unusual foods taste

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Do you or your child have unusual food taste or very picky about the food you eat? My son is very very picky about the food he eats! He will not eat anything almost. I just wanted to know if this is part of AS or just him being a picky eater! His foods he will eat: peanut butter sandwiches, tacos, cereal, hot dogs, ham sandwiches, dumplings black olives and some fruit. That is it! Other than tacos he will not eat hamburger meat and even potatoes (potato chips, french fries or mashed) he will not touch pork chops or any other kind of meats. So is it something to do with AS? Even smells of food bother him too! I just do not know!

My thing is I don't like a lot of flavors mixed together. For example, I usually get hamburgers plain, maybe with lettuce. I just don't like a lot of different things at once.

He eats peanut butter sandwiches AND ham sandwiches? Does he have milk with that cereal? And he eats some fruit! Wow! That's a lot of variety! If you can get him to taste new things, without pushing him to eat them if he doesn't want to, that would be good - but don't argue with him if he says he doesn't like them! Lots of people don't even realize when they do that: "but it's so good," or "really? I love [whatever it is]" Praise him for trying it, and reassure him that different people like different things, and that peoples tastes also change as they get bigger, so even if he doesn't like something now, he might like it if he tries it at another time.

A very good thing is that he has lots of different textures and tastes in his repertoire, so he has a good base from which to expand. You might want to talk to your doctor about whether you should be seeking help from a feeding clinic, but the fact that he will eat both crunchy and soft is a really good sign. If he starts restricting his variety, without adding new things, you need to try to stop that trend.

The only things I have ever eaten are cheese, cheese sandwiches, cheese and tomato pizzas, pastor with cheese on, noodles, fruit (not veg), fish fingers, marmite on bread, peanut butter on bread, jam on bread, honey on bread and chips. 'nuff said.

salt, chilli (raw or asian non-sweet chilli dressing on everything. we are talking super-dooper hot.)

My son doesn't eat anything either. I spoke to an OT about it and she said that it is hard for picky eaters to expand their diet. I could try sensory things like electric toothbrushes, and there is a tool to do positive pressure inside the mouth, but most of all don't beat myself up over it. Praise when they try something and be glad they do that. Most eating clinics are operant conditioning...reward for eating. I can do that at home, which I do. I have to bribe my son to eat things he likes. He gets his oreos when he eats his fruit, he gets his mcdonald chicken nuggets if he eats ALL of his lunch, BEFORE I pick him up from daycare/school. This works. He doesn't have the variety, but at least he's eating. If I didn't do that he would starve. I also give him liquid childrens vitamins because he won't do chewables. I have his iron tested every year and it's always fine, and he's growing. Some of my friends with older kids say that they eat more of a variety when they get older, around 10 or 12. I'm hoping that's true. It's a tough battle.

Good Luck!

list of foods I eat (usually I'll pick one of these and eat only that all day, and they have to be the same brand, etc.)

blueberry muffins
soy cheeze pizza
lettuce with cucumber ranch
apple-strawberry-banana baby food
strawberries
and I only drink water.

And I like certain kinds of candies and sweets but only if they're like gluten free dairy free or low sugar and such.

list of foods I'll only eat if there is nothing else:
bagels with peanut butter and Cinnamon (only mini bagels)
pasta with tomato sauce.
peanuts.
cereal.

As a little kid I was picky too.

I liked bananas, yoghurt, chocolate, cheese, some kind of fresh cheese, milk, cocoa and a few kinds of candy.

My mom told me to try the things I didn'T like at least once a yea. She used to say that I would be sad if I liked something, and didn't try it for a long time, because taste changes over years. She was sooo right, this way I leraned to eat lots of food... Nowadays I can't get enough of veggies!

I was picky too, until my late teens. I didn't try something as bland as pasta until I was 18! I seems to have grown out of it though, being picky, I mean. I've heard a lot of aspies do the same, but some who have a completely negative feeling towards the feel and smell of some foods won't.
One tactic I've come across is for you to eat something that you know he won't like and look like you're really enjoying it - don't offer it to him or make a big deal out of it. A kid's natural curiosity sometimes takes over and they'll wanna know what it is, then that's an opportunity to say "do you want to try it?"

