Cafe Autism

This was me yesterday at the Epcot Food & Wine Festival:


Surrounded by several dozen booths serving exotic food samples and what did I go straight for? The Refreshment Port that serves McDonald's food. Most of the festival stuff is just too spicy or savory for my taste. Or has too many vegetables. I prefer to stick to stuff I'm fairly familiar with. That left me with quite a few desserts, some potato leek soup, and a few other options.

Hmm, not hard to see where my 5-years-old and still eating Gerber baby foods daughter gets it, is it?

I've heard it described that picky eating and some other things in autism may be the result of over-sensitive senses of smell, vision and hearing, that these senses pick up more than data than most people can. I can completely relate to that description.

Foods that my husband eats – that in fact, a lot of people eat – like boiled eggs, peanut butter, and fish,  are so strong smelling to me that they are nauseating. Wines that my husband can drink and detect subtle flavor hints in literally "burn" on my palette so much they hurt to drink. 

I share this for several reasons. First, my own over-sensitive palette makes it easier for me to understand my daughter's eating issues. So for that understanding, I am grateful, even though I know I miss out on a lot (and sometimes finding things that I like to eat in restaurants can be a pain).

It also makes me incredibly aware of how many autism symptoms are simply extreme forms of things that we would accept as 'quirks' in less extreme form. I'm an incredibly picky eater, but at least I'll eat a slice of pizza if you put the right thing on it – so I'm classified as "normal". My 5 year old is such a picky eater that she won't eat anything but Gerber 2nd & 3rd foods, and a couple of specific dry snacks. That makes her autistic. It's all a matter of degrees. There's a little bit in all of us though. 

I'll take an order of fries, thank you. And I'll share them with my daughter when she's ready for them.