To think they shouldn’t change the packaging?

[MummaOfTheJungle]

Quavers have added the avengers characters on to their packaging. My autistic son refuses to eat them now because of that and they’re one of his safe foods 😩 AIBU to think they shouldn’t change the packaging like this?

You should have put this is SN chat OP …. The lack of understanding on this thread re autism, safe foods, eating etc is astounding. 😔

Thankfully it’s not an issue that I have to deal with but I have an autistic DC and from support groups I’ve come across parents with DC who have severe food issues who would literally starve themselves rather than eat non safe foods. Many end up hospitalised. It’s not just about being a fussy eater. The panic that happens if packaging changes or if a shop stops stocking a particular brand. Of course we know brands will change things . That will always happen but just a bit of empathy wouldn’t go amiss.

You can understand the issue and feel for how incredibly worrying and frustrating it must be for parents of children with ARFID and still think that it’s absolutely batshit to expect manufacturers to never make any ingredient or packaging changes to satisfy a tiny percentage of the population. It isn’t a reasonable expectation in any respect.

Manufacturers could issue press releases, with sen parents in mind

'Just a heads up, we are temporarily changing packaging, and want to let our sen kids know in advance'

Or maybe if parents didn't feed their kids all this packet food in the first place there would be no packaging issues?

Kids only know about all this packaging because of parents choosing it to start with

Oh god please

Many parents havs kids who only eat fruit, or cultural staples, so thats nonsense

It varies - the kids find a safe food and never abandon it - mine likes the food i ate in pregnancy, curries and meat

And I am lucky!

I’m referring to posters who are saying just make him change to a different safe food, tough at least he’ll eat healthier now, just make him eat them etc .. those not understanding autism at all, NOT about the packaging issue.

Contact the manufacturer directly and explain. They may be able to send some without the new graphics.

This.

I totally understand your frustration but YABU and working with your son on understanding how packaging changes us one of the life skills he needs to learn. Over his lifetime of perhaps 80-90 years every kind of food he likes will change branding packaging 4 or 5 times. Some safe foods will even be discontinued. Mine is 17 and has had to cope with this several times already. It's hard but it's part of living in the world

The need for change, excitement, competition, innovation, exploration, 'churn'... As opposed to everything staying the same and never evolving. Things like that.

Quavers aren't food 😭

Contact them and tell them your concerns. If you are lucky they will send you some with old packaging for free, or maybe just tell you where to buy them. It's worth a chance.

I work in marketing. I’m sure some of the decisions marketing teams make may disappoint or just plain baffle some people. Obviously I can’t account for every one. But what I can say is that, of all the things people working in marketing do, one thing we don’t do is sit there saying “You know what? We sell enough of this product - job done”. We’d all be out of work pretty quickly if we did.

I get that it’s not as simple as “He’ll just have to accept things change”. And you’ve have had some useful, practical suggestions. But what you can’t do is expect companies to plan their product portfolio around you. What will you do if one of his safe foods is discontinued altogether?

None of that requires a crisp company to temporarily change their packaging. 😂 You should go and meet your needs out in the world, although things are always changing so they're probably already being met. This little boy just needs one thing to be predictable.

This isn’t going to happen, though. Nothing ever stays the same.

If the company lose their market share through refusal to change then the company could fail and the product would be discontinued. It would then not be available in any packaging.

Disclaimer: I do not work in marketing and may have used the wrong terminology.

But you can't expect the rest of the world and huge companies to bend to him

All the He needs to accept change comments 🤣 clearly never met someone with ASD

I get it’s frustrating but it’ll be a big moneymaker for the company and we live in a capitalist world unfortunately

a bag sealer was a game changer for me

Yes, I said that everything is always changing. So for autistic people, existence is inherently painful and maybe the little boy needs some sympathy?

I would vote YABU, but I have sympathy for him because I know he is really suffering.

You're really zoning in on this one thing, aren't you?? It doesn't stop there. The next autistic child will only eat... Ah, I can't be bothered. You obviously just came here to argue.

I don't think it is reasonable to expect commercial companies, which exist solely to make a profit not to change their packaging because it might upset your son, autistic of not.
No matter who you are the world rolls on without you, you have to build some resilience to it, there is no alternative.

My kid eats home made pizza every day. The flour is packaged, the cheese is packaged, the tomato purée is packaged. I suppose I'm a shit parent for not visiting the mill on the daily, chucking a cow in the back yard and not growing and processing my own tomatoes all year round 🤣

God the ableist comments are disheartening.

There’s actually a really interesting point though when it comes to ASD/ARFID etc.

Quite often it’s not about the taste it’s about the regularity and predictability of the food hence it being “safe”.

A packet of crisps will by and by always be the same taste/texture/smell.

A blueberry however can taste different blueberry to blueberry, have different textures, some softer, some crunchier, some sweeter, more sour etc. they can be so different in variability when you are already super sensitive to small changes. Hence the way often packaged food is safe not even because they like the taste but the variability of other foods is so “risky”.

I’m sure most parents would love to be able to dish up whatever they like and the child eat it with great enthusiasm- poor OP isn’t asking for her own entertainment