He won't eat anything I give him" my husband said to me yesterday. "He won't even eat the sliced apples I buy. I don't know what to feed him" he said. I began thinking. One of Aiden's favorite meals used to be chicken nuggets and french fries, and he gets that at least once a week in our runs back and forth to therapy. He also used to down pizza and hot dogs, but not anymore. In fact Aiden has almost completely cut out all meats on his own. This trend is one my husband and I have noticed increasingly over the last few months and are stumped by. What is it? Is his diet changing? Is he vegetarian?
I began scouring the internet, as I always do, searching for scholarly articles on the topic. I learned the difference between picky eating and selective eating disorder, which I am sure he has a little bit of, but not in a debilitating sense. At least not enough to cut out meats. Along with this meat aversion he also has complained about his stomach hurting. We have had a bought of constipation this month, which I think we pretty much voided this week. Today he said it again. I was beginning to think its because he wasn't getting enough to eat.
Now Aiden is a little skinny guy as it is. So for him to cut calories on his own is alarming to us. Obviously he is only 3 so there is no chance of any body perception issues to speak of, which may concern me if he were older. "All he wants is pickles, chips, and cookies" my husband said, completely frustrated with the food situation. That is true. Aiden always asks for chips, pickles, and cookies. That is exactly what he eats and refuses most everything else. Today I was determined to get food into him, particularly something with meat. I made bacon, his absolute favorite meat, ever. I also sliced an organic apple, gave him some baby carrots and a pickle. Aiden loves pickles.
To my surprise he ate it all. All 5 slices of bacon, 4 slices of apple, handful of carrots, and the whole pickle. So what was going on here? Back to the internet. I searched for everything under the sun, meat aversions, child refusing to eat meat, is my child vegetarian, etc. I was looking for any tidbit of information that could send me down the right path, but I couldn't find anything but health warnings. So I sat and thought. I thought about it for some time. What is it? As my law enforcement training has taught me to do I branched out from what I know. I began running interviews in my head and came to my mom. My mom always talks about how well the kids eat for her. That got me really thinking, what does she do differently?
The answer hit me. I felt like smacking myself it was so simple. Aiden doesn't have an aversion to meat; he has an aversion to processed foods. Aiden will eat the heck out of baked chicken I make in the oven, but doesn't want any more chicken nuggets. Aiden can annihilate a few slices of pizza, but he won't eat the pre-packaged, frozen kind. His tastes are changing, he no longer wants the easy stuff, he wants "real" food. Its even come down to him refusing to eat the pre-sliced, pre-packaged apples, he wants a fresh apple. His stomach hurts because he is hungry, His constipation and GI issues are, at least partially, from aggravation of the GI tract. DUH!
I began scouring the internet, as I always do, searching for scholarly articles on the topic. I learned the difference between picky eating and selective eating disorder, which I am sure he has a little bit of, but not in a debilitating sense. At least not enough to cut out meats. Along with this meat aversion he also has complained about his stomach hurting. We have had a bought of constipation this month, which I think we pretty much voided this week. Today he said it again. I was beginning to think its because he wasn't getting enough to eat.
Now Aiden is a little skinny guy as it is. So for him to cut calories on his own is alarming to us. Obviously he is only 3 so there is no chance of any body perception issues to speak of, which may concern me if he were older. "All he wants is pickles, chips, and cookies" my husband said, completely frustrated with the food situation. That is true. Aiden always asks for chips, pickles, and cookies. That is exactly what he eats and refuses most everything else. Today I was determined to get food into him, particularly something with meat. I made bacon, his absolute favorite meat, ever. I also sliced an organic apple, gave him some baby carrots and a pickle. Aiden loves pickles.
To my surprise he ate it all. All 5 slices of bacon, 4 slices of apple, handful of carrots, and the whole pickle. So what was going on here? Back to the internet. I searched for everything under the sun, meat aversions, child refusing to eat meat, is my child vegetarian, etc. I was looking for any tidbit of information that could send me down the right path, but I couldn't find anything but health warnings. So I sat and thought. I thought about it for some time. What is it? As my law enforcement training has taught me to do I branched out from what I know. I began running interviews in my head and came to my mom. My mom always talks about how well the kids eat for her. That got me really thinking, what does she do differently?
The answer hit me. I felt like smacking myself it was so simple. Aiden doesn't have an aversion to meat; he has an aversion to processed foods. Aiden will eat the heck out of baked chicken I make in the oven, but doesn't want any more chicken nuggets. Aiden can annihilate a few slices of pizza, but he won't eat the pre-packaged, frozen kind. His tastes are changing, he no longer wants the easy stuff, he wants "real" food. Its even come down to him refusing to eat the pre-sliced, pre-packaged apples, he wants a fresh apple. His stomach hurts because he is hungry, His constipation and GI issues are, at least partially, from aggravation of the GI tract. DUH!
vs.
We give our kids processed foods because its quick and easy. Its laziness on our part as parents. I'll admit it, I have been lazy. Our society and culture here in the US is so fast paced, so get up and go, that we have made packaged foods part of our literal every day lives. The food market has picked up on this and have made fresh foods ridiculously expensive. Have you ever noticed hamburgers on the dollar menu and while salads are $5.00? Weird, since salad is all grown from the earth and really doesn't take much maintenance. A head of beef has to be "grown", but that takes a few years, vet visits, feed costs, upkeep, stabling, and eventual slaughter. Plants are relatively easier, though I am sure there are maintenance costs associated with them, and they don't take not nearly as long to grow.
My son is telling me to stop being lazy. I mean honestly, how hard would it be to bake a bag of chicken on Sunday for the whole week? Cost effective is another thing entirely. I used to maintain a container garden, maybe its time to pick that up again to off set expenses, and its something I'm sure Aiden would help me do.
So the time has come for our trip to Lowes. I will document our container garden and let you know if my heart was right.
My son is telling me to stop being lazy. I mean honestly, how hard would it be to bake a bag of chicken on Sunday for the whole week? Cost effective is another thing entirely. I used to maintain a container garden, maybe its time to pick that up again to off set expenses, and its something I'm sure Aiden would help me do.
They say that to raise a child with Autism you must listen with your heart. I find myself doing this more in my every day life and in my career. Listening with your heart is an acquired skill. It does not mean listening with emotion, no. It means listening with care. It means opening your mind and letting it sink in. I have not been doing that lately when it came to Aiden's dietary needs. I thought food is food and that was my mistake. I like to cook, its something that is fun for me to do, so shame on me for neglecting that part of my life for the matter of convenience.
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