ARFID-what do you or your child with ARFID eat?

[AuADHD]

I’m sat here eating the same comfort food that was safe back in 1994 and it got me wondering what other people with ARFID eat. What are your safe foods and what are your absolutely won’t eat?
Mine:
Black coffee with vegetarian pâté on toast.
Pizza but preferably homemade or from certain restaurants. If it doesn’t look right though I won’t eat it.
Dry cereal, preferably Frosties, Golden Grahams or Cheerios
My homemade soup
Chips
Biscuits

I eat more than that but not a lot of variety.

My eldest has suspected ARFID (under investigation)

Pretty much:
Macaroni cheese (only homemade)
Pasta bake (with the right jar of sauce)
Quorn thing with potato side (2 acceptable potato options)
Very occasional fruit snacks or pizza or sometimes a crisp type snack

For my son:

cheese
Baked beans
bread and toast
fries
sweet biscuits and pastries
fruits

Mine has fine realised that potatoes are nice in several ways. Used to be just chips but now we have waffles, roast and baked as well! Still working on mash… bread and butter, plain pasta with butter. Grapes

Oh also all chocolate and sweets are good

My son has ARFID. he is a teenager and there is zero help or support for him. So I suspect he will live the rest of his life eating:
Sausage and chips
Nuggets and chips
Pizza
Garlic bread
Ham sandwiches
Bananas

It’s rubbish isn’t it. I have widened what I will eat but only if I make it. Eating out is generally chips because it’s rare to get a bad chip, although some have managed it. I study the menus of restaurants and cafés in places we visit so that I’m prepared. If they change the menu I get really stressed and just order chips.

Mine is now 19.

Toast and peanut butter
Cereal
Chips. Occasionally a roast potato but this is rare.
Eggy bread
Used to eat lots of custard but not seen this for a while.

He was referred to CAMHS who made no difference whatsoever. It is apparently one of the more intractable difficulties.

I had ARFID growing up and it was horrendous. So stressful, made any social occasion nightmarish. I still have it to a mild extent but luckily the things I can't eat now are largely avoidable. Basically I can't tolerate buffet food - sausage rolls quiche, random salads, cold egg etc. If I am invited to a picnic i would always bring my own food or just not eat. But otherwise im mostly ok now. For me I had a watershed moment on my first ever trip away after leaving home. I went to a little restaurant in Turkey where the chef cooked everything in front of us and it was so different to any food experience I'd had before that it genuinely felt like a mental wall was crumbling amd I suddenly could eat these vegetables that I had never touched. It helps a lot that my preferred texture is crunchy so salads and lightly cooked veg are ok. As a child and teenager i was very restricted though - basically chips beans, tinned sweetcorn and vanilla ice-cream. My mum used to weep over how difficult I was to feed.

Basically once I left home and took total control of my diet I got a lot better because suddenly eating was on my own terms.

No judgement, just curious, so if people don't eat veg, how does this affect your health? Or maybe it doesn't?

M&S chicken tenders
Mccain fries
heinz beans
my pasta sauce
cheese on toast/eggy bread
specific rolls with cheese sprwad
mashed potatoes
genius sausage rolls
gravy
Yorkshire pudding’s
cake/custard/rice pudding
certain crisps
recently apples!
rice cakes
biscuits
pizza from certain places

i was a fussy eater, large family, zero choice for food. But I ate more when I had control over it. She’s not interested though.

I'm realising I do quite well compared to some, as I have a broader variety but its very specific.

Pizza (margherita only but if I make my own I'll add pineapple, chicken and bacon)
Chips/mash (homemade)/jackets etc.
Heinz spaghetti hoops - never beans
Heinz tomato soup
Richmond Sausages
Chicken/turkey breast or well done beef/lamb
I'll eat a few fruits but only if they look perfect
Carrots/cauli/brocolli/Cabbage
Tomatoes
Dolmio smooth sauce for a bolognese
Peach Yogurts

No onions or garlic (i will ignore the fact they'll be in pizza sauce and dolmio smooth)
No mayo or sauces other than Ketchup
Never had chinese/indian/Thai etc.
I'll always have either a burger or pizza from the menu if eating out so there has to be one of those available
At an all inclusive holiday I'll likely just eat chips all day every day for fear of contamination or unknown ingredients
I can't eat eggs unless they're cake ingredients
No ham, pork or Gammon even though I like bacon and Sausages
Crisps/sweets/choc/drinks I'll try absolutely any. But I cant try any new savoury foods and regularly go off things I used to like

I have ARFID, and like @LarryUnderwood I too found it somewhat easier once I left home and was responsible for my own eating. It sounds silly because my mum and dad never pressured me into eating (they were very understanding) but being able to make and refuse my own food if I wanted to felt like a weight had lifted.

