My grandson who is three yrs old and autistic will not eat any regular food types, he will only eat quesadilla"s and I stick little
cut up egg and very small parts of a veggie. It is so hard to feed him breakfast lunch or dinner? Its a nightmare trying to feed
him, if he dont like it he pushes it aside and I trie the thing of ok no dinner if you dont eat this or that but im the one who goes to bed feeling guilt, so I break down and give him some V.8 to know he got some veggy food. Any Ideas what to do?
{{{{{hugs}}}}} - many autistic children have sensory/texture issues that make them very reluctant to eat different foods.
I recommend checking out the community at http://childrenwithasd.proboards.com/index.cgi? - it's an online community for parents and grandparents of children on the autism spectrum and a good place to communicate with people who are working with similar challenges to share what works, what doesn't, etc.
My nephew (who is now 5) will only eat some kinds of fruit and vanilla yogurt. He has always been this way and he shows no sign of changing. Seriously, that is all he eats. Everything else is repulsive to him. He's very robust and healthy though. His eating habits are very strange. His brother eats normally so it's nothing his parents are doing wrong. I don't have ideas for you but I just wanted to let you know there are other quirky children out there. Will your grandson drink milkshakes? Can you make him a smoothie and call it a milkshake? Start off with yogurt and fruit and also add vanilla icecream and maybe each time reduce the amount of icecream. You can hide cooked pureed veggies in smoothies. Will he eat soup? You can make your own broth with tons of veggies, greens, etc. Then strain it all out and make the soup with the broth you made. Then he's getting a lot of good vitamins. Good luck.
Try a little of different foods and see if there are any allergic reactions he may feel uncomfortable. Many kids in the autistic spectrum have gut issues... It would be helpful to look into any physical/ biochemical reactions he has with certain foods and to avoid them. He will eat what is comfortable to him, but you will have to find out what they are, and I know it is worrisome and hard {{{hug}}}
My child is also on the spectrum. She was allergic to many foods and had a lot of rashes. She was diagnosed with inflammatory gut and used to have diarrhea also. But after changing to gluten and casein free diet, and avoid moldy foods, the condition healed and improved through time.
Her diet was limited in the beginning, so as she grew up it was difficult to feed her; but I can say she is now very healthy and eats very well. There are foods she is not accustomed to and doesn't eat them much, e.g. sweets/ desserts :), diary (except she likes cheese once in a while), eggs, wheat (although she can occasionally eat pizza, ramen, bread without any ill effects).
Her usual diet consists of rice, different kinds of meat, rice bread with cashew nut butter, rice noodle, veggies, snacks of 'good' potato/corn chips, taco..., Martinelli apple juice (don't use moldy apples), she can now eat even the limited foods with moderation and rarely has reactions.
P.S. 1) We used to buy pizza rice dough from Whole Foods and bring it to any pizza places and asked them to use it for cheese pizza for her.
2) Ramen, the good kind from the restaurants, not the instant noodles full of MSGs and chemicals.
My son is on the spectrum too and has very specific likes and dislikes. One thing I do is puree veggies and put them in food he enjoys. For example, I will puree cauliflower and spread it on the tortilla when I make him a quesadilla with white cheese. I puree butternut squash and mix it in with mac'n'cheese. My son also responds well to reward systems and motivators for trying new things. Good luck.
