ASD and eating disorders

[sitandnatter]

OK it's not quite an eating disorder but he will only eat the same old same old, same breakfasts, same brands of sauce, foods etc.

If I put anything different in front of him I get "I'm not eating that crap" no matter how well I present it or how many hours I've spent preparing it, it is different food therefore it is unedible. It is soul destroying to my inner cook.

This morning I chanced my arm and made a BLT sandwich, Bacon is out, Lettuce is out and Tomatoes are out. Bread and butter with ham is in. I risked it, mixed them together, served it and he said "Mum that's delicious".

I know to most that's nothing, a child enjoys BLT is hardly hold the front page kind of stuff but does anyone else understand just how esctatic I was?

Share your food dilemmas, or am I the only one?

If it makes you feel any better, DS2 would only have eaten the bread and butter.

Seriously, yes, DS2 can drive me to distraction with his "food rules" and what he won't eat. We still present the same foods to him and he is expected to try one bite. If he then chooses not to eat it, that's about all we can do. You can't force them to eat. We just try to make sure there is something he'll eat at each meal, if possible, so he doesn't get in the habit of sitting at the table and not eating. I think it makes it too easy to refuse next time IYSWIM.

With DS he only ate greggs chicken pasties, oranges, macaroni cheese and cheerios at one point he's now 17 and only just started eating sandwiches this year.

I had one child on white food only.. for a year it was boiled eggs )(whites only) rice, nasty bread.. finding white veggies was tricky. How she didn't suffer malnutrition I will never know.. but gradually it improved. It was also about texture... my DD1 could NOT have foods that were chewy, or in a sauce, or touching... as LeonieDelt says, it was pretty much beige and as dry as possible.

However said daughter is now nearly 20 (Aspie, Dyspraxia dyslexia and at Uni) and eats ok.. but it took until her late teens before she had what I would consider a normal diet! food control issues still tho... currently battling binge eating problems after a hideous spell fighting anorexia (came home from 1st year at uni weighting 6 stone 1 and she is 5 ft 9).

Sounds grim, but compared to her hideous limited range as a child, it amazes me that she can eat something like a casserole now..mixed foods, colours, sauces. Her ED was triggered by stress at uni, and I do think ASD kids ARE vulnerable if they have a tendency to control food anyway, but nevertheless she has managed to eat normally as a young adult.

DS2 on the other hand (ASD, Mod learning disability) is a dustbin with no regard to colour texture or anything! Barring mushrooms and eggs he will eat absolutely anything, and has been by far the easiest of my four to feed! He eats so fast I don't think he actually TASTES food....!

I contacted a dietitian last week because my son (6yrs old ASD) has such a restricted diet. She told me that it's just about balanced but made me some suggestions for adding in some extra elements and this morning I got away with mashing a banana into his porridge! The big step up will be when I get him to knowingly accept something new of course...

I'm starting to worry about DS2 who is ten, he likes to make sure he doesn't eat too much (although he likes a good range of food).

He has started to say that he doesn't deserve treats and also doesn't like putting people out, ie. being given snacks at other peoples houses.

He also really likes being skinny. I don't have scales in the house as my mother was an anorexic when i was DS's age and I know how quickly DS could get hooked on weighing himself.

endless lectures on healthy eating at school have not helped!

I worry about when he hits adolescense and i am definitely monitoring him (fairly discreetly, hopfully hiding my anxiety).

I don't have so much of a problem with food issues as DP does, he is quite a good cook and likes to eat a variety of different foods. He doesn't understand at all that Dd3 would quite happily eat a marmite sandwich everyday.

He finds if frustrating when she won't try new foods.

I am happy that she eats a good range of foods including several fruits and veg. She has some funny rules around eating such as eating all of each thing on her plate before moving on to the next, which makes stir fry amusing[she loves it though].

I do worry about her though because she has problems with eating in public.

DS2 is very much into neutral toned food, but at least eats a reasonable variety of neutral toned food and gets plenty of protein, which used to be a difficulty when he was small.

I worry more about DS1. He does eat a balanced diet, but he has strong control issues about food and loses his appetite at the slightest thing. His lunch
at school frequently goes untouched.

DS2 is also a fan of the beige carb diet, and only really likes meat that doesn't resemble meat IYSWIM - sausages, nuggets etc. We went out for a family xmas meal yesterday and he was served a roast dinner. He peeled the bacon off the pigs in blankets and ate the sausages, a tiny bit of carrot, couple of roast potatoes, stuffing and to my utter amazement he actually ate quite a bit of turkey. I think it helped that I was not trying to encourage him to eat up like I usually do, but left him to it. He did complain about tummy ache actually and I was wondering if he found the proper protein hard to digest. He's never had any issues with gluten/dairy but I have read that lots of ASD kids do have intolerances.

DS2 is similar, a restricted diet of plain foods. But on the plus side don't have to think about what to put in his lunch box as has the same everyday! He will eat a range of fruit and plain pasta so whilst we have odd combinations, at least overall it is not too bad.