About Me
I'm a Melbourne boy, hailing from St Kilda with one ex, one current wife and four kids. Love the outdoors and making new discoveries. I cook a lot at home (cheers from wife) and do some preserving, mostly jams, pickles and fruit liqueurs. This is the diary of a cooking journey.

My Complete Profile

Recent Posts
Greek Cookery from the Hellenic Heart
A Cautionary Tale
Fancy Chef
Monsters Attack!!!
The Great Souvlaki Debate
Speck
Artichokes with Asparagus and Broad Beans
Preserved Artichokes
Milk, Two Ways
Once Were Cooks

Links
1001 Dinners 1001 Nights
A Few of My Favourite Things
Abstract Gourmet
Apellation Australia
Becks and Posh
BurgerMary ATX
Cook (almost) Anything at least once
Cooking Down Under
Cook sister!
Cooked And Bottled In Brunswick
David Lebovitz
Deep Dish Dreams
Chef Paz
Chubby Hubby
Eating Melbourne
Eating With Jack
essjay eats
Food Lover's Journey
Gosstronomy
Grab Your Fork
I Am Obsessed With Food
I Eat Therefore I Am
Iron Chef Shellie
Just Desserts
Kalyn's Kitchen
Kitchen Wench
Lobstersquad
Matt Bites
Melbourne Gastronome
My Kitchen in Half Cups
Nola Cuisine
Not Quite Nigella
Nourish Me
Seriously Good
Souvlaki For The Soul
Stone Soup
Sunnybrae
Syrup and Tang
Steve Don't Eat It!
That Jess Ho
The Elegant Sufficiency
The Perfect Pantry
The View From My Porch
Thyme for Cooking
Tomato
Tumeric & Saffron
tummy rumbles
What I Cooked Last Night
where's the beef
WhiteTrashBBQ
Vicious Ange

Food Blog Resources
Food Blog S'cool
I Eat I Drink I Work
Kiplog Food Links

Food for Thought
Autism Victoria
Autism Vox
forget me now
Lotus Martinis
MOM - Not Otherwise Specified
St Kilda Today

Monday, November 16, 2009
Autistics and Diet
Many of you would be aware that autistic spectrum disorders (ASDs) means problems with the way an affected person communicates and relates to people around them. It is a complex lifelong condition that seems on the rise, which may be attributed to better and earlier diagnoses.

For a range of reasons, it can affect the diet of those affected in a myriad of ways such as heightened sensitivity to the taste and smell of food, which to put in perspective, would be like listening to a favourite piece of music, when suddenly the volume jumps to maximum, turning pleasure to instant pain. Other reasons include,

In a recent workshop on diet and the autism spectrum disorder, it was pointed out that in common with a lot of children, two food groups that seem the most affected are fruit and vegetables.

Now as parents of an affected child, we know how creative we have to be in order to get our girl trying new things and not worrying too much at how she may react to the same food served in different ways. For instance, M will eat a large bowl of risotto and help herself to more, but will instantly turn her nose up at a bowl of plain steamed rice.

The trick is NOT to tell her that risotto is rice, that could just spell disaster, we just let that be and experiment with risottos, adding different vegetables; you learn to use what you can. Fortunately, for us and her, M seems to like a lot of vegetables, her area of avoidance is fruit.

The only fruit she will eat are raspberries and we are now having some success with sultanas. What we were told that may help her or any other child with an aversion, is to have a small plate of cut up fruit at the dinner table. There is to be no pressure to force her to eat anything, but the best chance of success comes after a long period of time, perhaps years, in letting her watch us eating fruit.

Modeling is something that doesn't come easily to autistics.

But the biggest hope of success comes from a surprising area and is apparently true for all children. If you want to get your child to eat fruit, the chances are greatly increased if they watch their fathers regularly eating it.

C'mon dads, down an apple!

With thanks to Zoe Connor, Dietitian, and members of the Dietitians' Autistic Spectrum Interest Group (DASIG)

 
  posted at 8:31 pm
  2 comments



2 Comments:
At 10:28 pm, Blogger Elliot and Sandra said...

Hi Neil
That's a very interesting post. It is, of course, a sensitive issue for all parents with autistic children. There is probably a more general issue of modeling for all children but I think genes have a hell of a lot to do with it. Everyone one wants there child to be healthy and well adjusted but so many good parents do have problem kids no matter how earnestly they try to bring them up.

 
At 10:00 pm, Blogger neil said...

Hi elliot, I understand what you're saying, but with the taste buds, autism does play havoc with the senses making it difficult to ensure a proper diet. It's more of a sensory overload issue than a behavioural problem, though it can trend towards that.

 

Post a Comment

<< Home



Search


Recipe Categories
Soups
Salads
Vegetables
Poultry
Pork
Beef
Cakes & Desserts
Miscellaneous

Archives
November 2005
December 2005
January 2006
February 2006
March 2006
April 2006
May 2006
June 2006
July 2006
August 2006
September 2006
October 2006
November 2006
December 2006
January 2007
February 2007
March 2007
April 2007
May 2007
June 2007
July 2007
August 2007
September 2007
October 2007
November 2007
December 2007
January 2008
February 2008
March 2008
April 2008
May 2008
June 2008
July 2008
August 2008
September 2008
October 2008
November 2008
December 2008
January 2009
February 2009
March 2009
May 2009
June 2009
September 2009
October 2009
November 2009
December 2009
January 2010
February 2010
March 2010
April 2010
May 2010
June 2010
July 2010
August 2010
September 2010
October 2010
November 2010
December 2010
February 2011
March 2011
April 2011
May 2011
June 2011
July 2011
August 2011
September 2011
July 2012

Miscellaneous
AUSTRALIAN FOOD BLOGGERS
Prev ~ List ~ Random ~ Join ~ Next
Site Ring from Bravenet


Site Feed

counter easy hit

Credits
Blog Design by:


Image created by:
Ximena Maier

Powered by:


Photos, Original Recipes, and Text - (C) Copyright: 2005-2010
At My Table by Neil Murray, all rights reserved.
You may re-post a recipe, please give credit and post a link to this site.

Contact Me
Neil Murray

Follow messytable on Twitter