Autistic Pride Day (18 June): Dietary And Sensory Tips To Care For Children With Autism

Autistic Pride Day (APD)is celebrated every year on 18 June. The day is meant to raise awareness of autism and its early detection and treatment methods. APD also celebrates the similarities and uniqueness of autistic people. Many campaigns are organised on the day to educate people and improve their understanding of the condition so that they can bring changes in the lives of people with autism.

Dietary Tips For Autistic Children

The most common issue and the biggest challenge of parents with an autistic child are feeding problems. Many parents have been seen complaining about selective or picky eating habits of their children, leaving the children with the deficiency of one or more nutrients. Take a look at some of the best dietary and sensory tips to care for children with autism.

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Why Is Food/Sensory Selectivity A Challenge For Autistic Child?

Autism or autistic spectrum disorders include impairments related to social behaviour, communication problems, and restricted, repetitive or stereotyped patterns of behaviour. Due to these problems, an autistic child often faces problems while doing day-to-day activities, especially eating meals. [1]

Children, especially of developing age are often picky eaters and refuse to eat a variety of healthy foods. It is very difficult to make them understand the impotence of these nutritional foods. In children with autism, the pickiness is, however, even more restrictive and may extend till their adulthood.

The restrictive eating due to child's picky nature, food selectivity, frequent food refusal, excessive intake of only a few foods often link them to inadequate nutrition. Sensory factors like smell, colour and texture also contribute to their habit of food selectivity and make them eat only those foods which they find good in colour or of certain smell or texture. They are so preoccupied with certain foods that they don't like experimenting with new ones or ignore them due to their bad taste, smell or texture.

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Dietary And Sensory Tips

1. Mix healthy foods with their favourite ones

The best way to introduce nutritional or healthy foods on their table is by mixing them with their favourite ones. For example, if your child loves only an apple juice, mix a small portion of berries or dry fruits or even a few pieces of broccoli or parsley (without their knowledge) and serve it. Add honey if it tastes bland.

2. Set up a mealtime

Setting up a particular mealtime is very important. This will make your child sit together with other family members and have meals. For example, if you fix a mealtime of 20 minutes every day, your child may not like it at first, but later, seeing everyone eating, they may taste variety of foods. Another reason is, children often get attracted or feel like to eat when they see others eating. Try it, this is one of the best dietary strategies for an autistic child.

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3. Make eating fun

For some children, eating food is nothing but just a boring task which they have to do every day. However, by making eating fun, one can interest them in eating varieties. Make their favourite animal or star-shaped roti/dosa/pancake. Another way is, teach your children how to use a spoon and shape their food into their favourite cartoon character. This will make their food as well as mealtime interesting.

4. Don't wait for them to say 'yes' to foods

This is one of the biggest challenges of families with an autistic child. They don't feel hungry often or whenever asked, says "no". Therefore, don't wait for them to say "yes" to foods and serve them on time. The best way is to serve many options. Children usually say no when they get only one type of foods every day. So, given them choices. It is better to give choice only of healthy foods.

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5. Give importance to food sensitivity

Autistic children often have sensory abnormalities such as tactile defensiveness, an over-reaction to something they touch, smell or taste. This causes problems in their eating as they avoid certain food textures or hate the smell of certain foods. For example, some children don't like carrots in green salad due to their contrasting colour or hate celery due to their long and slimy appearance. Therefore, the first thing a family could do is to find out what and why their children hate certain foods and try to change their smell or texture by mixing them with others.

6. Reward them

Children love rewards. Introduce your child to new food and tell them that they'll be rewarded for eating the same. Don't forget to thank them by saying "great job" or "well done" after they eat. Well, the process seems easy but it may cause difficulties sometimes. Never offer them rewards for unhealthy foods like chips or their favourite fast food. Also, make sure that your child doesn't have an intolerance to a particular food (like lactose-intolerance) otherwise the condition may get worse.

7. Give a visual diet chart

Children learn things better through visual appearances rather than words. Prepare a meal chart with the photos or images of foods you are going to serve. This will give your child an idea of what they are going to eat and will help to prepare themselves to manage food-related anxiety.

To Conclude

There's no sufficient research that proves food can improve autistic behaviours in children, but for sure, it prevents them from the deficiency of nutrients that can worsen their condition. This autistic day, follow the above tips and make healthy changes in their dietary habits.