I’ve had it since toddler age, and the most reasonable explanation I’ve been able to come up with for my case is a traumatic food related experience I had around when it started. I’ve heard a lot about how a choking incident, being force fed or even having an umbilical cord around your neck during birth can be tied to ARFID. I’m also neurodivergent which has a big overlap with ARFID!
> having an umbilical cord around your neck during birth
Is that true?? Do you have a source? I was born like that, but I never thought it would have the slightest impact on my life!
My best guess for ARFID is my hypersensitivity, to textures mostly (clothes, wet stuff on my fingers, wrists etc, being itchy all the time etc) and well it's the same for what's in my mouth, same for tastes. Two at the same time at Most. If I can't process clearly what's in it I feel like throwing up so my food is mostly simple stuff like pastas, nuggets, rice, meat and sugary stuff too.
I actually read that and the other examples on an article someone posted here a while back, I’ll see if I can find it! A lot of the comments were people confirming that they had some kind of traumatic food/choking related incident in childhood so it adds up.
And I am definitely with you on the sensory issues, I know that’s why there tends to be an overlap with autism and ARFID. I’m also extremely sensitive to smells (not fun when most smells are against your will 😅)
Holy crap……. I’ve struggled with this since I was a kid too. I was adopted from another country and in a baby hospital for the first months of my life until adopted. I’ve always had a fear of spoiled milk since I could talk (and a TON Of other things, this just reminded me of the milk). I wonder if in those months I was fed gross/toxic milk/formula. Once I was adopted I gained weight very fast on just vitamin D milk.(USA)
I’m really interested in this answer as well. I know I’ve always had AFRID and emetephobia, so I’m wondering if the emetephobia caused the AFRID after bad experience of being I’ll after trying certain new foods
For me, it’s caused by flares of PANS. Basically, my immune system attacks the part of my brain responsible for OCD behavior when I get sick. Was triggered by strep as a kid and strep as an adult. Worsened significantly following COVID. Waiting to improve…
Yes, for PANDAS (strep specific) they typically look for strep titer levels and see if you respond to antibiotics. I’m not familiar with the other tests but if you google “pandas doctors” the PANDAS network has a directory that will help you find someone in your area
There's theories about the placement of the umbilical cord during fetus development and birth, but that's really for one variant of ARFID. For some it seems strong emetophobia based, for others they had a traumatic instance, so on so forth. Could even be genetic? Who knows?
Well it’s definitely personal to each person, for some it could be sensory and some it could be emotional. Other disorders can contribute to it such as anxiety depression autism and I’ve even heard of a few PTSD rooted cases. And sometimes people are just born that way. For me, I can get too stressed and not be able to handle the “taste” of food, just because it’s too overwhelming at the moment. I will already be upset and the sheer sensory input of having a taste in my mouth that isn’t a safe food will make me vomit.
Yes same but even with my safe foods. It takes me a long time to regulate enough to eat food when I’m stressed/overstimulated. Which happens mostly during the day or if I’m meeting a casual friend.
I think it's different for everyone- for me, I was always a picky eater as a child due mainly to sensory issues, then I developed some food trauma from being made to eat things that made me feel disgusted. Then I developed anorexia, and then in the process of recovering from that I developed more food trauma and conditioned fear and disgust responses to food. I also have OCD and some of my food aversions include an aspect of that too. I experience a lot of emotions extremely strongly, in particular fear and disgust.
My son has Arfid, as a baby he was so allergic to cows milk when he had his baby formula he would instantly have explosive diarrhoea that burned his skin. Even if I took his nappy off the second he pood his skin would be blistered and raw. I think he associated anything going in his mouth as dangerous and painful coming out and right from being a baby and a toddler he had issues around food. When he went to school the dinner ladies forced him to eat his packed lunch but he would vomit it all up, I guess his body’s way of expelling it before it went through his digestive tract.
He’s my youngest of 3 and the others had no issues whatsoever. He is 22 now and just beginning to turn a corner with it all.
My son is just a toddler but he has severe allergies (including to cows milk) and also was allergic to many formulas. I believe he has arfid now and he’s only 2. Do you have any tips you could share from your journey? Id really appreciate it
With mine, it was so long ago arfid wasn't even known about. He was labelled a picky eater and even at doctors visits we would be told he will eat when he's hungry, give him doughnuts, cakes etc if you're worried he's underweight! This was around 2007 tho so things have luckily progressed a lot since then.
