointment with a nutritionist. Fed is always better than non fed and there is no point in short term battles. Concentrate on the long term goals with the nutritionist and don't sweat the day to
day. She is eating, you are getting some
guidance.

You should definitely get a referral to a dietician. They can run blood tests to rule anything else out.

My daughter hardly ate anything and it turned out she has coeliac disease. The poor girl was feeling sick all the time.

Oh OP, my DS is a pizza devotee too. I cook his in the airfryer- so I can time it just how he likes it & reduce the potential for disaster. Half a Goodfellas pizza fits in our XL airfryer. Saves on putting on the oven too xx

I’d give her the pizza as it is. You can put other things on her plate and if she eats them great and if she doesn’t at least she’s fed!

Will she drink milk? A multivitamin wud be good if you can get her to eat one too

Ds2 went through phases when he ate little more than peanut butter toast and oven chips.

You're right to keep that core of acceptable foods and just push at the edges a little.

I tried that thing where you put a new food on the plate, with no comment, and it usually ended up dumped on mine or into a box of tissues!

How very wierd MN have hidden my previous post to check it first. I have no idea why and have only had 1 or 2 posts deleted in 15 years! No idea I was a controversial or suspect MNer at all!

How exciting for boring old me - what have I done?

They shouldn't have much problem with my previous post but I've been thinking things/the world has gone a bit crazy lately, so maybe it IS me that's the crazy one after all.

You'll have used a particular word that triggers the site to hide the post.

My youngest son was similar he would only eat sausages, macaroni cheese and toast sometimes he would eat peas and sweetcorn sometimes not, never any fruit he would take those gummy vitamins though. He had cheeses sandwiches in his packed lunch every day! Saw GP was told not to worry he would see me eating fruit and vegetables at home ( I’m a vegetarian) he dad wasn’t hence the sausages and he would copy me Nope! When he went to nursery he would see the other kids eating and copy them Nope! When he went to school Nope! The GP referred us to a dietitian she said not to worry she saw other kids with similar issues and the worst thing was to turn food and mealtimes into a battleground. My son really couldn’t see the point in food and if you didn’t give him the food he would eat he really would just not eat at all. He was very tall and slim and lost weight so easily we couldn’t push the issue. My son had no other signs at the time but later developed behaviour issues and was diagnosed with ADHD, the medication he was first given for his ADHD reduced his appetite even more so we had to change it. He grown up now still tall and thin but eats like a horse and does most of the cooking in his house.

If she drinks milk will she drink milkshakes? You could make your own with ice cream and fruit for example. You can also add cream to milk for extra calories.

If she's underweight the healthiest foods for her will be the high calorie and high fat ones.

I would give her whatever she wants to eat, will she eat more than one of those pizzas for dinner?

Sorry not read whole thread so I might be repeating what others have already said but ... sounds like ARFID and / or ASC??

My two are both autistic and my younger has extremely restricted eating. I totally hear you about the withholding other food strategy not working. And all the other, many, strategies we tried until we realised with a fright that the more pressure she perceived (by us nonchalantly trying all these subtle ways of desensitising her to new foods) , the smaller number of foods she ate. Ie the more anxious about meals she was, the more her restricted selection shrank even smaller.

We now have completely stopped all attempts to control her eating choices and let her lead 100% on food. I have taken this route after a) realising that our professionally-advised strategies were making things worse and b) reading about the high percentage of autistic girls who have diagnosed eating disorders by teenage years.