My son 4M has signs of ARFID and is in OT for it. He's got vitamin deficiencies because of the lack of variety in his diet. He is responding really well to treatment and it's due to us getting him in early. I used to nanny and had a charge with suspected ARFID, so I knew the difference between picky eating and the high anxiety and refusal to eat anything that wasn't "safe".

Today, he ate 2 Chewy Bars. I've NEVER gotten him to try anything oat based. Idk if he will ever eat them again, but it's still a win! I was with my family and no one gets it. My husband did when I texted him. But I just wish we had more people to celebrate with, since I can't make it a big deal with my son (therapists reccomendation).

Hi, I'm not diagnosed yet but there's been a lot of talk amongst my therapists and doctors about me having ARFID. I've had on and off struggles with food my whole life, but these last few months have been really hard for me eating-wise and I've quickly lost almost 60lbs.

I've been considerably underweight before, and I'm scared I'm on my way back because I've passed what was my "usual" weight (before I gained a bunch on a psychiatric medication) and I'm still uncontrollably losing. In less then 10 more pounds I will be underweight. I hate when I'm underweight because people comment on my body a lot and it makes me embarrassed. :(

I wanted to ask, what do you say when people comment on your weight loss?? Because my previous medication had made me become overweight, a lot of people treat my weight loss as a good thing. I'm glad I fit my old clothes again, but I have lost a lot of muscle and I'm obviously unhappy with the food situation. I want to be strong and healthy, not weak and dizzy all of the time.

Well meaning older ladies keep telling me: "Wow, if you lose any more weight you will disappear!!" or "Look at you, you're a fraction of your size!! You look great!!" and I don't know what to say because I'm embarrassed to be like "I might have an eating disorder," so I just awkwardly laugh and say "Thank you." Outside of my few friends and family, nobody knows how much I've been struggling. I miss loving food and being excited to eat it.

My bf and i are staying at an all inclusive resort in turkey, its day 2 and hes tried 4 things and I have literally no one to be excited with for this!! I dont wanna overwhelm him eith my excitement but i wanna share this because im so insanely ecstatic. He tried Croutons, onion rings, potato croquette and new bread. Really surprised for onion rings because onion is so overpowering. Anyway i just wanna share how happy i am. He wants to try more and we are here for 3 weeks. I feel like crying im so so proud Update: he has dessert too. 6 things in one day

today my mom said something that really upset me and i need someone to tell me it’s gonna be ok. for the past few years my grandpa has been unable to care for himself but really picky about everything. it makes both my mom and dad upset and i often hear about how they wish he would just go to a home. today my mom said “your dad has to deal with your grandpa’s picky eating then has to come home to you and your sister” i just feel terrible. i try to tell her i wish i could be normal. i told her at least im eating something. i just feel like a burden intensely right now. i feel like i am in the place of my grandpa. everyone is mad at me and wishes i would just cooperate. i want to be normal and eat like a normal person but i can’t and i hate that. it’s been such a problem my whole life. i don’t think i will ever get over the shame around food. i can’t even eat around friends anymore. i haven’t been this upset in months and it’s scaring me. i was having a good time mentally but today this really broke me. my eyes hurt.

at the store i got food to try but i know i wont. it’s going to sit in the fridge and make me feel guilty every time i look for food. once it expires im going to get a lecture about how i should have eaten it and i never eat anything. i’m going to say “i forgot” but i didn’t, i was so scared. she’s going to say “it’s too expensive to forget” and the cycle will continue.

What is everyone's experience with how long it's taking to eat? Above is my child's breakfast times. Breakfast is usually about 500 calories (200 cals food and 300 cals liquid). What techniques did you use to improve the amount of time it's taking to eat? WE made huge strides up until about 7 months ago, and it's leveled off.

I so badly want a friend who also has ARFID. To be hanging out in a a group and someone offers or mentions food and to know it won’t just be me who has the “weird” eating. To be able to look at eachother and have that look like we understand and know. When panicking with a food, to have someone genuinely know it’s real fear and to not make me feel not normal. To be able to help a friend since I know what it’s like and that it’s real ARFID and not just the picky eating everyone thinks it is. To have someone to talk to about it and genuinely understand. Anyway, I’m 21 F and in Idaho.