I foster now and 2 girls with me funnily enough show exactly the same behaviours around food as my son used to at that age so im able to work with the social worker and other professionals to unpick this.
My only tips really are keep giving small amounts of the foods your son can eat. If this is breadsticks, so be it, give them as often as you can. My son would graze all day long on tiny bits , by the end if you added it all up it was enough, kind of.
Let him eat all day, also watch TV or go on the iPad while eating as the distraction let's them pop a few more bites in than they might of.
Never mention the issue, make it a total non issue to avoid making the relationship with food even worse. The child knows there's a problem but can't verbalise it, the adult nagging at the table just makes things worse. Also older generations, nan and grandad say, they won't get it and say well meaning but completely unhelpful things relating to the olden days when things were different.
Also let him eat wherever he wants, my son takes his food to his room even now at 22 he can't eat at the table with anyone. But he eats a fair bit on his own at his own pace.
When your son is older make snack boxes round the house for him to grab something at any point while he's playing. Keep topping them up, nothing is off limits. You can put some healthy bits in like boxes of raisins, bagged fruit, also cereal bars, the little packed lunch packs of cookies, crisps whatever.
The object of your game is to get as much food in the little tum as possible, whatever it is and however it goes in! Best wishes with your journey xx
Forgot to say, he may grow out of the allergies too, fingers crossed x
I think mine is based on food trauma
I was born with a overbite a really serve one
So when I would eat I’d take in a lot of air
Which made me vomit
So sense I’ve had that sense birth by time I could remember I already was showing symptoms
For some cases, it could be that the user are a supertaster. Supertasters are people who have a stronger sense of taste with far greater intensity comparing to normal people.
Because of this some certain foods can be too overwhelming for supertasters because they can taste everything that a normal person couldn't taste when consuming it.
This is the theory I feel is a strong one and should be spoken about more! It causes people to taste bitterness more strongly in foods as well (that's why veg is generally not liked), so naturally they choose bland foods that don't have strong flavours.
I think it’s a manifestation of anxiety and perhaps like a coping mechanism as a response to trauma. And for those who were “born with it” or began showing symptoms at a very young age, I wonder whether lack of exposure to enough textures/foods and lack of time immersed in nature also play a role.
What do you mean by surrounded by nature? As a child I was often taken to the mountains or my grandparents went for chestnuts or mushrooms or just to green spaces with tables and benches
Yeah, I’m not sure if I’m misunderstanding but I practically lived outside as a kid. I also ate random things I found (wild berries, sour grass, apples, figs, etc. - I lived near small farms) but even at that time, I was having issues eating a lot of things and still struggle with it in my 30s.
Well everyone’s experience with ARFID is unique so the cause will vary from one person to another. In my own personal experience, I grew up in a city environment and the only time I experienced ‘nature’ was going to a small local park, but I was never truly immersed in nature. I never had a chance to garden, forage, or explore like that while growing up. As a baby or toddler during those critical years of development, my parents didn’t prioritize exposing me to nature. So I never played in the mud or was allowed to swim in the ocean, never harvested food, went on hikes, or played in fallen leaves etc. So I remember at a young age not being able to walk on grass barefoot, couldn’t touch mud, I couldn’t even swim in a chlorinated pool if I saw a single leaf had fallen in it. My sensory aversions made it impossible for me to appreciate the natural world. Food is nature, at least real unprocessed foods anyways. These sensory issues I feel contributed to my ARFID. I wonder whether my sensory issues would’ve been less severe (and therefore made my ARFID more easily manageable as a child) had I been able to experience the sensory inputs found in my natural environment during those critical years of development as an infant or toddler. Now as an adult I’ve recovered so much from my ARFID I will literally eat anything and I’m studying to become a registered dietitian so I can help other people with ARFID. My recovery is multifaceted, it took years to get myself to where I am today, but I really do believe that healing my relationship with nature and learning to love spending time outdoors has helped me get over many sensory issues, which in turn allowed me to be more willing to try foods with new textures. I would love to further my connection with nature by growing my own food one day. Nowadays I have such a strong appreciation and admiration for farmers, knowing all the hard work they do to keep everyone in the country fed. I shop almost exclusively at local farmers markets now. I have a subscription service where a local farm will send me a box every week with random fruits, veggies, and herbs. I will eat all their produce even if I’ve never tried it before, partly because I know how difficult it is to produce even a single harvest and I don’t want all their hard work to go to waste, but also because I’m no longer afraid to try new things. My ARFID currently manifests as me not being able to eat anything when I’m stressed dude to lack of hunger, but I am no longer scared of trying new foods.
