Over EATING! | Autism PDD

Finally found an article that talks about overeating and autism.  It has a couple good tips:

http://www.autism-india.org/apr98.html#developing

Good luck with everything.

I haven't read all of the replies, but I know someone whose son is a big time eater.  Their psych. told them it was a stim for him.  He will eat anything and wants to try everything.  They really worked hard to get it under control, it worked , but it took a while.  Good luck.I guess that does make since that he might be stimming.I will ask the Nero
Ped in November when we go back We attended a conference in PA called the National Autism Conference a couple of years ago that had a class on the eating problems associated with autism. The speakers had written a book calle "Just Take A Bite". Our son is a resistant eater-will only eat certain foods (cheese pizza, mac/cheese, bananas, french fries...common thread is that that are all yellow or light colored, pizza is white dough with white cheese!) He eats absolutely no meats,eggs, veges... The school is trying to help us with this by having him "crunch" a carrot stick, which he spits out in order to get a chip. I hate bribing him, but if it works...After seven years he finally is potty broke during the day thanks to Doritos and orange chips!  I also am afraid of him chocking I can not believe how much he can put in
his mouth at one time! My son when he over eats will think that full feeling
means he has to take a BM and will sit on the toilet forever. He doesn't
connect the over eating to the belly ache either Yea...we do that too...when he's getting ready to hit a growth spurt. I know most autistic children are picky eaters right? But my son over eats
and he will keep eating if he likes something until we stop him! He ate 4
slices of pizza garlic bread and dessert and then he wanted more, he is only
6 and weighs the same if not more then his 10 year old sister.   Anybody
else going through this? Payne is really bad about indulging, but thankfully he likes fruits/veggies - we just don't give him a choice on that. We give him choices on snacks, dinner, etc usually but if he's getting out of hand with sweets, etc we curb it. My son has phases...he will go from not eating anything to eating a whopper and saying he is still starving.  He will sometimes finish a full dinner and 10 minutes later come to me saying he is hungry.  He will plow through an entire bag of flamin' hot cheetos with limon if I do not make him put a small amount in a bowl.yup mom of 2 ! My DS does that too. Can't leave a box of pizza lying around. He'll demolish it! He won't necessarily eat 100 % of it, but will go thru and systematically select each piece and take from it what he wants. HE'll often ask for more when he is done. Or will ask the following day, not realizing he finished it all. Same with almost any "preferred" food or "treat food"and yes, he weighs at age 6, 105 lbs, but is also tall and broadly built, big feet and hands etc, but still.......!

Rachael

We have this problem with Donny. Of course it's rarely anything healthy
he wants to stuff himself with.

With Don, I think it's a sensory thing. He stims off his favourite foods
(eyes closed, really drawn out eating, hand darting back and forth
towards his closed eyes, etc.), so he wants to keep eating and thus keep
stimming and enjoying. He's got less sensitivity to being hungry or full
than a typical person, just as he's got less sensitivity to pain,
temperature, etc. So, he will eat beyond the point of being stuffed,
because, well it tastes good and eating is enjoyable, and he doesn't get
that uncomfortable full feeling to tell him to stop. Further, if he does[/
i] get that uncomfortable full feeling, he doesn't necessarily associate it
with eating. To him, the bellyache and the food are two unrelated
incidents. I mean, really, food goes in your mouth, so what does that
have to do with your stomach?

We portion Don's food for him, and tell him when he's full. When he
complains of a tummy ache and we know it's because he's overeaten, we
draw attention to it. We teach him about the body, the digestive system,
and proper nutrition. All of these things seem to help somewhat, but he
still needs some "help" knowing when he's had enough of those especially
yummy foods. If we don't stay on top of him, he'll actually, especially if
already overstimulated, eat until he throws up

On top of all that, Don also enjoys the feeling of a full mouth. We have to
really watch he doesn't overfill his mouth with certain foods (beef jerky
and spaghetti noodles are the biggest culprits), so he doesn't choke.
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