Getting desperate - can you recommend a good protein shake?

[Verbena17]

Hi,
I’m getting desperate for my son to eat and his ED nurse suggested this week that we buy some chocolate Ensure drink.

Our DS is 17 and has ARFID.
It’s currently worse than it’s ever been in his 17 years and today he’s literally only had 3/4 of a cheeseburger.

I don’t mind paying for anything but I know that he will most likely smell the Ensure and refuse it and it’s pretty pricey and I can’t buy only one bottle.

So I thought it would make more sense to ask on here if someone can suggest a high protein/calorific drink he might accept. Basically, it would have to be as much like drinking normal chocolate milk as possible - not like a fortified product that doesn’t quite taste right 😬.
I bought a bottle of Paediasure a few months back and even I thought it smelt rank!

I’ve got some Friji but he says no to that as well.

you Can look on Amazon I buy exante shakes you could add extra fats like peanut butter etc

Sorry to hear about your boy.

I think I'd try to make my own. You can use full fat milk, cream, neutral flavour protein powder and chocolate of some sort (like for hot chocolate).

Just blend it all together. I'm sure you could try adding other ingredients to this (if he likes it) by trial and error. Bananas, nut butters, cream cheese etc.

Thanks both. It’s really hard with ARFID in that adding secret ingredients can make it worse - it’s to do with trust and many people with ARFID (like my son), are also autistic, so rigid thinking and trust play a huge part.

Saying that, I could ask him about letting me add banana although he doesn’t eat bananas so thinking it will be a no.

@SuffolkUnicorn - would you say the Exante is very real chocolate tasting?

The chocolate milk he will drink but add a flavorless protein shake power to it and blend? Or add full fat Greek yoghurt and blend? With ice maybe Full fat milk has a lot of calories I think.
Does he like biscuits?

I do make Oreo Milkshakes using whole milk and ice cream with 7 Oreo’s but he only managed half of one last week and then refused to have them on other days.
His ARFID is very cyclical and he drops and picks up old foods very easily.

What would he eat do you think? Is there a way to incoporate that into something else

Im experimenting with Purition it hasnt got any artificial sweetners in it which in my opinion are rank. Its hard to find any proten drinks without them

Ive had the chocolate and hazlenut, it wasnt sweet, bit tasteless. Got bits in it though from the nuts and seeds and he may not cope with that

Or what about a homemade bone broth mixed up with milk and savory flavours like garlic and onion rather than attempting sweet?

What he accepts on any give day or even minute, changes all the time. So say like on Friday when the in-laws came, for the few days before they were coming, he reduced his intake right down, due to massive anxiety.

i can offer another Oreo milkshake and I guess try to add some protein powder as long as it doesn’t change the texture or he notices. He is a super taster and super smeller!

Just thought maybe if you serve the milkshake in a mars milk or other similar sports type bottle it can't be smelt so may be easier to tolerate than being in a glass or more wide bottle.

Oh and yes, he does eat chocolate and biscuits but only when he’s accepting them. He hasn’t eaten what we would call a meal for over a year now and is surviving on MacDonalds double cheeseburgers and other as high calorie as possible foods like cake, biscuits and chocolate.

Could you make up some batches of things you know he has tolerated before and put them in the freezer, then whip those particular ones out on the days he might tolerate them again, if its no go, it goes back in the freezer and so on

He’s barely accepting anything savoury other than the MacDonalds. I think his stomach has shrunk so much and that’s why he’s saying he’s now feeling sick after only a few mouthfuls and doesn’t fancy anything.

Yes I guess I could make up some shepherds pie or bolognaise, as long as he doesn’t know I’ve defrosted something (he sees that as different).

He does desperately want to try new foods and the old foods he used to eat but he just can’t.

Yes hes turned his appetite off really

Would he eat pureed food?

Ooh - mars milk is a good idea - even without anything else added! I didn’t think of that.

Yes he has I think. Not sure about puréed food - don’t think so. I’ve been trying to get him to have tomato soup as it’s got no bits but he just says no.

Have you tried Huel?

Hi

DS, when he was recovering from an eating disorder, added a couple of scoops of vanilla flavoured BULK protein powder to full cream milk and hot chocolate powder to make chocolate shakes.

Also, when he was younger and incredibly picky about food, I used to make him a verty high protein cake:
100g ground almonds
100g soya flour
150g butter
150g sugar
4 large eggs
2 teaspoons baking powder.

Whisk them all together and bake in a lined loaf-shaped tin middle oven 180C for about 45 mins I think (long time since I made it.) Might be 1 hour. Cut into slices and if he will eat it, top with either chantilly cream (double cream whipped up with icing sugar and vanilla essence) or cream cheese frosting (philadelphia full fat cheese mixed with icing sugar and a bit of single cream and any flavouring he likes. Even a tiny slice is packed with calories.

Add any flavouring you know he likes - melted dark chocolate or vanilla or almond essence etc.

Also, will he tolerate the vitamin gummy sweets? Making sure he gets a multivitamin helps and might even increase his appetite slightly.

I dont have ARFRID but completely lose my appetite when very anxious, to the point where most food makes me gag.

When I'm like this I live off the really cheap chocolate milkshakes you buy in newsagents/ cornershops because they're not as thick/rich.

And cashew nuts, because you can just eat a few every so often so it's not as overwhelming. And they're rich in calories, protein etc. Not sure if your DS eats nuts?

Sympathies to your DS as its horrible when you feel like this. I guess reducing anxiety is crucial long term but not sure how possible this is at this time of year and with autism 😢

You can mix milk powder into full fat milk so that it tastes exactly the same but has extra calories in. Then make the milk shakes as normal.

Milk powder has a really strong taste to be fair

I was also going to suggest Huel, in powder form. It is nutritionally balanced and has added vitamins and micronutrients.

If he likes/can eat peanuts, could you blend that into some shakes as it's high fat and high protein and what we gave our son when he was ill and hardly eating?

Don't know if this helps but Aldi have a decent protein range which is sold individually so you could try them?
They have
Protein shakes
Chocolate protein mousse
Protein puddings
Skyr protein yoghurts

It tastes of milk!

This does seem to be a huge problem. Has he tried counselling. Or even hypnotherapy. Or seeing a specialist consultant. Hope things improve soon.