My diet is very limited. I like to eat only several dishes. I was like that since my earliest childhood. For many years I didn’t even realize it could be an AS trait, I knew I had many quirks (also in respect of food) but I supposed I was simply a weirdo.

Yes, I've always been a picky eater. I'm also a very ritualistic eater. I like to eat the same foods in the same order every day. Eating rituals calm me.
-OddDuckNash99-

I have always had major problems with food & food smells. My mother tried to expand my food choices but I never cooperated. My father was sure that I would outgrow this "phase," but I am much the same today as I was then. My taste buds never "grew up."

I hate cheese, nuts, unflavored water, milk, alcohol, most vegetables, all condiments except ketchup, all seafood, mixed foods (like casseroles), and different foods touching each other on the plate. I mostly like either sweet or bland foods. I order hamburgers plain, meat only. And I have gotten funny reactions from Taco Bell employees whenever I order tacos with no cheese or lettuce!

Also, I can't stand watching food be prepared, so I can't cook for myself. And I hate uneaten, leftover food on plates, so I can't handle doing dishes (or taking out any trash with food in it). Lucky for me, I am with a wonderful man who loves to cook for me and doesn't mind doing the dishes too. I do all of the regular house cleaning (since that doesn't usually bother me) which works out well for us since my partner has bad allergies. So we have managed to work out a fair and balanced system of chores.

Another oddity I have is an inability to realize when I am hungry or thirsty, until I am ravenous or dehydrated. If left to my own devices without a structured time to eat, I will generally end up eating only once a day when I finally get really hungry. I don't know why my body doesn't give me what I assume are the normal signals to eat or drink. I guess it has something to do with being an Aspie. Once, on a road trip alone, I ended up hospitalized for 4 days with severe dehydration because I forgot to drink anything all day!

Cookie Encounter

I don't know how unusual this is but, I'll tell you what happened to me. I have a couple of Lunchables in the fridge and after lunch, I wanted something sweet because all I had for lunch was meat. I try not to eat a lot of carbs, they make me sluggish and tired. Protein in meat seems to be the only thing that clears my head and doesn't physically drain me. After I ate lunch, I was craving something that was a carbohydrate so I looked and found nothing except a Lunchable with two Nabisco Vanilla Creme cookies inside. I opened the package just where the cookies were and got them out and put the rest of the Lunchable back in the fridge.
I sat back down on the couch and began to eat the cookies. It was then I noticed just how much I love those Vanilla Creme cookies. I don't know if it was because they had been in the fridge or what but something about the texture of the cookie and the inside vanilla creme flavoring was so delicious, after eating the two I wanted more just like those. EXACTLY like those. It was worth running to grocery store across the street for. So, I jumped in my car and zoomed over, a quick run inside the store with my canvas tote grocery bag and I would be back at home on my couch with more of those outstanding cookies.
I raced to the cookie aisle with Nabisco "Vanilla Creme" practically engraved into my grey matter so I didn't forget the brand (I figured there would be lots of this type of cookie and I wanted to make sure I found this particular type and brand because not all cookies that are the same are alike, ha-ha) I began scanning each shelf looking for a package that said Nabisco Vanilla Creme. I found the Golden Oreos first. Then, I found Nilla Wafers. I found the Keebler Vienna Fingers and some generic cookies. When I looked on the package to see what flavor was inside the Golden Oreos, I only saw "original" which didn't tell me if they were vanilla or some strange sugary flavor. I wanted he exact same cookie I had in the Lunchable but I couldn't find any. I stood there for fifteen or so minutes in disbelief. I thought for sure that store would have more of those cookies and I wasn't about to raid any more Lunchable packages just for two cookies (my plan was to replace the two I took out of the package at home).
As it turned out, none of those cookies were at that grocery store so either they only put them in Lunchables or they have them at some other store I would have to drive further to get to.
I ended up buying the Famous Amos Vanilla cookies instead. At least they had the word Vanilla in the title so how different could they be?
I got home and tasted one. They weren't a lot like the Lunchable cookies and I was very disappointed at how tough the cookie part was. The inside was alright but I wish it had been the same thickness as the Nabisco brand. The part I liked least was the cookie part of the Famous Amos Vanilla. It wasn't the light, airy short bread. Instead it was something like an Oreo only it was more stale.