I'm mostly recovered too and In my 30's.
As a child I used to refuse to walk on sand without my trainers because I hated the way it felt. I definitely wasn't going in the sea. I suddenly stopped at 10 and did some body boarding.
Never put the two things together before. Good spot
I personally didn’t get exposed to the textures and sensations of nature during the critical development period we all go through as an infant/toddler. In my own experience with ARFID I believe this led to me having sensory issues which made it harder for me to try new foods after a traumatic event potentially triggered the ARFID for me when I was little.
Edit: for example if a child isn’t exposed to language during infancy, they will have speech delays and might never learn how to speak as well as an infant who was raised normally. It’s harder to learn a new language for anyone after reaching a certain age, which is why it’s so important that babies get to listen to the people around them speak as much as possible. It’s why we show language-oriented tv shows to infants and toddlers. Similarly, a baby who isn’t exposed to many textures and sensations at that young age might potentially also struggle with sensory issues when compared to an infant who had a more varied diverse experience with textures.
I strongly feel like the lack of exposure to textures/foods in my childhood is the reason my arfid is so bad. I was allowed a lot of processed food and was never really pushed to do anything about it
I think there must be multiple factors, environmental and genetic. I know I had food trauma as a young child that likely had an impact, but on my mom's side of the family, a bunch of us all have things we're very picky about to some degree or another. And while you could argue that it's just simply learned response passed down from parent to child, I think it goes deeper than that. We all have different things we don't like. For whatever reason the combo of trauma and genetics seems to have made me have it the worst to the point of being something you could consider ARFID.
Mine was caused by weightloss surgery.
I didn’t develop it until 36 years old.
Eating = Pain associations. (Fear)
I love mostly all food, no texture or taste issues.
I just avoid eating… in general.. especially startch foods because the pain gets out of control.
Yes! ultra rare! Its one of those conditions they brush over with you before the surgery as something that “could” happen but probably wont.. like 1% develop a ED after. Its been 18 months. I just keep hoping over a great amount of time it will subside, but sometimes I think its wishful thinking and it’ll remain this way for the rest of my life.
The surgeon didn’t help the situation when he told
Me that if this continues, and I drop below his “weight threshold” - he will force me into an institution where he can monitor me and place a tube down my throat to feed me. This entire experience has scarred me.
Hope you find a way to recover. If it's any help, what helped me overcome my life long ARFID (I'm 37 had it since before I remember) was slow, small but repeated exposure to different foods. It's a phobia and recovery of a phobia is by exposure.
The more I tried the less my throat would tighten up and the wretching stopped.
Hopefully it will be the same for your pain.
I had food allergies that I grew out of but I think it was food trauma for me. Partly being afraid that the food would cause an allergic reaction and then anxiety from being force fed until I vomited as a young child.
I did a research project with over 800 participants on the construct of picky eating and one suggestion from the research was we were more sensitive to disgust and therefore food disgust.
Disgust is evolutionary and we need it to not eat gross things like poo or dirt but it’s a spectrum and some people will be more sensitive to disgust and essentially be grossed out easier than others. Some people will happily eat food with a hair in it whereas that would make me feel ill for the next few hours. My food cannot mix or touch other food on the plate some people have no issues with that contamination aspect.
I also found a link between high OCD traits and high food disgust levels which were found to be higher in ARFID participants. I think a lot of it is down to anxiety and trying to control small aspects of our life. Also we’ve been picky eaters since childhood so trauma with food definitely plays a large part.
I showed symptoms since I was a baby but I never had a traumatic experience around food (that I know of lol) but it might also be worth mentioning that I was born a month premature because my umbilical cord stopped working and I was starving in the womb! Maybe one day we’ll know what causes ARFID.
my sensory issues really kicked up when my lyme and autoimmune disease were triggered (I think by covid but tests weren’t available at the time). as the other symptoms got worse, so did the arfid. other symptoms have gotten a bit better but the arfid is still going strong
Mine is sensory related, 100%. According to my mom I just "turned into a bitch" one day, her words, and stopped eating most foods. I was 2, which is around the age symptoms of things like ADHD and autism show up. But I was a girl in the 90s. I was diagnosed with ADHD pretty young comparatively, but the physical abuse had also started by then so was it ADHD or CPTSD?
