I know this is a topic we revisit constantly, but getting Alex to Try Things is an uphill battle. Take cocoa. Delicious, homemade hot cocoa. Nothing better on a cold afternoon when your hands are freezing and you’re hungry and you can’t remember the last time you
felt really warm. Take, for instance, Sunday afternoon, when Jeff and Alex went out to run errands and I stayed home to potter around the house and feel glad I was inside a warm apartment.
When they came in, Alex looked chilly and a little unhappy, and I had the inspired idea of making cocoa. …read more

We were in Chinatown on Saturday, where we often eat Vietnamese food, but since I was about to go on a restricted diet for a couple of days I got to pick, and I was craving Cantonese. It was a tough decision, because a Vietnamese restaurant was a lot more likely to have some grilled chicken-on-a-stick that Alex would eat. But homestyle Chinese favorites were calling, so we went to China Village, an ordinary but great place on Baxter Street.
Since we’ve been forcing Alex to taste things at home, it wasn’t that hard to get him to try some crispy …read more

Halloween wasn’t this big a deal when I was a kid.  Sure, it was a very exciting few days while we planned costumes and imagined all the candy we were going to get, but it was never the season it now seems to be.  I’m not sure whether Halloween is so much on my mind
because we’ve all become Halloween-mad, or because of the kids or because autism makes it a bit of a project.  Whatever the reason, I’m glad to find that there are literally thousands of tips online for surviving and even enjoying the day (or week or month).
One …read more

In the last couple of weeks, Alex has eaten: a raspberry, some crisp roast chicken, a cucumber slice, part of a meatball, steamed broccoli, shrimp. When I say “eaten,” I don’t actually mean consumed. Several of these things didn’t quite make it past the highly classified lips and mouth test. For instance, that meatball. He had it in his mouth for a few seconds; he made a very unhappy face, and soon the offending object was carefully removed and deposited in a parent’s hand.
We decided it’s high time for Alex to expand his horizons — and I wouldn’t be surprised …read more

Alex is not on a gluten-free diet, but I wish he were. I have this magic belief that gluten is not good for him. I went gluten-free myself for a couple of months last year based on something someone I met in Central Park told me so I’m hardly one to make informed decisions about diet. It seemed like a harmless thing to do, and it dovetailed with my general calorie-cutting. In Alex’s case, I think I’d like him to go
wheat-free because he pretty much lives on wheat. Pretzels … Goldfish … saltines when he can get them. …read more

I’m often envious of families with typical kids. Life seems a lot easier. So whenever we can do something that everyone else does — get out of the house within half an hour, see a floor that isn’t completely covered with toys, I’m basically thrilled.

Find a couple of restaurants you can all enjoy. Done! Alex can eat in coffee shops and Chinese restaurants and pizza places, which I took on as a project years ago. We often have to buy a box of Saltines for him during the meal, but that’s fine. We can eat breakfast, …read more

The Mayo Clinic just released results of a study it conducted on special dietary restrictions for children with autism. Its findings will surprise some and irritate others: researchers concluded that while children with autism are more prone to constipation and picky eating,  they did not find a significantly higher incidence of gut problems in children with autism than in children who are typically developing.
We don’t have Alex on a wheat-free, dairy-free diet. Part of our reluctance to try the diet stemmed from how difficult a path we’ve had since before he was born. Following a year in the hospital and …read more

Comments continue to come in to the forum-posted question, “What trait of your autistic child would you like to see more of in yourself or in others?”
“His honesty,” said one respondent.  “The ability to be oblivious to the judgment of others,” said another. “His determination to succeed,” added another. ”The belief that everything is awesome and that the world is a wonderful place (it scares the hell out of me!)”, replied another.
“Absolute acceptance of everyone without regard to age, race, social status or cultural differences!” said another parent. ”Being joy-filled regardless of the situation,” said another. “My son is happy to have …read more

For a long time, and thank God, Alex has been eating yogurt. He likes the pink Dannon Le Cremes, which seem to be raspberry or strawberry. As long as they’re pink there’s no difference to Alex and none to me, either, because I hate yogurt.
I hate the look of it, the feel of it, the smell of it, and presumably I’d hate the taste of it. Slick, cold, smelling vaguely of something spoiled. Which it isn’t, of course, at least as far as nutrition is concerned, and I hate myself for hating it, because I know it’s fabulous for you …read more

A couple of years ago I began thinking about “The Miracle Worker.” Specifically that moment when Annie Sullivan realizes she’s never going to get through to Helen Keller while she’s at home and her parents indulge her and give her candy whenever she starts to have a tantrum.
If only we had a teacher who could take Alex away for two weeks — reach him and teach him, put him in TV detox.
I’m ashamed to say Alex does not eat with us at the table. He has some other behaviors we don’t like (constant TV-watching, for one) that we’ve allowed to …read more