The topic of Picky Eaters is universal for parents, but especially so for children with Autism.
As a baby and toddler my son ate everything in the sight. He was very adventurous and loved to try out new foods - even foods that are not exactly your typical "kid cuisine". But by the time he hit age two, he had self limited down to eating only a few things - he could live on yogurt, pizza and chicken nuggets. One of the goals when we put him onto the gfcf diet was to get more nutritous foods into him and hopefully expand his horizons. In addition to seeing improvements in his behavior, sleep, and bathroom diets - we have seen him become a bit more adventurous with eating though he is still quite picky.
Last night at the Temple Grandin book signing one of the audience members asked about picky eaters and she gave some advice on how to get a child to eat more foods suggesting that it could be sensory. And, though she did not advocate a child playing with food at the dining room table to maybe let them "play" or experience some foods away from the table. She also suggested using a favorite food on the plate as well as the adversive food with the promise of the favorite food when the adversive was consumed. She also mentioned the gluten and casein free diet and how 20% do well on the diet - stressing that the diet is not a cure.
Here's a short video clip with advice for dealing with Picky Eaters from Temple Grandin:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AyYSwQVK0zY
2 comments:
That was kind of hard to hear. Did you use a microcassette recorder too? I wonder how many of those shirts she has?
So was it an emotional experience seeing her and hearing her?
Have you read any of Donna Williams books? Stephen Shore's beyond the wall? He is a good speaker, heard him long ago.
Sorry it was kind of hard to hear.. the volume was really loud on my computer but after putting it on youtube it seems like it is muffled/quieter. I'll need to play with it and see if I can boost the audio.
Post a Comment