My little Autistic man~ On a mission to feed...

Michelle - posted on 01/19/2011

My son is 11, and goes through long spurts of only eating one or two foods at a time.. right now it's ice cream, maple brown sugar oatmeal, and mac and cheese !! and this is for at least a year.. he weighs about 56 pounds, and his Dr. is amazed he is not anemic from lack of any meat..He will also not eat it if we add anything to those foods, We always try something new daily,but he not going for it.. other times he would only eat crunchy foods, other times only soft foods... As long as he's eating, and drinking something and not losing weight it will be o.k. Will be praying for your family..

Christina - posted on 01/18/2011

My five year old is the same way and the things he will eat are not healthy. I give him Carnation Instant Breakfast twice a day to try and make sure he gets some nutrition as he will not eat candy so he won't eat the children's vitamins.

Melissa - posted on 01/18/2011

Hi Heather. I am actually going through the same thing you are when it comes to eating. My son is 7 years old and the only foods that he will eat are chicken nuggets, french fries, pizza rolls, pizza, spaghetti O's, cheesy roll up, toast with butter only and hamberger helper (rice variety) only with tostido chips. He will literaly starve himself if we do not provide these foods to him. When we cook dinner and it is not one of his prefered foods, he refuses to even come close to the dinner table. Most of what my son eats is brown in color and crunchy. I received notice today from his school that he is not eating lunch while he is at school. My husband and I now have to go to the school and talk to the principal. For 7 years old, my son weighs under 40 lbs and he is pretty much nothing but skin and bones. He does not put on any weight from anything that he eats. We have even seen feeding teams at our local children's hospitals, but they have not been any help.

My son is starting to refuse to drink milk even now. I have tried to hide vitamins in his food and drink, but if he notices any difference, he won't touch it. He won't take any type of vitamins or any supplements. I found myself crying tonight because I feel that I am at my wits end. I don't know what to do anymore to get him to eat. I keep trying to get him to eat new foods, sometimes I can get him to take a bite or two. Good Luck on your mission to feed! I'm on the same mission.

Cathy - posted on 01/18/2011

Hi there
My name is Cathy and I am new to this, When my son was 2 I knew he was different, He is 4 now getting ready for school this year!! We have been to weekly trips to see a feeding team to get my son eating, We play games with food just to try and get him to touch it. I have found this not as effective as him eating with his peers. At kindergarten he seems to watch the other children and take note, he will now get his apple peeled, so he is touching it!
This is an ongoing battle his food is so limited to certain brands and flavours (it can be rather frustrating at times)
We are limited to biscuits, cracker, chicken chips, Deep south Vanilla ice cream, raisins and lemonade iceblocks.
Not very healthy at all!
I often cannot reason with my son his behaviour at times is trying, kindy found him difficult and cut his hours back even though he has a teacher aid! Guess I find it hard at times as I don't have family around and it is so easy to isolate yourself! But chin up the show must go on!

Julie - posted on 01/10/2011

My son was the same way he went for 18 mo. eating nothing hot; mainly cereal, chips, crackers etc....he eventually began eating a few other things but ONLY a few they actually used OT to help condition him (I remembe r4 mo. of OT to get him to eat PB (desensitization) and to learn to eat properly w/ a spoon (mouth sensitivities). However it all happened he eats a certain type of frozen pizzas every night if he doubts me he looks for the box... He loves many fruits and hamburgers/ff but he still is EXTREMELY picky.My son isn't as "rigid" but he does have adjustment issues. make a pic schedule for him. I totally understand we often bend our schedule or seperate vacations so dad will stay home with Erik etc... he has HHA's to come in and help relieve the direct care burden as Erik can't be unsupervised AT ALL anyway feel free to contact me at FB (julie willis-duckett) or at 6414268076