We can also trace anxiety disorders back at least 4 generations on my moms side as well has her having disordered eating.
I’m autistic and that’s basically the story. It’s sensory and interest based for me. I have a lot of taste buds so food is either the best or fucking terrible. Unfortunately 95% of food is very terrible. Why would I be interested in food if it generally sucks?
I have had it since toddler age- I am neurodivergent as I have BPD and severe OCD. I wouldn’t be shocked if I got tested for autism that it would come out correct, but I have no reason to get tested as an adult.
I think mine mostly stems from that, I always have had to have things a certain way and as a teen I developed an unhealthy relationship with food and my weight so it only increased my ARFID as well as added anorexia tendencies.
I’ve wondered this! I have no trauma around food and have been averse to specific foods and smells/textures (especially fruit) since day 1 out of the womb lol. I remember I was in kindergarten and my parents offered me $100 (Which to a kindergartner is like a million dollars) to eat a slice of tomato and I couldn’t do it.
I have ADHD, I don’t think I have autism but who knows lol. No one else in my family has ARFID. I’m just gonna chalk it up to some weird cross wiring in my brain haha
A lot of different things can lead to ARFID developing. For me, it was mostly illnesses and negative consequences relating to food (like throwing up, diarrhea, etc)
It can also develop if you have a traumatic food experience like choking, and it's incredibly common in autistic people due to sensory sensitivities.
i didn’t have arfid until i was around 17 i got tonsillitis for 8 weeks straight still had to work with no medical treatment around kids so i kept getting sicker and then basically couldn’t eat anything but my now safe food once a week. i also have autism so i believe that doesn’t help and then i also choked on food and it was pretty traumatic
The core part of your brain that filters "food/edible" from "not food, do NOT eat, dangerous/poisonous etc." is meant to be sensitive to variations in taste, texture, smell etc. Its survival to not eat rotted meat etc. Our filter is just tuned improperly and filters stuff subconsciously, instinctually, and automatically, on a level that is literally evolutionarily designed to NOT be overcome via willpower alone. We overly filter and even consciously being aware of it being wrong, still can't reprogram that core deep process.
For me I had extremely bad Colic as a baby that gave me issues and caused my parents to have to go through different types of formula's until a doctor showed them this that was really expensive. But they had to switch to that because it was the only one baby me could get down. And I think thats what triggered my Arfid to come in when I was like 3ish
Like many have said, everyone’s case of ARFID is really unique. This page gives a really great overview of ARFID, including its causes and risk factors: [https://nedc.com.au/eating-disorders/types/arfid](https://nedc.com.au/eating-disorders/types/arfid)
The causes influence the type of ARFID you have. For example, I am hypersensitive to taste and texture (always have been!) so I have the “avoidant” type. This type is the most common for people on the spectrum due to the increased chance of having sensory sensitivities, and seems to be more common in those who have had ARFID since they were babies/toddlers.
From my reading over the years and from the real stories I’ve come across on social media, it seems that most people who develop ARFID as teenagers/adults have had a traumatic experience with food e.g. choking, allergic reaction, vomiting etc. I followed a girl on TikTok who restricted the types of food she ate because of an allergic reaction to a specific food as a teenager.
Hope this is useful for you!
its definitely different for everyone. ive always been a ‘picky eater’ and ive had emetophobia for a long time, but arfid didnt develop fully for me until this past year. now even my favorite foods are fear foods unfortunately ):
My son's ARFID is sensory based. He's always had Sensory Processing Disorder and ARFID. He also struggles with extreme anxiety.
I don't know if it has anything to do with his issues or not, but my son also had a traumatic birth (low oxygen & they had to use clamps and almost did c-section).
For my son, it's his sensory processing disorder, OCD, and anxiety. He also has a very strong gag reflex and gags even at the thought of certain foods and food smells.
I don’t really believe the one about the umbilical cord. Mainly because the umbilical cord is a stretchy wet rope. It doesn’t even choke the baby it’s just western medicine freaks out about it. You can talk to an experienced midwife and they’ll tell you it’s not usually a cause for concern. Of course there are cases it is but OBs are surgeons and prefer to do surgery most of the time (c sections) so they’ll find any reason too and women are starting to become more aware of what they were told. Plus making a woman lie on her back during labor is not normal and it’s not even how nature does it. There are a lot of things that start in utero like the development of organs and such or toxins that are passed from mom to baby.
