Could someone please advise what food groups my ds might be missing out on

[BoozyChristmacwoozy]

I'm very concerned about my ds's diet. He has special needs and has always been incredibly fussy with his food, but it's been slowly getting worse, to the stage that he's now eating the same foods everyday. Would anybody be able to tell me if he's missing out on any vital food groups if I were to give a run-down on his typical diet:-

Pasta(plain)
Bread (white)
Chocolate spread
orange juice
milk
hula hoops
chicken nuggats(sometimes]
apples(a little)
yoghurt(sometimes)
Jacobs crackers
tuna[sometimes]
Burgers
Vitamins A,C,D,E tablets

These are the only foods that he will tolerate, although he doesn't eat them every day.
I wondered if there are any tablets that I can give to supplement the food groups that he might be missing out on.
Can anyone help?

Boozy, is that you in totnes?
It's emma here?

Wrong boozy Ladytopham, I'm macwoozy.

sympathy mac -- I have a fussy ds1.

looks a little low on fruit and veg- -doesn't seem to be getting is 5 a day?

Ohhh, my friend recently discovered Mn and her name is Boozy (I think!!) and her DS has some SN.

sorry to hi-jack.

Could you try some Eye Q or fish oils
The other thing that I can see staraight away is lack of iron.

you can maximise iron from beef (burgers) by having orange juice afterwards too.

Ensure he has at least 5 diferent vegetables or fruits a day (potatoes do not count in these)

A portion of two of protein a day (fish, meat, or chicken)

And carbohidrates that may come in the form of potatoes, rice, pasta, etc (a bit of them in every meal)

If you are not sure about the diet you may ask the GP to refer you to a paediatric dietitian.

Can you give him fesh squeezed orange juice? And is there any chance that he would eat tinned mackerel instead of tuna?
Then his vit c and essential fatty acids would be getting a boost.
It looks as if some green veg might help...could you ask for nutritional help in choosing supplements? There may be some minerals he is lacking.
Could you make home-made burgers and get some onions in, and bind with egg?
And put fresh fruit mashed or pureed into the yogurt?

Looks like he needs more (some!) veg!

could you make your own burgers and incorpostae grated carrot / courgette etc?

make your own chicken nuggest so at least thw chicken in them is made out of breast rather than reformed chicken skin.

I've tried and tried to offer new foods but to no avail, he really panics so deffo impossible to even think about getting him to eat 5 fruit and veg, but he does drink gallons of orange juice. I could tempt him with mackeral but I don't like my chances, he just will not attempt it, but I will give it a go. I forgot to mention, he has the 'clever' milk with omega oils. Everything has to be very plain and always the same, he knows when I add anything to his foods, he only has to smell it. He won't eat yoghurt with any fruit in it, it has to be plain. I know its not the ideal choice to take supplements but thats the only choice I've got. To give you an example of how fussy he is, I have an advent calender that has hardly been touched because he doesn't like the sweets I've picked, what child doesn't like sweets??

i think you are doing very well indeed. supplements excellent idea where diet is limited.

Does anyone know of any actual supplements that he could take or do I need to make an appt with a dietician?

by supplements i mean the vits you already give him. i am sure he will be fine. it really doesn't sound bad at all to me esp given the circs.
would he eat sweet potato etc as chips? is his choc spread nut-based? that would give extra nutrients and protein.

he looks like he prefers "white" food is that right

I think you are doing really well, too. Especially if he has the 'clever milk'. Are the supplements prescribed? If not, it might be worth getting all this checked by a dieticain via your HV or GP or paediatricain - just to have one more worry off your mind, really!

Aloha, he won't eat chips anymore, but he does eat nutella choc spread.
Yes zippi he does tend to go for white food.
No Blu, they're not prescribed, looks like I will have to make an appt with a dietician, he used to have one a while back when he was on a casein/gluten free diet, now that's a different story
Thanks for all your help, at least I know what foods he's lacking in, domestic science was never one of my strong points.

I honestly think if you are just giving him normal children's multivitamins there is no need to clear this via a dietician - they are very strictly regulated as it is. But of course, seeing a dietician if you are seriously worried about his diet may be a good idea.

his diet is very similar to ds (17)

you mention casein/gluten is he prohibited from those?

ds eats no vegetables except possibly cucumber and potatoes

chocolate might help with iron

tomatoes are good..ds would only have those incidental to pizza ie the puree not real tomato which he would remove but tomato sauce and puree are still beneficial (lypocene? or something)

cheese? ds loves it even the blue varieties

does he eat eggs you can get them omega enriched

isa he ok with orange juice it used to have a bad effect on ds, who would drink it by the gallon given the chance

I don't know about long term effects but ds is six foot two or three but skinny

he also eats sausage rolls

what about chicken?

will he eat tortellini filled with cheese, ds will and I think the mushroom ones though he seems to have gone off those

he was also keen on parma ham (not sure if there is any nutritional value in that)

ds doesn't have any supplements although he did have build up for a couple of years aged about 7 becuase he had post viral syndrome

My ds used to be on a cf/gf diet, I stopped it because I couldn't really see any results, although his paed is pressing me to give it another go, but what chance have I got when ds won't even accept normal foods.
He refuses to eat cheese/eggs now, he won't eat tomatoes, nor pizza,I attempted tortenelli but that didn't go down well. He'll eat chicken nuggats, but no other forms of chicken. I forgot he does eat ham, oh and chocolate which is great if a source of iron, thinking about it I'm looking abit anaemic lately, quick pass the chocky.
Could I ask why orange juice had a bad effect on your ds? My ds drinks loads as well, I dilute it, but even so he still gets through alot.

