{"id":2431,"date":"2021-09-28T12:32:29","date_gmt":"2021-09-28T17:32:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tameri.com\/wordpress\/autisticme\/?p=2431"},"modified":"2025-01-11T16:54:29","modified_gmt":"2025-01-11T22:54:29","slug":"podcast-episode-071-a-spectrum-of-food-challenges","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tameri.com\/autisticme\/2021\/09\/28\/podcast-episode-071-a-spectrum-of-food-challenges\/","title":{"rendered":"Podcast Episode 071 &#8211; A Spectrum of Food Challenges"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>Podcast Episode 0071, Season 5, Episode 2; 28\u00a0September 2021<\/em><\/p>\n<h3>Parenting and Food Challenges<\/h3>\n<p>A follower\u00a0wrote: Do your children eat anything other than chicken nuggets? My autistic\u00a0child won\u2019t eat fruits, vegetables, or most meats. It\u2019s cereal, chips, and\u00a0nuggets.<\/p>\n<p>Susan and I\u00a0are fortunate. The girls and I eat mostly healthy foods. Fruits, vegetables,\u00a0roasted chicken, turkey, and most fish aren\u2019t a problem. It might be because\u00a0we\u2019ve never been a fast-food family. We prepare most meals at home. Fruits are\u00a0the go-to snack. Salads are common.<\/p>\n<p>That\u00a0doesn\u2019t mean there are no food challenges in our home, though. For this\u00a0episode, I\u2019ve invited the girls to chat with me about their food preferences.<\/p>\n\n<!-- iframe plugin v.6.0 wordpress.org\/plugins\/iframe\/ -->\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Libsyn Player\" 0=\"style=&quot;border:\" 1 2=\"\/&gt;\" src=\"\/\/html5-player.libsyn.com\/embed\/episode\/id\/20680070\/height\/90\/theme\/custom\/thumbnail\/yes\/direction\/backward\/render-playlist\/no\/custom-color\/336699\/\" height=\"90\" width=\"100%\" scrolling=\"no\" 3=\"allowfullscreen\" 4=\"webkitallowfullscreen\" 5=\"mozallowfullscreen\" 6=\"oallowfullscreen\" 7=\"msallowfullscreen\" class=\"iframe-class\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe>\n\n<h3>Partial Transcript<\/h3>\n<p>When\u00a0followers of <em><strong>The Autistic Me<\/strong><\/em> finally learned that my wife and I have young\u00a0children, new questions started arriving in my email and social media accounts.\u00a0These new questions have given me opportunities to ask what are and are not\u00a0autistic traits.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019m not\u00a0surprised that many followers have questions about dietary preferences, food\u00a0allergies, and mealtime struggles. Families often assume challenges are related\u00a0to autism, yet many of the questions I\u2019ve received sound like the concerns of parents in general.<\/p>\n<p>My\u00a0Neurodiverse daughters offer an illustration of the broad spectrum of food\u00a0challenges that exist.<\/p>\n<p>On this\u00a0episode of <em><strong>The Autistic Me Podcast<\/strong><\/em>, I\u2019m going to be joined by Anne and Leigh as\u00a0we talk about eating and food preferences.<\/p>\n<p>As you will\u00a0hear, Anne will eat almost anything, at any time, and often seeks out food\u00a0without permission. She has serious feed security issues, worrying she might\u00a0miss a meal or snack.<\/p>\n<p>Leigh is a\u00a0picky eater, who will avoid anything new or different. She doesn\u2019t like spices\u00a0and objects to most strong flavors. She hates when foods touch on a plate. She\u00a0deconstructs her sandwiches, pizza, or anything else with mixed items. Her\u00a0version of a hamburger is a patty on a bun. Her favorite taco is a tortilla\u00a0with steak strips. Sometimes, she\u2019ll eat the meat and leave the bread or\u00a0tortilla.<\/p>\n<p>Salads are\u00a0the only mixed foods Leigh seems to enjoy, with specific ingredients. Yes, she\u00a0eats the contents carefully, sorting as she eats.<\/p>\n<p>Since\u00a0starting ADHD medications, Leigh\u2019s appetite has waned. She doesn\u2019t always\u00a0remember if she has eaten and rarely tells us she\u2019s hungry.<\/p>\n<p>We\u2019ve never\u00a0been a fast-food family. Neither girl likes fried chicken and only Leigh likes\u00a0breaded chicken nuggets.<\/p>\n<p>Before the\u00a0pandemic, the girls looked forward to salad bars, Asian-American buffets, and\u00a0Mexican restaurants. Anne would try everything, while Leigh could have a plate\u00a0of steak or chicken with vegetables.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019m the one\u00a0who struggles most at mealtime. It\u2019s the sounds around a table that overwhelm\u00a0me. The girls know that if I\u2019m tired or had a difficult day, I might choose to\u00a0eat alone. I know my challenge is a common autistic experience with sensory\u00a0overload.<\/p>\n<p>I hope you\u00a0enjoy this episode of <em><strong>The Autistic Me Podcast<\/strong><\/em>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>{Full Transcript in Progress}<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Thank you.<\/p>\n<h3>The Autistic Me<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>Blog:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.tameri.com\/autisticme\/\">https:\/\/www.tameri.com\/autisticme\/<\/a><\/li>\n<li>Podcast:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/autisticme.libsyn.com\/\">https:\/\/autisticme.libsyn.com\/<\/a><\/li>\n<li>Facebook:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/autisticme\/\">https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/autisticme\/<\/a><\/li>\n<li>Twitter:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/autisticme\">https:\/\/twitter.com\/autisticme<\/a><\/li>\n<li>YouTube:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/c\/CSWyatt\">https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/c\/CSWyatt<\/a><\/li>\n<li>LinkedIn: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/autisticme\">https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/autisticme<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Podcast Episode 0071, Season 5, Episode 2; 28\u00a0September 2021 Parenting and Food Challenges A follower\u00a0wrote: Do your children eat anything other than chicken nuggets? My autistic\u00a0child won\u2019t eat fruits, vegetables, or most meats. It\u2019s cereal, chips, and\u00a0nuggets. Susan and I\u00a0are fortunate. The girls and I eat mostly healthy foods. Fruits,&#8230;<\/p>\n<div class=\"more-link-wrapper\"><a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.tameri.com\/autisticme\/2021\/09\/28\/podcast-episode-071-a-spectrum-of-food-challenges\/\">Continue Reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Podcast Episode 071 &#8211; A Spectrum of Food Challenges<\/span> <i class=\"fas fa-angle-right\"><\/i><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":3458,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"iawp_total_views":11,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[7,812,10],"tags":[36,76,212,216,282,298,521,554,635],"class_list":["post-2431","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health","category-parenting","category-podcast","tag-add-adhd","tag-autism","tag-dietary-concerns","tag-dinner","tag-family","tag-food","tag-parenting","tag-podcast","tag-sensory-overload","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tameri.com\/autisticme\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2023\/11\/Podcast_Banner_800x400.png?fit=711%2C400&ssl=1","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pfivLC-Dd","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tameri.com\/autisticme\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2431","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tameri.com\/autisticme\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tameri.com\/autisticme\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tameri.com\/autisticme\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tameri.com\/autisticme\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2431"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.tameri.com\/autisticme\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2431\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3524,"href":"https:\/\/www.tameri.com\/autisticme\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2431\/revisions\/3524"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tameri.com\/autisticme\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3458"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tameri.com\/autisticme\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2431"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tameri.com\/autisticme\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2431"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tameri.com\/autisticme\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2431"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}