How to Help>Confident Parenting>Food

Autistic Children, Food and Eating

Good vs. Bad Foods

5 Food Groups5 Food Groups

  • Fruits and Vegetables
  • Starchy foods/ carbohydrates: bread, potatoes, rice, chapattis, cereals
  • Protein:
    • Vegetable Protein: beans, pulses, soya, nuts, seeds
    • Animal Protein: meat, fish, chicken
    • Diary and Eggs: milk, yoghurt, cheese, diary products
  • Fats: oil, butter, margarine, ghee,
  • Vitamins, Minerals, Spices and Salt

Non-Foods

  • Sugar: sweets, chocolate, biscuits, cake
  • Soft Drinks: Ribena, orange drink, Sunny Delight, Coca Cola, Fanta
  • Additives, E-numbers, colourings, preservatives, sweeteners, chemicals

Bad foods

  • White bread, processed/ ready-cooked meals, sweets, cake, salt

Sugary Foods & Drinks

Amount

Teaspoons of Sugar

Drinks 

Chocolate Milk

½ pint (8 oz.= 300g)

6

Soft Drink

1 small glass (6oz=170g)

4

Treats

Chocolate Bar

1 piece (2 oz= 50 g)

14

Ice Cream

½ pint (8 oz)

11

Tinned Fruit

1 portion (8 oz.)

10

Doughnut, plain

1 piece

4

Cereals

Sugar Pops

1 portion

10

Frosties

1 portion

7.4

Raisin Bran

1 portion

5.2

 

How Much Does a Child Need in Order to Survive?

Daily Food Guide for Adults and Teenagers

Breakfast

1 portion

cereal + milk

 

1 or 2 slices

bread

 

1

1 egg

 

1 glass or piece

orange, apple, …

 

Lunch 

2 servings

rice/ pasta or 1 potato

300g

2 servings

meat/ fish/ chicken

170g

or

 

 

2 servings

Vegetables: cooked, raw/ salad

170g

Afternoon Snack

1 piece

Fruit: apple, orange, banana, …

 

Dinner

2 or 3 servings

rice/ pasta or 1 potato

300 - 450g

1 or 2 servings

meat/ fish/ chicken

170g

or

 

 

1 –2 servings

Beans, nuts, seeds, tofu

100 –150g

or

 

 

1 serving

Dairy/ egg

100g

2 servings

Vegetables: cooked, raw/ salad

100 – 170g

Evening Snack

1 serving

fruit

100g

or

 

 

1 serving

Beans, nuts, seeds, tofu

100g

Ideas for After-School Snack

Provide a variety of finger-foods consisting of a few items of what you know your child likes, keep varying these, and add at least 5 other interesting small items, so that every day you child can look forward to ‘What will there be today?’, e.g.:

Fruit: 6 slices of apple, 4 segments of orange, 6 grapes, 1 slice of red and green melon, 5 cherries
Vegetable: 10 carrot sticks, 12 cherry tomatoes, 2 long celery sticks, 4 cucumber circles/ wedges, 3 ‘broccoli-trees’, 6 beans
Egg/ Dairy: 5 cubes of cheddar, a ‘boat’ of half an egg, 1 Petit Swiss
Dried fruit: 15 raisins, 4 dates, 2 apricots, 3 dried bananas
Drink: water in curly-straw cup or juice carton, to discourage spilling

 

Some Facts about Water and Coca Cola

Water

  • 75% of people are permanently dehydrated
  • People often eat, when really they are thirsty
  • 1 glass of water will stop midnight hunger pangs in most people
  • Lack of water = trigger of daytime fatigue
  • 8-10 glasses of water/ day could ease back/joint pain a lot.
  • 5 glasses/ day reduces risk of cancer (colon 45%, breast 79%, bladder 50%)

Coca Cola

  • The active ingredient in Coke is phosphoric acid (2.8 ph).
  • A T-bone steak in a bowl of coke will dissolve in 2, a nail in about 4 days.
  • It leaches calcium from bones, increasing risk of osteoporosis.
  • The citric acid in Coke removes stains from vitreous china/ toilet bowl in 2 hours, loosens rusty bolts, grease stains from clothes.
  • The Coca Cola concentrate requires a Hazardous Materials certificate that is reserved for Highly Corrosive Materials.
  • The distributors of Coke have been using it to clean the engines of their trucks for 20 years.