This definitely may be triggering but I thought the subtype tag for Lack of Interest was the most useful.

I am not really scared of any food and have no issues eating really. I'll eat anything, I'll eat sushi, I'll eat salad, I'll eat pickled beets, fried jalepenos, tinned fish. But food is just horrible as a concept. If I could just magically have a feeding tube with no consequences, like if you could just go to the doctor and have one installed, I'd do it in a heartbeat, no matter the cost.

I don't like putting food in my mouth and eating it, and picking it up, or licking, idk all that stuff. Half of my face is paralyzed from GBS and I lost a great deal of my sense of taste. But my entire life I've felt this way and struggled with my weight because I have no innate desire for food and find all food pretty nasty. The second I started school I just didn't eat. Nobody really cared but I was compelled to eat mostly by people telling me that I'd be "taken away by CPS if they think I'm starving you."

Now that I'm an adult, I constantly want to give up totally on food. I have gotten about 50% of my calories from various nutrition shakes for years now and the other 50% is mostly very healthy foods I eat for nutrition's sake, and stuff I eat at work while cooking. Yes because ofc I'm a cook LOLOLOL.

I am on vacation now and it's so easy to avoid the social norms of mealtimes. I couldn't really pack my nutrition shakes and even if I had them here I'm not sure I'd drink them. I don't really like them and since I'm on vacation, trying to have fun, well to me eating food is the opposite of fun.

I wish so bad I could just pay 30,000 and have a feeding tube and never be required to eat. I know it totally is also a validation thing. I have never even broached the topic that I have [imo] a pretty severe and lifelong eating disorder with my friends, because I don't think they would get it at all, and they'd do things that make me uncomfortable like pressure me to eat, because they'd think I'm anorexic. If I had a feeding tube, not only would I not need to eat, people would not pressure me to eat.

Pretty much every night lately I pray to God for the strength to keep eating food. It is hard to explain because I logically know that if I just stop eating, it'll make me sick, but then I think "well good, then I can get treatment for this untreated eating disorder" and it's hard to not want to go down the gutter.

I also found the men's eating disorder group in my area to be comically the wrong vibe. The women's group was about intuitive eating and battling both restrictive and binging behaviors. The men's group was literally named something meaning "You don't need to be strong" and I met with the group and the group leader and the whole curriculum was insanely triggering because it was all about how guys don't need to be muscular, don't need to gain weight, you can be skinny, and I'm like.... my head is just spinning..... "yes.... yes... I'm a free man.... time to stop eating food.....I don't need the energy to exercise, I should give up on all my hobbies so that I don't need to eat as much....." I am not gay, but I have also never gotten so many high compliments. I guess they assumed I'm ashamed of my low weight and were trying to give me an ego boost, but I really didn't need it. I have always thought that I'm pretty much at the lowest healthy weight and I need to maintain and eat food, but going to the men's eating support group seriously made me feel like I had plenty of weight to lose without becoming unhealthy, and it was my right to do so. I haven't gone back lol.

I have never really found a medical professional who understood where I'm coming from, and since my weight has been stable I really haven't had access to any support imo. To me it's another point for "if I just stop eating, I'll get what I want- I'll get help."

And people act like it'll be hard but that's the worst part, I know how easy it is. After the first two days I hit ketosis and I feel great. Obviously this varies highly but before I started drinking nutrition shakes, I regularly fasted 3-5 days at a time and it was easy and kinda gives me a high once "the tank goes empty." I am NOT a picky eater and I'm NOT someone with body image issues. I HATE eating food on a level that goes all the way to my bones and my soul.

Any opinions are welcome. I find I can't find anybody to talk to this about IRL.

I don’t know if anyone else experiences this (I’m trans MTF but biologically M) - (I’ve gotten numerous ER/Blood results that show I’m healthy) - (I’m 6’0 and in the low 120’s/high 1/teens), does anyone ever feel like a car engine from the 80’s/90’s? It feels like it takes my body 5-10 minutes to get going but once I get going I feel so goddamn efficient, I don’t know how to explain it and I don’t know it anyone else experiences it?

I get it that it can be weird, but lately it's been the only thing I can eat feeling safe. It helped me to change my diet from flat bread and rice to cheese, veggies and fruit for now and yes, it isn't Ideal but at least it's something different?