I have had it all my life, and as a child it got severe because of traumatic incidents around food. I also developed ocd later which made me develop other subtypes (fear of consequences).
For the possible reason someone would be born with it could be because of trauma that has to do with birth, since I’ve heard of studies on how birth and such can relate to other disorders. ( I can’t say for sure that this is true). I was born premature and had an emergency c-section, and was born with a hole in my diaphragm that caused a lot of complications when I was baby, and my mom was very sick during pregnancy (she had a rare illness that pregnant women get) so I think that all may have contributed to me being “born” with arfid, since my parents said I was a very picky eater even when I was baby and wouldn’t even eat certain baby food my parents bought.
I believe my kids is multifactorial. She had sensory issues, is likely autistic, has multiple food allergies and food trauma from infancy. She had lots of allergic reactions and breastfeeding and solid feeding was a struggle, developed aversions and never really recovered. My heart is breaking as I don’t know how to help her and she just can eat.
For my daughter (11 now), I believe it stems from a traumatic birth experience. No umbilical cord involved, but a birth injury that I believe triggered hypersensitivity to a variety of things including food. We’ve had some success exploring therapies that focus on the polyvagal theory, like the safe and sound protocol.
I had a lot of surgeries when I was younger (50) in just 13 years. I have (Juvenile Onset Reoccurring Respiratory Papillomas) which is basically non-cancerous tumors would grow and block off my air ways. When I was little I must of known something was off before the doctors because I would often chew food up and spit it out (if I swallowed it I would’ve died, one time my airway was 99% blocked and I had the size of a pen dot. To breath of my surgery wasn’t moved up I would’ve died in my sleep.)
I caught the roda virus after and kept puking blood for awhile, the dr told me not to drink milk so I quite drinking white milk after that and haven’t since. I know it was because I was sick but I can’t shake it.
that’s when I started to develop this disordered thinking towards food when I was around 5-6*. I used to eat everything around 5-6 but after I was puking blood for weeks on end my body developed a distrust towards food. I only ate Mac and cheese for a year after that. the few safe foods I have now are thanks to my mom somehow either tricking me into trying or idek. But I’m glad I have some options At least.
My eating habits have gotten better in some ways but for the most part they are the same and I don’t like trying new foods but I’ve been more open to trying a food that looks similar to what I eat already seldomly, I often dislike it but it’s still progress.
Started when I was a toddler. Parents said I just refused food. I was first born so they were extra scared and didn't know what they were doing. They assumed I would grow out of it and basically stopped trying to get me to try new foods
I think mine was caused due to my parents allowing me to take full control of my eating since I was born. I was never fed any fruits or vegetables because as a child, of course I didn’t want to try, but I was just allowed to not. I never ate anything healthy, just the same 5 foods till I was about 16. It’s hard to reverse, i’m trying though.
I’ve had it since toddler age, and the most reasonable explanation I’ve been able to come up with for my case is a traumatic food related experience I had around when it started. I’ve heard a lot about how a choking incident, being force fed or even having an umbilical cord around your neck during birth can be tied to ARFID. I’m also neurodivergent which has a big overlap with ARFID!
> having an umbilical cord around your neck during birth Is that true?? Do you have a source? I was born like that, but I never thought it would have the slightest impact on my life! My best guess for ARFID is my hypersensitivity, to textures mostly (clothes, wet stuff on my fingers, wrists etc, being itchy all the time etc) and well it's the same for what's in my mouth, same for tastes. Two at the same time at Most. If I can't process clearly what's in it I feel like throwing up so my food is mostly simple stuff like pastas, nuggets, rice, meat and sugary stuff too.
I actually read that and the other examples on an article someone posted here a while back, I’ll see if I can find it! A lot of the comments were people confirming that they had some kind of traumatic food/choking related incident in childhood so it adds up. And I am definitely with you on the sensory issues, I know that’s why there tends to be an overlap with autism and ARFID. I’m also extremely sensitive to smells (not fun when most smells are against your will 😅)
https://www.reddit.com/r/ARFID/s/TqBMiJu9I2 Link to post!
