Food!

Does he like sweets? One of the nutritionists I speak to every so often suggested to make smoothies/juices. If you do this, pour it into a cup that is not clear. This will prevent your little one from looking at the color and totally avoiding just because it is green. You can also freeze it up and place it in popsicle molds. I also found a reciepe online for no bake brownies but with black beans. I have yet to try it.

He doesn’t eat any sweets, literally everything he consumes is potato waffles, chips, mash potato’s and walkers crisps and water. Won’t take anything at all out with this. He still drinks formula but we need to feed that bottle like he’s still a baby if we put it in his cup he would be drinking 5oz all day.

Food chaining for safe foods but really if they don’t want it they won’t have it.. mine is 4 and I believe has ARFID but to get a diagnosis is hard work

You can get vitamin sprinkles or a spray you mix the sprinkles in with food or add them as a topper and they dissolve in

@Rachel how about mashing some cauliflower into those mashed potatoes?

It's hard, mine (adopted) don't have arfid but were super fussy and would only eat brown snack foods (crisps , sausage rolls, chicken) and juice when they first came to us. Persistence and humour helped a lot. Here's what we did - maybe there's something useful for you in here. First we kept them on identical food but watered down the juice slowly over weeks till they were effectively drinking water. This was to stop them getting empty calories from juice. Then we introduced 'starters' for everyone which were served at the table before the main course was served. To begin with the starters we're different brands/versions of the same snack food that they were used to - like healthier versions of crisps made from lentils. This wasn't too much of a stretch and we only started with very, very tiny amounts - like 5mm / a pinkie nails worth. We kept this up for about 18 months and expanded what we asked them to try and to taste. We didn't expect them to eat it but they had to pick it up, play with, smell etc.

We said we'd like them to do this before we'd serve the main course. In reality, we served the main course anyway after about 5 minutes even if they refused. However , this didn't really happen much and we made it into a family game with adults joining in and lots of praise for even just picking it up. Lots of silly humour and silly faces. Lots of rituals like pretending we had Popeye muscles every time we had spinach, for example. We always made available enough food that we knew they liked to eat at every meal and snack time. This was more about family fun and ritual.

We kept up this ritual with guests too. Eventually they started asking for more of whatever had been the starter and by the time they were doing this regularly, starters were up to a half kid sized portion of veggies etc. At that point we dropped the starter game but we regularly do family tasting.

We'd also leave out food for them to try with some reverse psychology - telling them that it's Mummy or Daddy's special treat food and not to taste any. Of course when we turned our backs or left the room, they'd go have a look, give it a poke - low pressure way of interacting with food without grown ups making it stressful. And then we'd return and play mocked shock that we thought there was a mouse eating our food and have to go on a family hunt for the mouse etc. Lots and lots of humour.

It took 18 months of starters and 3 years of persistence to get them to the point where they eat enough that it feels manageable and they're getting a good variety.

If you are waiting for evaluation with neurodevelopmental service Lanarkshire, have they mentioned their workshops to you? There is a "why won't you eat" workshop they run with the neurodevelopmental dieticians which you can attend while waiting on the dietician referral. Can ask the dietician questions during the workshop.

@Julie yes! I attended the why won’t you eat class. But it’s more focused around verbal children which mines isn’t at this time. We already done most of their suggestions and were basically told to just carry on until we see the dietitian in July. Although she was the dietician we have been allocated so now sure how that will work.

Does your child like seasonings?

You may be able to find some “potato” recipes online -like pancakes or something. I’d play around with adding in smashed beans, lentils or something. My son loves oatmeal and we’ve found recipes for oatmeal bars-breakfast bars, granola bars, etc. Most of the recommendations will be for long term success bc it’s hard to change immediately. If you’re looking for immediate- id think about supplements or smoothies. Are there any snack foods your child likes? Can you find recipes to make your own? Can you add in something nutritious?