increasingly fussy eating

[Philomytha]

My DS, who's 2.10, has been recently dxed with autism. Lately I've noticed that he's rejecting foods he used to eat happily and is generally becoming much pickier about what he eats. Tonight he wouldn't even touch a dinner he's happily eaten many times before, and this has happened a lot lately. I know fussy eating is something a lot of ASD kids do, but up till lately DS was a quite adventurous eater and would try new things and eat a pretty good range of food. I'm worried that we're on a progression towards much more picky eating and wonder if anyone has any ideas about things I can do to keep him eating a balanced diet, or if I just have to accept the inevitable.

OTOH, is this normal? Friends with NT children say their children are fussy too, and I'm still reeling a bit from the dx and find it hard to tell what is normal for a nearly-three-year-old and what is ASD-specific.

I think this is normal.

normal ds (nt) did it. it imo is the one thing a small child can control. and boy do they control it

It's normal. But I'd say even more more normal for ASD kids. I think you have 4 things going on:

• small child fussiness. Which is partly control issues (or, looking at it positively, realising you have choices)and partly the sense of taste being a bit odd at this age.
• sensory/texture issues meaning there is more to be fussy about
• tendancy to make random "rules" (this green thing tastes bad so all green things taste bad)
• lack of levers you can use to modify their behaviour (eg ignoring, negotiating etc.)

ie, the problem is the same one everyone else has but a bit more so. Your big issue is that they have ways of tackling it that you don't.