SEN mums
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My son is autistic and generally won’t eat anything other than skips, biscuits, one type of hienz pasta and other little snacks, trying to get him to eat properly is a nightmare so I totally understand how you feel babe!xxxx
@Hayley he has been referred to a dietitian but i don’t think we’re being taken seriously because he’s quite a big weight for his age. perhaps it’s something i need to push? he’s my first and only sen baby so it’s all very new to me. thank you for replying though, it really helps hearing other people have gone through the same and that’s a great idea about leaving the food close 🤍
@Ashleigh thank you that really means a lot 🤍
@Jade feel free to drop me a message lovely 🤍
Hi all, I am an SEN teacher and have supported hundreds of kids with limited diets to try and increase the range they eat. While none have started eating everything, I have managed to increase the range from under 10 foods to over 20 foods and have generally less anxiety about food. I would recommend looking at the SOS food program for Autism. There's stuff about it online Inc. A how to guide I made on YouTube during COVID. The basis I'd creating a very predictable routine for introducing foods, doing it NOT at meal times, using food as play, desensitizing tolerance of different textures, colours and flavours. When it's all broken down like that meal times are actually hugely complex. Also try and reassure yourself that a lot of foods including processed ones can include a few vitamins and minerals that you don't expect. Potatoes are a great food for that and come in so many different forms. Happy to help further if anyone needs it.
@Jade yeah, my daughter is quite a healthy weight too. When I spoke to the dietitian, my main concern was deficiencies and I didn’t want to start adding vitamins in blindly. But thankfully she’s just very mildly anaemic. Just told to carry on with those vitamins. I guess that’s one angle to push for some sort of support. If he’s deficient in vitamins or anaemic, they might actually give you some helpful advice, if that’s any help at all. And I get it. They don’t really make this information readily available, you have to either be annoying until they help or have an amazing support network with other SEN parents. Best of luck 🤞🏻 x
@Cari thank you 🤍
My 3 YO just eats bread and ice cream 🙂, my almost 5YO really struggled with food at that age too. She’s got a limited diet still but I know what to feed her now, she basically eats noodles, pasta and alphabites. So hopefully it’s just a phase. I got some help with from my local disability team who said things like, just leaving food close all day so there’s no pressure to eat but it’s there as an option. You can ask your GP for a referral to the dietitian’s. We just put multivitamins into her milk (I recommend nutrigen sprinkles if you want to get some). That makes me feel a bit better about their poor diets.