How do I get him to eat or at least try something?

[spursmum]

My not-so-delightful-at-the-moment ds(ASD) has decided to stop eating most things except for bread in all forms, chicken nuggets, spaghetti hoops, yoghurt, sweets and crisps(obviously), noodles, cereal and bananas.
He has turned his nose up at a full sunday roast which he used to love, spaggy bol, sausages, mashed potatoes, most fruit and veg and lots of other stuff.
How do I get him to try things again without forcing him to eat(which I refuse to do)?

From the list you give it seems to me that he has most of the nutrional groups of food so I wouldnt worry too much.

Cut out crisps and sweets and make him hungry? Does he have milk as well?

It is very frustrating as my ds is refusing most meat ATM although he does eat all fish. If you get too worked up about it then the child wins IME. Play it cool and dont look bothered if he does refuse. It is when they ask for snacks after dinner that I get cross! (Not that he knows that.) HTH

My ds is non-verbal and I refuse to feed him up with snacks between meals. The crisps and sweets are usually part of lunch but he will only drink milk before bed. During the day he will drink pure friut juice, squash, water and my decaff tea (little toad!)
I've tried the ignoring and play it cool but he just pushes his plate away and waits till I say he can leave the table.

I wish I knew the answer to this! I'm just that your ds will eat spag hoops, yoghurt and noodles.

The only thing I've found that sometimes works with my ds is if I can get him to touch something with his hand he will lick his fingers and then he will maybe try a bit more. It's no good with things he's tried before and rejected though, he's got a good memory!

Should I keep offering the same things in the hope that he will eventually try something?
It gets so disheartening to throw his dinner away every other night.

Buy the good quality things of what he eats, then serve a little of something else with every meal- don't make an issue of it, but eat the nice stuff yourself in an enthusiastic way.

Sam is a bit like this: ot aquite as narrow fortunately but as a small toddler wold eat anything, the list shrinks daily now

Not mentioning things for him for a while but continuing to eat them ourselves usually results (it takes several months, he also has a good memory) in 'But I like those too'.

Sometimes, anyway.

And if he is hungry he will eventually eat.

dd2 will only eat chicken drumsticks, pepperaimi sticks, korma and rice, meatballs, sausgaes and sometimes toast/bagel. wont touch potatoes or pasta, will sometimes eat a few chips, wont touch crisps except hulahoops, will eat chocolate and bananas.

Sunday luch today was roast potatoes, chicken, peas, carrots, cauliflower, yorkie puds, stuffing, gravy and apple sauce.
He sat with a spoon and proceeded to slurp the gravy out of the bowl and then walk off!!

spursmum could you not add tiny slivers of veg with his noodles and some chopped fruit with his cereal
no other advice really except for disguising food

collision my dd2 stopped eating meat at 6mo, just never touched it for some reason, she is 20 now and still doesnt eat meat

i did used to grate carrots up into shepherd pie, will he eat that?

The little sod is too clever for disguising as he checks his food!!( no idea where he gets it from as I don't do it)
How about this for an idea? He likes to steal my stuff, my lunch, my cup of tea etc so what if I gave him an empty plate and made a game out of it saying that he couldn't have any as it was mine. Usually makes him more determined to steal mine !!!

defo go for it
worth a shot

At this stage I think anything is worth a try!!
I'm going to try with sausages and mash tomorrow. This should be interesting.

having same prob. DS not eating at school & at home more & more limited meals. I just keep trying to reintroduce things now & again (usually goes in bin!) but can really empathise. Ho hum...

Could you take him shopping to choose what he wants to eat for dinner. If its unhealthy stuff you could let him have it as a treat after he's ate some dinner. Depending on his age of course.

Reverse psychology is always a winner!

Tonight I gave my one yr old bananas and custard KNOWING that that is not what my 3 yr old would eat in a million years. I then told ds1 that he wasnt allowed it as it was for his bro and me only and he demolished an entire bowl of it with a smug look on his face.

DH does this with him too, pretending the food is for himself and not ds1 and it works wonders.....just not with meat.

my mates lad who has ASD wouldn't eat pizza or pasta then she told him as it was going to be his sixth birthday "when you are six you can eat pasta & pizza" it worked, it wouldn't work with any of my lot thou, i guess you just have to keep on trying,your DS sounds like my DS except mine won't eat spaggetti or noodles or anything messy