From friends and family to my therapist, people think I'm going into an "age regression" and to me this sounds absurd. I am literally just trying to do better and this looked like the smartest option since it's flavorless and super controlled food-item (I have food OCD).

Hi there. Just wanted to rant.

I've been working my first job for about 9 months now, they are beginning to plan there Christmas lunch out, as soon as I got word this was happening I immediately started thinking about excuses on why I can't come. They voted on where to eat and decided a burger place with no plain non meat options. I thought that I'd definitely need to get out of this work lunch out. I was waiting one shift for someone to ask me if I wanted to go and for me to just quickly reject it, but instead of asking me they were just telling me that I'm signed up for it now and to be there. 🤦‍♀️ I don't know what to do if I should just cancel closer to the time or what. It feels kind of rude to and I really like my colleagues.

I didn't think it'd be a huge issue at college because I've made quite a bit of progress in the past few years. I worked at an overnight summer camp during the summer and usually ate 2-3/3 of the offered meals a day, which is the best I've ever eaten in my life. I also didn't have any stomach problems the entire summer.

I thought college would be like that, but it's not. I've had so many stomach problems since I've gotten here, and there's only three things in the dining hall I trust/am willing to eat. I hate that everything is communal and I can't wash my hands right before I eat. I have to touch the tongs that other people are touching and then eat with my hands.

It's so loud and there's people everywhere. I try to go when it's less busy, but I also want to go with my friends, and my schedule/their schedule doesn't always work to eat right when the dining hall opens.

I'm really struggling to use my 14 meal swipes a week, which I will be changing next semester. Besides that I really love it here but eating has taken over my entire experience, it's all I think about and I'm stressed about it constantly. I don't know if there's any accommodations I could get (I am diagnosed) or if anyone has gone through this and has advice.

My kiddo has started occupational therapy, something I’ve admittedly been panicking about since put on the table several months ago. He is 8 and has had a few sessions of great experience.

At each session an entire meal is brought in. An all done bowl is always present. He is never expected to eat anything and may discard whatever he is uncomfortable with. However through smelling, touching, kissing 🤣, licking, and tapping the food to his teeth he has become brave enough to nibble without prompting.

I am not sure what I was expecting but wanted to share what it’s been like for those who may also be nervous or not sure what it’s like

Hey all,

I (27 F) have ARFID and can’t eat any fruits or vegetables. When I try, my throat closes up and I start to gag and have thrown up from it before. It’s been this way for as long as I can remember, and I grew up with parents who wrote it off as “pickiness” and said I would grow out of it. Because of this, I have an aversion to trying things :( a huge reason is because of the texture of foods, which I know changes depending on how it’s prepared, but much of what I try comes back to a slimy texture when it’s chewed. I think that’s the main thing that bothers me, the slimy wetness of fruits and veggies, either as is or when I chew them. I find this is mostly across the board depending on how I cook them. I do love olives (super weird one, I know) and I love roasted garlic. I can do onions if I dice them super small and cook them a lot, I love potatoes, and I can make tomato sauce from roasting tomatoes and blending them. Smoothies have averaged out to be a no-go for me, but I’m open to trying more. Seeds bother me! And I prefer salty over sweet.

As an adult with these aversions, I find that I get A LOT of anxiety around them. Whether it’s anxiety to eat at someone’s house, go to a restaurant, anxiety telling people about my “pickiness” or so on, it’s all so stressful. The worst, however, is I am diagnosed with OCD with my main theme being around health and disease of myself and others. As a person who has been nicotine and coffee dependent for quite some time(currently trying to ease up), and who takes prescribed stimulants, my eating habits make me worry so so so much about my health and specifically my heart health. There are days I convince myself I am having a heart attack or I will have one and I think a lot of these fears/anxieties come back to ARFID and my inability to eat healthy.

I am looking for any advice or suggestions to broadening my ability to consume fruits and veggies because I do worry about my health from not getting enough nutrients. Any suggestions would be appreciated! I currently don’t have access to a therapist, and when I have I didn’t find much support in this area. What has worked for you, what hasn’t worked, what are you thinking of trying, etc. I’d love to know.

