Obviously this issue isn't exclusive to Aspie kids, however, I'm finding it incredibly hard to get my boys (aged 6 & 2 ) to eat food they don't like. My 6 year old in particular refuses to eat any vegetables except potato. I try to suplemnet his diet by giving him whole grain rolls for lunch and getting him to take Vitamin C tablets and eat a piece of fruit each day. But I am concerned about his refusal to eat vegetables.
Does anyone have any suggestions?
Some kids (and adults) don't like certain vegetables by themselves, but don't mind eating them as part of a dish. For example, I don't like peas by themselves, but like them in a chicken pot pie. Try to find a dish your kids will like that includes vegetables, and give them that. Experiment with different things.
I was made to eat things I didn't like. Now I eat them all the time.
Try forcing it. "You cannot leave this table until your vegetables are gone."
Or find pictures of kids with rickets, and show it to them and be like, "this is what will happen to you if you don't eat vegetables."
Or tell them to plug their nose and eat it, make it a game, see who can eat it the fastest. (beware of choking though).
I'm the opposite... I hate vegetables in things, but I like certain ones by themselves. Will your kids eat raw veggies? Up until about five years ago I could not eat any sort of vegetable matter that had been cooked, but I liked raw carrots and broccoli and whatnot.
Also, just thought I'd mention this... Forcing kids to eat something they hate is not going to make them like it. Not saying you do this, but if anyone was thinking of doing that, please reconsider. I was a very picky eater as a child (and I still am), and whenever I was forced to eat/try something I didn't like it was absolute torture that made me hate the food even more.
Of course, there's also the possibility their tastes will change. I hated tomatoes until the age of seven or eight, and hated coconut until I was an adult.
Kids at those ages go through a lot of phases; I basically try to roll with it.
In general, my kids prefer raw veggies that they can dip in dressing, and I've had a lot of success putting out platters about an hour before dinner, just as they are starting to get hungry, but haven't really tuned into it yet, and so don't have any preset ideas about what they are hungry for. If the platter is right in front of them, they seem to eat it absentmindedly. It's really funny.
Some of things my kids (one or both) like include carrots with ranch dip, plain bunny carrots (the kind with the tops still on - somehow those are more fun and appealing than pealed and cut carrots), cooked brocoli served with a fresh lemon wedge they can squeeze over it, green leaf salads, uncooked spinach leaves with a sweet dressing (poopy seed) to dip them in, tomatos, red bell pepper cut into rings (red is sweeter than green), and hickima. But it all goes in phases, still. They will be really into something for a while, then grow tired of it for a while, and so on. Usually there is SOMETHING they will eat if I can get the timing right.
A lot of these things will get discovered by accident. My son realized he liked salad when he was about 6, and was sitting on my husband's lap while my husband had a salad. Well, the dressing smelled good, so my son asked to try a bite.
As long as they remain exposed to veggies in different forms, they should eventually find some they like.
As for forcing, we really do not, but we DO have a rule: no dessert if no veggies have been consumed that day.
The rule at our house is that everything must be tasted. One bite. Only the youngest, who is seven, still gives us grief about the food we serve. She will decide she does not like something based upon how it looks. Usually after she tastes something she decides it is OK and eats more. Sometimes she doesn't. That's OK.
Also consider baking vegetables into breads if you have bread eaters. Zucchini and carrot bread is quite good. Put some raisins in and reduce the amount of sugar.
And we do take a daily vitamin, though remember that not all vitamins are created equally. We tried several food based vitamins before settling on Animal Parade, which the kids like.
I did the teaspoon rule when my kids were little, the tablespoon rule while they were in school, and the two tablespoon rule when they were teenagers. I couldn't risk the kids spitting out their food while visiting their grandparents overseas. The two oldest are in suits and are glad they can politely bear odd things at business dinners. But I don't think they would try balut.
I always put new foods with foods my son loves. He tends to try the new foods at times. He loves vegetables though. I have trouble getting him to eat other things. For the longest time he would not eat meat but now he eats it. He doesnt eat bread though - hamburgers/luncheon meat etc- no rolls
/ketchup etc. He likes his stuff plain or forget it.
Kinda funny but I send in watermelon to school everyday . Well , one day I didnt have watermelon so I sent in a box of that easy mac figuring he likes mac and cheese. He was so upset there was no watermelon that he through the mac and cheese at his para
Needless to say I wont run out of watermelon!