the orange juice made him hyperactive, we discovered it from observation but i think there have been studies into this more recently..the clue is in the fact that they want to drink so much of it too

basically ds doesn't eat food with colour, apart from he does it pizza

rather annoyingly he has never tasted most fruit and vegetables although he claims he has

what about seedless grapes, ds loves those
I think he might also eat stewed apple

if you can get eggs in somewhere then the ones with omega three would be a good bet

have you tried cottage cheese or philadelphia

ds likes natural yogurt (particularly greek)on plain pasta or rice

I'm interested in your ds diet because i was so struck by the list almost exactly echoing my ds diet, I've never known anyone else the same.

he also likes curry sauce (but not onions)

cornflakes and shreddies he also eats (though I've bought the cheap kind lately as shreddies are so expensive and although I transferred them into the proper shreddies box I noticed he left them all and hasn't had them again)

Isn't it a losing battle just to get a bit of decent food down their throats, I could literally scream at my ds sometimes. Our ds's food intake does sound very similar. My ds also won't eat food with varying colours. That's interesting that you mention how hyper your ds got on orange juice, as my ds never stops jumping around, unless he's on his playstation. I will withdraw orange juice for a while and see if I notice a change in his behaviour. I'll give seedless grapes another try, he turned his nose up last time, but like your ds he rarely attempts to even give it a go. Natural yoghurt and pasta now that's a thought, I'll also try philadelphia. My ds used to be quite happy to eat weetabix and cornflakes but yet again he now refuses to eat it. What really annoys me though is when he does actually eat something different, I quickly nip down the shops to stock up on this new food only for him to never try it again. Packed lunchs at school is a real headache, god knows what his teachers think of his extremely boring lunch, always the same, but most of the time he hardly touches it. One particular day I found a note left by a dinnerlady in his bag to say that ds hadn't eaten his food that day because he said it was "yuk". Charming eh? Like to see them attempt to create a nice balanced meal for a boy who doesn't hardly eat. Thanks for your tips, you've been really helpful

I do worry long term about the lack of fruit and vegetables but I haven't really found a way to overcome that, he still gets really annoyed if I put any on his plate and he has never accidently eaten them when "hidden" in his food..he sorted that by always refusing "mixed up food"

the other possibility if you haven't tried it is home made ice cream, I have a recipe for lemon freeze somewhere which doesn't need any equipment..it has eggs and lemon juice in (also sugar and cream)..I can't remember off hand whether ds eats it, there is also the lemon surprise pudding which separates out into lemon sauce and sponge?

How old is your ds? What are his special needs, I know I should know but I'm a bit poor at remembering families on here!

Oh I'm terrible at remembering who I've spoken to on Mumsnet, I even thought about making notes until it dawned on me that perhaps I'm just spending a little bit too much time on here.

Mixed food is also a no no in our house. God forbid if I happen to mix any food together, and that rules out so many options. He'll also refuse to eat any food that I've ever so slightly burnt, which is not hard for me with my cooking skills. Bascially chicken nuggats etc needs to have no discolouration whatsoever. One thing that he did accept (although refuses now) is a slim fast drink, which is highly nutritious, its full of vitamins and minerals. Have you though about trying that with your ds? He might actually enjoy it, you can get various flavours, vanilla strawberry etc.
I've never thought of making ice-cream, although he adores the soft ice-cream you get from ice cream vans, but it's got to be without the flake, he can't even mix those two together!
My ds has always been very fussy but its got steadily worse lately. He'll be 6 in April and has high functioning autism. He used to have a dietician when he was on the cf/gf diet who mentioned that she's more surprised when an autistic child doesn't have an issue with eating.

You could try wholewheat pasta instead of white, it blanches when cooked and looks pretty much the same.

Baked beans? My HV recommended them for iron. Also egg yolks for iron; if he's fussy about yolks would he eat them scrambled? (My ds won't eat yolks but loves 'scramblins')

You could try hiding white fish in mashed potato; it's how I've been getting cod and haddock into ds for months and he's not starting to eat it separately. Also he loves being fed mackerel out of a tin, just as a snack; that's a good oily fish. Tuna is not recommended more than once per week because of mercury.

I was worried about iron and HV said a small amount of good quality (min. 70 per cent cocoa solids) dark chocolate now and then would be good for him, go with that instead of the poor quality/empty calories of milk or white chocolate.

Instead of chicken nuggets would he eat better qulaity meat if you made it 'fun' for him on his plate? Make it into faces and shapes, trains etc with vegetables etc. Might grab him a bit more. See Annabel Karmel for more ideas!

How about dips? My ds loves humous and although he doesn't eat the veg dippers (mange tout etc) at least he is getting familiar with them, and might one day. Also guacamole.

Be careful with fruit juices - danger to teeth, especially ones from concentrate. Do you have a juicer? I don't do it at the moment as can't afford it but when I am feeling flush I will get ds on his stool and he will load the juicer for me - he loves it - and is more likely to try the juice afterwards. No other earthly way I could see him drinking beetroot, celery and carrot! You can spice it up with ginger, good way to get their vegetable quota up, my ds refuses every veg apart from sweetcorn.

ALso try having a couple of toys at the table and feed them too. Or chat to ds about something fun while feeding him, I use it on mine as diversion tactics. Can slip a bit of risotto in there (he is funny about rice and mushrooms) while he is pondering his last trip to soft play.