Anyone got any mice that they don’t want? They’d find a warm welcome here and would save me from having to hoover 18 times a day! Toby is currently having 2 inset days from school and is in a major grated cheese phase. Cubes and lumps don’t satisfy and coarse grated doesn’t pass muster – only finely grated, easy-to-drop-all-over-the-floor cheese will do!
I know that all kids have food fads but in autistic kids this is often taken to extremes. We’ve had the ‘only eating milky bar buttons’ phase (and then only if they are perfectly round – any irregularity discarded), the mini cheddar biscuit phase (again discarding any with broken edges or an irregular shape), the custard cream phase (ditto if not perfectly sandwiched together) and the banana (only if cut into 3 equal parts) phase. How I long to be able to cook a meal and have all 4 of us sit together at a table and eat the same thing – it’s a small dream of mine and a work in progress!!
Roll on wednesday!
little cotton rabbits 
…and that’s why we have two dogs – no crumbs, ever! Is the colour of the food a factor too? I notice they are all creamy yellow in shade…interesting!
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I know you have enough on your plate already but a dog would do the trick. They also have great non verbal communication powers and could get on well with Toby. It is fascinating to read about the things Toby insists on – it makes you wonder what he is thinking – why does he feel like that about perfect roundness or fine slithers of cheese?
Knitting with a puppy is however a no no – those balls of wool full of your scent just drive them mad and the needles – perfect chew toys. But cheese bits on the floor would vanish in seconds. I know living with autism must be so very hard but he sounds like a wonderful little boy.
I’ll send my 8month old weimaraner cross round and he can sort out you cheeses – put the knitting away however. He’s called Ferdy so to miss out on your Ferdie the fox was a killer.
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Two dogs are great;-) No crumbs here on the floor;-) But so recognizable!!! It takes a lot of time , Julie. Lots of time. It took me 14 years and my son is 15 now to let him eat a lot of things. But still, he is autistic;-))) so it always will be there this behavior. My son has now a “every day after school toasted ham and cheese sandwich”.
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I know a cocker spaniel called Smudge who would love to act as a hoover for you! ;0)
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Two inset days – arghhhhhh! We had ours tacked on at the start of the term so it didn’t feel quite as bad 🙂 Sorry about the cheese, the main problem with have we Edward, is where food meets! So Shepherds Pie is a perfect example!!!! I know it sounds weird, but i know it could be so much worse.
I have to agree though, a dog does act as an excellent hoover!
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In the Netherlands we do have dogs trained special for autistics. Don’t know if there is a possibility in the UK. We have two dogs, not trained for autistics, but so lovely with my son and the other children.
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you are a wonder….your patience is unlimited! I remember my little ones eating spaghetti bolognaise, they yummed it up but it took me an age to clear it up from them, the table, the floor, under their seats, high chiars etc…nightmare!
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I just finished cleaning the floors in my flat when I read your post and had to laugh a little about your cheese on the floor.
I actually found a pile of food in the corner behind my son’s highchair. The little one had me fooled. All this time I thought he was eating ALL his meals, but actually was carefully dropping pieces behind him in the corner when I was not looking.
There was four days of grilled cheese sandwiches back there!
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You can have the ones that are living in our garage – they’ve nibbled a big hole in the corner of the toy storage bag I made for sandpit toys in the winter.
And in our house, it was food touching other food that was the problem. Thankfully that phase has passed.
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Inset days are a pain. I’ve just spent the day cleaning and you have my sympathy. 😀 Hope your Mum is on the mend.
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I can lend you my sweet little dog, he’s an excellent hoover!
Alternatively the bl**dy mouse that is in the shed eating the deckchairs need rehoming!
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I’ve just been voting for your Christmas Puddings in the softies awards – good luck
And with the food thing, I teach in a special school with over half the school having a diagnosis of Autism so understamd completely where you are coming from 😆
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Hi Julie – Honestly you dont want the dreaded mice. We have them in the garage and they ate the foam off the bike rack.
They prefer it to Toby’s cheese
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yap, go the puppy route. Lilli has been with us a week and she’s a great little hoover…
Shouldn’t say that… the RSPCA won’t like me.
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Thinking of you and admiring you loads Julie!
Lucy x
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I’m right there with you, Alec did the grated cheese thing too and only liked the little bits, no broken chips, slices of cheese the same shape as the triangle cheese crackers, sandwiched cut into 5, frankfurts with the skin peeled off.
We did a mealtime management program through the early intervention centre and while it was a great help in getting him to actually sit in his chair we haven’t been able to getting him to expand his food range at all.
and yes the same meal for everyone would be a bit of a novelty wouldn’t, especially being able to eat together, I’m hoping that will change in a few years time.
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With my special needs brother when I was a child at home, it used to be a miracle if we could get through one evening meal where he didn’t spill his entire glass full all over my poor mom’s lap and in the floor. This happened for years.
Dogs are great vacuums indeed 🙂
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Hi Julie, I had to smile about the cheese, neither of my girls are autistic but Em loves cheese over everything else and we tease her that she must have been a mouse in a former life. Al was a thwarted left-hand (not by me, a helper at her playgroup)This made her very clumsy.She was always knocking over her glass of drink, walking into things she broke her wrists 3 times, hurt her knee etc casualty got to know us very well!. This week at Uni she “forgot” where her foot was!? and fell over her toe as she moved the chair ripping the nail. Fortunately her friends came to the rescue and bandaged her up!
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I long for those meals as well. With major food allergies and 2 children that like anything similar, I feel like the cafeteria lady. All the best in this phase. Could be sticky and drippy!
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Will be sending over the excess mice we have in our garage ASAP (trust me, I would rather have the cheese!)
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I notice a lot of doggy suggestions, which was my idea for the crumbs too! We often go through fads like this, Bailey would only have triangle cut sandwiches and if, god forbid, I should forget we would have to start over. No peas is rather annoying too, picked out of fried rice, spag-boll and stew!
Just to make you feel a little better I’ll tell you about my girlfriend with a non-autistic daughter who will only eat strawberries for breakfast, perfect bananas for lunch and meat with no veg for dinner. I used to tell her she should just put her foot down and say no as she often complained about the cost of this childs food bill. After staying a weekend with them I realised that complying with the food requests was far less painful than enduring one of her full blown tantrums. This child has a high-pitched scream that should be used by the army in warfare, it would make the enemy run home to their mothers.
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