Hi ladies, my 7 Yr old dd has over the last couple of months become very fussy and unsure on certain foods.
A bit of info about her, she was diagnosed with dyslexia back in June, she is currently waiting on a referral for asd and adhd/add. She has always eaten well, fruits, veg, meats, skin on the food. Now she won't eat sausages as she says she can't chew the skin, anything with skin on she will either want cut off or not eat. But when she does sit at the table she is quite fidgety, she will always ask to get down and go to the toilet , atleast once if not twice while at the table. Even when we give her the food she has asked for eg bland, plain foods or foods we know she will like and eat, she still can be a bit fussy she will check the bits of food pick off any mark or anything on it, pull things apart. Another thing is she has started eating more things with her hands (we do say use ur knife and fork) which she does for a bit then we have to say it again cos she's gone back to using her hands again.
I have spoke to her teacher about it , she eats her lunch at school , she has strawberrys in her lunch and will eat them if there are no marks on them, Bananas are the same , she won't eat grapes which she loved before cos of the skin. She eats sandwiches (thins). Yogurt, jelly, dunkers, cucumber with skin off, skips , wot sits or cheddars. And a biscuit.
But her teacher did say (his daughter has asd) she could be doing it for attention as she knows she gets attention when she does it , or it could be a symptom of asd etc.
But how do I know why she is doing it? I feel its gone too far for just attention. My husband is in the mind set that she cud be doing it for attention as he can't get his head round it being a symptom of something as she's always been good eater. She had school dinners up till last term and was always one of the best eaters in her class, she's tall and slim and I worry she is going to lose weight not get what she needs from what she's eating. It's a very stressful, worrying time , my next step would be doctors but I don't rate my drs at all. I do have a meeting with the head of SENCO at her school on Monday so will discuss it with her too. But it's been creeping in for the last 8 was, and I have been told this age is when you will start to notice changes, symptoms of asd etc . I'm very confused and don't know whether to allow her to eat what she wants to eat and just encourage and try new things off my plate or what to do , can't force feed her . Sorry for long post, just hoping someone may have experienced this themselves and have some advice , thanks