Thread by @TruthAutistic

This thread is about Autistic people with sensory difficulties with food/ drinks and also about eating disorders, food avoidance and trust issues. #autism #autistic #actuallyautistic #allautistics #arfid #food #foodavoidance #sensorystruggles #sensoryprocessing

Firstly I just want to say can we STOP SHAMING AUTISTIC PEOPLE FOR WHAT THEY EAT OR DRINK. I want to stress, STOP TELLING AUTISTIC PEOPLE TO EAT/ DRINK HEALTHILY, many autistic people like myself have food/ drink sensory issues due to texture and taste.

it’s why we like our ‘same’ foods/ why we like processed food as it’s consistent and the same taste and texture each and every time! whereas fruit/ vegetables and home cooked food isn’t always the same taste or texture.

With fruit and veg the texture, size and taste varies. Sometimes I LOVE apples, they taste good but then another day they taste awful and I have to throw them away as the taste or texture isn’t right.

Autistic people struggle with unpredictable things, change and often our sense of taste is more strong so we can notice if ingredients in our favourite food has been changed, this is why we like our ‘same’ foods that are processed and packaged as the taste and texture is the same

(unless they’ve change the recipe, and that can then cause a meltdown and avoiding that food)

Some of us have strong taste buds, we can taste the slightest difference in foods and also we like that food to taste how it should taste so many of us often don’t like our food touching each other as it can contaminate and change the taste of one of the other foods on the plate.

cooking fish in the same oven on different tray to chicken will alter taste of chicken as the smell from the fish seeps into the chicken making it taste fishy. This isn’t someone being fussy, this is a genuine fact, it does alter taste for people with heightened sense of taste.

I can’t drink plain water as to me sensory wise the taste of it is like drinking a cup full of saliva and it ends up making me vomit. I can only drink flavoured drinks.

I drink pure orange juice from concentrate with no bits, lucozade sport orange flavour, Dr. Pepper, Pepsi, Coca-Cola, Fanta orange, Tango orange. Those are the only drinks I can tolerate and they all have to be the brand versions.

I can tell if they aren’t the brand version/ are the cheaper version as taste is different. I won’t drink it if it isn’t the correct one. If I go round someone’s house/somewhere I can’t buy a drink I always make sure to bring one that I can drink incase they don’t have any I like

Forcing/punishing Autistic people to eat food or drink drinks they don’t like is harmful. Hiding food we don’t eat/like in our food we do like can lead to having trust issues with you/food and possibly to disordered eating, fear of being sick and it can also cause food avoidance

it’s the same with drinks, if you swap what we usually like to drink with a different version or try to put something else in our drink or give us something else but the same colour… then it can cause an Autistic person distress and they can end up not wanting to drink at all

and being unable to trust people to give them drinks as they purposely tried to trick them and ended up causing them a meltdown/ feeling sick/ horrible sensory feeling as they were tricked into drinking something they couldn’t tolerate. This can cause serious problems.

Autistic people like consistency, so LET THEM EAT THEIR ‘SAME’ FOODS, LET THEM DRINK FLUIDS THEY’RE ABLE TO DRINK. Let them eat foods they are comfortable with/don’t have sensory difficulties with… same with drinks.

The more stress you put on an Autistic person over food/ drinks the more likely they are to develop food/ fluid avoidance/disordered eating!

Some Autistic people have ARFID Avoidant restrictive food intake disorder. Mostly due to sensory difficulties or sensory processing disorder.

ARFID is when a person avoids certain foods (this can include drinks too) or types of food (and drinks) and has a restricted intake of amount of food (and drinks drunk) eaten.

For Autistic people due to our heightened senses it can be that we are sensitive to texture/smell/taste. maybe appearance of some types of food and only able to eat foods (or drink drinks) at certain temperatures such as warm/cool/cold. It leads to sensory-based avoidance.

