Relax, Pearl.   Your son's diet sounds like my kid's.  I have the same anxieties and battles about trying to get my kids to eat healthful foods.   It drives me crazy.

But I do know this from listening to nutrition experts:  The more you push, the more they'll resist.    Battles about food only make them hate certain foods.  You cannot make the like something.   You can only encourage them to try new things.   Back off and see what happens.

I've found the best time to get my picky eater to eat something is when she's hungry.    One time she gobbled up a pile of freshly steamed green beans because that was the only thing on her plate and she was starving.  I often tell her she can only have more Mac and Cheese if she eats some veggies.   I let her chose the veggie... and usually it's just green leaf lettuce with dressing.   Not the healthiest, but it's something.  

Thanks for writing about this... I don't feel like I'm the only one with picky eaters!  If you find a good method, let me know, please!

Peggy Fox

Thanks TVMom!!  His pediatrician was the one who initially told me a few years ago not to worry about his pickiness, but as he has started gaining weight, I've become more concerned.  He was straight up and down for so long, now he looks he should be on someone's defensive line!  LOL!!  I'm exaggerating a bit, but still. 

 ~Be Subtly Fly! 

My son is extremely picky too and it's very, very hard to get him to try new foods. The one veggie he seems hooked on is those baby carrots (probably because they're sweet), he'll eat broccoli every once in a while and sometimes spinach. My son is a lot like yours Pearl75, where he'll just not eat rather than eat something he doesn't like. I just keep trying!!!

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There's actually a difference between a "picky eater" and a "problem feeder".  Our kids tend to be problem feeders and there are a multitude of reasons why.  Nutrition therapy is essential when you have a child with special needs.  Many times they are deficient in basic vitamins and minerals so testing is necessary just like you'd test for allergies you need to find out what's going on in their diet and why.  There are many books on the subject but one that is good that I've read recently is called "Eating for Autism" by Elizabeth Strickland.  I heard her talk at a conference recently and it makes a lot of sense.  You are not going crazy....you have a problem feeder.  Read whatever you can get your hands on with regard to nutritional behavior/therapy/treatment.  Our kids are prone to having "leaky gut syndrome" which can impact their diets tremendously.  Even if you're just dealing with ADD/ADHGD, working with a nutritionist can make a world of difference in your child's behavior.  At the very least we should be giving our children a very good multivitamin everyday.   Omega 3 is something they should get a lot of, naturally if possible.  Our kids are typically deficient in Vitamin A so giving them Cod Liver Oil (capsules of course) improves cognition.  It worked well with my son who has MR, Autism and Epilepsy.  There are many other things you can do.  Check it out.

pttrubel... Thanks for this great information!!  I will definitely look into your suggestions!

 ~Be Subtly Fly! 

Pttrubel.....What an important thing to know!

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I haven't been through this one. Thats starnge because my 5yr old daughter eats everything in sight. She will drink anything. We were at a cook out and you know the red plastic cups ppl buy my dad had filled his up with Seg Gin and ran off to get my sister dog from ruunning in the street guess who walked to the cup and drank the whole thing you guessed it the burn didnt matter she will drink hot,cold,sweet,bitter,spicy and soda straight without taking a breath. So you know I though CPS was coming for us. She didnt get sick but she went to sleep at 5 she had it at 4 and didnt get up till like 10 the next day. Then when she woke up she had diarrhea. So seems to me she dont know her intake limit or dont have taste buds.

"And I think to myself What a wonderful WORLD"!

My son is 5, and he has less variety in his diet then your child, so I think you"re doing a good job.  I think that as long as your child is eating, let 'em eat what they want.  If your son is anything like mine, I'm sure he gets plenty of exercise.  Mine never stops moving. I don"t know if you give your son vitamins, but I give mine a multi-vitamin, I think it helps to round things out.  So many things are hard about autism, I wouldn't add the food fight into the stress of your day. Good luck, and keep up the good work.

Anastocia

My son is allergic to EVERYTHING - Milk/casein (SEVERELY), eggs, wheat/gluten, soy, fruits, tomatoes, spices - he has some kind of reaction to something on a regular basis... the poor kids' living on organic rice krispies, potato chips, brown rice, broccoli and some meat here and there, so your kids' eating like a pro in my eyes!! :) 

I am in the process of starting the Body Ecology Diet for our family which focuses on getting rid of the overgrowth of yeast in our bodies that grows from the high sugar, carbs and processed foods we eat all the time... it focuses on LOTS of veggies, especially "cultured" (slightly fermented) ones, and combining the right foods together - don't eat carbs and meat together (fries and burgers), eat proteins (meat) only at lunchtime & only with non-starchy veggies, etc. - I know it sounds kind of awful, but after being on the Elimination, GFCF, and Feingold diets, this diet actually sounds the best, as crazy as that sounds.  Unfortunately, like any diet, it is hard to get going - old habits are hard to break, plus, there is a lot more prep involved for some of the foods - the "cultured" thing takes anywhere from 8 hours to 1 week to prepare, depending on what it is... and kids don't like veggies to begin with, let alone fermented ones!

I've been trying to get on to the autism-oriented body ecology website www.bedrokcommunity.org for a week now because it has lots of great recipes and other ideas for implementing this diet with kids, but for some reason the web server is not recognizing the address... if anyone out there knows if it's the site or just my laptop that has the problem, please let me know cause it's getting frustrating!

My son is a picky eater, but the one thing I ended up doing was, I stopped making whatever he wanted.  So I picked what they were eating and if he didn't eat it that is fine but that is what we are having type of thing.  It worked, took a little bit and sometimes he doesn't eat a lot but if he is hungry he will eat.