Jake has a very limited diet, and I am always trying to get him to eat a wider variety of foods. I have definitely been inspired by the vegan lunchbox blog, although we are *so far* from that it's crazy.

Any yummy recipes or ideas you have are appreciated. I've tried a lot of the "tricks" like making things look appealing - but maybe there's more I haven't thought of.

What his ideal diet looks like: high in high-quality, omega-3, antiinflammatory fats like olive oil and coconut oil. Very, very high in calories. High in salt. Low to no gluten (we're on gluten at the moment but are seeing an allergist and getting celiac testing done next month). Cheddar cheeses are okay but low in milk.

What he eats right now:

breakfast: oatmeal with heavy cream and brown sugar or waffles with Earth Balance and maple syrup (real)

lunch: 6-8 oz of chicken breast with a variety of marinades/sauces (he's getting much better about this) or pizza, french fries (homemade in coconut oil if I can manage), mac n cheese, spaghetti with tomato sauce (can sneak a teensy bit of spinach in there)

dinner: see lunch

snacks: an entire bag of salt n vinegar potato chips, Veggie Booty or Pirate's Booty, apples (raw), raisins, bananas, popcorn popped in olive oil with cheddar cheese powder, banana muffins, toast or bagel with earth balance, strawberries, grapes, homemade choc chip cookies, ice cream (sweets like that are a treat but he needs high cal so we do high quality ice cream a few times a week)

For drinks he drinks water with a splash of not-from-concentrate apple or pear juice in it. Probably about 2 oz juice in 12 oz water, so he drinks 2-6 oz of juice daily. (He drinks a lot of liquid.)

I think that is about the extent of his diet. Remember we are dealing w/autism and probably his most rigid, repetitive area is food.

I'd like to see him eat veggies of ANY kind, however they can be hidden. I would like to see him eat soups or stews - oh the things I could hide in them! And I'd like to see him be willing to try some different fruits. I want to up his omega-3s and other antiinflammatory foods. I'd like to add raw dairy to his diet.

Help? Thoughts, ideas? Thanks. :)

When our oldest (now almost 4) was much younger, his food reactions were much more obvious. We had to completely cut out all sweeteners, including honey --- caused seizures. Also had the same reaction, only it took a few days to notice, if he ate anything high in carbohydrates. We didn't notice any problems with dairy products. Certainly couldn't give him potatoes, any breads, fruit (except tart berries). Couldn't even give him carrots. They were almost like sugar to him. So, we don't give any of our children bread, potatoes, or sugar. We limit the really sweet fruits. A little seems to be fine. They eat rice with butter and sea salt for breakfast instead of oatmeal. Occasionally they get cornbread with butter, but no flour or sugar in it. No processed/convenience foods at all. Recently we had some ham about 2 or 3 dinners in a row. Caused an odd head movement in one of our sons, so we usually don't eat store bought meats. Almost all of it is wild meat.

We're getting goats this weekend. One of the does is in milk, so we're looking forward to raw goat milk again. Even the one with the metabolic disorder who supposedly can't tolerate any dairy at all does fine with raw goat milk. That used to be the only milk they got.

2 of our sons love veggies, but I have to work to get our middle son to eat them, especially greens. When I fix things like kale, collards, wild greens, or even broccoli, I found that he absolutely loves it this way: I boil it --- if he chewed his food better, we'd just have it steamed. When it's soft enough for the boys, I drain out the water. Then I fix a simple oil and vinegar salad dressing, adding some garlic, sea salt, and ranch dressing mix (I know that's not the healthiest thing in the world, but the boys love it and it gets them to eat lots of greens). Then dump the greens into a bowl, pour on the salad dressing, toss it around, and serve. The first time I tried it that way, he was sceptical, but once I got him to try it, he loved it. Now that's one of his favorite foods. They also love it if I either melt some cheese in their veggies, or make a cheese sauce for them. They all love pickles, so every year I pickle wild fiddleheads and other wild greens, as well as broccoli, cauliflower, and turnips from our garden. I usually do the quick pickling with vinegar, but this year I'm going to try making real fermented pickles. Also, each year I make at least 5 gallons of sauerkraut. The boys love it. I've never been a fan at all of that until I started making my own. Homemade is so delicious, as opposed to the store bought stuff. If you don't grow your own, you can still order organic cabbage from some stores, or buy some from a gardener or farmer.