For example I can’t eat the crusts on bread because it’s a different texture and taste to the inside soft part of the bread. The crusts are chewy and tougher and the taste just doesn’t taste right or the same as the inside of the bread. it’s a fact, it’s a different taste/texture

Forcing your child to eat the crusts because to you it’s no different than the rest of the bread is an A-hole thing to do. You might not have the same aversions to texture/taste of the crust and not notice the difference but it doesn’t mean everyone else experiences same as you

Also for some Autistic people they don’t get the same hunger or thirst cues that others get when their bodies tell them that it’s hungry and needs food or is thirsty and needs fluids. So for some they might not know they are hungry and need food.

we can sometimes confuse hunger and thirst cues from our body and end up drinking instead of eating or eating instead of drinking. Eating or drinking may not be enjoyable for them and feel like it’s a chore and they likely won’t have much interest in food or drinking.

This can cause weight loss and with lack of fluids it can cause dehydration that can lead to Urinary tract infections.

It’s often necessary to remind an Autistic person to eat/drink something, it’s common for us to get focused on an activity or special interest that we may not realise we haven’t eaten/drunk anything so it’s important to make sure an Autistic person has eaten and had a drink.

With Autistic people as long as they are eating and drinking something...THAT IS ALL THAT MATTERS. 
Doesn’t matter if it’s not healthy, what matters is that they are eating and drinking and you respect their sensory difficulties and boundaries when it comes to food and drinks.

Autistic people can take supplements and vitamins to make up for the food groups we lack in our diet or for not eating as much as others. Theres supplements that can come in the form of milkshakes that can give us the calories we need and top us up if we don’t eat much

NEVER SHAME AUTISTIC PEOPLE FOR WHAT THEY EAT OR DRINK or force/ trick them into eating/ drinking something they don’t like. this can cause eating disorders, food/ drink avoidance and also trust issues with people making them food or drinks.

Let them eat their same foods that they’re comfortable with, same goes with drinks… let them drink fluids they’re comfortable with (as long as it’s not an adult with an alcoholic drinking problem, that’s totally different).

There are ways to make up calories, nutrients or vitamins they’re missing in their intake. So don’t worry or stress so much.

You can also work with a dietician who specialises in helping Autistic people and visit the doctor as and when necessary for check ups to monitor things such as weight, blood tests to check they’re not lacking in any important vitamins etc

and ask about if they need any nutritional type drinks like milkshakes to make up for the nutrients/ vitamins/ calories they are lacking. ALWAYS speak to a doctor/ dietician.

I’m an Autistic person who has heightened sense of taste. I can’t eat some foods if they’re touching, it ruins the taste of the other food. I can’t have fish cooked on a different tray in the same oven with my food as the smell and moisture in the oven then makes my food taste

like fish and that leaves me unable to eat my food. If I didn’t know it was cooked in the same oven I’d still be able to tell it had and the fishy taste of my food would end up in me gagging and possibly being sick.

I can tell the difference if the recipe of foods I eat regular have changed slightly and sometimes that means I won’t eat that food product anymore. I get seriously upset and angry if one of my favourite ‘same’ foods recipe changes and I no longer like it nor can eat it.

I struggle with textures of food too, I can’t eat mashed potato but I can eat chips (french fries) or potato with a coating on like potato croquettes or potato smiles or potato alphabites. This is due to me sensory wise not coping with the texture of mashed potato in my mouth.

I also can only eat certain brand foods… such as Heinz tomato soup… I won’t eat any other type of soup and I can tell if it’s different. I also will only eat Heinz tin of spaghetti and sausages but I no longer like the sausages so I throw them away and just eat the spaghetti!

But I can’t just eat a normal tin of Heinz spaghetti as it taste different and I don’t like it as it doesn’t have the flavour of the sausages that have been cooked in it. Even just the slightest difference I can taste and notice.

I can also taste the difference if someone gives me food that is the same food but cheaper version and slightly different ingredients… for example a packet of cheese Wotsits walker crisps and a packet of store cheap brand of cheese puffs crisps.

I can only cope with the brand flavour taste. It’s the same with Coca-cola and the one that isn’t the brand make. I will not drink the one that isn’t the brand make as the flavour is completely different to me due to my heightened sense of taste

whereas for a Neurotypical person with normal taste buds it may only be a slight difference of not notice it at all.

This is what people need to understand and realise… this isn’t Autistic people being fussy… this is due to having heightened senses. This is our difficulty with change. This is about sensory aspects such as Taste, texture, smell, also the temperature too.

What might seem like nothing to you could be a a lot more complex and more intense for another. So don’t judge autistic people or assume we are fussy… listen and learn.