Lunch time

These days, we keep hearing reports about eating. It now seems that half the world is obese and the other half anorexic. However, what about Asperger’s and eating? What should we expect here?

When I was young, I was terrible at eating. I would refuse to eat a lot of things. At one point, my main meal would be baked beans, mashed potato and sausages/chicken nuggets/some other form of “meat”. Over time, my diet gradually widened and I now eat most things, but still have some things that I won’t eat, and some things which I will always avoid.

For example, I cannot eat raw tomato. Slices of hot tomato on a pizza, tomato used in a recipe is fine, but I just cannot eat raw tomatoes. I think this stems back to when I was young. As usual, I was refusing to eat much, and my parents were trying to introduce me to new things, and so they gave me a cherry tomato to eat. To my shock, it burst in my mouth, and I think this shock caused my aversion.

So how should we think about introducing new foods? Tony Attwood once said if you have a child who will eat only yogurt, and you try adding the tiniest piece of pineapple, make sure you stand behind the child. The fact is, we are often very sensitive to taste and texture. Which leaves us in quite a pickle. However, there are a few possible approaches.

Firstly, just giving the child a plate of food they don’t like, and telling them they have to eat something. I wouldn’t recommend this, partly because you will find yourself hated as parents because you only serve “yucky food!” This in turn could impact on other aspects of your relationship with your child.

The second option is surrounding food with other flavours. For example tomato in a sandwich can work well. If you have a cheese salad sandwich, with lots of other strong flavours – cheese, onion, cucumber, lettuce etc, then it will be harder to identify the tomato. Although, make no mistake, they will identify it. But because it is so mild in comparison, it may make it edible. And then they may be more adventurous with it in other forms and in other dishes. However, be warned, this method could overload the child’s senses and make things worse – it is a judgement call as to whether you think it will or not.

You can also give them new food individually. If you first try and describe the taste and texture by comparing it to other foods, and then maybe get them to taste a small bit, either by eating it or by licking it, this helps them to gear up for eating it. It’s important to keep the food taste and texture static here. For example, the cherry tomato appears to be smooth and round, but when tasted suddenly squirts out and can be shocking. So perhaps a slice of tomato is better than a whole cherry tomato.

There are a few other strategies that might be worth trying. For example, if someone likes barbeques, then try using that as a way in. Perhaps if they like having a barbequed burger, they may still eat it/not notice it as much if it has a thin slice of tomato/leaf of lettuce etc. Or, if they like picnics, then bring along a new food to try. They may be in such a good mood that they try it to keep the good mood going. In my experience, using special meals like picnics and barbeques are the best way of introducing new foods.

When I was younger, my limited diet made it hard for me to go anywhere. And when I did, I often felt a bit silly ordering something that was meant for younger children, or asking for it with x, y and z left out. In the end, it gets to you and you just think “I don’t want to seem silly, so I will order it, and just leave the bits I don’t like”. But then you find that there is a lot left, and if you still want the strawberries for dessert, you have to finish more of your meal, and so you try. Here, social pressure has led me to expose myself to new foods, and a desire to get the reward has made me try it.

Another example would be the fact I love to go skiing in Germany, France and Switzerland. And on the continent they have a much more unusual menu. Therefore I know that when I go, I will have to eat whatever food is put in front of me – otherwise I will be dreadfully hungry. This situation can be a very useful one, because there is nothing you as parents can do to crack, and they will just have to try the new food or become really hungry and not have the energy to do what they enjoy.

But I have to say, overall, if there was one thing that got me to eat most things, it was social pressure. People making comments, or implying things, or me wanting to seem good made me try new things, and keep eating them. So, if your child has this sense of wanting not to stand out, and wanting to please, then this can work very well.

Finally I would like to point out that my restricted diet hasn’t done me any lasting harm. I’m a lot better than I was and I think that a lot of children like me gradually improve over time.

Hope that helps

Joshua – an incurable tomato hater