Running out of ideas on what to feed fussy dd1 (AS)

[Marne]

She's getting more fussy and is living on;

Chips
Sometimes fish fingers
Cheese sandwiches
Blueberries
Yoghurt
Cake
Home made pizza

, that list makes me look like i feed her crap, i do offer healthy food but she wont touch any of it, she wont eat;

Anything in a sauce or gravy
Pasta
No veg
Nothing too chewey (most meat)
Nothing too rough (bread crumbs)
Nothing too hot

She used to eat mashed potato, jacket potato, carrot, sweet potato, sweede and chicken but now wont touch any of it.

She wont even eat a happy meal from mcdonalds , aparently the chicken nuggets are the wrong shape.

Im getting fed up with feeding her rubish (apart from the berries).

Any sugestions on how to get her to try new things?

Ds1 has as and is 6. Last year he was down to peeled fish fingers and bread.
That list is not too bad honestly
I do find it often regresses when he's stressed.
What worked for us was giving him lots of what he wanted and , with no pressure, putting other stuff in tiny amounts either on his plate or on another plate next to iut if he wouldn't tolerate that.
He has refound foods he's lost this way and I think all of the rest of the family ignoring what he's eating and just talking about our day helps too.
I really think about what he does like and try and exctend it that way - so he adored twiglets so I left a jar of marmite with the lid off whilst explaining very loudly to ds2 trhat tha's what's on twiglets and ds1 eventually put his finger in it - his first ever sandwich followed!
i gave him frozen forest fruits to extend him from liking just blueberries and now he eats all berries.
Peas have been extended to soya beans because they're big peas.
Pesto wa\s introduced as green tomato sauce - I couldn't believe it when he ate that, but I swallow any big fuss and say a small well done and carry on the conversation because he freaks at fuss.
I have always given him a 'sweet' style multi vit and fish oil.
I make bread in a breadmaker and bread with added courgette and sweet potato have been fine! Cake made with carrot/seeds nuts all serve to make me feel better! Jelly made with fruit and vegetable juice too.
Good luck.

No advice really but much sympathy-our DS5 has AS and he is much the same. He is 9 now and has also recently been diagnosed with Coeliac Disease so that limits his diet even more!
He will not eat any veg; anything in a sauce or gravy; no fruit except apples and bananas. He will eat plain pasta (gluten free) though. He has always drunk loads of milk which I am sure is what keeps him going.

Thanks, i give her multi vitamins to make up for the lack of fruit and veg, i gave her fish fingers, chips and past shapes for tea tonite (not healthy), she ate the pasta shapes (the only thing in sauce she will touch) but did'nt touch the rest, then she ate a small piece of banana cake.

yesterday we ate at a cafe and she had a cheese sanwich, the cheese was mild which she does'nt like, now she is refusing cheese altogether.

ds only eats sauage or fishfingers, or fruit bread

I posted about this not so long ago. DS is on the "Beige Diet", with occasional flashes of orange.

He eats willingly
Pizza
Fish and Chips
Nuggets and Chips
Cheese Strings and Baby Bel
Ham and Cheese Toasties
Orange and Apple Juice
and a very, very occasional satsuma.

He will also eat spaghetti bolognaise if I stand over him so I make a pasta sauce of butternut squash, carrots, onion and tomato passata all blended together and he will eat that. Also chop up salmon and put into a tomato based sauce with pasta and tell him it is chicken.

Also the blue berries are brilliant, I wish ds ate them willingly. I make him eat 4 before I will let him have pizza for tea. No advice I am afraid. I just keep ploughing on, giving him a multivitamin and hoping for the best.

Luckylady - The pesto as green tomato sauce idea is genius! I think that might work with ds - he is obsessed with tomato sauce and I have seen him have brown sauce at a push...fingers crossed...

Ds has spotted I have been burying his chicken in his veg and gravy sludge so that is probably the end of anything healthy for a while. He really likes marmite though so I might try reversing your twiglets idea.

Can you blend up your own yoghurt/smoothy with all sorts of fruit in heavily disguised in greek yoghurt ands blueberries? Or is she too smart for that? The list isn't that bad to me TBH, can you smuggle peppers and stuff on to her pizza? Seeds and nuts into cake?

