Fussy eater in italy

[Lovehummous]

I will be taking my 11 year to italy in June, it's our first holiday abroad! I want to be excited but I'm too preoccupied with worrying about what he's going to eat for 5 days. He has autism and is very picky. Currently he eats - chicken dippers, turkey dinosaur, garlic bread, naan bread, Yorkshire puddings, popcorn chicken. That's it. We will be visiting molfetta for 2 days and then visiting san michele salentino for 3 days. Is anyone familiar with these places and know any supermarkets/restaurants nearby that will have English food? Or food that is very similar

Will he eat McDonalds chicken nuggets and chips or does it have to be chicken dippers? Looks like there is a branch in Molfetta, at least.

You might have to just go with taking lots of safe food snacks in case you can’t find anything he likes and letting him have garlic bread and gelato when you eat out. It’s only 5 days.

Please ignore all the nasty posts on here. MN can be horrendously ableist when it comes to autism, sadly.

In terms of food, you should have no problem getting breaded chicken and garlic bread in restaurants - just ask for them plain. They're really common menu items and the Italians are always willing to be accommodating for kids.

Bakeries will have a huge range of breads (like flat breads) for him to try but you can always bring some with you if you're concerned. He may find he wants to try more food when he's there too, lots of restaurants will do platters of food so you can order a range of foods and he can have his "safe" foods but with the option to try new things too.

Good luck and I'm sure you'll have an amazing time. I'm also autistic and found Italy to be one of the best places for food.

OP, I so much feel your pain! My autistic DC are exactly the same, it's royal pain to feed them when away.
Is there an option for you to book aparthotel or Airbnb where you can do some basic cooking instead of restaurants? it's very difficult but at least they'd have hot breakfast and dinner and whatever snacks (bread, yogurt, crisps, just any calories really) they can manage? You could boil paste so they can eat it plain?

don't worry if he lives on toast and yogurt- my nephew has ARFID as well as ASD and he can survive a 2 week holiday on ice cream and toast as everything else that is unfamiliar utterly terrifies him...

as long as there is something he will eat - we just relax and go with the flow - he might try some new stuff or he might not - we always take some prepackaged stuff we know he will eat and fill him up on whatever works for him that we can get.

Gently, if the OP's son is autistic and has AFRID this is not temporary. So are they never allowed to go on holiday?

She is looking at making some relatively minor adjustments to ensure they are able to enjoy all the other aspects of the holiday.

To do otherwise would be cutting off your nose to spite your face.

I would take lots of cereal, crisps, crackers and nuts with you. Then let him try things in restaurants if he wants but atleast you don’t have to stress as you know you have food in your accommodation he will eat.
Enjoy your holiday

I don’t know these towns specifically but I do know the general area. If you go into traditional bars (coffee shops sort of) and trattorias you might struggle but I would have thought you’d be ok in Molfetta as it is a big enough place and will definitely have plenty of supermarkets and almost certainly a McDonald’s or two. There will always be bread/breadsticks available everywhere. One of my favourite things are taralli which are like little savoury biscuity things which my toddler also loves. They usually come flavoured with fennel seeds but you can get plain ones and you’ll find them everywhere in Puglia. It’s a wonderful place and June should be a nice time of year as it won’t be too hot - have a great holiday!

‘Children’s food’ is not a thing in Italy; there’s just ‘food’.

I hate the difference in the way people treat neuro disabilities and physical.

I say that as a parent of 3 autistic children (who range from no food issues to AFRIDA despite me approaching food the same way with all of them). Also as a professional who has spent over 20 years working with children with Autism.

I have a bowel condition and have to put a similar amount of effort into planning food as the OP so I don't flare up.

Nobody would ever suggest that it's not worth travelling because I have to do this.

Yet the nasty undercurrent to some of these comments is that really this is a made up condition because the OP is a lazy parent , therefore they don't deserve to go on holiday to an interesting place.

It's prejudice. Nothing more nothing less.

Do you really think that things don't exist until you find out about them?

The term before AFRID was selective eating disorder. It may have been called something else before that or it may not have been studied/named before that. That doesn't meanit didn't exist .

