Food Sensitivities: What are They and Why are They so Common in Autism?

Autistic children can be very particular about what they eat, which can make meal planning very difficult for parents.  It might be tempting to chalk autistic peoples’ food preferences up to picky eating, but autistic people often have sensory processing issues that can make eating certain foods upsetting.  Autistic people can be unusually sensitive to the textures, smells, colors, or temperatures of different foods, which can make eating those foods very unpleasant for the autistic person.  Most commonly, autistic people have strong preferences for carbohydrates and processed foods and may avoid fruits and vegetables.  Unfortunately, this refusal to eat fruits and vegetables can cause autistic people gain to weight and experience nutritional deficits.

There are a variety of explanations for why autistic people may be more likely to have food sensitivities.  Several studies have suggested “tactile defensiveness” as a reason for why autistic people avoid certain foods.  Tactile defensiveness when a person has an unusually large response to certain types of touch-stimuli, causing negative behavioral responses.  Or put another way, when an autistic person feels certain objects touching them, they could have an unexpectedly big response.  Interestingly, research has found that children who had tactile sensitivities (such as a dislike of being cuddled or who would pull away from being touched) as babies, may be more likely to have sensory issues with foods.

What are some tips to get your autistic child to eat?

• Examine the texture of the food.  For some people, food aversion may be based on how food feels in the mouth.  As an example, the “burst” of flavor from a squishy tomato might be off-putting, but chopping or blending the tomato into a sauce may make it more acceptable.  Blending nutritious food into a sauces or smoothies, can be a great way to incorporate healthy foods.

• Have your family play with their food!  This may look like using veggies to make a face on a pizza, or cutting food into fun shapes.

• Provide a wide range of healthy food choices for your autistic family member.  Having choices will give your autistic family member a sense of control over what they eat and reduce the amount of pressure that they may feel to eat things that they don’t like.  Try buying three or four fruits and vegetables each week and allowing your autistic family member to pick one to have with a meal.

• Start with the proteins and carbohydrates that your child likes, and then introduce vegetables cooked in different ways to identify your child’s preference.  This may look like giving your child different vegetables to try with each meal, or letting your child try vegetables prepared in different ways (blended, raw, roasted, steamed, cut different ways, etc. . . ).

Where can you find recipes that are nutritious and delicious?

While there are many cookbooks and recipes for “picky” eaters, it can be hard to know where to start.  The “My Fussy Eater” blog, offers recipes where you can add veggies without noticeably changing the taste or texture of foods.  For ideas on “hidden” veggie sauce, one pot mac and cheese, chicken curry, and spaghetti and meatballs, follow these links.

What can you do for autistic people who are highly selective about what they eat?

For highly selective eaters, it may be necessary to consult a dietitian, occupational therapist, or behavioral psychologist.  Consulting experts will improve the effectiveness of dietary intervention.

• A dietitian will determine if the individual is eating enough food and if they are eating a wide enough variety of foods.  They may do that by examining the person’s height and weight, asking the person to track what they eat over a period of time, or asking the person to recall what they have eaten in a 24-hour period.  The dietitian will use that data to determine how many calories, micronutrients, and macronutrients the person usually eats, then make recommendations based on that information.  Dietitians can suggest dietary routines, identify nutritional deficiencies, and help people manage their weight.

• An occupational therapist (OT) can use different techniques to make certain types of stimuli less upsetting to the autistic person.  This sort of therapy can help autistic people become more tolerant of food textures that they might not like.  The OT may also teach the person to anticipate different foods during mealtimes by using sensory mealtime stories.  The OT can also give caregivers advice on how to make mealtimes go more smoothly in the home environment – they might suggest dimming the lights in the dining room, or playing soft music to make the person calmer during mealtimes.

• A behavioral psychologist can give advice on how to encourage the individual to accept different foods and/or food textures.  Their approach might include rewarding the individual when they try a new food or teaching caregivers ways in which they could try to introduce new foods.

Article by: Nicole Steel and The Autism ToolKit

References

https://www.autismspeaks.org/expert-opinion/autism-and-food-aversions#:~:text=Autism%20often%20comes%20with%20hypersensitivity,smooth%20out%20the%20offending%20texture.

https://www.myfussyeater.com/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3601920/