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Changing my childrens diet.

Changing my childrens diet.

Started by Krissy Williams on August 26, 2010

6 Comments

Krissy Williams said #1 Aug 26, 2010 at 7:26am

I have a little girl who will be 7 months old tomorrow. I have given her nothing but soy formula (I could not breast feed her, unfortunately), brown rice cereal, and fruits and vegetables since she was born. My problem lies in the fact that I did not always eat this healthy, and I did not start my other kids out with this lifestyle. My 6 year old is on the Autism spectrum, and changing his diet thus far has been extremely difficult as he will only eat certain things as it is. I am wondering how others acomplished this with their small children, and/or special needs children. Thanks!

Sonya Thomas said #2 Aug 26, 2010 at 7:42am

Krissy-

I am facing the same challenge with my son. He is almost 3 and although his first year and a half I gave him all organic and all homemade food, I have recently been slipping into processed and not so healthy choices. Now I am having a difficult time with the new change in food and his taste buds changing. I have been good at hiding things in his food, but Ithink he is catching on. The book Jerry Seinfields wife did was a great book but I found alot of her recipes still on the "junk food spectrum for me. So I took he ideas and made them a little healthier. My son is not special needs so I am not sure how to handle that but I have heard if you limit the colors on their plate it is easier (mostly the same colors of foods on one plate if you start with orange do carrots, orange slices and maybe sweet potato)? You may want to try that?

Justin Bean said #3 Aug 26, 2010 at 9:08am

I have a hand held blender that purees stuff a little at a time. Any soup or veg can be made into a gravy that is poured over pasta or rice. It goes down a lot easier then when the little chunks are there in plain site for the kid to focus on and object to.

Vegmom said #4 Aug 28, 2010 at 7:12pm

OOH that "gravy" is a good idea... I haven't tried that one...

Krissy, I don't know about food aversions for Autistic spectrum, but you may notice by changing diet that some of their symptoms improve... Getting them to eat is another story.

I like the suggestion about about keeping the colors consistent.

But for my son, who used to be a picky eater, I found variety and presentation to make the biggest difference.

I'd serve him breakfast for lunch or dinner for breakfast... smily face pancakes or dinasaur shaped sandwiches. If he wanted plain noodles, he got plain noodles. Eventually he would handle sauces but only on the side, so he could "dunk" his noodles.

Section plates and containers were GREAT for my son. He would tend to eat a LOT more if I used them. Nothing could touch, so I started using muffin tins. Each with a different food. I noticed he would devour Every bit.

Also things like pizzas, fajitas, burritos, etc. Things where you set a "bar" of ingredients up and the kids can make their own.

LOTS of goodness can be hidden in chili, soups, even spaghetti, smoothies, etc.

I used to put blended sweet potatoes and spinach in with the spaghetti sauce for example

Anyway, good luck... hope you figure out stuff that works and not so dificult

holly said #5 Aug 28, 2010 at 9:55pm

My son is 10 years old and has always been a picky eater, that being said he has definately made great strides. At first he only ate chix nuggets, pizza and garlic bread. I remind you this was before we knew this stuff was "bad". Now he knows that mom only serves organic food and i serve him everything the rest of the family eats (as long as it doesn't touch haha). Before I used to make three seperate meals every night for each of my children. Not anymore. I don't make anyone try the food but it must be on the plate. For example when i made spaghetti he didn't want the sauce or noodles but i put it on his plate anyways. After about a year of this some sauce accidentally got on his garlic bread and he licked it off. He liked it! Sometimes I think they get used to seeing it on the plate and just try it since its not really something new, but the same stuff they have seen for a year! My family is on this journey with me, and journeys take time. I found that small changes worked best with my picky eater. Hope this helps a little bit.

Justin Bean said #6 Aug 29, 2010 at 4:29am

My son asked me "Dad, why do I have to eat when you're hungry?"

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