Eating

[Anonymous]

#3894

Note: SFTAH transferred this from old data base when site was updated, thus date and name lost, all dates 2006 & 2007 changed during changeover to odd dates.Does anyone have a child with a big obsession on food, I would say my son is a none eater than a fussy eater, though things have improved over the years, his diet is still bad, though anyone tell me, I would probably bit their heads off. My son will only eat bread or rolls plain (no butter), cereal no milk, wont eat vegetables, only fruit apple but peeled and cored, potato waffles, and chips but have to look perfect, staight any impectfections wont touch them. cakes plain or chocolate,crisps, biscuits only a few., only likes chocolate doesnt really go for sweets. yogurt (no bits), and milk. basically nothing messy. At one time he wouldnt eat meat at all, fish, or chicken nuggets. and now eats these. But would never eat cold meat.He is under weight and small for his age, but only just below, we have tried every way and mean to get him to try new foods. I worry as he is getting older, that this will make life harder for him and the social aspect of eating.He is also addicted to salt, and will only eat his dinner if there is salt on it,( now use lo salt) I have had fights with people on this interfering saying salt is bad. Yes maybe, but if your child would rather go hungry and not eat it, isnt it the better evil?Also do you have to remind your child to eat, they dont always say they are hungry? when it is obvious that they should be. Sometimes an obsession can take over that food is not required.Dragontamer

[Anonymous]

#4995

My son is also a very fussy eater, interestingly he also demands salt !

[Anonymous]

#4994

Hi Dragontamer
My son is 30 years old and when he was a baby he would only drink milk, it got so bad I was changing him and his cot sheets all night, he got through so many bottles. Then it was only rich tea biscuits.
If offered anything he would throw the plate, cup etc. He has never eaten a `normal` dinner, he won`t eat out even and even in a McDonald`s takeaway refuses to eat if someone else is eating in the car park.At any one time he will only eat approx 5 foods, they hardly vary and have to look right or he won`t even try them.
One example is he`ll find a pizza he likes and will eat in whever he can, but if they just hapened to have caught it with a tiny piece of ham or onion he wouldn`t eat it. Although he`s grown to 6`3″ he is very slim and can go for days without eating, on the days he does eat it is only in the evenings. He doesn`t appear to get hungry but he drinks milky tea and coffee constantly.
Lizzbeth

[Anonymous]

#4993

hi my son also craves salt even resorts to eating play-doh his diet is very restricted i used to get really uptight about it but no have learnt to live with it not sure if he knows when hes hungry but have great difficulty getting him to sit long enough to finish a meal
have often wondered if the salt thing is some kind of mineral deficiency

[Anonymous]

#4992

these children also crave for Tomato sauce.this is because this also has a very high salt content. my son has always craved for salt.you can help by buying low fat salt, also by only putting a little salt in the salt pot each day. for many years my son had his own soecial salt pot. i put a small bit of salt in it each day, and when he had used it all, that was all he would be allowed to have. VERY gradually, I reduced the amount of salt in the salt pot (he didnt notice,) until he was only having an acceptible amount! (which I had control over………….not him!)

[Anonymous]

#4991

Hi there, I work with a boy, whose eating habits sound almost identical to those of your son. However the good news is that we’ve just had a huge breakthrough with him and since then he’s trying new foods thick and fast (well comparitevely). No magical solutions I’m afraid, the process took about 2 years (we had tried other things before this with no success).

Our tactic was one of imitation and huge reinforcement, in the beginning all we would ask is for him to copy us picking up the piece of food, or breaking it up for example, we made no suggestion of putting it anywhere near his mouth and for copying us we rewarded him hugely.

Once he was comfortable with this we gradually worked up to him touching his lips with the food, touching it with his tongue, putting it in his mouth, biting, licking etc. all done very slowly and never being a negative experience. We eventually got to the point that he would chew on a piece of food. We stayed at this point for a long time, eventually we got him to chew on a piece of apple for long enough that it disappeared. We went crazy!! And from there things have gone great, although still slowly for quite some time.

He now eats cold meat, chicken and fish, 2 vegetables, fruit, nuts.

The key thing was that we never pushed and that we had good reinforcement. The focus for us shifted as well from trying to get him to eat to trying to get him to imitate comfortably and I think this helped a lot. Hope you have success through whatever means. k

[Anonymous]

#4990

Hi

Wow the first post sounds like my son. He will eat chips, but drops the bit he is holding of any food, crisps salted his fav, and pealed apple, toast but with each food he may eat one day and then not for weeks. He drinks soys milk as normal milk causes very bad tummy pains. But he is no way under weight. He use to eat many many things but now it gets less and less. I try everything and feel I get no where. My other son eats like he has worms and is right weight for his age.

[Anonymous]

#4989

Hi i have the same problems with my 4 yr old he will only eat donuts for breakfast, cheese sandwich for lunch and chicken noodles for tea,nothing else is allowed on or bythe plate or he wont eat a thing, he drinks either milk or vimto.

[Anonymous]

#4996

My main sensitivity is with taste and the mouth in general I am not particularly fond of eating and there are only a few foods which I actually will even look at. The sound of chewing irritates me and I get pain in the back of my throat like I am about to choke the smell is overwhelmimg.If a child is very sensitive to certain textures such as soft', 'slimy', 'squishy', then he will naturally tend to avoid foods . Each child's sensitivity is different and we need to be aware of types of foods that may be bothersome. New foods must be introduced in extremely small quantities along with a much desired food. For example, if the new food is carrot, and the desired food is a biscuit, tell the child, "Finish carrot, then biscuit". Similarly with other foods also you can use phrases like "one bite, then biscuit", or "eat carrot, then biscuit, . , you can even begin by asking the child to "take one lick" sniff,or "taste once" and then promptly allow him to receive the favoured food. Each time the child tries even the smallest bit of a new food, praise him.Visuals also will work well.Try also serving food cold food looks ,tastes,and smells totally differant when cold.http://autismandaspergersinthefamily.freeforums.org/index.phphttp://autismandaspergersinthefamily.freeforums.org/sensory-issues-f33.html

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