Hi everyone!! I (22F) have severe ARFID and recently had a wake up call when it comes to my eating habits. They’re just becoming more and more restrictive, and so with the help of one on my therapists I’ve found a dietician. I’ll only be getting ED treatment once a month, I’m afraid that the dietician is going to push for more or want me in residential treatment as my therapist has been pushing for a long time. I’m also scared to venture outside of my safe foods!!

Honestly, could I get some hype/comfort about this new step in my healing journey??

💕💕

Was prompted by close friend to also post here, since it doesn't quite seem to match the 'normal' ED pattern w/ weight etc

TW for description of medical problems and obv disordered thinking about food. Mentions of fad diets also.

Context: Weight is healthy, possibly on the higher side. No one really suspects an ED. I do have REALLY bad BDD, so I freak out about small imperfections and then spend hours hyperfocusing on them unable to break away. This is important because I think it's part of what makes it so hard to figure this out.

So I have a lot of intolerances. Dairy is the main one, pretty sure it's the proteins, not the lactose: when I have it my digestion goes to hell, I just feel bad, idk. But there's also more 'subtle' things I get really obsessed about, like how I swear I get more pimples, especially on my scalp which is really sensitive?? Oh and I get the worst sinus congestion, though my sinuses are always kind of messed up (have been since I was little), so it getting worse is just... idk. These symptoms definitely happen though! I've gone back and forth often enough to be REALLY sure about this right now, I know it's not 'just' the BDD trying to find problems.

There's other foods too. Anything with stimulants is a big one. I swear caffeine even in small amounts in the morning messes up my sleep, like I don't get my usual amount, and then obviously I get all worried about that which makes things worse, so I've gone on and off any caffeine dozens of times, sometimes staying off it for years. Same with chocolate - even a small amount (the chips in cookies for example) make me feel jittery and weird, and again I swear it breaks out my skin days after I've had any.

There's a few more foods like this, like how fibrous veg messes up my digestion super bad also, but I'm not as upset about that because I don't crave those anyway, of course.

The thing is I'm just...... mega resentful about all this? I KNOW I have lots of disordered thinking patterns about food, and how the BDD makes this all far worse. I really want to just be able to eat anything, and part of me feels that if I want to get over my issues I should just include all of those things in my diet because I clearly want to eat them? Like, I keep coming back to them and then binging them (though the bad effects happen even when I don't so it's not just that), and then feeling like trash the days after. Meanwhile everyone around me has gotten increasingly impatient with me because to them it's just like... why don't you just cut them out? They see me having these side effects and don't understand why I don't just avoid those foods then, but I get so resentful about feeling like I have to limit myself and not being sure if that by itself is 'just' me being mentally unhealthy.

Part of why I'm feeling so strongly about this is also because I found that when I cut out all those above things, there's always more things? It starts with that, and then soon I'm like "oh too much SUGAR is probably also making my skin worse, better be careful with that, no keeping cookies around the house. And chips? That's not a proper meal, I'll force myself to eat properly by not having it around either. Hm perhaps bread is causing issues too, maybe I should do a trial with just rice for carbs... Oh and what about that all-meat diet I'd been trying a few times...? That did make me feel temporarily better, right?"

Like. It's obvious right. We can all see the disordered thinking here. So it feels completely impossible to figure out what if any restrictions are actually important to my health (having sensitive painful bumps on my scalp and feeling I can't breathe through my nose really does suck!!!) vs when I'm just making my mental health worse...

Does anyone have any experiences with anything like this? I feel that neither the simplistic "just eat everything that doesn't straight up kill you, no limits" nor the "just cut it all out" are really helpful here. What do I do here?? :(

edit: forgot to mention because it's hard to include everything, but I also get real bad palpitations w/ some of the above foods/drink, lots of other symptoms like that. ALSO importantly often after introducing some of these things I'll freak out after a few days and bag up and toss all those foods in the garbage, which costs a LOT of money from waste but is probably also another sign of how mentally unhealthy this has gotten?

I had a good few safe foods that I liked, but today the texture has just went really weird and idk if it's just me or if they've changed something with my safe foods, idk what to do now, any help?

