Everyone knows that chocolate is the best food according to children. But every parent knows that candies and soda are piteous and poor nutrient. Not only for our kids but also for an adult.

So here we are. Full of frustration and straggle bustling nervously around the kitchen:
-what to cook?
-what to cook to make it eatable for my kid??
-what to cook and how to prepare it to make it eatable for my kid???
-what to cook and how to prepare it with only organic and pure ingredients keeping in mind eventual allery problems, sensory issues, addictions to certain kind of food, chemicals addictions, gut/bowel malfunctions end soooooo on????
What to cook!!??
It became such a common problem in our homes. And magic programs and fancy projects about ‘how to make our picky kids eat for a gods sake’ poped up like mashrooms. Picky eaters in attac! There are some advices for recipes and how to manage the preparation and th presentation (!)- both very important to kids on spectrum. There could be a reason why your kid doesn’t want to eat all that you prepare and could be very intractable when it come to try new food or even the new combination of the old ingredients.
But before we come up with new recieps and and desperately try to find some way out of this nutritional black hole we should stop for a second and lern about the eating process itself. Sounds bizzare, but this is what we have to comprehend – the whole mechanism of food consumption.
Have you ever ask yourself how many senses do we usually use while eating? Have you ever counted them all? Well, usually we use all of them (!) what makes the eating system very complicated and complex. Not only all senses but all of them in the same time: take a look what’s on the plate – visual, what is the texture and structure of the served food – tactile, smells good or disgusting – olfactory, taste salty, sweet or maybe spicy – gustatory and how does it sound when chuwed – auditory. A lot of work and even more information to process.
Maybe it’s abot the shape, maybe it’s about the color or might be the smell that makes it yummy or not. Maybe there is some other reason in all this food choises.
There is a big number of picky eaters among autistic children.
In this specific health condition there might be few reasons why all that ”food hateing” occures.
If you are willing to implement a new autism diet, what means you will forcet to eliminate all ‘bad products’ from your kid’s diet, just make it slowly. First find the new kinds of different food your child would be eating and than slowly expand and propose new food using one-to one substitutions what makes it less painful. You will see that after removal of all problematic or/and addictive foods little by little the eating habits will expand to food with new ingredients and textures.
According to a huge group of nutritionists first you should try to smuggle out some veggies into the ordinary food of your child. For exaple mashed or pured carrots/potatoes/zucchini into homemade bread/cakes/meatballs. I think you will become a friend quickly with a Braun Hand Blender as this kind of cuisine help is indispensable! You can basically hide inside a pie or pasta every veggie you want making a puree of it.

Use your creativity. Cook something crispy and something smooth. And observe how does it ‘feel’ and how your little one is acting. Mix usually used brands with the new healty ones so there won’t be so much difference all at ones. Do not be affraid of salt and remember – they have masters in brands’ recognition (it’s all about addiction to some ingredients inside, that make it stimulant in some way).

There is an awesome book “The Kid-Friendly ADHD & Autism Cookbook” with dozens of “kid-friendly” recipes and guide to the gluten-free, milk-free diet for ADHD and autism. They are giving advices also on how to enter with new foods, how to spot various food intolerances and how to pack kid’s launch!
And patience. Be patient and calm. At the beginning there will be numerous battles and cries and tears but from my experience, after a while, when improvements will be visible in your kid’s daily habits, you will see also improvements not only in diet but also in behaviour you will feel relieved. All that work was worth the effort.

Alina Magdalena Pilipionek

Founder&CEO of Autism CookBook, Personal Coach, Agile Coach, Personal Branding, Atypical Family Matters Narrator, SEN Deep Diver, Gadget Lover, Parenting Tips Researcher, GF/CF/SF/YF Nutrition Concept Developer, Educational Reviews Executor, Educational Products' Tester, Master of Scrum and Scaled Agile Framework, Motivational Speaker and Trainer, ABA/VB Live User, Spectrum Surfer, Wife&mom of 2, Certified Autism Advocate, Photography Enthusiast