Ds won't eat anything at school.

[macwoozy]

I've started a thread before about my concerns with my ds having no appetite. But in the last few weeks its definetly got worse. In past 5 days he will only eat pasta. I've got doctors appt soon to discuss it, but wondered if anyone has had similar problems.
At school he refuses to eat anything at all. I make packed lunches and have included very food I can think of.Today I got lucky and he drank a slimfast, (full of nutrients). But generally he will go without food from 7pm at night till 4pm next day. He's incredibly fussy, I presume that's down to his ASD. How he copes I just don't know and its worrying the hell out of me. I can't let him carry on like this, he's losing weight and the only solution I can think of, is to take him home at lunchtime, although I really don't want to do this. He needs to gain the experience of socialising with other children at playtime. Anyone got any ideas.

Macwoozy-I have a similar problem with my DS who is ?Aspergers. He is normally very fussy with a severely restricted diet. However we went through a particularly bad time a few months ago when he developed severe anxieties about food (amongst other things). He was eating nothing for a few days and then very little for a few weeks. During that period I had to pick him up from school for lunch, because I knew he would eat nothing there. Once the anxieties grew less intense, he started taking a packed lunch with him. He also lost weight during that time.
Do you have any idea why your DS is eating less than usual?
Is he under a paed or clinical psychologist? I know they usually get concerned if a child is actually losing weight.

He is under a paed, but doesn't see his psychologist anymore. Although I can't imagine they would be able to get much information out of him anyway. He gets very angry when I mention the subject of food. I didn't want it to become a battleground but it seems to be going that way.
His gp is going to run some tests, but he's generally well in himself, I think it is more psychological. Although I really don't know why its suddenly affecting him quite so much lately.
Looks like I'll have to pick him up from school at lunchtimes although I really didn't want to do this. Do you know why your ds suddenly became so anxious about food?

He had been getting gradually worse in terms of anxiety after moving up to year 1 from reception. The food thing started very suddenly while we were on a break at Centerparcs-literally overnight. He started saying he was frightened the food would choke him. This quickly changed, after a few days, to his thinking the food was contaminated and examining it closely, refusing it if it had the slightest blemish-real or imagined.(Although as I mentioned his diet was already restricted-but he at least ate decent quantities of food he liked prior to this).
This started just before Christmas; he is now almost back to how he was before in that he will eat his chosen food without worrying too much about it. But it has taked 3 months to get over it.

I can empathise with this. J has had problems with eating for years - he simply isn't interested in it, no anxiety or anything, it's just boring. I thought he'd improve when he started school and was among other 'good eaters', but if anything he dug his heels in further. As his range has extended at home I've stopped worrying so much about how little he eats at school. He takes a packed lunch with a dry bread roll, a few pretzels, maybe a handful of chocolate peanuts and sometimes he eats it, sometimes not. I just make sure he has a decent breakfast before he goes and a meal when he gets back, as balanced as I can make them.

One thing I did find that helped was strict portion control. J eats everything in preferential order, starting with carbs, so I give him less of that on his plate or he'll fill himself up and have no room for veg and meat. I also serve up twice as much of certain foods that I know he'll refuse, so that I can make a deal with him to eat half to earn a point on his chart. He thinks he's winning but it's me who's getting my own way.

Good luck with this. I know how worrying it can be.