Marguerite
Active Member
I'm wondering if you need a multi-pronged approach. Why is he obsessing about food? What is it about food he is obsessing about? I know with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) there are not always reasons, but I have found it generally comes from somewhere, even if it is trivial in origin. I have often described one particular stimulant of difficult child 1's, which originated when he tried to mimic an emu call. He was older and able to articulate the source.
My boys are both thin, the only time difficult child 1 was at all overweight was when he was on risperdal. When he was out of medications for months, he got 'the munchies' a lot and both he and his wife would do things like buy a large box of donuts and scoff the lot in one sitting. He can get away with it, she can't.
Could there be an anxiety component that he will be hungry and there won't be anything for him to eat? Teen males especially seem to get this sort of panic over food, my BFF's son did this in his teens. He'd come home from school and would be irritable, aggressive and just plain difficult, until she was able to poke food at him. He would be frantic for food, as if starving. I saw it myself, it was scary. Then I saw a lesser degree of it in other friends with teen males.
difficult child 3 forgets to eat. It's late afternoon now and I am certain he has not had lunch. He's 18, I won't get his lunch for him if he can fix it himself. I know he hasn't even looked in the fridge because there is a large serve of lasagne there and given half a chance, he would scarf it down. I have other leftovers in the fridge which I know difficult child 3 loves. When he finally surfaces and realises he is hungry, he will eat a lot in a short time.
I learned years ago to keep a fridge loaded with healthy food in quantity. Home-cooked, generally. Often the kids would get home from school, graze on what they could scavenge from the fridge, and then be too full to eat their dinner. So I stocked the fridge with the sort of food they would get for dinner. If the kids ate two sausages, some carrot sticks and celery with Vegemite at 4 pm then in a way, they had their dinner early. If they had room at 7 pm for lamb casserole or roast chicken, not a problem. If they didn't - again, not a problem. Over time they learned to not eat too fast or too much for a snack so they would be able to enjoy their dinner also. But I stopped stocking chips, biscuits, lemonade etc when it vanished fast. At first I would buy a week's supply for each child, each in their own favourite flavour. A treat. Then the snack food would vanish fast, and I know it was one kid responsible, not all of them. But all the kids' snacks were getting wolfed down and it just wasn't fair. So no more snacks. They could snack on fruit and vegetables. Or boiled eggs. Or cold cooked sausages.
Having protein food available seemed to work best for us when the kids were in their teens. Of course, the kids also ate their way through a lot of pot noodles. So I made pasta, which tasted a lot better and was high in protein (I use whole egg and plain flour). Protein will satisfy for longer. Carbs and fat in combination will also stick to your ribs, but it's not a healthy diet plus you end up craving more.
I've seen a Prader-Willi kid of our acquaintance when he wanted food. This kid was very well controlled for a PWS, but it finally got too difficult for his family because he needed to be watched every minute of every day. His mother told us of one memorable time they went to a buffet restaurant and she tried to help him exert some controls. I've been with them at a buffet and he was okay that time, but it can be unpredictable and difficult in the extreme.
Sonic is also, from what you've said, MWM, an intelligent kid. Yes, he's obsessed with food, but not to the extent of someone with PWS. The difference is extreme, as I am sure you know. We've talked about this before. My easy child was obsessed with food and would steal food constantly in her teens, has had a weight problem since before puberty. We're wondering if it could be hormonal. She was very difficult, but there is no way she could come close to a diagnosis of PWS. In easy child's case, we think the problem may date back to infancy and possibly even in utero - placental insufficiency meant she was born malnourished and underweight. We've met others who had a similar medical history, and they also have had problems with weight and food obsession in childhood and teens. Do you know if Sonic had any such problems at birth? If he did, it could help explain to Sonic, why he is like this where food is concerned and perhaps make it easier for him to resist the nagging "eat it" voice.
Good luck with this one. Teen males can eat you out of house and home. When we had easy child 2/difficult child 2's first boyfriend staying over so much (for weeks at a time sometimes) he ate a huge amount. Nearly 7' tall, still growing (back then) and constantly hungry. It took a lot of fuel to keep that furnace stoked! I had to stop him using a mixing bowl for his breakfast cereal...
