Food aversions popping up after years of no issues

[Anonymous]

My DS is 8. He has ADHD and sensory issues. He has always had food aversions of some sort (hates chicken and fish, sauces, gravies etc...). He recently started with "what is this made with?" and then declaring he hates it/won't eat it/let's it fall out of his mouth in disgust. Example: this morning he asked for a morning farm sausage patty. He has always eaten these (although he gets sick of them and moves to another food for awhile). He asked what it was made with and then declared he hated it (while spitting it out). He did the same thing to lox yesterday (also a food he has eaten for the past 7 years on and off, but declared his love for it often). I'm trying to figure out if this is a normal 8 yr old response to food (changing attitude and figuring out where things come from) or whether it has more to do with his sensory issues. I'm worried b/c he is so limited in what he will eat in the first place. Anyone BTDT? Any advise?

[Anonymous]

I try to keep the battles over food to a minimum. My kids (1 NT and 1 with HFA) have to eat one bite. After that, they can make themselves a PB&J or eat a yogurt or a breakfast shake.

Give the kid a protein shake and a multivitamin and let him lead. You can't win this battle.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I try to keep the battles over food to a minimum. My kids (1 NT and 1 with HFA) have to eat one bite. After that, they can make themselves a PB&J or eat a yogurt or a breakfast shake.

Give the kid a protein shake and a multivitamin and let him lead. You can't win this battle.

OP here. He already drinks a boost kids essentials daily and takes a multivitamin. He eats 5 pbj's a day as it is. His diet consists of the pbj plus the following:

pizza
burgers (never home made)
rice
noodles
cereal
crackers
sugar snap peas
broccoli
eggs (sometimes)
pancakes
yogurt smoothie


My concern is mainly that his meds cause him to loose weight. We have done well with weight maintenance and even some gain. He is already skin and bones and I hate to have him loose any weight right now. I guess it's back to mutliple yogurt smoothies daily (he won't eat burgers all the time and they have to be from a specific restaurant as well).

[Anonymous]

OP,

My sympathy. This sounds a little like my kid. He's not eating lunch at school b/c of sensory issues, which I think are related to anxiety at this point. I'm looking into getting him a therapist.

[Anonymous]

My son is 7 and has anxiety and ADHD (sensory issues, too). I don't usually call them aversions but he has intense dislikes and will gag on food when he tries certain textures, hates all sauces, reacts very viscerally to certain smells, etc. Still he eats a pretty good range of food (simply prepared) so I can't complain. But lately he has started to reject some of the foods he has always eaten happily including hot dogs--so strange. I have always though his sensory issues are directly related to his anxiety but this one has taken me by surprise. His reaction to hot dogs is so sudden and so strong... I don't know what to make of it either.