Food for Aut(ies)

Post Reply New Topic

It's all in the taste. I once refused to drink a brand of plain, spring water because of the after taste no one else seems to notice. My Dad said I was being ridiculous and bet me 5$ I couldn't tell the difference in a taste test. I became 5$ richer.....

Lots of autistic people, even low-functioning autistic people have many thoughts. They are just unable to communicate them to you. He might know more than you realize......

Oh I have no doubt about that, I think I've mentioned elsewhere in this thread that he's not yet 3 and I've seen him sit down and read aloud whole children's books and I know he comprehends most of it. He doesn't do it every day and he doesn't do it when you want him to, but I know he can. He can label hundreds of things and has a ton of lines memorized from TV shows. Yet if you ask him a simple question you're not going to get a comprehensible answer and if he needs something with a few new exceptions he won't say what. Everyday there's something new though. When I said he couldn't form a thought I didn't mean he didn't have thoughts, just that he couldn't yet put them into understandable words, they come out as scrambled jargon. You're right I should have worded that better.

Last edited by Washi on 29 Apr 2011, 12:11 am, edited 2 times in total.

He'd probably drink a smoothie, he gets his veggies from V8 Fusion so he's already drinking his vegetables. I wanted him to be able to get them in a solid form. I just thought if I could work them into baked goods they'd travel well for when we spend the day out of the house and help break up the monotony.

"Deceptively Delicious" by Jessica Seinfeld is exactly what you are looking for. It's a book full of recipes which include ground veggies hidden in solid foods.

No matter what foods you try, only have him try the tiniest bite at first. Try to introduce those tiny bites once a day for 10 days. You will have to freeze some to do this or make the recipe more than once. I have a picky son but i am able to introduce foods this way.

I've trawled web sites and book shops trying to find new thing my lad will eat. If I listed my 'fails' The list would be a mile long. Most of the books I've looked at are not really aimed at kids with real food issues, and some had old fashioned almost barbaric approaches. Its a constant battle.
The only book I've found in any way helpful is 'can't eat wont eat' by Brenda Legge.

I hadn't thought about trying to put vegetables in baking, but I am going to try.
If I have any success, I shall post the recipe!

IDK if its been mentioned yet, though I know Ive seen it touched on, but it kinda sounds like he might not like the textures of certain foods? I hate tomatoes, but love tomato sauce (No chunks). I hate pretty much any fleshy vegetable and fruit. Just something about em is like nails on a chalkboard to me.

Regardless, he sounds very sensitive to what goes through his mouth. And yes, different brand baby sauce will and often does have slight taste/texture variations, even though it all looks like orange goop. Different companies buy different quality of produce from different farms (Usually even in different parts of the world, or at least the nation), and put them through different machines as often as not to blend it, assuming they're using the same Ingredient Ratios in the first place. And though he doesn't know any of this, it sounds like he might be picking up on it anyway. I could suggest trying these baby foods yourself, but its possible you may not even notice it, having so much more experience with food then him, or maybe not even having the same sensitivity to it as him (IDK what your situation is in that regard).

Someone already mentioned that he seems very intelligent and therefore its also possible that if hes with you when you buy it or prepare it, hes observing you get different things, and though hes not saying anything about it, its possible this is his way of saying something as simple as "I only like that brand" or something.

Anyway, I know I was a very picky eater growing up. I hated the thought of having anything besides *plain* Cheeseburgers until one day a Mcy'Ds screwed my happy meal up, and my mother scraped it all off (Bar the cheese of course). I could still taste Ketchup and Onion, and now I have Cheeseburgers with Onion *EVERY* time I have a burger, and occasionally put Ketchup on them. Ive also been subjected to pickles, but have never liked them, too sour for me.

My daughter is a very picky eater, always has been. One way to boost protein is to branch to with different grains. Quinoa, for example, is an excellent source of protein. At one point I would puree spinach and blueberries together and put that into muffins. Strange as it sounds, spinach + blueberries = grape jam taste. We do a lot of baking with pumpkin and pureed carrots. for a while she would eat scrambled eggs, and I could puree some cauliflower into that.

Best of luck

There are a lot of waffle and pancake recipes out there that have hidden veggies. But how hidden do they need to be? Will he eat little tiny pieces of carrot surrounding by waffle batter, or do they have to be completely invisible to him?

Last edited by littlelily613 on 17 Jun 2011, 1:17 am, edited 1 time in total.

I just found this recipe: http://www.kids-meal-ideas.com/lentil-p ... ecipe.html (I never tried it), but it incorporates a protein and some fruit, and you could probably add in certain veggies to the mix as well like carrot, zucchini, mushrooms, etc, without him noticing.

This link: http://www.kids-meal-ideas.com/bread-fr ... arrotbread will take you to zucchini and carrot breads.

**Edit--I realized I already responded to this thread before, so these recipes may not work for you. I'll keep there here anyway, though in case they do or in case someone else might want to try them**

Thanks for all the new input. I've been a little too frazzled lately to reply to everyone but there are some ideas in here I do want to try .... so thanks again.

I think cauliflower puree would be very useful. Loads of nutrition including some protein and fiber, and bland tasting so could be sneakily added to a wide variety of recipies like baked goods etc.