Help...My Child is a Picky Eater!

Autism and food aversions typically go hand-in-hand. D is an extremely picky eater. Before working with him at his daycare, the only thing he would eat was bread with cheese and apples. If his educator was lucky, he might have pizza with cheese, but, this was rare. If you are working with or have a picky eater with autism, it is important to remain CALM, don't let mealtime become a battleground.

It has been 2 months since I have started working with D and so far, he has started to accept chicken cutlets and pasta into his extremely narrow diet. This may not seem like a lot, but it is definitely a huge improvement!

Here are a list of strategies I have utlized and I believe are extremely helpful when trying to expand the diet of a picky eater.

#1. Rule out any medical problems.

#2. Take steps towards tasting: Take time to explore new foods before encouraging children to eat them. You can help your child explore a new food by looking at it, touching it and smelling it. When he’s ready for a taste, he can try licking it before putting a whole bite into his mouth. Sometimes, mixing a new food with a favorite one can also help.

#3. Tune into Textures: Autism often comes with hypersensitivity to different textures. Therefore, how the food feels in the child's mouth as opposed to what it tastes like that might be what is creating the food aversion. Experiment with chopping or blending different foods in order to determine if the food aversion is due to texture or simply because the child may not like that particular food.

#4. Positive reinforcement: I use this strategy with D (see picture beside) a lot. Whenever D does something I have requested him to do (i.e. touch, lick, put new food to lips, etc.) I immediately follow up with positive reinforcement. In the picture, I used a highly preferred game on the iPad to encourage D to continue the behavior I was requesting him to do (taking bites of pasta and chicken cutlets). However, positive reinforcement can be as simple as a high five or even saying "Great job ______!!"

Reference:

Encouraging Picky Eaters to Try New Foods (n.d.) Retrieved from https://www.autismspeaks.org/blog/2012/11/09/encouraging-picky-eaters- autism-try-new-foods

#food #pickyeater