Sabrina, you actually created a thread I was going to today, as one of the biggest sensory issues we have with our children is their eating, and I have yet to read any posts about that. I was wondering if other Aspies had food-related limitations, specific food preparation needs, and specific food or drink texture, taste, smell, and aesthetic needs, so thanks for posting about this.
Both of our young Autistic children have had severe limited and selective food needs, and difficulties being fed since birth. Right now, Dylan, our five year old, is of biggest concern. He is developmentally at a one to two year old level, and gags at even just the sight of early all foods. He tolerates only a certain flavored orange cream yogurt three times a day, and we put his vitamin powder in that, as other than that he tolerates only a few crunchy snacks throughout the day.
We had tried everything, including being extremely patient and calm, and as we are always that way anyway, and things like feeding therapy, breaking the food up into small pieces, giving him choices, putting the food out in sight for extended duration, thinking if he is hungry he will eat it, putting a new food item next to his favorite food each day and getting him used to it, bring creative in presentation, and eating that food in front of him, etc. Nothing seems to work to increase his variety. Patience does not yet help.
I know he loves crunchy things, as the yogurt he would refuse if we did not feed it to him, but eating the yogurt is the only way to get calcium and adequate vitamins and minerals in him. We tried other crunchy foods too like fresh vegetables, but still no luck. He used to be ok with crunchy cereal, like cheerios, rice Chex, and foods like that, but now refuses it. The very few foods he likes he can eat fast though, and he needs to anyway, as his attention is extremely short for meals, because of his ADHD and Autism.
So, for Dylan he seems wired to need foods that can be broken down by himself in his mouth. But, he has not tolerated any more of these types of foods. He cannot talk or follow instruction so that makes thing difficult to know how he feels and what else to try. We wanted him evaluated for dysphagia, but that went nowhere. So, we are just following his lead now and going with the flow, until he is possibly more receptive later. We keep trying.
For drinks, he now only accepts water, and it has to be in a certain hard-tipped snippy cup. That cup broke, and we could not find a replacement, as it was out of production, so he had to be hospitalized because of dehydration. He would throw all other cups of water we offered him, no matter if it was the same color and almost similar style. So, we had to add more water to his yogurts, and find almost a 95% percent exact cup replica, from an overseas company, and with much patience putting that next to the leaking broken cup, and he eventually accepted that new cup.
As for Aaron, who is seven years old now and more on the Aspergers or high functioning end, when he was a toddler he used to throw, spit out, and push away most all foods that typical children his age ate. Eventually we learned from him, after he could talk, it was because of taste and texture. He has also heightened sense of smell, too. He loves more bland foods and carbohydrates, but no sweets, spicy and sweet and sour things. He loves potoes, chicken, cheeses, macaroni, plain hamburgers, and Italian bread sandwiches. He eats at a very slow pace, unlike Dylan.
For Aaron, up until a year ago, he always needed his foods cut up precisely, as if he put too much in his mouth he would gag.
He would need the foods presented in the ways he was accustomed, which meant prepared and presented the same way each time, and for me only to help him for many of the feedings for certain foods. Now, he seems to be eating less rigid in needing things precisely, and he is fine with eating more independently and likes often to make and prepare his own foods. But, he can notice a certain ingredient in foods if the manufacturer changes the ingredient, and then will refuse then that. As well, he likes foods not too soft or too crunchy, and not too cold or too hot.
We know food sensory issues is very common for children with Autism, as from what I read at least seventy percent have some food or feeding related issue. Whether this is going to be short term or long for Dylan, especially, as that is the biggest concern, we do not know.