5 Autism Fussy Eating Tips You NEED to Know

Does your autistic child struggle with fussy eating or food sensitivities? You’re not alone. Many autistic kids — and even autistic adults — find mealtimes challenging due to sensory sensitivities, routine preferences, and anxiety around new foods.

In this episode of The Aspie World Podcast, I’m sharing 5 practical, autism-friendly tips to help you reduce mealtime stress, support healthy eating habits, and make food a more positive experience for everyone involved.

These strategies are based on real-life experiences and designed to work with your autistic brain, not against it.

• Why fussy eating is so common in autistic kids and adults

• How sensory sensitivities affect taste, texture, and smell preferences

• 5 simple, science-backed strategies to reduce mealtime stress

• How to introduce new foods safely and gently

• Tips to create autism-friendly mealtime routines that actually work

These tips aren’t about “forcing” change — they’re about understanding autistic needs and creating a calmer, happier eating experience.

• Parents of autistic children struggling with fussy eating

• Autistic adults wanting to better manage food sensitivities

• Teachers, carers, and professionals supporting autistic individuals

• Anyone curious about the link between autism, sensory issues, and eating habits

If mealtimes have been a daily battle, this episode will give you practical, autism-friendly strategies you can start using today.

🎁 FREE Download: Get your Autistic Adult Bulletproof Brain Starter Kit and learn science-backed strategies to reduce overwhelm, manage sensory stress, and build unstoppable confidence → www.bulletproofbrain.org

If this episode helped you, please:
✅ Subscribe to The Aspie World Podcast so you never miss an episode
✅ Leave a review — your feedback helps us reach and support more autism families
✅ Share this episode with friends, parents, or anyone struggling with autism and fussy eating

With the right understanding and strategies, mealtimes don’t have to be stressful — they can become calmer and more enjoyable. 💙

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:Who This Episode Is For:Resources & Support for Autism FamiliesLet’s Stay Connected

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
OK, so here are my fussy eating tips for autism and you
definitely need to know all thatis right here.
Coming up guys, welcome back to the Astro world.
My name is Dan, I have autism atADHD and I'm making weekly
videos just like this world all about helping people achieve
greater life success being on the autism spectrum.
So if you want to come with me on this journey and help 10X
people's lives on the autism spectrum, then make sure to hit

(00:22):
the subscribe button down below,but click on that notification
bell. It really does help guys, what
is going on? I know that, you know, different
seasons come up and it seems like birthdays and holiday
season and there's a lot of different types of food outings.
You know, we're going to go to arestaurant with our workers or
we're going to go here with our friends and family and family
dinners and holiday dinners and Thanksgiving and all this kind
of stuff. It gets a little crazy, I know,

(00:42):
but it's not the end of the world.
Autistic individuals are notorious for being fussy
eaters, right? I myself are a fussy eater.
Everybody in my family is a fussy eater.
My meal family, not like growingup family, my my kids and my
parents. So that being said, I thought
what the best thing to do is to give you 5 really awesome tips
about fussy eating that you can really help create a better time

(01:04):
for people on the open spectrum.And it's just going to be
amazing. OK, so guys, here we go.
OK, guys. So the first thing is respecting
the sensory preference. Now, sometimes it could be a
sensory need that you don't likepasta cold or you don't like
having your food too cold. So you have to eat it, you know,
straight away as soon as it's served.
And a lot of people will wait around until everyone have them
plates before they start taking into a meal.

(01:25):
But you have to respect the sensory needs.
You know, that means like havingspecific eating habits or maybe
they cannot have, you know, wet foods, touching dry foods on a
plate. If you respect that, you can
have an easier time having the personally or satisfactory
actually eat with you guys. Imagine having something that
you, you know, imagine you're a vegetarian, right?
And so we came to give you like some steak and bacon, you'd be

(01:47):
like, I can't eat it because it's not for me right now.
For it's like for sensory issue with food, it's simple that you
can't eat something you can't attest to.
So think about that and respect those kind of boundaries, right?
So #2 is creating a structured meal time routine because a lot
of the time we'll be going to families houses for, for kind of
like, I don't know, Christmas orThanksgiving or something like
that. And the routine will be all over

(02:09):
the place. So if you can create a
structured routine, even if you're not at home, if you can
follow the same type of routine and just make sure that you're
able to identify the fact that you're going to be outside of
routine, you're going to be outside of your norm.
Can I put a routine down to thisto help this situation?
You're going to have such an easier transition with that food
because we're all after structure and routine, and
especially autistic individuals thrive from routine and

(02:31):
structure. So having a structure around
meal times, it's a no brainer and it's super, super
beneficial. Okay, so the next one is
exploration of food through play.
So encourage people on the suspension to play with their
food a little bit to kind of explore it.
Because if you're not exploring your food to play with it, then
you're never going to get a chance to actually try new food.
Say like having a fruit platter for the first time in election.

(02:54):
You've never experienced those certain textures that allowing
someone to play with it and pickstuff up and have a feel about
it is going to be so much more beneficial for their confidence
and they may actually try it. I just want to interrupt this
video guys, to say thank you to today's video sponsor, Brillia.
Brillia is a homeopathic medication which is pretty
excellent for autism and ADHD. You know, I take this because it
helps me with concentration. I feel less anxious, but it also

(03:16):
works to help with restlessness,irritability and impulsivity and
helps you increase clarity and concentration.
Now Brillia is a non subscription based medication.
It also comes for adults and children so you can check that
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There's no like nasties in it and there's nothing addictive in
it, but I would say to recommendchecking out with your doctor
first before taking any medication just to make sure

(03:37):
it's cool with you. But you can get it right now at
15% off using the code ASP 15. The link is in my description up
here now or in my bio if you'll go try to find it.
OK guys back to the video. Okay so the next one is
utilizing visual support. Now all the time we can get
worried that my assistant kid and my assistant boyfriend part
however isn't even the food because of XY and Z.

(03:57):
But one of the time it's down tovisualization.
Like if they don't know that this is what having now or
having something else next, it can get confusing.
So one of the things I'd like todo is prepare for you to take
with me to somewhere. So if I don't like the meal
ahead of me, I've always got somebody else.
So you can always have a small kind of like visual chart that
says this is the video I'm in now, but we also have backup
later. So this now that later I talk

(04:17):
about the now and next cards locked in my Autism Level Up
autism membership website. Now if you're interested in
checking that out, it's a monthly subscription for only
$7.97. But it's awesome and it really
educates you, and you have all the download charters, lovely
videos and all kinds of cool stuff.
So if you're interested, go to levelofautism.net.
OK, so the last one we're talking about is offering a few

(04:38):
choices within limits. Like you don't want to have an
approach where you're saying like, OK, we'll try everything
out. You know, you're going to have
to have some kind of like finiteway of saying, OK, well, this is
what we're going to have for dinner.
This is the backup. And other than that, we're just
going to have to not even go home.
You have to have realistic expectations.
And the person on the autism spectrum also has to encourage
themselves to have realistic expectations and go with the

(04:59):
flow a little bit in terms of the fact that sometimes there's
going to be places where you do visit.
Is it that you're not going to be able to eat at?
I've been there 100 million times and that's absolutely
fine. OK, so if you want to download
my free Autism Life Hacks PDF book, you can download it right
now from autismhacks.net. The link is in description down
below. So don't forget to check that
out. If you found this video helpful,
please give it a thumbs up and share it on Facebook and social

(05:20):
media to help spread the word ofhelping this type of situation
out. OK guys, I love you.
Always peace out. See you in the next one.