We are an ADHD family. If you have ready anything on my blog before, you will have come across a great deal of writting on ADHD. These posts are written to inform and encourage those who walk this journey. Hopefully they will also educate those who do not.
This is a post about eating.
It is our experience of food and ADHD and I know many people who have a similar journey and some who are fortunate not to.
Food!
Food is an issue for me. I have a love hate relationship with it. I love it but it is not so loving to me.
I have struggled my whole life with my weight and so food is an issue for me.
Because of this, I have tried very much not to make it an issue for my kids. Thankfully I have 4 boys but I am fully aware that boys are also susceptible to the negative food issues and weight issues that are pervasive in our modern society.
Our youngest son is a thing boy. He is growing normally but he is thin.
A friend of mine who is a nutritionist helped me shed some light on his food issues.
She was helping me think through how to fatten him up as he has lost some weight .
As she spoke, I realised that part of the problem is he is not really interested in food. His sensory issues cause him to yuck at the sight of it and his ADHD means he is just not interested in it. It is not interesting. He has to eat but honestly if he did not have to, he would not. It is not important to him.
As I realised this, I felt relieved. At least I can see what the enemy is here and so we can work with it. She had some wonderful ideas.....
* get the child to help you cut up the veggies etc. In this way he will feel and smell the food and get used to it on a sensory level. Even if he does eats it. It is entering his ADHD world. It might interest him
* take him shopping and let him see the food on the shelves and choose things that he might like to try
* ask him to think about the food he likes and why.... is it better to eat crunchy things than mushy etc
* get him involved in growing and picking food
Foods high in good fats like olive oil and peanut butter etc
Crumbed and crunchy fish and chicken
full fat milks etc
Parenting a child who has a tiny menu of things he eats; who is oppositional off ritalin and not hungry on ritalin, is challenging to say the least.
I am so grateful for this friend and thank her from my heart. She really helped me see things a little more clearly and offered some good solutions.
Thanks Aila!
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