ASD and limited diet - what is he missing?

[GossamerHailfilter]

My nearly 7 year old has always been the fussiest of eaters, but lately its taken on a whole new level.

At te moment, his diet consists of aldi own malt loaf - he eats a loaf a day, babybels and cranberries. He wont eat anything else, but does drink the Innocent smoothies, the strawberries, blacberries and raspberries one.

I have tried coaxing etc, it doesnt work. He is very rigid and gets upset if he even sees anything that isnt one of the above listed things.

What is he missing? He has 6 or so babybels a day so is that enough protien/calcium? I have an appointment with an NHS dietician in April but that seems very far off.

Gossamer my ds is exactly the same, he will only eat pale food like ice-cream pasta and white bread cheese and sometimes chicken. He will not touch any fruit or vegetable, he won't drink milk and he becomes really agitated if I try any other food. It's awful as he was always a standard size but has ballooned in weight. It is a total nightmare. I think you can only do what you're doing. Our dc's are not easily persuaded to change. I wouldn't be too worried at the moment, at least your ds is eating some good food? Let's face it most NT kids eat a lot of rubbish and turn out fine. Holding a hand out in solidarity

Hi Gossamer,

April is a long time to wait for an appointment, that's a bit crap.

I'm not a dietician or have any specialist knowledge, but just from my own experience it seems like the babybels would give enough calcium and protein (plus there will be some protein in the malt loaf). The thing that jumped out at me was a lack of iron - maybe there is some in the malt loaf but I am not sure of this.

Do you/can you give him multi-vits? Maybe mixed into the smoothie?

Mine is all about Morrisons Savers malt loaf.
I bought Soreen once because it was on offer. I thought it would be a nice treat.

It was not a nice treat.

I'd second the idea of trying to sneak done vitamin drops into the smoothie. The vitamin medicine DS has is fruit flavoured anyway so I reckon in would hide in a smoothie pretty well.

It is a very restricted diet but it could be worse in that there is fruit, protein and carbohydrate in there.

Could you phone the dietician and see if you can get some advice a bit earlier? Maybe you could send in a food diary and ask them to consider whether it is appropriate to wait until April.

Do you know why he has become more controlling about his food lately? My DDs have AS and they definitely become more 'autistic' and controlling about things like food and sensory issues when they are feeling more anxious about something. The two things don't have to be related at all. DD2 finds eating much harder when she's struggling in school. Is there any area of his life you could perhaps make less challenging to support his heightened anxiety around food?

his diet is very much wheat, dairy and sugars. Have you considered whether he has any food intolerances? You often find that children (particularly those with asd) crave the foods that their bodies cant tolerate as the food behaves like a drug in the body. does he have any symptoms of food intolerance (runny poo or constipation, bowel overflow, dark circles under the eyes, bloated tummy)?

I dont think he is Polter, he has none of the food tolerance symptoms listed above. He is full of energy - doesnt sleep fine but never has, even when his diet was better. He is very small and bony for his age, but both DH and I are small (wish I was as skinny though!)

I picked up some vitamin drops from Boots which I have dropped into his bottle this evening and he didnt seem to notice so will continue with those.

His diet used to be a bit better, but he has started getting more rigid towards Christmas, which he hates, and we havent got back on an even kiler yet. I am hoping its soon.