We used to live in a part of Alaska where we could put out our subsistence set net during the salmon runs and get all the salmon we wanted. We've caught over 200 in one tide. We ate salmon every day for lunch, and 3 or 4 times a week for supper, so lots of iodine and omega 3's. Now we don't have access to that, but we did can lots before we came back out here, so we still eat salmon about once a week. Careful when you buy salmon. Much of it has lots of mercury. Supposedly the wild Alaska salmon is safe. You can order it online. Let me know if you have trouble finding it and I'll post some links. Also, if you're interested in sauerkraut or pickle recipes, I'll post them. Fermented foods are so delicious and healthy, and my boys love it. They really like anything tart, even rhubarb fresh out of the garden. Do your children like tart/sour things?

They also get cod liver oil and coconut oil. My boys love the Carlson's lemon cod liver oil either in their food or from a spoon. Same with the coconut oil.

Hope that helps and gives you some ideas. It's always been so great that our boys ate their veggies (most of the time).

Best wishes

Oh, on the raw dairy. Does he do ok with both raw cow milk as well as raw goat milk? DH and DS can't drink any cow milk, but do fine on the raw goat milk. Can you get it, or is it legal to buy raw milk where you live? If not, lots of places allow things like a "goat share" type thing where you sort of buy the animal, and what you are paying for it the person to house, care for and milk the goat, and you are entitled to a certain amount of milk. That's what we had to do when our son was a baby. You probably know about the Weston A. Price foundation www.westonaprice.org . Lots of info there.

Thanks so much for your post. Yes, I know about Weston Price, and we're trying to get him to eat more that way.

We came really close to moving back to Alaska instead of here to Vermont, and one of the things I was really looking forward to was more access to wild meats and to wild salmon. I'm pretty well-versed in the salmon issues. For a while we were ordering wild salmon in a co-op through a guy in Kodiak who would vacuum seal it and ship it overnight to the person who ran the co-op.

The problem is, Jake won't touch anything new. I need to keep pushing; sometimes I get complacent and stop trying and just feed him "his food." So it's great to hear what's worked for others, like cheese sauce or ranch dressing on the veggies/greens.

Jake used to be completely gluten, casein and egg free - we had his blood tested for allergen levels and he was allergic to gluten and eggs, and that was it. Very mildly to dairy and peanut so we limited those. We've recently added back gluten, and he has no behavioral issues that I can see, but his stools are looser. He is getting tested for celiac disease next month. With the dairy, I have never tried raw milk, only cheeses. He does okay with those made from cow's milk.

We are considering getting goats as well, but I don't know that I will be able to keep a doe in milk and deal with all that that entails. I would love raw goat milk. There are a lot of organic dairy farms around here, and while it isn't legal for them to sell it in the stores, you can meet a farmer at his/her house and pick up raw milk. We have easy access to that. The farm I'm looking at has purely Jersey cows, and a lot of kids with autism who react to Holstein milk do not react to Jersey...so I thought that would be interesting to try.

ETA: Thanks for the ideas on the fermented foods. I have been wanting to incorporate those as well.

I'm hungry reading this, mt3b! lol

Will he eat fruit? I always try to concentrate on certain (colorful)for foods for my pickier dd. Since the picky tend to eat less, they need high quality when they do eat. I think Jake eats an amazing diet. Compared to a standard american child's diet or not!

I tend to concentrate on avos, sweet potatoes, blueberries, strawberries, salmon a couple of times a week, (I'd love those links, btw), local farm eggs, and nut butters. There are more, but these are things she will eat (didn't always). (The fact that Jake eats such a varied diet is to because of your thoughtful and hard work!) I also put olive oil on nearly everything.

BTW-- I am in Tampa this week, and the Publix here is selling Eden Organic Sauerkraut for 2.99. It's a 32 oz jar, so not bad. I have already eaten half of it. lol Pretty good for jarred!

Lauren, I am sure you know this but kids will self-limit, often to what they are intolerant of. Are you considering going gluten and dairy free again? That might help. I am not one to trust tests, I trust my children's reactions.

Also, low zinc will suppress appetite. I am not sure if its use will help variety appetite but it could. If his stools are loose again, he might not be absorbing some of his nutrients.

Lauren, I am sure you know this but kids will self-limit, often to what they are intolerant of. Are you considering going gluten and dairy free again? That might help. I am not one to trust tests, I trust my children's reactions.

Also, low zinc will suppress appetite. I am not sure if its use will help variety appetite but it could. If his stools are loose again, he might not be absorbing some of his nutrients.

Yeah, believe it or not, he's gotten better now that he's eaten gluten and dairy again! As far as variety.

What happened is, he lost four pounds between October and January, and they freaked out when we went to clinic for his CF visit. They said if he didn't gain they would put in a G-tube for feeding. They were adamant that we add back gluten (I had already added back dairy in small amounts and he was fine) so that he could get a wider variety of foods.

He has gained back three pounds, but gotten taller still, so his weight percentile and BMI are still lower than they would like.

