Many kids are picky eaters. My 11-year-old sister likes her sandwiches with mustard, pickles and lettuce only… just bread, mustard, pickles and lettuce. This probably sounds extremely unappealing to a majority of people, but that’s how she likes it, and that’s the only way she will eat it. Her sandwich preference definitely falls under the category of picky eating, and new research shows that autistic children are even more likely to be picky when it comes to eating. Reuters states that autistic children “tend to refuse more foods and are more likely to restrict their diets to a smaller variety of foods than other children.”
These picky eating habits can put all children at nutritional risk; “If children are not eating foods from each of the food groups in sufficient amounts they may be at risk for nutrient inadequacy,” says Dr. Linda Bandini, of the E.K. Shriver Center, University of Massachusetts Medical School and Boston University. The study involved a little over 100 kids, half with autism spectrum disorder and half were typically developing children. The children were weighed and measured, and parents were asked about their child’s eating habits; they also kept a food diary for three days. Many autistic children in the study lacked the appropriate levels of vitamins A, C, D, as well as zinc, calcium and fiber because of the fact that they were more likely to limit the variety of foods they ate compared to to the typically developing kids.
Concerned about your child’s nutrition? Find a pediatrician near you who can help.
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