It’s no secret that getting an #autistic child to eat, especially when they have sensory processing disorder as well,  can be next to impossible at times.

I thought I would give you a bit of insight from my experience with my own autistic kids. 

My kids are extremely picky eaters.  That’s why when food allergies come up, it’s an absolute nightmare to deal with. 

Over the years,  Lizze and I have found that our boys tend to be very visual eaters.  By visual eaters I mean that they are very sensitive to the way their food looks, tastes and smells.  They are also incredibly sensitive to how their food is presented as well.

If there is a perceived imperfection in the food, for example, a chicken nugget that is misshapen, they will very often panic and refuse to eat. 

Also, they prefer their food to separated and never touching. 

If you’ve ever watched the show Monk, it’s very much like that, only for different reasons. 

Emmett likes all of his food to line up and will typically count each item at least once before he eats.  There are times when he doesn’t like the number of food items on his plate and we will either have to remove or add food to the plate to adjust the number.

I wanted to share one such meal and give you a better idea of the challenges faced by both children with autism and their families.  Perhaps you can better understand why this can be so exhausting.

It’s not uncommon for us to make, remake and re-remake a meal, in order to get one of my boys to eat. 

I would love to hear about your personal experience in this area.  Leave a comment below and we’ll get a discussion going.  🙂

This site is managed via WordPress for Android, courtesy of the @SamsungMobileUS Galaxy Note 2 by @Tmobile. Please forgive any typos. I know how to spell but auto-correct hates me.  😉

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