There are many people in the world that would criticize me for feed my son chicken nuggets for breakfast. They would do those because they either have no experience with special needs children or simply don’t understand how difficult it is, to get a special needs children to actually eat sometimes.
Emmett John is by far, our most sensory sensitive child we have. He is the most difficult to feed as he is so extremely picky. If his food isn’t perfect, he will refuse to eat.
Most people say that if he’s hungry, he’ll eat. However, this doesn’t always hold true for kids like Emmett.
My little Emmett is on the #Autism spectrum and is not going to operate in a way that always makes sense to those of us who don’t see and experience the world, the way he does. So when I say he will not eat, he literally will not eat if his food isn’t perfect. He doesn’t do this because he’s stubborn or trying to be difficult.
The truth is that I don’t fully understand it. I simply accept that it’s there and do what I can to help him through it.
So when Emmett was willing to eat chicken nuggets for breakfast this morning, I was more than happy to make them for him.
Chicken is perfectly good breakfast. Next time you hear someone criticize you ask them when "so its ok to eat the egg but not the chick?" or say "all that sugar!"
We started that way when Ethan was little. School lunches were totally off sensory wise. He wold go on what we called "hunger strikes". It was basically Carnation Instant Breakfast lovingly disguised as chocolate milk. We moved onto chicken nuggets and chili soup of all things. Now at 12we have a vast array including Fire Hot Cheetos lol. Hopefully it will get better for you as time goes on. We also put him through Food Groups Sensory Therapy which also helped. God bless.
Well said everyone. I can totally relate with all of you.
My daughter will become severely malnourished before she'll eat something she doesn't want. She just can't gag down certain foods. I say, let him eat chicken nuggets for breakfast! It's protein. I offer lots of healthy stuff, try to keep a reign on the ice cream and cookies, and hide a crushed multivitamin in her yogurt. We, as a society worry too much about what time of day certain foods are appropriate. If he wants pasta marinara for breakfast and cereal for dinner, who cares?
When you think about it how is it much differenet than fried eggs with bacon…
I can empathize as a special needs parent. I tried to feed my son healthful foods but there are times when the goal is to make sure that he gets something in his system. I say do what works for your family. People will judge regardless, so don't pay them any mind.
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