Surviving Autism

My daughter is a very picky eater.  She doesn’t eat just anything you give her. She has to smell it before she take it in her mouth and if there’s a scent in the food you prepare that she didn’t like she wouldn’t even smell it.  She will shove it away from her.

This past few months, since after that food seasoning Magic Sarap TV commercial went on air about the many ways you can cook and serve eggs she suddenly likes eggs.

Everytime she wants to eat she would point to the fridge and shout eggs in her own language.  If you didn’t understand her she would take you to the fridge and point the egg.  Which means she wants egg.

She would watch me cook it for her.  She liked it fried, not sunny side up, she doesn’t like runny egg yolk, she wants the yolk as the same consistency as the white.  She could finish two whole eggs in one eating and she even want more every meal but I try to moderate her egg intake because too much of everything is bad.

She is also brand conscious because of those TV commercials.  She can recognize Nestle, Sustagen, Lactum, Magnolia, Johnson’s Baby Lotion, Dove and any other brand she sees on TV even at a distance.

When we are out in the mall she would direct herself to the supermarket or to Watsons and Mercury Drug a place I think she feels comfort because there are so many things that are familiar to her.

Knowing my daughter has great memory and brand recognition I feel that although her phase of development is slow she will be able to pull through someday.  I’m not expecting too much but I am hopeful.

Some kids will eat anything that is presented to them but not my child, she is a very picky eater. She doesn’t eat anything you give her but rather sniff the food first before putting it in her mouth. Is something in the ingredient of the food doesn’t agree with her sense of smell she won’t eat it no matter how delicious you think it is.

My daughter is 8 and no matter how hard I try to know what kind of smell turns her appetite on and off I still can’t. Just when I though I know which food she like, the next thing I know she doesn’t want to eat it anymore.

You see, when she likes a particular food she will eat it until she is tired of it. Which has an advantage and disadvantage. The advantage is that she gets to eat a lot when she likes the food and eat it at gusto. She will have it morning noon and night. The bad thing is what happens when she get tired eating the same thing again and again and again.

Finding the food that she likes is like a treasure hunt, I have to cook and shop for different type of food everyday.

The only thing she won’t turn down are chips that are bad for her, she can’t eat too much salty and food with a lot of preservatives.