Picky Eater

[Bestsoccerplayer]

Hi! My son is 11 yrs old (ADHD) and he its extremely picky when it comes to food. I am running out of ideas!

Could you recommend any shakes, yogurt, bars that your kids like that are tasty and nutritious at the same time? Or any strategy that you use to get him to eat.

I am desperate!

[MorningDanceTrece]

I'm sorry to hear that you and your son are struggling.

I'm AuDHD, my now adult son is neurotypical but when he was really little he had so much energy he couldn't hold still even when he was asleep and my mom and I were thinking he might have ADHD at one point.

There was a time when he actually got a little bit too thin because he couldn't sit still long enough to eat enough.

One day he and I were hanging out in the playroom and he was standing up coloring instead of sitting down and of course he was two but I asked him if he wouldn't be more comfortable sitting down and he said something to the effect that he had too much energy to sit still but if he stood up it used more energy than sitting so he could stand still and color for longer period of time than he could sit still and color.

I immediately realized that maybe that would work for eating and I told my mom and we decided to let him stand if he wanted to while eating.

So at the next meal I said to him if he would like to stand instead of sit and he thought that was wicked cool and he stood and he ate twice as much as he usually did because he stood there for twice as long as he would have sat.

So we did that for breakfast and lunch everyday.

We couldn't do it for dinner because my dad would have had a mental fit and simply not allowed it🤦🏻‍♀️

But being able to stand for breakfast and lunch helped him to get enough food in him that he started gaining weight and also he was able to sit still at dinner because he knew he was going to be able to stand the other times.

Now that may not address your situation at all or it may be helpful but I thought that I would share it in hopes that it might be helpful.

He also had what I think are really weird things that he liked and didn't like like he would eat raw broccoli but hate cooked broccoli and he liked raw green peppers but he hate cooked green bell peppers. So we would put some raw broccoli aside for him before we cooked the broccoli for everybody else. And we would buy green bell peppers that we otherwise wouldn't have and just cut them up and give them to him for a snack and he would stand there coloring or playing with his action figures standing not sitting and munching away on raw green bell peppers at 2 years old which was weird but he was getting nutrition so who cares.

[PurplePizza]

A friend who is a dietitian recommended zinc supplements, because sometimes a zinc deficiency leads to food not tasting as good. We tried zinc (and a host of other supplements) and our son (8 yo, ADHD, ODD and anxiety) went from eating only one food for an entire month to eating pretty much everything the rest of our family eats. It may be worth a try, or worth testing to see if he is deficient. Best of luck to you! It is so hard!

[AlgerGrandma in reply to PurplePizza]

Thanks for the Zinc suggestion. Perhaps my son will try this with my 8 year old grandson who pretty much eats only hot dogs, hamburgers, apples and candy. And good luck to 'bestsoccerplayer'!

[YazzyN]

Yasso frozen yogurt bars