She's is smart, she picks her food apart to check theres nothing hidden, i bought her chicken nuggets with sweetcorn hidden in them, she found it straight away and went mad, now she wont touch chicken nuggets , same with the pizza, she will only eat cheese and tomato and will watch me make it, also if the pizza is slightly overcooked she wont eat it.

She might eat yoghurt with things hidden in it also jelly.

I make jelly by swapping smoothie for the water when making the jelly up, it tastes surprisingly sophisticated.

I make jelly by swapping smoothie for the water when making the jelly up, it tastes surprisingly sophisticated.

Try adding seeds (tiny ones like sesame and linseed) to the tomato sauce (on pizza). You can squash them with a pestle & mortar first if she is going to notice. I go through phases of sprinkling seeds on everything and my fussy eaters don't seem to notice. Apparently, one tsp of seeds is nutritionally equivalent to about 6 broccoli florets.

Blueberries (or any berries) are excellent

totally sympathise with you marne,both the dc are like this and both ASD.

dd tends to be more stricter when shes anxious,we went through months of her only eating mash beans and cheese,now she will eat better,but it took ages,i used to put bits of other food on a little plate next to her,at first she would push it away but gradually got used to it,we also had to give her multivits as well for a while.

DS used to be terrible,when he was at home for 2 years,he exsisted on pizza and sandwiches and crisps,i used to sneak vitamin drops into his juice -when he,d drink 5t,now he is better but will only eat certain meals on certain days.

i thought they would never eat "proper" meals at one point,but they eventually did,we had to go to a dietician tho,its very stressful tho isnt it.

jen
x

My DS is like your DD Marne-he will spot anything we try to "hide" in his food, however small it is! Then it puts him off the food and he won't eat it in the future, so it is counterproductive.
He gets worse when he is anxious too. At times of stress we are usually down to one food-cereal-and milk.

My DD would eat the same thing day in day out then suddenly almost as if she is bored she changes to something else and adds the last fad to the long list of foods she doesnt like. I also feel that my DD eats a load of rubbish, but what can you do you can't force them to eat. She would live on bread with nothing on it just plain if i let her is happy to eat it for breakfast lunch and dinner. Good to hear we are not alone with this problem i get quite worried about it sometimes.

My son has ASD and is 7. He's very much the same and has lived on a very restricted diet all his life. He's very selective and will only eat certain brands of food eg only McDonalds nuggets. He seems to have super developed taste buds as he can recognise when i've attempted a substitution or tried adding anything. He'll only drink milk or water and is even picky about brands of sweets and chocolate. He'd rather starve than try something new. However, he just about manages to get enough nutrients from his diet despite there being no variety in it. I've given up worrying about it for now and am concentrating my worries on problems at school. Good luck, but don't worry too much about it, you're not alone, and if you by chance hit on a miracle, please let us all know!!

I have recently tried bribery with DS2, paying him 50p to eat a bite of celery for instance, but he is not as ffussy as most kids with AS I think (although his tastes can be odd, he loves brussell sprouts). Haven't yet tried it with cheese, which he claims tastes of sick!

There is a brilliant song by They Might Be Giants called - "John Lee Supertaster" all about having sensitive tastebuds, my kids love it and DH and the two older boys all claim to be supertasters now (which is fun when you're the cook!).

I like cheese, but to be fair to your ds1 allytjd - if you think about it it does taste of sick! I'd go for £1 for cheese
I feel this thread is the place to celebrate that as of last week ds1 will eat jam sandwiches - so along with marmite I would say that was a 'range' of sandwiches hurray!
No one else understands do they?

you can make chips from fried courgette with thin strips cut into chip like shapes also sweet potoato and carrot. i also make mashed veg with butternut squash cauliflour swede and carrot.. if they dont like it mshed alone you could grill it to give the browned look [ a bit like chips. there is a book called the scd diet... which eliminates all starch and carbohydrate and g/f and c/f products this helps all asd and add ah there is also the dan protocol i do with my asd son look up www. treating autism.com for biomedical interventions, the dan recovers children from autism...

couscous? plain or like moroccan children eat it, with sugar (I assume suggesting adding fruit is not helpful although can you convince her raisins are dried berries. of a kind?)