They are testing for celiac next month so that is why we are doing gluten again. We are also seeing a pediatric allergist. I am going to go with what the allergist recommends; they are going to do bloodwork for food allergies and see what he's allergic to right now.

Most of what I listed, that he eats, is gluten-free. The pasta and mac and cheese we make with Tinkyada. We have done wheat waffles recently but we can easily sub gluten-free.

He seems to do okay with cow's milk cheeses. Oh and I forgot, I have been putting organic Jersey heavy cream in his oatmeal lately, for extra weight gain.

It's interesting you say that about the zinc. He needs zinc according to the bloodwork the naturopath did. I had been giving him a supplement of it beyond his multi, which has some, but he won't take the supplement anymore. His appetite is terrific, it's just that it is only for the foods he likes. LOL.

Laurie, he does eat a good variety of fruits - strawberries, grapes, apples, bananas, mostly. I'd like to get him to eat a wider variety of berries since they are so good for you.

I have a 7 year old that self-limits his choices and always has!!
He won't have any milk products!

He eats apples
ceaser salads (no cheese)
carrots
tuna-likes it sushi style
Pb
pomegrantes
pretzels

he drinks water and oj. As he's gotten older, he's gotten a tad bit more adventuresome. Maybe that will happpen with your ds...although I know he is autistic too. Good luck mama!

Lauren,
I have a friend who has a son with sensory integration disorder and is orally defensive. He has a list of foods that he will ALWAYS eat that's 5 items long. She found sectioned plates (they look like cafeteria trays and I think she got them at pottery barn, but anything similar would've worked - he really didn't like his food items to touch.

Her policy is that at meals (particularly dinner, and a bit at lunch depending on what her plan for the rest of the family for those meals is) is that James gets 1 food he absolutely will eat, one food he sometimes eats and sometimes doesn't, and one food he most likely won't eat. Now, James doesn't have an autism spectrum disorder (or is SID on there?), and now is eight, so there is a bit more conversation they can have about his food and eating, but I know this has been the policy for a couple of years. He is expected to not complain about what is on his plate (I'm sure they worked on that for a while), and he doesn't have to eat things he doesn't want to (and can have more of the foods that he does eat without having to eat the other things first). It's been a process for them, but this seems to be working.

She called one day when he'd eaten some large amount of chicken because he'd been pretty anti-meat (except "hidden" meat - like spaghetti sauce with meat in it was okay, but a piece of chicken was not). She served it just like she always did, and he ended up eating at least 2nds on it. And then didn't eat it for another month or more.

His list of "approved" foods is really dairy/wheat heavy, and we've talked about the possibility of a food sensitivity, but when there were days that if he didn't get those foods he would choose to not eat, well, the goal is always to feed the child.

~amey

I am subscribing to this post with ideas. My 5yo is an extremely picky eater with a diet that is heavy on the grains and dairy as well. He does love yogurt smoothies, so I sneak lots of berries and bananas in there when I make them. He won't eat meat except for the few bites of an occasional cheeseburger.

I do put grated squash and zuchinni into my tomato sauces, which he occasionally eats over pasta, but that is about the only idea I have, LOL. I am interested in getting more.

My eldest has a short list of foods that she will easliy eat, and I find it really frustrating, until I remind myself that everything on the list is a healthy, whole food. I may get sick of broiling chicken and steaming broccoli, but really, when I look at other kids that I know, her list is actually quite nice, and so is your little boy's.

That said. . . Some ways I have gotten new foods into her (she is 8 now, BTW, and no rigidity, but real sensory issues. She wants to like new foods, and cries when she cannot accept them into her mouth, so I try to limit those moments so she doesn't learn fear of foods):

Her morning bowl of yogurt and granola - one berry as a topping (they used to be too acidic for her mouth.) Just one, out of a frezzer bag. Some days it was eaten, some days - not. But it was always there. Now she eats berries - it took about a year.

Same idea as the berries - anything he eats, add *one* of something else, in a similar fashion - we did this with french fries too - she loved oven baked potatoes - so we would add *one* baked sweet potato fry to her plate. Even made a joke out of it - the odd man out. . . then moved on to turnip, parsnip, beet. . . still, she will eat some sometimes and others other times, but we can make a medly for the family and she'll eat something.

My sister turned us on to a great idea - whenever we took a spice jar out to cook with - let her smell it in it's full concentration. This seemed to get her used to complex smells, and there were a few smells that she reacted very positively to, and we played those up in her food.

He likes chicken in dips? How about bean patties? Broccoli? anything? keep the dips the same, but add one new thing to the plate for a few days and see what happens?

