If your child’s picky eating is frequent, consistent, and severe, the answer may be yes. Children with autism are more likely to have a limited diet and food aversions. This can be due to sensory issues, anxiety, or inflexibility. So this can lead to what some would consider more severe “picky eating”.
Learning more about why a picky eater can be a sign of autism will help your family find solutions and hope at the dinner table.
So while being a picky eater doesn’t automatically mean your child is on the autism spectrum, it’s helpful to learn about some of the tactics you can use to combat picky eating, and to support yourself with knowledge of how autism is connected to picky eating to best guide your child and help them overcome this daily challenge.
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Is Being a Picky Eater a Sign of Autism?
Despite picky eating being a relatable experience to a majority of people, it is different when it’s related to autism.
From my experience working with special needs students and adults, if the behavior in question is frequent, consistent, and severe to the point of impacting daily life, it may be a sign of autism. If the behavior is temporary or doesn’t impact the child daily, then picky eating may be related to a typical developmental milestone.
Being an extremely picky eater will usually impact the whole family’s quality of life. You may find your family reduced to eating a limited diet to ensure your child’s weight and health are maintained at the right levels.
While children can sometimes show picky eating behaviors, if the challenges are consistent, frequent, and stressful, they may instead directly be related to how the child experiences eating.
Your child’s situation will largely depend on the frequency, consistency, and severity of their picky eating.
Signs your child’s eating habits are impacting your family:
Limited diet
Avoids eating outside of the house
Anxiety surrounding mealtimes
Struggles to get your child to eat
If your child relates to some of these signs, please consult with a physician to determine if your child is simply a picky eater, or if something more significant like autism is at play.
Now let’s dive into why being a picky eater can be a sign of autism.
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Does Autism Make You a Picky Eater?
Picky eating is the result of the sensory processing issues associated with autism. Autism is a developmental disorder that directly relates to how the body understands the information it receives from its environment.
In other words, all information you gain from your senses - sound, taste, touch, and smell - doesn’t process the same way for autistic people.
As you can imagine, the entire process of eating meals and healthy snacks can be a battlefield filled with landmines. When you consider these facts, it makes perfect sense why autistic children may eat a bland or unchanging diet. It’s easier and less painful.
So when considering if the cause of the picky eating is autism, it’s important to acknowledge how difficult mealtimes can be for them, too. They may be genuinely distressed by food and it’s up to us as parents or trusted caretakers to help them navigate mealtimes and change their perspective of food.
When identifying if your child’s picky eating is a sign of autism, it’s important to note why they don’t like certain foods, and if there is a way to improve their experience.
Some of the common signs of an autistic child struggling with food can be:
Inconsistent hunger
Unwilling to try new foods
Strong food preferences
Lack of variety in food
Stressed during mealtimes
Mealtimes are Opportunities to Discover What Works for Your Picky Eater
Watch this video about autistic picky eaters and learn more from our resident expert and the founder of the ThriveGuide, Jonathan Alderson.
He provides advice for parents and caretakers about autistic picky eaters. A key takeaway from the video is how parents and caretakers have to be flexible and hopeful when cooking.
It can be frustrating when your hard cooked meal lands on the floor. But just as it’s distressing for you to see the meal end up in the trash, your child is most likely just as frustrated to be given “risky” food.
Being a picky eater is not a reflection on your parenting or cooking. If the picky eating is caused by autism, that means their body reacts differently to food than the typical child.
The key is to stick with it to ensure your child gets the nutrients they need, despite them possibly being a picky eater with autism.
Each failure becomes a learning opportunity to help prevent future meals ending up on the floor! And as always, the best way to keep track of what works is by journaling.
Regardless if your child is just a picky eater or a picky eater autistic child, journaling will reveal patterns that will help you plan future meals, while providing evidence when speaking to a doctor.
But journaling is only effective if you know how to keep track of your meals and what types of meals you should be trying.
Let’s take a look at other ways we can be “flexible and hopeful” when cooking for our picky eaters.
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Experiment with Techniques and Textures in Your Food Journal
When experiencing food, we aren’t only exercising our taste buds. When I think of a hashbrown compared to mashed potatoes, they are completely different experiences. Between the texture, taste, smell, and color differences, you may see why a picky eater would prefer one method over the other.
The wonderful thing about cooking is how changing the types of techniques you use to cook the food changes the experience. So while your picky eater child could highly dislike raw carrots, they may love it when prepared in a soup.
It’s important to keep track of the different ways you prepare the ingredients. It’s not enough to journal “ate fries”. Keep track of any specific future directions you will want to know when cooking it for your next meal.
Keep track of:
How long it was fried/baked/boiled
Cut or thickness
Color
Amount of seasonings, if any
The amazing thing about keeping track of the preferred way they like a meal, you can try it again and see if there’s ways to make another vegetable be prepared similarly. For example, replacing the potato with sweet potatoes after discovering their preferred way of cooking fries.
If your picky eater is autism related, the more successes you have, the more likely you will find patterns, and carry them to your next meal.
The goal is to create a library of meals for your picky eater.
Compromising With Your Picky Eater is Not Losing
As an autistic adult, I have the unique perspective of understanding how stressful eating can be for our picky eaters. The flavors, the textures, the smells, it can all be so overwhelming and can make the urge to skip eating seem like an option.
Despite my discomfort surrounding food, over time I learned strategies to make eating more enjoyable so my sensory issues do not negatively impact my diet.
When I had children, I was not surprised to see them throwing their food back at me as toddlers. So the first method I utilized was finding simple alternatives that guaranteed food in their belly and the nutrients they needed.
Sneaking in carrots in a muffin or giving your child a blended veggie and fruit pouch are genuine good alternatives to a side of vegetables. It is going to be harder to convince your picky eater if communication is also a parallel issue.
As you work towards communicating food choices on a food board or creating a routine, it’s okay to compromise with simple methods of getting them a healthy diet.
Some quick and simple methods to help autistic picky eaters:
Veggie chips or fries
Smoothies
Baking veggies into cookies or muffins
Mixing fruit or veggies into water based drinks
Premade veggie or fruit pouches
Protein heavy snacks as a backup plan
Smaller portions
Eating veggies or fruit before the main course
It can be exhausting making food that your child will end up not eating, so every nutritious meal they eat is a victory.
If your child is willing to eat a small portion at a time, that’s also a win! It’s okay if it takes them a little longer to finish. Every bite is a positive step forward.
Remember, every time you cook a meal they enjoy, you are teaching them how healthy food can be an enjoyable experience.
Think Outside the Box for Your Picky Eater’s Meals
My picky eater is an autistic child, so I’ve had to apply all these different tips. However, as he gets older, I am finding myself thinking outside the box more and more.
Holidays, restaurants, and family gatherings can be difficult to navigate, however, I am hopeful they will be able to experience these events and enjoy them in the long run.
The more flexible you are willing to be, the more opportunities open for you and your family. As you and your child learn what their body’s needs are, it will be easier to accommodate them if they are an autistic picky eater.
Here are a few ideas for eating outside of your home:
Fun sandwich cutouts
Have a fun “out of the house” cup
Have a special food journal dedicated for outings
Sticker victory chart you keep in a purse
Conclusion
Moving forward with your picky eater won’t always be easy, however,being flexible and hopeful gives you the best chance of finding solutions that will work best. Whether it’s just being a picky eater vs a picky eater with autism, your child has you to help guide them on their food discovery journey.