Is it ARFID or picky eating?
So apparently I (M20) have been like this since i was around 2. I used to eat everything that was given to me like most kids, but one Christmas I had a sprout hidden in my Xmas dinner and after that I refused to eat 99% of the food on my plate. Currently my breakfast every morning is a nature valley bar, my lunch is always plain toast and my dinner shuffles between potato waffles, home cut chips (fries for Americans) and plain pasta. The only food I eat outside that bubble is pancakes on pancake day, crunchy nut cereal and some fruit (apples, bananas and grapes, occasionally pineapple). The only food on that list I don’t eat regularly is a plain filet-o-fish from McDonald’s, no toppings just fish and bun. No other kinds of fish either. 90% of the food cooked in my house makes me nauseous and sometimes worse, even just the thought of it causes bad reactions. My family have not been very understanding of this and when I was younger I was force fed on multiple occasions. Is there any reason for me to pursue this with a medical professional or will they just say that they can’t do anything about it? If not, is there anything I can do to try to help this?
@JustAskin2 I think it's worthwhile to go to a professional even just to see what type of supplementation you need, you likely are not getting all the nutrients you need.
I think it's likely a professional can help you expand your diet though. I think I have some sensory issues when it comes to food, although they are pretty mild, I can eat a wide range of foods and can eat many new foods without a problem. I have overcome foods that lead to me gagging before. Last one that stands out for me was pretty decent cuts of pork, I just asked my husband why we never got it besides sausage/bacon and he was like I had no idea it was something you wanted. We got a nice cut, marinated it, cooked it well. I really enjoyed it, yet there was just a weird sensory thing like it wasn't quite chicken, it wasn't quite beef and that was enough to trip a gag reflex. It's now something that we have on a fairly regular basis with no problems.
For that particular food what helped was 1) there was no pressure other than I wanted to be able to eat it. My husband may think I'm a little weird for liking somehting and gagging while eating it but I know his weird things too. 2) I enjoyed it, we used a marinade we used on steaks before (although who knows, maybe going with something I would have liked but different than what I used on beef may have been better in terms of the unconscious this isn't beef disconnect). 3) I ate it slowly, I'm not sure if I even ate the full piece at that meal, but I did eat a fair bit of it, so it wasn't just 1 or 2 bites. 4) We didn't wait a long time before having it again, so I got used to this is pork instead of not chicken/not beef.
Someone who actually has professional knowledge would have more extensive tips than the things I know just work for me.
