Autism and Food: Your Guide To Eat Well With Autism

A lot of parents and caregivers of the autistic community asked, what’s the connection between food and autism? Well, it’s a fact that autistic people have their own preferences, obsessions, behaviors, and certain pick habits when it comes to food.  The intense focus on details may lead to extreme sensitivity and sensory stimuli.

Some autistic children and adults are highly sensitive to certain colors, textures, smells, and flavors and they have strong obsessions and preferences when it comes to the selection of meals. Additionally, some autistic children are highly compelled to have the same plate, textures of food, and flavors.

Certainly, we all have our food preferences and we all enjoy our comfort food. But in the case of autism, this scenario is quite different. The obsessions with a specific food may lead to autistic meltdowns, picky habits, and uncontrollable behaviors. Additionally, from a nutrition perspective, autistic children and adults lack important nutrients important for proper growth and development.

In this blog, I have created a complete guide to eating well with autism along with coping strategies to overcome certain eating habits and obsessions. So, let’s get started!

Autism and Food: What’s the Connection?

All parents and caregivers of autistic people on the internet are highly concerned about feeding problems. Research shows that autistic children are five times more likely to develop feeding problems as compared to their peers.

Common feeding problems of autistic children and adults can be fluctuating hunger, unwillingness to try new textures, colors, or flavors, strong food preferences, picky eating, and obsessions.

1. Autism and Food Obsession:

Talking about food obsession and autism, autistic people develop strong preferences for textures, flavors, colors, and shapes which results in rigid eating patterns. Additionally, they refuse to consume certain important groups of food and prefer eating the same meal every day.

Excessive food preferences can also result in typical picky eating habits. Such preferences and eating habits can have a direct impact on overall well-being and may also impact overall quality of life. If you’re a parent or caregiver of an autistic person, please know that it’s important to understand the sensitivities, needs, and preferences to fix eating habits and promote optimal living.

2. Autism and Picky Eating:

Autistic children and adults commonly develop picky eating habits which limit them from trying healthier food options. Additionally, it causes a lot of difficulty with meal timings. Picky eating habits in autism may revolve around an obsession with soft or crunchy foods. Still eating can also be counted under picky eating habits.

3. Autism and Food Sensitivity:

Autistic kids often struggle with food sensitivity which leads to a strong preference for certain foods such as soft foods or crunchy foods. For example, a child may prefer consuming soft foods such as soups, yogurt, ice cream, porridge, and others instead of crunchy foods or foods with higher chewing time. In such cases, parents are bound by significant limitations.

4. Autism and Pica:

Pica is a mental disorder wherein a person compulsively swallows inedible things such as talcum powder, coffee grounds, eggshells, ice, paint chips, pebbles, or even pieces of cloth! This condition is more common in autistic children.

Physical and Mental Health Impacts

Physical Impacts

The food we consume on a regular basis is responsible for optimum growth and development. Food selectivity, strong preferences, and sensitivities result in weight loss, weight gain, and poor growth. Not only this but it can also increase the risk of diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and obesity. Below listed are some other impacts of food selectivity on autistic people:

• Poor bone growth
• Constipation
• Mineral and vitamin deficiencies
• Weight loss or weight gain
• Stomach-related issues
• Headache
• Blood-related deficiencies
• Lower calcium levels

Mental Health Impacts

Good nutrition and mental health are correlated with each other. Lack of proper nutrients may also result in deprived mental health. Common problems related to lack of proper nutrients in autistic people may result in:

• Meltdowns
• Lack of concentration
• Mental weakness

How to Provide the Right Diet to Autistic Children and Adults?

Here’s your complete guide to help you overcome autistic problems with food choices and help them provide the right diet:

1. Be Consistent

Autistic children and adults like routine, structure, and consistency especially when it comes to mealtimes. They prefer eating at consistent times. Along with consistency, they also prefer in-between snacks. Herein, you can work on maintaining consistency with routines and help them explore new food options. Non-preferable foods (rich in nutrition) can be shifted to healthy snacking or munching in small amounts.

2. Connect with a Physician and Dietitian

Picky habits can also be caused by undiagnosed or misdiagnosed stomach-related issues such as acid reflux, constipation, diarrhea, and others. Therefore, connect with a physician for a proper body checkup and then connect with a dietitian to prepare a customized diet plan for your autistic child.

After this, understand the core needs of your child and set one goal at a time. Focus on resolving one habit and praise your child whenever they try something new. Avoid pushing your child, instead be patient and keep trying until and unless you achieve one thing at a time.

3. Find Alternatives to Food Preferences

If your autistic child loves having soft food, set one goal at a time, and try to make healthier food alternatives. For example, give them fruit or vegetable purees or add the required protein ratio. Try to find healthier alternatives and also focus on your child’s preferences too.

4. Diffuse situations or meltdowns mindfully

Whenever you sense a food-related situation, try to diffuse the situation. First of all, take a deep breath and prepare yourself for the situation. Try to serve them their favorite foods, focus on their mental health, meanwhile prepare a plan to negotiate or combine meals with a healthier serving. Decide what works better for your child and reflect accordingly.

5. Maintain a balance

Whenever you plan to make them try something new, either stay consistent with their routine or try to combine the meal with their favorite food so that they can decide mindfully. Additionally, go slow with new foods, first make them try, or let them smell or lick first. Be flexible with new foods.

6. Handle tantrums peacefully

Whenever you see a tantrum or meltdown approaching, try to maintain your calm. Focus on making progress, and try effective methods such as planned ignoring.

7. Practice modeling techniques

Try to model the behavior you want to encourage. This way your children will be learning practically. For example, try to avoid munching unhealthier snacks, take part in exercising, or follow a healthy and mindful eating plan.

8. Take the help of different communication modes

Set up an activity wherein you can describe to your children what’s healthy and what’s not or what’s edible or what’s not. You can take the help of pictures to make them understand.

Takeaway: Foods to Eat and Avoid with Autism

Foods to Eat

• High-quality proteins such as eggs, salmon, and beef
• Fresh fruits and vegetables
• Whole grains
• Foods rich in omega-3 fatty acids
• Beans and legumes
• Nuts and trail mix

Foods to Avoid

• Sugar
• Monosodium Glutamate (MSG)
• Artificial ingredients, flavors, preservatives, and dyes
• Toxins
• Dairy products
• Gluten
• Corn

Frequently Asked Questions

1. What foods do autistic people struggle with?

Autistic people generally struggle with certain colored foods, crunchy foods, certain shaped foods, certain brands of foods, and certain eating habits.

2. Does autism affect eating habits?

Children with autism struggle with more eating habits and certain habits may go beyond picky eating. This might lead to a lack of important nutrients, weight loss or weight gain, obsession with specific foods, picky eating, and unhealthy preferences of food groups.

3. What foods are good for autism?

Some of the best food options for autistic children and adults can be eggs, fatty fish, animal proteins, beans, seeds, and shellfish, along with plant-based protein food options such as soya.

4. What food options do autistic kids love?

If your autistic child prefers different food shapes and textures, try serving them bright-colored foods with the same textures or try to offer new variants to balance their sensitivity.

I hope this blog helps you with what foods to eat and not to eat with autism. Comment down and share your food-related queries through the same or you can also write to us at Calm Sage.

For more such content, connect with us through all social media platforms.

Thanks for reading!