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PDA 9 year old need food tips

4 replies

Veggielove84 · 23/06/2023 23:18

Hello

my 9 year old is Autistic with a PDA profile and she is a fussy eater as they all can be, but she is overweight. She used to be underweight as stopped eating much and now past that stage thank God.

I need ways to try and help her eat better it just seems with the PDA that isn't happening easily. If I replace a lot of the snacks she depends on with healthier stuff she will have big meltdowns. Things like soreen or raisins or nakd bars and suggest a fruit its a big deal as expects all the chocolate and biscuits and sweets and crisps.

Her only dinners are pizza, chicken nuggets, french fries or a picky plate. Doesn't eat veg. Will not eat sweetcorn or peas anymore unfortunately. Wont eat potatoes or rice or meat unless those nuggets or fish or fish fingers anymore. pasta is hit and miss now.

Lunch is cheese sandwich dry with no butter, crisps (salt & shake with no salt added) an apple and some type of treat, which must be included, and she is always hungry. or greggs cheese sandwich and donut as a treat out lunch.

Breakfast is yogurt and a pain au chocolate or yogurt and cereal but often not as cant stand it even slightly soggy. doesn't like eggs or toast. wont eat porridge. or those breakfast biscuits.

Any new ideas welcome. Thank you.

OP posts:
ThomasWasTortured · 23/06/2023 23:28

Have you considered ARFID?

Rather than changing the type of food, could you very slowly cut down on the portion sizes?

Would DD take a multivitamin?

How active is DD?

24Dogcuddler · 24/06/2023 11:08

Our daughter had a really extreme rigid and restricted diet. We were fortunate to work with these two excellent Clinical Psychologists. Authors of this book

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Avoidant-Children-including-Spectrum-Conditions/dp/1785923188/ref=mp_s_a_1_fkmr1_1?crid=3LL8N2Z9QYGDI&keywords=arfid+liz+shea&qid=1687601168&sprefix=arfid+liz+shea%2Caps%2C144&sr=8-1-fkmr1

SpikyMetalCircleMaker · 25/06/2023 00:10

@Veggielove84 I'm following with interest, as my DD is also PDA and she has very restricted eating. We initially tried a mainstream OT approach to trying to get her to accept new foods, but it backfired because of course she knew perfectly well it was a demand, so she needed to resist it. Since then we've taken a very hands-off non-directive approach, simply because she had so few safe foods that we couldn't afford for her to drop any more in response to pressure from us to try new ones. My instinct is that DD gets a lot of her need for autonomy through her self imposed restrictions on food, and that there is the potential one day for her to just start eating more, when she is completely in control of it and able to. Ie, when DH and I have stopped worrying about it. Because even though we're no longer offering new foods etc, she can still sense our tension around food. So basically, our current work is in trying to help ourselves to relax, as this will ultimately help DD.

24Dogcuddler · 26/06/2023 10:30

Veggielove that’s absolutely the right approach. Not easy but the best way and advocated by the top experts in this area.

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