I am sure you’ve heard the lyrics to that famous song from the musical Oliver…

“Food, glorious food!
Hot sausage and mustard!
While we’re in the mood —
Cold jelly and custard!”

I think it’s fair to say that Oliver didn’t have ASD; as the sheer combination of cold jelly and custard would have sent him running for the hills!

In fact one big issue for parents is that instead of your child with ASD singing “Food, glorious food” they are much more likely to be singing:

“Food, limited food!
Chicken nuggets and pizza
We’re not in the mood–
If it’s not familiar and beigey”

Because most children with ASD have big sensitivities to so many textures, smells and visual appearances of foods. And here’s the problem…

Often you are slaving away really hard to try and get just 1 portion of fruit and veg into your child (and no… French Fries don’t really count – and definitely not if they’re from Maccy D’s)!

And then you’ve got the Gluten and Casein free diets that many people swear have made huge changes in their child’s behaviors, attitudes and overall happiness.

Whilst scientific research is still catching up with these claims – the anecdotal evidence of so many parents is pretty overwhelming at times.

But this type of approach can be one heck of a commitment; if you are very new to eating in this way.

I’ve come across a couple of great women based in the USA who can help a little with those kitchen blues.

One is the “Sneaky Chef” Missy Chase Lapine. She teaches people how to add fruit and veggies into everyday foods that your child may well eat (like fish sticks, french fries, pizza etc.)

I came across her myself as my 3 year old daughter is currently proving to be a VERY fussy eater. So I bought the “Sneaky Chef” cookbook to have a go myself.

Now being in England I had a small issue with translating weights and measures – because we use the metric system over here.

Plus what is a “cup” when it comes to measuring ingredients? A cup has always been something to serve a nice drop of tea in this side of the pond!

But I digress – I quickly sorted the weight conversions and made my first “Hi Fi fish sticks” this week. Which contain a puree of courgette and cauliflower, fresh fish, wholemeal breadcrumbs and nuts.

They tasted pretty good and to my amazement my 3 year old ate them without any problem whatsoever.

You can get a number of free sample recipes from the Sneaky Chef at:

http://www.thesneakychef.com/free_sneaky_chef_recipes.php

And on the subject of Gluten and Casein Free cooking I would highly recommend Jules Shepard from Maryland, USA.

I recently interviewed her and will be bringing you some important points from her next week.

But in the mean time you can get some great free recipe ideas from her at:

http://blog.julesglutenfree.com/

Happy cooking,

Dave Angel

P.S. If you want to hear more about food and ASD here on the blog… Or …
If you have a story to tell on the subject…

Please leave your comments on the blog below.