And before that the entire nation lived on plain and repetitive food choices.

My autistic DS eats less variety than you have listed and we always get by ok abroad - we do self cater so that we can cook some of his safe foods and we take loads of stuff we know he eats and there is always cereal as a back up. He will try new things from the supermarket (foreign varieties of stuff he might eat like cereal bars). Not tried Italy yet so can't recommend what you might be able to get there but hope you have a fab trip

If a child with Arfid did not have a sensory impairment would treatment include exposure, that is if treatment is available?

I live in Italy.

all the things you have listed above as snacks, you can easily buy in any supermarket. So worst case, he can live off his snacks for 5 days.

pp above have been really helpful and listed the main things you can get in addition - chicken in breadcrumbs readily available,pizza bianco, any kind of bread at all including flatbreads.

i’d say the main thing is to relax about it as much as possible, and not make it a big focus of the holiday. Then you may find he gets a bit more open to things. My boss has just informed me today about her annual 10 day fast, and she is still here!

but surely you work that through before booking. Just feels an odd way around and makes life harder. That’s the bit I can’t quite understand.

Exposure to distressing stimuli has been generally found unsuccessful in helping autistic people to overcome sensory aversions of all types ( I work in this field). In fact it usually makes things worse.

Explicit teaching and practicing of coping strategies (such as planning how to manage exposure to distressing sensory stimuli) is generally the go to approach.

If there are reasons why someone really needs to increase their tolerance there are ways to address desensitisation but it never involves repeated exposure in the hope that this will e velop tolerance... It just strengthens the synaptic connections that cause the adverse reaction and often people then have the distress just at the prospect or thought of the stimulus.

What part of "it can't be worked through" do you not understand, exactly?

It's a bit like telling someone with asthma to just "work through breathing".

My first sentence was intended to be helpful. I appreciate my second half wasn’t, I couldn’t understand the order of your planning, which you’ve now explained. I apologise for being unkind.

Huh? Researching and making a plan for safe foods is “working it through”. I don’t mean magically making an autistic child eat unusual foods. The op has now explained the reason the planning has occurred in this order.

Thank you for that explanation.

Another comment : white pizza or pizza bianca, in some areas of Italy, is not just the base with oil and salt, but means no tomatoes, and it might come with mozzarella, so make sure to ask or just say " solo olio e sale, niente mozzarella" meaning just oil and salt, no mozzarella.

If there’s one word I’d love to ban from this site it’s “gently”.

And it annoys me that there’s people out there that actually think just because someone has a life long condition/disability/illness they shouldn’t go on holiday. My uncle (wheelchair bound, doubly incontinent, sometimes tube fed) went abroad every year. Couldn’t eat the food as it would usually be served- on the occasions he wasn’t tube fed it would need to be puréed- but still enjoyed his holiday. Less able people are able to enjoy their holidays…

Honestly, if all he eats for three days is garlic bread, plus snacks and breakfasts etc. he’ll be fine.

Here are some links to Familia supermarket website in Mallfoto. Even on my cheap Samsung phone, (devices may differ etc) they offer the translate button and I made a kind of fake shopping list for you.

I can't find dinosaurs, but there is quite a good range of nuggets and Findus products if you have any kind of self catering option.

https://www.cosicomodo.it/familasud/bisceglie-kolbe-hdz1/reparti/gelati-e-surgelati/carne-e-pesce/c/20048

There’s another supermarket called Dok. Also with English translation:

https://www.supermercatidok.it/dettaglio-volantini/?idpdv=85&last=no&pdv=MOLFETTA%20-%20VIA%20S.%20F.SCO%20D%27ASSISI%2C%2065

If your son will only eat THE THING and not accept any imitations. This might all be useless but you can have a bit of a scroll and see if it's any good.

Wishing you the best for a happy holiday x

@Wiltingasparagusfern

“bitter old shrews”

the posters that you are referring to here… I don’t agree with what they are saying in response to OP, but calling them “bitter old shrews” is both ageist and misogynistic.

I’m the ignorant, privileged, awful , bitter old shrew twat and that was in the first 10 minutes.