The Doodle is a great eater besides the gagging and sensory issues he has with some foods. Like most autistic children he has issues with textures. They call it sensitive pallate. Sometimes he'll come really, really close to throwing up but won't. He's been known to throw up entire meals. What's really scary about this now is that if he throws up too soon after having his anti-seizure medication we could be in big trouble--because there's no way to know how much medicine got into his system so you can't really re-dose him. The autism also causes him to be a really picky eater and O.C.D. on foods. He goes through spells where he loves something and that's all he'll eat. So, I go out and buy it in quantity and without reason, he hates it the next day and won't eat it any more. He hates it to the point of gagging.
Right now we're on a Doritos, Cheetos and Fritos diet. He is obsessed with chips. He wants chips for breakfast, lunch and dinner. At least the Fritos corn chips are gluten free and made with real corn.
We've been working on getting the Doodle to feed himself for almost two years. They've made HUGE progress with him eating independently at school. It's not that he can't do it--he always showed an interest, it was the throwing. Before, if you let him feed himself, he'd throw the spoon or the bowl or the container. It was too much work and easier to just do it for him. I know that might not have been the best choice but he wasn't getting the concept down to NOT throw. The word NO is somewhat lost on him. We didn't know if he was throwing out of compulsion and couldn't stop or just trying for attention.
So, the throwing behavior has improved. He's more interested in doing it himself than throwing it on the floor. And, he's really pretty good at it, especially when you consider he likes to eat his yogurt and oatmeal with a fork.
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