First off, Tiger doesn't like to eat, she likes lots of different foods but chewing and swallowing are an issue. My little one has always struggled with chewing and swallowing. The motor planning involved in eating is significant and if you have to plan your movements ...
lets just say Tiger will never, ever, be overweight.
& Yeah umm utensils are not our friend, enough said.
Tiger does not eat hot food. Room temperature is the most she will tolerate. This made me crazy and it was an issue I kept trying to "fix" until an OT told me to shove it where the sun don't shine. OK she was more professional than that, but it basically boiled down to the problem being mine and not Tigers. The OT explained that Tigers mouth was a hyper sensitive spot and that she could in fact feel like the warm food was burning her mouth, that kids do in fact gag from the texture of foods and that I needed to just accept it and move on to a battle I could actually win.
Tiger likes cold finger foods best, bite sized if possible and food made into pictures is great.
Tiger actually eats a wide variety of foods. I know some moms with kids on feeding tubes, so really the fact my kid likes her food cold is nothing to gripe about. My big problem with Tigerlily is quantity, she simply does not eat enough, because biting her cheeks and tongue hurts.
Yay summer is here and we can do the cold smoothie thing a lot more often.
Ok I can't resist I have to say it. I hate GFCF, I hate seeing it promoted, I hate any marketing that targets ASD parents, because I always think what if??? and the guilt people, the guilt of not being able to afford everything and anything that might help my kid. The best organic gfcf sugar free all natural farmed by hippy saint foods makes me crazy. Watching people new to the lifestyle try to do these crazy diets just makes me angry.
Basically it boils down to this,
Tiger is not sensitive or allergic to any natural foods, her specialist, the doctor with a dozen abbreviations behind her name, broke it down for me. The problem is not the food, its the processing and chemicals added to the food. Our wonderful doc went further and gave me a list of no way foods and a please try these supplements and food therapies.
First the supplements.
Vit. D, especially in the winter, this goes for every Canadian apparently
Omegas in large doses, apparently reduces swelling in the brain.
(coincidentally we started this at the same time Tiger started speaking, or is it a coincidence?)
Live probiotics until bowel movements are regular, after any antibiotics or any time there are tummy troubles. We use BioGaia it's horrendously expensive but totally worth it as it takes all the bloat from the tigers belly makes her regular and so much more comfortable.
Multivitamin to help when diet is limited.
Pretty simple right?
Well...... the no go list is quite long and so is this post, if you are still reading you are committed aren't you? Warning I read a lot of labels at the grocery store, I hate grocery shopping now and if I forget my glasses I just go home.
IF you can read the tiny print of the ingredient lists then the following list of ingredients mean you have to put it back on the shelf.
Tartrazine this stuff is evil! colour preservative has to be labelled, they are trying to ban it in the UK.
Aspartame, Sucralose, Splenda, Sweet n Low or any other artificial diet sweetener. No Deli meats.
Glucose, Fructose basically any ose is a condensed sugar and if its the first ingredient just put that crap back. Oh well this is taking too long how about this if you don't know what it is, and you can't pronounce it DON'T FEED IT TO TIGER.
Tiger ate a diet yogourt cup once, she went completely manic and couldn't sleep for more than 20 minutes at a time for something like 40 hours, some of the worst hours of my life, never mind the kid.
One time she got her hands on a fruit rollup, The school called me to come get her and I had to take her the doctor as the kid was doing contortions, her face was totally white with high red spots of colour on her cheeks and her heart was just racing .... Fruit Rollups are loaded with Tartrazine.
It's not so bad, basically I go to the butcher for meat, and we reduced our meat consumption to match our budget. I do buy food at the grocery store but I always look at the ingredient list and choose the least evil option or make my own. We use butter and whole milk and unbleached flour etc.
I make most of our treats, since I love baking that's no hardship and we eat a lot of Snacky trays and salads. We almost never eat out or buy premade foods and after not eating them for so long frankly they make me ill, as I am no longer used to the chemicals either.
Alright if you are still reading this, my best advice to you is to watch this:
http://www.cbc.ca/natureofthings/episodes/autism-enigma
It explains a lot about ASD and the gut thing
The High Functioning Life where we never ever forget the tiger snacks.
HFL Mama
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