Autism and Food Fadism ... any suggestions?

[Eulalia]

ds has just lost his lower front two baby teeth which seems to have triggered a "don't like fruit & veg" complaint. It is slowly getting better I think but he is still refusing certain foods. I could understand him not eating apple with his wobbly teeth but he has fortunately gone back to this (if peeled and cut into slices). However he has declared he doesn't like melon which is obviously softer than apple. I don't think the teeth thing is a problem any more but that he is just going to have a 'thing' about things that he ate previously. And you know what it is like with autism these 'things' can become set in stone.

He has already stopped eating banana (used to have one every day) in recent months and pear also. However he did have advocado yesterday. Peas I think are OK but sweetcorn is getting iffy. Oh yes and he ate some carrot only by grating it himself and then eating off the floor naked (pretending to be a rabbit ) He will drink most fruit juices but it still doesn't seem like a lot of variety. Any ideas or tips that have worked with anyone else?

We tried the "if you eat your sweetcorn you will get an ice cream" but it didn't work as I suspected. Just focused on the ice cream and I don't want to make a big issue out of this anyway as it may be counterproductive.

Thanks.

Our CP told us to try paradoxical intervention and it worked for us.

"It really doesnt matter if you dont eat your XXX. I really am not that bothered because you know in our house you only get pudding if you eat XXX and we have only got enough pudding for two people....so whoever eats their XXX gets to have the pudding"....Ive never seen J eat his food so well before we tried this. My waistline is improving as I have missed out on puddings for the past few weeks

J is quite fussy with some soft foods, food in sauces and food that is round (peas etc) but Im sure thats because he cant yet master using cutlery and the peas are to much of a pain to pick up with his fingers. We are playing lots of food games suggested to us by our nutritionalist and they do appear to be helping with extending his food likes.

The food you mention are all of a similar texture....how about mashing some and adding it to a yoghurt and then gradually make the pieces larger????

Thanks jayzmummy - make try to discuss the idea of not being enough pudding. He'd definately not have anything mixed with yoghurt though. Doesn't like his food mixed at all. It has to be plain rice with a small bowl of peas on the side. He has a lot of small dishes of individual foods. Hasn't eaten anything remotely like a stew since he was about 2.... still he did have a lot of peas tonight, an apple and peach juice this morning so its not too bad.

dd on the other hand is just so easy and eats loads of different types of food so I guess I'll just count myself lucky in that respect