FUSSY TEENAGER!

[Bubsy Malone]

Hi everyone, I have an autistic 15 year old who is driving me bonkers. He has a very strong aversion to certain textures (beans/rice/mash/anything soft) and the only vegetables he eats are red/yellow peppers and occasionally raw carrots. He eats chicken with everything (usually BBQ/spicy chicken wings/breast steaks) and his diet is getting more and more restrictive. He will eat pasta (VERY al dente!) tortilla wraps and pizza. Unfortunately, the only sauces he eats are ketchup and gravy with a roast meal. He also wont touch soup with a bargepole, so I can't hide veg in that either. I've had a few good suggestions on a different thread already, so if anyone has any good ideas I would love to hear them.

Thanks,

Bubsy

 

[IanD]

There is a better use for pumpkin than the popular one :twisted:

Pumpkin pie

As that won't be low carb, you could simply cook & sieve, spice it up with his favourite flavours, & coat his chicken in it before cooking.

 

[hanadr]

It's a shocking thought isn't it?, but we can do without vegetables as long as we get some fatty meat. (Will he eat home-made burgers?)
My adult daughter was a fussy child and STILL won't eat veg, although she gives it to her 7 month old.

 

[phoenix]

I agree with Sarah Q stir fries seem ideal especially if the veg are hardly cooked so very crisp. Why not include peppers and carrots (theres lots of recipes with this base) and smaller amounts of other veg.Actually he sounds a bit like my octogenarian father who will eat hardly any veg served separately(he takes a small portion and then leaves it on his plate) but he will eat surprisingly large amounts when disguised in a stirfry , you can add noodles if he will eat them. As he likes chicken, peppers and tortillas, he should enjoy chicken fajitas.

 

[Bubsy Malone]

Thanks everyone, there are some good suggestions in there. The fajitas are a good idea, he has done his own version before with wafer thin chicken and a cheesestring (groan!) He has eaten noodles before (although he prefers the Super variety :roll: ) so a stir fry is worth a shot.He also likes conventional breadcrumbs as a coating so I'll try the pumpkin as well. It's so hard trying to find something healthy for him that he won't just take one look at and say "urg! I'm not eating that!" He's a big lad as well, he's nearly 6 feet tall and has a 34" waist, so you can imagine how much junk he's eating at the moment! Again, thanks for your ideas,

Bubsy

 

[Stuboy]

will he drink smoothies!?

There are some nice vegetable smoothies out there with carrots, celery and all sorts!

Celery and apple is a good one... it's great for replacing salt lost in sweat during a work out.

 

[Bubsy Malone]

That's a good one Stuboy, he likes apple juice anyway (luckily he makes up for his dislike of veg by eating most types of fruit - usually an entire punnet in 1 go! ) He's also trying to lose a few pounds - there's a certain petite young senorita he's got his eye on :wink: so he's been a bit more - erm - enthusiastic about exercising lately!

 

[Jem]

if you coat his chcken yourself then you can try adding some ground nuts into the breadcrumb mix before you cook it - although it doesn't remove the calories from the equation, it DOES add some really good nutritional fats

and no I don't work for nut marketing board

best J/x

 

[Bubsy Malone]

Thanks guys for the other suggestions. Unfortunately, he doesn't like sweetcorn (or peas or any type of nuts - anything small and round) so that's a good idea about using ground ones which he doesn't know about :wink: I think I shall have to encourage him to go on the playstation that day so I can have some peace and quiet in the kitchen he he :twisted: as my mum says what the eye doesn't see the heart doesn't grieve over. I'll tell him i've got a new recipe for a coating and I need some space to work on it I think we might just have cracked it! Cheers everyone!