The title may be a bit dramatic but I have a serious question. Elliott, my 6 year old with Aspergers is having issues with eating. All of a sudden the way food tastes to him is different.
Anymore, he will take 2 bites out of something, that he has a long history of enjoying, and say that it doesn’t taste right. If you press him for details, hoping to find out something useful, he says it tastes like poison.
Poison…..really?
Here is how the conversation goes:
Me: Elliott, how are your chicken nuggets?
Elliott: Daddy, they don‘t taste right.
Me: What do you mean they don‘t taste right?
Elliott: Daddy, they taste like poison.
Me: What do you mean they taste like poison? Elliott, I would never feed you poison.
Elliott: I mean they t-a-s-t-e l-i-k-e p-o-i-s-o-n. (As if I didn’t understand the words).
Me: Thank for speaking slower so I could understand 😛 Elliott, how do you know what poison even tastes like?
Elliott: Um Daddy, because I’m eating it right now. I thought I already explained this to you.
Me: I don‘t even know what to say to that…….
Assuming that he’s wrong – and he is- and I’m not feeding him poison – which I’m not- is this normal? I hate to use the word normal but, is it? I mean forgetting his choice of words, is it common for tastes to change at this age?
I wonder if he is just that sensitive to tastes that he can taste the difference between batches of nuggets. Maybe to him, they don‘t always taste the same because there are variances in the nuggets themselves?
Do any of experience anything like this? Is this an #Autism thing? I know taste buds change but he’s only 6 years old.
Posted from WordPress for Android so please forgive any typos as auto-correct and I don‘t see eye to eye. 🙂
I read that sometimes, this is due to a Zinc deficiency. Usually, the sense of smell is heightened as well when this is the case. ..
Apparently, zinc deficiency is very common (I have started supplementing my son though he didn't complain about tastes/smells.
Just a thought!
Personally, I can taste the chemicals in processed food, like nuggets. Maybe that is what he means?
I’ve actually had similar experiences with chicken nuggets. For me, it had something to do with a change of whether they were cooked in the oven on foil or straight on the pan… the pan left a strange metallic taste that felt a little like, for lack of a better word, poison. Have you changed anything about how you prepare them?
Often when a child has a head cold or stuffy nose their taste buds do weird things. I can remember drinking milk and saying it tasted like cherry about 2 days before anyone else would think it went bad.(we used to have whole milk with the cream) The only thing to make sure is not to introduce a new food while his taste buds are outta whack. Probably best to give him mild flavored foods for now. maybe a Popsicle or two.
have you tried making homemade nuggets? and let him help? Maybe that would help if HE knows what's in them?