Any advice on eating please?

[claw3]

My ds is 4.5 years old now. He suffers with modulation disorder, a sensory disorder. His diet consists of:

8am honey hoops with no milk
12pm 1/4 of chocolate spread sandwich no butter
3.30pm grapes,yogurt
6pm 1/2 chocolate spread sandwich
7pm honey hoops with no milk

This has basically been his diet for years, since he was able to eat.

Does anyone have a similiar problem or can offer any advice on how to add some new things to his diet?

DS5 is 0 and has AS.

His diet is also very restricted (even more so since he was also diagnosed with coeliac disease last year!

Some people suggest putting a small amount of a new food on the plate many times until it finally gets accepted, and the child will eventually try it.

Would never have worked with DS as he runs off at the very sight of a new food on his plate.

He would then not eat anything at all!

No useful suggestions really. Do you give him a multivitamin-I do this with DS (when I remember!) and at least it reassures me he is getting some vitamins.

Will your DS not drink milk? This has been our lifeline at times when DS has refused to eat at all.

oops-should have read DS5 is 9!

Hi ya Tiggi, thanks for replying, had visions of tumbleweed blowing through this thread!

Yes he does drink milk, also has to take iron and calcium, disguised in milk shake (he is severely anemic). He wont take the multi vits, he can taste them and refuses to drink them.

I have tried putting a tiny sample of whatever on the side of his plate and he just refuses to eat until its removed

ask for some pro-cal from doctor/dietition. its great stuff, you add it too the food/ milkydrinks and it gives extra calories and protein, helps get the weight up and gives extra nutrition. side affect is that it makes the child WANT to eat more(must stimulate hunger signs or something).try leaving nibble boxes out with his favorite snacks and a few new things sneaked in, that way he'll get used to seeing the new food without being under any presure, it just there when he wants it!

Thanks Ds will ask about the pro-cal.

I cant do sneak things in, it makes him worse, he then becomes suspious of anything i give him and then doesnt even eat his usual food!

I think ive tried every trick in the book over the years, not sure what to do next, just dont want to give up trying.

Has he had a test for coeliac disease claw?

Anaemia and poor absorption of calcium can be symptoms of this. My DSs appetite has improved greatly since he has been on the gluten free diet and although he still only eats a few things, at least he eats them in bigger quantities!

He was really only tested because one of my older DSs is a coeliac and it tends to run in families, but it has made such a difference to him.

Tiggi - No he hasnt, perhaps i should mention this to Dr. I just assumed he was anemic because he doesnt eat anything with iron in it. He was given the calcuim as well, just because of his poor diet. He has regular blood tests. What is the test for coeliac disease? Any other signs of the disease?

There is a specific blood test for coeliac-it would not be picked up on routine tests. It is then confirmed by biopsy, if the blood test is positive.

Symptoms can range from poor appetite, loose stools, smelly stools (sorry if tmi!); poor weight gain; poor growth; low mood.

However, with my DS1, who was not diagnosed until he was in his early twenties, there were no specific symptoms other than anaemia, being underweight; and generally feeling tired and unwell a lot of the time. The doctors failed to pick up on the symptoms and by the time he was diagnosed he was suffering from low bone density. If only I had known- but the GP kept fobbing me off each time I took him-as they do...

DS5 was showing very few symptoms also, but it seems he developed it fairly recently as he had a test which was negative a couple of years before the positive one.

The Coeliac Society has a very good website if you need more info. www.coeliac.org.uk

Tiggi - Oh right a blood test, perhaps i could ask for him to be tested when his next blood test is due, kinda kill 2 birds with 1 stone?

Despite his diet, he is not underweight or it hasnt effected his growth....yet i will add. He was well over the 90th centile at birth, he has dropped to under the 70th now, but because he is still above average for his height/weight, its not a big concern!!

Also despite being severely anemic (obviously not now, he has medication) he doesnt sleep, he never appears tired. But well worth getting it checked out by a simple blood test i think. Thanks

Yes-they simply take an extra bottle whn they do the other tests.

It is worth checking into especially for the sake of such a simple test-it is massively underdiagnosed in this country because GPs don't seem to think of it.

DS5 was not under height or weight either-although he has had a big growth spurt since he changed to the GF diet, he was also on 75th centile beforehand. And he has never slept well either-usually awake until at least midnight, even on school nights!