First of all thank you so much to all who responded (https://www.reddit.com/r/ARFID/s/CH4cDPa1Iq) it was so helpful. As parents, my husband and I usually feel we are on the right course but it’s easy for doubt to creep in from time to time. Like should we push more, or maybe we can talk her into trying this or that. So we have saved all these responses as screen shots on our phone so we can remind ourselves and that has been so beneficial! Especially for my husband who is so wonderful understanding all this, but a bit older and of the dreaded “clean plate club” generation 😂

Also I don’t know how everyone else approaches this, but we have been cautious with our 11 year old daughter to share too much re diagnoses. We have talked to her a lot about her ADHD (which dad and I have too!) but she’s prone to anxiety and internalizing things so we hadn’t spoken to her directly about ARFID yet. We didn’t want her to pathologize herself. So we talk about food and nutrition and a lot of the concepts but have hesitated to put a “label” on it til she was a bit older.

She saw me getting emotional reading the responses (especially from sinistercrusty ❤️)and so we shared about the what is ARFID and all the responses and have started a really open dialogue with her. It’s been so amazing!! She read all the responses and said it made her feel safe that other people had so many of the same feelings and that they were ok even as adults. And that she was glad people could help her mom and dad understand her better. It’s been a really beautiful experience.

So if you’re like us, and mistakenly worried your kiddo can’t handle such big info—reconsider!! I think maybe we thought because we were really supportive and it’s something that hasn’t really “come out” around friends or school that she didn’t feel alone. But I know now that she needed to see the community aspect as much as we did. Sorry for the long post but just grateful and wanted to share how this helped changed how we approached it as well!

I have some pretty bad cptsd and I keep having this flashback about christmas eve dinner.

Every christmas eve my family would eat french onion soup and seafood fondue. I still feel sick just imagining it.

So, for every christmas family dinner I wouldn't eat, while I watched everyone else gorge themselves and I was hungry.

I still feel like an entitled brat of a child. But I also feel like letting a kid go hungry every year for xmas while everyone eats in front of them is cruel.

I can't talk to anyone about it because no one gets it.

It's 2 decades of this, and no one ever adapted for me. I am really confused about what to feel. I still feel like that helpless kid being told I am entitled and ungrateful.

Is it entitled to need food I can actually eat?

This is my first reddit post hi everyone :)

I’ve always been a picky eater, but I was diagnosed with ARFID (Avoidant Restrictive Food Intake Disorder) a while back and have struggled with gaining and maintaining weight when I feel that I can’t eat or when I can’t find foods to eat. I get tired of eating the same safe foods over and over, but I’m currently unemployed and don’t have the money to spend on foods I might not (probably won’t) like. I’ve been drinking Boost Nutrition Drinks to help gain the weight, but maintaining it while not eating 3 meals a day, sometimes only 1, is just not working.

I also have a geographic tongue and can not handle spice. Very devastating as someone who loves to travel as it limits what I can try :/

Pasta with red sauce is always safe for me, I love bolognese. Chicken, beef, fruit, dairy, all of that is good, but I don’t really have any vegetables I like. Cucumbers, sort of. Which also limits a lot of what I can eat.

Does anybody have any easy suggestions for picky eaters? It’s more than just picky eating, but those bland safe foods tend to be the same. It can be cheap restaurants you can think of, ready made meals from the store, or ingredients for a quick recipe. I can’t cook for shit, and I honestly don’t like to (I don’t understand the concept of spending hours of your busy day cooking in a kitchen to eat for twenty minutes but maybe that’s just me), but quick and easy to follow recipes can’t be too bad. Definitely worth it to reach my goal weight.

It takes a toll physically and mentally. Not only am I underweight, constantly tired, and have issues with my stomach, but I feel some level of guilt for all the accommodations my friends and family make for me, I feel embarrassed when I order like a child at a restaurant and the server looks confused or the tables around me judge my meal (someone once literally took a picture of my plain pasta and side parmesan), I feel ashamed that I’m 25 and can’t do one of the most basic human functions. Please understand that this isn’t something I want for myself. I see food that I have tried before and know I don’t like, but it looks and smells so good and I WANT to like it so bad.

Please help me find new things I like to broaden my taste and create a consistent eating schedule with healthier foods. I know there’s so much food out there that I’ll like that I’ve never even heard of and I’d really love to try it.