I'm not a big hider-of-things. . . Too much work for mommy. But I try to always build off of what I know works. Keeps DH and I from getting too bored with a limited diet, keeps new foods going into the other girls, and keeps dd#1 from getting too frustrated all at the same time.

Oh, one more thing. . . You're looking at high-cal stuff, correct? We use a supplements - Coromega, and all three love the taste. Sort of reminds me of the old St. Joseph's baby asprin, if you remember those. Nutritoinal insurance for the child who will not touch wild salmon or eggs with the rest of us. . . We also keep juice plus in the house - we take it every day in the winter, and when we feel we need it in the other seasons. I do think it has made a difference in our overall health.

My 5 yo (AS) is extremely picky. The only way he eats any fruits and veggies:

1. I mix mashed banana into his hot, gf cereal.
2. I puree fruit to add to breakfast pancakes.
3. I puree any dinner I've made, add egg and gf pancake mix and fry.

Now I am well aware that frying is not a choice cooking method. But this is the only way he allows for food variety -- it looks the same but the content is different.

He won't drink smoothies (only water and pineapple coconut juice), eat soups (even pureed) or any recognizable fruit or veggie or meat. (Though just last week he actually held a slice of apple and took two bites -- smaller than a mouse would take and I'm not exagerating. But he wouldn't "eat" them again the next day.)

Oh. He does like to dip his Tings in hommus.

Thanks for all the ideas.

Jennifer, I'm not sure how much of his resistance *is* sensory and he's just learned to be fearful/suspicious. I also know he must be a supertaster. He once detected 1/8 tsp buffered vit C powder in 14 oz of straight grape juice. !!! :eek: Those are some great ideas, though, about adding just *one* of something slightly different, like the sweet potato fries.

I wish we could do Coromega - but he definitely seems to react to eggs, which is in there. Also we got a free sample (they offer them on the website) and he wouldn't touch any.

In fact, I need *some way* to get DHA into him, or omega-3s through food. I am going to try grinding some flaxseed into his oatmeal, just the tiniest bit. Right now that is probably the most important supplement he's missing. I have ordered a special pilltaking cup and am going to try to get him to learn to swallow pills. We'll see how that goes. :rolleyes:

Oh yeah, and he does take the JuicePlus gummies. I figure they are good insurance. Yesterday he tolerated a splash of MegaGreen juice in an apple juice/water combo. Yay!

My almost 6 yo is very thin and short for his age. He looks like a very skinny 4yo.

He too eats a very limited diet. He loves chips which he has about 1x/week. Would you let him eat more chips to increase calories?

Mamax4, I was going to post some links, but found too many to list. We're getting goats flown in today, so haven't had much time to check in here. I did a google for "wild alaska salmon" and came up with tons of sites. Also, I didn't see Dr. Mercola's site listed, if you go to www.mercola.com you'll find it there, along with other things, and lots of good info at the site, too.

My almost 6 yo is very thin and short for his age. He looks like a very skinny 4yo.

He too eats a very limited diet. He loves chips which he has about 1x/week. Would you let him eat more chips to increase calories?

Yes, I do. In fact his doc said to cut out the organic popcorn I've been sending him with, in favor of potato chips. So he'll have them for a snack almost every day. Right now, anyway.

Yes, I do. In fact his doc said to cut out the organic popcorn I've been sending him with, in favor of potato chips. So he'll have them for a snack almost every day. Right now, anyway.

This would make Andrew very happy. My concern is that if he eats so many chips he won't even eat the few nutritious things he does eat. But it is worth a try.

Most people tell me, "Just give him healthy food. He'll eat it when he's hungry." This is not true for Andrew. He will go for days eating only his breakfast (hot gf cereal with soy milk) if he is not offered something on his personal approved list. Sometimes even IF he is offered items he generally eats. Someday I will be able to fing clothes that fit him...

i feel hopeful know that other mom's are going through this as well. My son who has always been the best eater has suddenly stoped. He is so picky i don't know what to do. but i have a recipe for some sweet potatoe soup that almost always works.
Sweet Potatoe Soup
1 T olive oil
1 orangic onion, chopped
1t cumin
1t coriander
pinch of cayenne
1t salt
2 lbs. organic sweet potatoes
4C organic homemade chicken stock /veg stock
2T organic chopped parsely or cilantro

Heat olive oil in a 4-quart soup pot. Add chopped onion and saute until soft. Add spices and salt. peel sweet potatoes adn cut into chunks.Add sweet potatoes and broth to onion s. Bring to a boil. reduce heat, cover and simmer for about 30 minutes, or until tender with a fork. Blend soup in small batches in an eletric blender. Then transfer to serving bowls and garnish with parsley or cilantro. Good Luck and enjoy!!;)