Tiggi - We have twins seperated at birth, i think! He is up at 7am and not asleep until gone 12, even when he was anemic and it went untreated for over a year (hospital read his results wrong). He doesnt get whiny or anything, just doesnt sleep.

He started full time school yesterday, so im hoping he will start to become more tired.

My DS is 4.5 and also has a very restricted diet. He was taking multivitamin syrup off a spoon for a while but unfortunately then choked on it one day and that seemed to put him off.

He eats:

toasted bagel with butter and sometimes cream cheese

brown toast with butter and sometimes cream cheese

Cheerios (with no milk)

marmite rice cakes

leerdammer cheese

petit filous

apples

bananas

grapes

He drinks milk and fruit juice.

The only other food he will eat is Pringles - but not any other kind of crisps!

We've tried offering other foods, putting them on his plate but nothing has worked so far. He used to eat pasta mixed up with a jar of baby food (I know, I know...) but went off that last summer.

Six - We are in the same boat then!

Does he have any disorder? anemic etc?

I hope he settles well at school claw-don't hold your breath re the sleeping more though!

My DS5 gets stressed at school, rather than tired-but therin lies another whole story...

claw3, I don't know if he has anaemia - he hasn't had any tests

his dx is ASD

he is also not a great sleeper - regularly awake until 10 p.m. or later - but never seems tired next day and generally seems to have bags of energy

Tiggi - He only started yesterday and didnt want to go today. He was really looking forward to going yesterday and seemed ok when i picked him up, although he didnt say much about school.

This morning the reasons i got was its boring and no one likes me.

I was hoping for tired, perhaps a bit hungry and to settle in well and make some new friends i can dream, cant i!

My DS3 started in Reception yesterday as well .

Six - I would definately get him tested, i discovered my ds was anemic purely by accident. I would never have thought he could have been anemic by his energy level (although the diet should have been a dead give away, looking back)

I took him to hospital for a bump on the head and the Dr commented on how pale he looked, misread the results and told me he wasnt. Went to see another Dr for something totally different a year later, he looked at blood test results and hey presto, read them right!

Hope it gets better claw

DS5 was actually ok in reception and liked school then; his problems started when he got to year one (and later that year he got his Asperger's diagnosis).

Thanks Tiggi, im sure he will settle in, early days. He is very much a loner and seems to prefer it that way to be honest.

He has imaginary friends and this doesnt do him any favours when it comes to making friends. Also any contact has to be on his terms and other kids must find it a bit confusing. One minute he will put his arm around them, but the next its not ok for them to do the same. I do worry.

I know exactly what you mean claw.

We are lucky in a way in that DS has several very similar boys in his class-they do not have a diagnosis, but are almost certainly on the spectrum, if you know what I mean. He consequntly gets along well with them and his little oddities are accepted. He is actually very popular in the class despite the fact he can be very difficult at times!

yep ds 6 y eats

one slice of toast with little butter

or sugerpuffs no milk

dinner

fruit bread one slice no butter,one peice flap jack,

tea sauage sarrnie, or fish fingers with micro chips

super dried bread, or suger puffs no milk

he dont snack on bics or sweets only some times as a packet red crisps( plain)

he as aspgers

Getting a bit worried, just did school run. For lunch today, he has eaten nothing, not even opened his drink. Yesterday he had eaten about 2 mouthfuls of choc spread sandwich.

I have purposely stopped giving him cakes, biscuits or any sweets (he will only eat certain ones anyhow) in the hope his appetite might increase.

Should i let him have cakes etc as im sure this is the only way he has managed not to lose weight so far?

School lunches are a very fraught time for children with sensory problems. DS has gone through periods of eating nothing at school. He hates the smell of the other children's cooked lunches; he hates it if there are any disruptions to his routine. If anyone has inadvertantly touched his drink he will not have it.
He is very particular with his food anyway-he will not eat it if there is a blemish on anything for instance.

Any stress will show itself in him not eating.

Where does your DS get to eat his lunch? Luckily mine can eat outside with his friends (as long as it is not too cold!) or in sheltered spots away from the canteen. He will not eat if he has to have his lunch where there are too many smells or it is too noisy.

I would (and do!) give the cakes etc. It is more important for them to eat something than to be too worried about the nutritional value when they are like this.

My DS would quite happily eat nothing all day if he did not want the sandwiches anyway. So I prefer to give him the extras. If I am lucky he eats the lot; if not, at least he has something!