Thankful for Friends and Fruit

So Annie’s been on the anxiety medication for a couple of months now, she is slightly less rigid and we are having less tear storms and more ability to articulate her worries and concerns.   That is all great.  After the tree incident we halved the dose and that has negated the ‘dis-inhibition’side effect.  I’m so very very grateful for all of that.

However we have another side effect that is becoming an issue, Annie is hungry all.the.time. …

It started to creep up gradually, she would eat all her school lunch – unheard of and the one day she ate all her dinner as well! This kept happening, and Annie was eating breakfast and afternoon tea as well as all of her lunch and dinner and she was still hungry all.the.time.

One morning Annie got up and had two bowls of breakfast cereal, then she made herself a sandwich, followed by a big mug of milo, all this in the space of an hour and then about 20 minutes later she came to me asking for more food because she was hungry.

Which was about when I started to take notice of just how much Annie was eating all the time, unlike a growth spurt it didn’t stop after a week or two or three and she was noticeably starting to gain weight.

So I spoke to my friend S about what was going on and my concerns about how to approach the issue without giving Annie any (more) self esteem issues. S suggested a shelf in the fridge full of healthy snacks that Annie could access at anytime she wished – this way Annie could still snack when she wanted to but without the unhealthy side effects – lots of crunchy food which is great for sensory needs too.

I decided to institute the shelf for both girls and explained that this was now the snack shelf, the girls could eat from the snack shelf – pre sliced veggies (capsicum, cucumber, celery, snow peas), fruit (rockmelon) or the apple basket, any time they wanted.   Other food had to be asked for or offered before it could be eaten.

And you know what, it is working. I’m so grateful for my friend S who understood my worries and gave practical advice.

stuffwiththing

Life, the Universe and Autism