As a kid, my diet consisted of:
Pizza (only cheese)
Rice on its own
Naan bread on its own
Pancakes (had to be made by my mum)
Yorkshire puddings (also had to be made by mum) in their own
Spaghetti with smooth pasta sauce in a separate pot

Now, I would say I am able to eat actual meals, whereas as a kid everything had to be completely separate. I eat certain veg as long as it is prepared a certain way and I think I could convincingly hide my ARFID from anyone who didn't know me well, whereas as a kid that would have been impossible.

I certainly still have struggles, and I could cry sometimes when I sit down to eat something I thought I could eat and my brain tells me no. I struggle eating out at places I don't know, and I will never take up an invite for a home cooked meal anywhere but home and family (who understand).

I find it so difficult as a parent to a teenage son with ARFID, I really worry about his health. He also seems to be getting more restrictive instead of less. It’s so stressful. There’s just no help available.

Going out for set menu meals fills me with so much dread and anxiety that I just won't go. And I feel bad when gong for meals with friends or family as they have to think about where I will go

My friend has never eaten veg, he does take a greens supplement and a multi vitamin
53 no health issues and one of the fittest people I know (regularly competes in tough mudder type courses and top in his age category)

I had christmas dinner with DHs cousin one year but because he had ONCE mentioned that putting a raw egg into mashed potato makes it lovely and creamy, I just couldn't bear the thought of him putting weird food in what should be a plain and simple roast. Luckily for me their autistic son was having pizza so I joined him! They know all about my ARFID so it wasn't awkward luckily

My DD:
Plain buttered toast
Halloumi chips
Margarita pizza (one brand preferred, can eat in restaurants but it’s not always successful)
Homemade cheese and tomato pasta bake
Chocolate things (cake, biscuits, brownies)
Only drinks water and hot chocolate

She’s on a range of supplements, things got bad 6 months ago after coping her whole life on such a limited diet. She’s 17, ASD, and finally wanting to try other things. So she’s had a few mouthfuls of rice, chicken etc in Wagamama-type places. I hope this is the beginning of a new start for her. DH had ARFID and started ‘curing’ himself at 18 when he moved away to uni. DD won’t be doing that, and it seems very deeply ingrained in her.

We never sought a diagnosis because we knew how little it’s understood in the UK. But it was apparent ever since weaning that she had it.

Varies slightly as one tolerable "meal" will become disgusting. Pasta has gone recently...

Toast
Around 5 types of cereal
Couscous (only giant)
Sometimes Heinz tomato soup if it's a good day
Chocolate
Banana yoghurt (one certain brand)
soreen banana loaf
Luckily will tolerate multivitamins.

Child with it. Never bothered with formal diagnosis cos...well.....what's the point!!

DD:
Hot dogs
pizza
mashed potato
Tesco meal deals
Any fast food take away, Maccys, KFC, BK, chippy
bagel and butter
She has Emetophobia. So much better than she was couple of years ago but noticing more limited food recently. She feels sick every day

What is ARFID? Only heard of it on Mumsnet.

I never thought it had an obvious effect on her, but last year we discovered she was severely deficient in vitamin C, and then a blood test showed iron and vitamin D also low. It was pretty devastating as a parent to hear that - she had to start taking 3 pills a day plus drops which was horrific for her as a child who was never able to take medication. But she managed it! The ASD wish to follow the rules has overridden the ARFID 🤣 But our GP had never heard of ARFID…. It’s incredibly frustrating. He tries to tell her to eat more healthily, like she doesn’t know.

That's so interesting, given all the health advice. I worry a lot about my DS diet, doesn't have arfid but a bit limited and carb heavy. So relieving to hear about people with very restricted diets doing well

https://www.awp.nhs.uk/camhs/conditions/eating-issues/avoidant-restrictive-food-intake-disorder-arfid

How do you go about getting a diagnosis of ARFID? Im worried about my daughters eating and reading this it sounds like it could be ARFID