Marg
My boys are both thin, the only time difficult child 1 was at all overweight was when he was on risperdal. When he was out of medications for months, he got 'the munchies' a lot and both he and his wife would do things like buy a large box of donuts and scoff the lot in one sitting. He can get away with it, she can't.
Could there be an anxiety component that he will be hungry and there won't be anything for him to eat? Teen males especially seem to get this sort of panic over food, my BFF's son did this in his teens. He'd come home from school and would be irritable, aggressive and just plain difficult, until she was able to poke food at him. He would be frantic for food, as if starving. I saw it myself, it was scary. Then I saw a lesser degree of it in other friends with teen males.
difficult child 3 forgets to eat. It's late afternoon now and I am certain he has not had lunch. He's 18, I won't get his lunch for him if he can fix it himself. I know he hasn't even looked in the fridge because there is a large serve of lasagne there and given half a chance, he would scarf it down. I have other leftovers in the fridge which I know difficult child 3 loves. When he finally surfaces and realises he is hungry, he will eat a lot in a short time.
I learned years ago to keep a fridge loaded with healthy food in quantity. Home-cooked, generally. Often the kids would get home from school, graze on what they could scavenge from the fridge, and then be too full to eat their dinner. So I stocked the fridge with the sort of food they would get for dinner. If the kids ate two sausages, some carrot sticks and celery with Vegemite at 4 pm then in a way, they had their dinner early. If they had room at 7 pm for lamb casserole or roast chicken, not a problem. If they didn't - again, not a problem. Over time they learned to not eat too fast or too much for a snack so they would be able to enjoy their dinner also. But I stopped stocking chips, biscuits, lemonade etc when it vanished fast. At first I would buy a week's supply for each child, each in their own favourite flavour. A treat. Then the snack food would vanish fast, and I know it was one kid responsible, not all of them. But all the kids' snacks were getting wolfed down and it just wasn't fair. So no more snacks. They could snack on fruit and vegetables. Or boiled eggs. Or cold cooked sausages.
Having protein food available seemed to work best for us when the kids were in their teens. Of course, the kids also ate their way through a lot of pot noodles. So I made pasta, which tasted a lot better and was high in protein (I use whole egg and plain flour). Protein will satisfy for longer. Carbs and fat in combination will also stick to your ribs, but it's not a healthy diet plus you end up craving more.
I've seen a Prader-Willi kid of our acquaintance when he wanted food. This kid was very well controlled for a PWS, but it finally got too difficult for his family because he needed to be watched every minute of every day. His mother told us of one memorable time they went to a buffet restaurant and she tried to help him exert some controls. I've been with them at a buffet and he was okay that time, but it can be unpredictable and difficult in the extreme.
Sonic is also, from what you've said, MWM, an intelligent kid. Yes, he's obsessed with food, but not to the extent of someone with PWS. The difference is extreme, as I am sure you know. We've talked about this before. My easy child was obsessed with food and would steal food constantly in her teens, has had a weight problem since before puberty. We're wondering if it could be hormonal. She was very difficult, but there is no way she could come close to a diagnosis of PWS. In easy child's case, we think the problem may date back to infancy and possibly even in utero - placental insufficiency meant she was born malnourished and underweight. We've met others who had a similar medical history, and they also have had problems with weight and food obsession in childhood and teens. Do you know if Sonic had any such problems at birth? If he did, it could help explain to Sonic, why he is like this where food is concerned and perhaps make it easier for him to resist the nagging "eat it" voice.
Good luck with this one. Teen males can eat you out of house and home. When we had easy child 2/difficult child 2's first boyfriend staying over so much (for weeks at a time sometimes) he ate a huge amount. Nearly 7' tall, still growing (back then) and constantly hungry. It took a lot of fuel to keep that furnace stoked! I had to stop him using a mixing bowl for his breakfast cereal...
Marg
We have tried to find out why he is so obsessive about food and the only answer we get from him is, "I don't know" or "I'm hungry." He will not eat meat, veggies or most fruits. He doesn't like their textures. There are many sweets and nasaty carbs he won't eat either because of this. Example: He won't eat chips with ridges. He will literally throw up. I am relieved to be having an appointment and a new point of view later. 