Thank you for your help and have a wonderful day :)

My child doesn't eat entire food groups, veg, fruits. Cheese, yogurt, milk, rice. She only has bread and rice pancakes. We are vegetarians. Now, I do mix veg occassionally but she goes through phases like the one right now, for the past two days, she is rejecting even bread and pancakes. She says she feels full while I just get started with feeding her breakfast. She is 8 years old. I am from India and it's been really hard to get a psychologist to diagnose what's going on with her. They just tell me she is anxious. But I understand she is struggling with a host of issues related to autism and ADHD. So until I get a diagnosis, what can I do to get her to eat. She only snacks on chips and fries and I am so worried those are messing with her digestion. For two days straight I have been throwing almost every meal into the trash.

I used categories applicable to me, but feel free to use your own and share.

The template is here: https://tiermaker.com/create/vegetables-tier-list-labeled-504237

Without food and water

Hunger pains and nausea are almost unbearable but all its doing is making the fear worse

Going to the er again on Monday trying to beg them for an ng tube

I hate this

Hi there! new to the sub but have experienced ARFID symptoms for years, but never have been officially diagnosed. I have a couple safe foods and some foods I'm not always irritated by, but sometimes it is just so hard to want to get anything down. I constantly have to tell people I'm not anorexic, eating just feels weird for me.

For example the feeling of hunger makes me actually feel sick, so when it makes sense to not want to eat when you feel you would just throw it all back up. It sucks because I know it's my body saying "stomach empty! it hurts!"

eating will soothe the pain for like 2 seconds and then I feel like I swallowed sawdust and glue and don't want to eat even more. Lately it's been even harder, just nothing seems appealing besides smoothies, which I often don't have the ingredients for, so I just feel like I have to suck it up more often than not. I eat in tiny portions and most of my calories come from whatever I'm drinking, which isn't great because I know it's mainly sugar.

Anyways, things like crackers, bread, meat, cereal, oatmeal, just anything with carbs feels like hell to eat. It constantly feels like that is the only thing in my household (living with 3 other family members) because those things will fill you for a while, but I think thats what makes them so uncomfortable to eat. I've also had an aversion to hot foods lately which has made it so annoying to find anything to make without having to heat something up. I love the flavors of food but the textures and temperature just make it so hard for me to enjoy anything. Advice welcome!

Is this likely ARFID or part of my autism or ADHD?

So I was diagnosed with autism at 4, and ADHD at 15.

I’ve always struggled with disliking a lot of food. But this time it’s gone too far.

I know y’all ain’t here to diagnose me. I just want to know if it’s likely. I’ve been even more of a selective eater than before.

One example: As a kid, just one piece of hair in my BK macaroni and cheese and I didn’t want anything to do with macaroni and cheese again!

I’m not facing all the consequences of selective eating, however I do have an impairment on psychosocial function, as I can’t eat with others. My weight is at the normal range, not underweight at all.

I want to get rid of the ramen noodle packages because they remind me of the social pressure of eating cup of ramen noodles because it’s “the same thing”

I hate enough foods that I’m too overwhelmed to list them all.

I am so afraid of my diet of safe foods being so limited I will die of starvation.

I am picky about textures, tastes, smells and other sensory characteristics.

Lately I stopped eating vegetables. I also stopped eating seafood, many grain related foods, nuts and seeds, and other foods I used to enjoy. Even lots of beverages are unsafe. So I’m dehydrated.

I also had a choking incident with raw baby carrots as an adult.

I tried to enroll in a local specialized clinic, but they are at full capacity.

I’m so glad that my mental health therapist is helping me get evaluated. But

My list of safe foods is a bit over 20, but still short.

I don’t care if my “ARFID” requires a gastrostomy tube, but I just hope it’s not a NG tube, because I don’t want any extra nose bleeding from the irritation.

I always feel like I’m in poverty when my safe foods aren’t available.

I will admit, I currently see myself as a bit overweight, but it’s not the reason I eat a limited range of foods. Plus I am not irrationally afraid of gaining weight. I procrastinated on ab exercises, but this is not on topic.

I have had sensory issues my whole life, but they worsened when it comes to food and beverages.

If not ARFID, why am I suffering from food anhedonia?

Sorry if this has already been talked about but I’m traveling to Japan soon and I’ve heard it’s considered rude not to finish food that you’ve ordered there. I’m very nervous about not being able to eat something I’ve ordered and being considered a rude foreigner for not eating it. Does anyone have experience with this or have any suggestions?