Sunday, December 12, 2004
When spitting your food on the floor is a good thing
We got really excited yesterday, because Timothy took a several bites of apple and then spit them out on the floor. For most people, this would be annoying rather than exciting. But for us it was a big deal, because the last time Timothy ate a piece of apple was 2 1/2 years ago.
At the age of 16 months, Timothy had a fairly typical toddler diet. He ate sliced turkey, macaroni and cheese, fruit, bread, cereal, and a variety of other foods. He loved corn, and would sometimes eat an entire cereal bowl of corn for dinner.
At around 18 months, he began refusing to eat food that he had previously eaten. By his second birthday the range of foods that he would had narrowed to a tiny fraction of his previous diet. One day around Timothy's second birthday we went out for the afternoon and left him with a friend. My wife told her friend that she had put a list of the foods that Timothy would eat up and the fridge. I remember her friend laughing and saying "You can fit all the foods that he eats on a note?"
My response was "Actually, you can fit everything that he eats on a post-it." And you could. At the time Timothy ate dry cereal without milk on it, cookies, crackers, chips, and occasionally toast. He drank milk from a bottle and water from a cup. And that was it. He wouldn't touch any other food. He didn't even want them on near him.
For some reason, this was a particularly difficult concept for other people to grasp. Lots of people told us "if you let him get hungry, he'll eat". But he didn't. I remember telling a friend one day that Timothy's feeding therapist (a category I had never known existed) had managed to get him to taste some chocolate pudding. His response was snide--"Oh yeah, we all know how hard it is to get kids to eat chocolate pudding." I practically screamed at him "No, we've been working on this for MONTHS!"
No one has ever been able to explain to us why Timothy has such a limited diet, but we do know that he is not alone. While most kids with autism are not such incredibly finicky eaters, there is a clear sub-population that won't eat most foods. I wonder sometimes if the finicky eaters will ultimately turn out to have a particular sub-strain of autism.
One thing that is particularly difficult about having a child with autism who won't eat most foods is that diet is a hot issue among the autism community. There are people who absolutely swear by the GFCF diet, which requires eliminating all dairy and gluten. Since everything that Timothy was willing to eat had either dairy or gluten, this was a non-starter for us. I firmly believe that trying this diet would turn our house into a war zone. But people would constantly urge us to try it.
Over time Timothy's diet expanded, albeit slowly. He would eat donuts and Starbucks scones (but only cinnamon or pumpkin, other flavors were not acceptable). He started eating pizza. But ONLY if it was Papa John's cheese pizza. He didn't want other brands or other toppings. For his third birthday one of my brothers sent a Papa John's gift card, which was much appreciated. He began eating yogurt and drinking apple juice.
In the last few months Timothy has suddenly become much more willing to try new foods. The process of accepting a new food is very messy. First he begins to lick the food. A few days later, he starts tasting it, and then immediately spits it back out. We now keep a plastic bucket next to his chair at the dinner table, and have taught him to spit food into the bucket instead of onto the floor. After a few days of spitting, he then starts swallowing the food.
Timothy now eagerly eats pasta and KFC Popcorn chicken. At his last parent-teacher conference we learned that he was stealing other children's peanut butter and jelly sandwiches during snack time. We were flabbergasted, but when we tried it at home, sure enough, he ate it.
And yesterday he tried an apple. After he spit out the first pieces on the floor, I brought the bucket over to where he was standing. My wife said "I just let him spit on the floor--when he's trying a new food I don't want to do anything to disturb him." And she's right. If he spits a new food onto the floor, that's a good thing.
At the age of 16 months, Timothy had a fairly typical toddler diet. He ate sliced turkey, macaroni and cheese, fruit, bread, cereal, and a variety of other foods. He loved corn, and would sometimes eat an entire cereal bowl of corn for dinner.
At around 18 months, he began refusing to eat food that he had previously eaten. By his second birthday the range of foods that he would had narrowed to a tiny fraction of his previous diet. One day around Timothy's second birthday we went out for the afternoon and left him with a friend. My wife told her friend that she had put a list of the foods that Timothy would eat up and the fridge. I remember her friend laughing and saying "You can fit all the foods that he eats on a note?"
My response was "Actually, you can fit everything that he eats on a post-it." And you could. At the time Timothy ate dry cereal without milk on it, cookies, crackers, chips, and occasionally toast. He drank milk from a bottle and water from a cup. And that was it. He wouldn't touch any other food. He didn't even want them on near him.
For some reason, this was a particularly difficult concept for other people to grasp. Lots of people told us "if you let him get hungry, he'll eat". But he didn't. I remember telling a friend one day that Timothy's feeding therapist (a category I had never known existed) had managed to get him to taste some chocolate pudding. His response was snide--"Oh yeah, we all know how hard it is to get kids to eat chocolate pudding." I practically screamed at him "No, we've been working on this for MONTHS!"
No one has ever been able to explain to us why Timothy has such a limited diet, but we do know that he is not alone. While most kids with autism are not such incredibly finicky eaters, there is a clear sub-population that won't eat most foods. I wonder sometimes if the finicky eaters will ultimately turn out to have a particular sub-strain of autism.
One thing that is particularly difficult about having a child with autism who won't eat most foods is that diet is a hot issue among the autism community. There are people who absolutely swear by the GFCF diet, which requires eliminating all dairy and gluten. Since everything that Timothy was willing to eat had either dairy or gluten, this was a non-starter for us. I firmly believe that trying this diet would turn our house into a war zone. But people would constantly urge us to try it.
Over time Timothy's diet expanded, albeit slowly. He would eat donuts and Starbucks scones (but only cinnamon or pumpkin, other flavors were not acceptable). He started eating pizza. But ONLY if it was Papa John's cheese pizza. He didn't want other brands or other toppings. For his third birthday one of my brothers sent a Papa John's gift card, which was much appreciated. He began eating yogurt and drinking apple juice.
In the last few months Timothy has suddenly become much more willing to try new foods. The process of accepting a new food is very messy. First he begins to lick the food. A few days later, he starts tasting it, and then immediately spits it back out. We now keep a plastic bucket next to his chair at the dinner table, and have taught him to spit food into the bucket instead of onto the floor. After a few days of spitting, he then starts swallowing the food.
Timothy now eagerly eats pasta and KFC Popcorn chicken. At his last parent-teacher conference we learned that he was stealing other children's peanut butter and jelly sandwiches during snack time. We were flabbergasted, but when we tried it at home, sure enough, he ate it.
And yesterday he tried an apple. After he spit out the first pieces on the floor, I brought the bucket over to where he was standing. My wife said "I just let him spit on the floor--when he's trying a new food I don't want to do anything to disturb him." And she's right. If he spits a new food onto the floor, that's a good thing.
