Fussy eater, no idea what to do!

[user1465406172]

I have a son who is 3. He's currently having some tests to see if he is autisitic...this is due to slow development and some unusual behaviours, as he's got older he's progressed a lot! So we now feel he may not be autisitic or if he is very slightly on the spectrum. I have been having massive issues with his eating, he has a very poor diet and is extremely fussy with food! When he's at nursery he tries more food with other children but not much (only child) it's at the point where I am embarrassed when we go to tea at someone's house because he won't eat basic meals. I really don't know how to go about getting him to eat other foods, or techniques I could try! Any advice would be great!

I really liked the book Getting the Little Blighters To Eat. Wish I'd found it when DDs were younger.

I'm also using that book on 2.6 DS. It's a slow process but I'm not backing away from it this time!

A turning point for me was no longer feeling guilty if he didn't eat as like yours mine will try food at nursery but would refuse at home so I knew he could, he was just choosing not to. I'm now the meanie who won't provide toast ten minutes after dinner was refused.

We are just a week into it and yesterday he ate a fish finger and two baked beans.....tis a miracle I tell ya!!!

Hoping it's a turning point please god let it be a turning point!

I got the book on Amazon

I'll have to get the book! Thank you for the replies! Oh God I really hope it helps, my son is exactly the same with toast...worth a try at least!

What foods will he eat?

My DD was terrible, I tried all the usual advice, including don't offer alternatives as they wont starve themselves ( she did).
What I did was completely let go - I made sure she had multi vits so.i Knew she was getting what was necessary but apart from that I More or less let her eat what she wanted. Obviously it wasn't chocolate 24/7 but if she wanted a cheese sandwich for breakfast why not? I also allowed her any little " foibles" such as food not touching or different plates for different foods. She had a " safe" list of about 10 foods and those had to be served in a certain way or be certain brands but I was ok with that.
She is now 11 and has a good and varied diet, it could be better but last night she had chili con carne for tea ( had to pick out the kidney beans)
It was all about giving her control back and for us it worked really well.
She has no SN though so I can't be sure it would would with a possibly autistic child.

3 things that will help:

Do "safe" food at meal times (no stress eating) and eat together as much as possible.

Introduce new food away from the table as part of a game...start by getting children to handle food with no expectation of eating, eh make a cucumber telephone, a carrot microphone to sing into, the aim is to de-stress the unliked items and get them near your/his face. progress to nibbles like a rabbit/guinea pig/hamster. put the food item on a separate plate at the meal time and eat some yourself...no pressure, offer but don't force.

You can do several foods at once and let him pick and choose and keep rotating

inviteother children round for the games and meals...it's hard to becalmand not worry when you are intensely together