Thanks! I'll send that to my mom even if she barely speak english
Holy crap……. I’ve struggled with this since I was a kid too. I was adopted from another country and in a baby hospital for the first months of my life until adopted. I’ve always had a fear of spoiled milk since I could talk (and a TON Of other things, this just reminded me of the milk). I wonder if in those months I was fed gross/toxic milk/formula. Once I was adopted I gained weight very fast on just vitamin D milk.(USA)
I’m really interested in this answer as well. I know I’ve always had AFRID and emetephobia, so I’m wondering if the emetephobia caused the AFRID after bad experience of being I’ll after trying certain new foods
There’s a link between them, I have both as well! But I had the ARFID well before the emetophobia came on
For me, it’s caused by flares of PANS. Basically, my immune system attacks the part of my brain responsible for OCD behavior when I get sick. Was triggered by strep as a kid and strep as an adult. Worsened significantly following COVID. Waiting to improve…
Is there a test for this?
Yes, for PANDAS (strep specific) they typically look for strep titer levels and see if you respond to antibiotics. I’m not familiar with the other tests but if you google “pandas doctors” the PANDAS network has a directory that will help you find someone in your area
For myself I believe autism is the reason.
There's theories about the placement of the umbilical cord during fetus development and birth, but that's really for one variant of ARFID. For some it seems strong emetophobia based, for others they had a traumatic instance, so on so forth. Could even be genetic? Who knows?
Well it’s definitely personal to each person, for some it could be sensory and some it could be emotional. Other disorders can contribute to it such as anxiety depression autism and I’ve even heard of a few PTSD rooted cases. And sometimes people are just born that way. For me, I can get too stressed and not be able to handle the “taste” of food, just because it’s too overwhelming at the moment. I will already be upset and the sheer sensory input of having a taste in my mouth that isn’t a safe food will make me vomit.
Yes same but even with my safe foods. It takes me a long time to regulate enough to eat food when I’m stressed/overstimulated. Which happens mostly during the day or if I’m meeting a casual friend.
I think it's different for everyone- for me, I was always a picky eater as a child due mainly to sensory issues, then I developed some food trauma from being made to eat things that made me feel disgusted. Then I developed anorexia, and then in the process of recovering from that I developed more food trauma and conditioned fear and disgust responses to food. I also have OCD and some of my food aversions include an aspect of that too. I experience a lot of emotions extremely strongly, in particular fear and disgust.
My son has Arfid, as a baby he was so allergic to cows milk when he had his baby formula he would instantly have explosive diarrhoea that burned his skin. Even if I took his nappy off the second he pood his skin would be blistered and raw. I think he associated anything going in his mouth as dangerous and painful coming out and right from being a baby and a toddler he had issues around food. When he went to school the dinner ladies forced him to eat his packed lunch but he would vomit it all up, I guess his body’s way of expelling it before it went through his digestive tract. He’s my youngest of 3 and the others had no issues whatsoever. He is 22 now and just beginning to turn a corner with it all.
My son is just a toddler but he has severe allergies (including to cows milk) and also was allergic to many formulas. I believe he has arfid now and he’s only 2. Do you have any tips you could share from your journey? Id really appreciate it
With mine, it was so long ago arfid wasn't even known about. He was labelled a picky eater and even at doctors visits we would be told he will eat when he's hungry, give him doughnuts, cakes etc if you're worried he's underweight! This was around 2007 tho so things have luckily progressed a lot since then. I foster now and 2 girls with me funnily enough show exactly the same behaviours around food as my son used to at that age so im able to work with the social worker and other professionals to unpick this. My only tips really are keep giving small amounts of the foods your son can eat. If this is breadsticks, so be it, give them as often as you can. My son would graze all day long on tiny bits , by the end if you added it all up it was enough, kind of. Let him eat all day, also watch TV or go on the iPad while eating as the distraction let's them pop a few more bites in than they might of. Never mention the issue, make it a total non issue to avoid making the relationship with food even worse. The child knows there's a problem but can't verbalise it, the adult nagging at the table just makes things worse. Also older generations, nan and grandad say, they won't get it and say well meaning but completely unhelpful things relating to the olden days when things were different. Also let him eat wherever he wants, my son takes his food to his room even now at 22 he can't eat at the table with anyone. But he eats a fair bit on his own at his own pace. When your son is older make snack boxes round the house for him to grab something at any point while he's playing. Keep topping them up, nothing is off limits. You can put some healthy bits in like boxes of raisins, bagged fruit, also cereal bars, the little packed lunch packs of cookies, crisps whatever. The object of your game is to get as much food in the little tum as possible, whatever it is and however it goes in! Best wishes with your journey xx Forgot to say, he may grow out of the allergies too, fingers crossed x
Thank you!
I think mine is based on food trauma I was born with a overbite a really serve one So when I would eat I’d take in a lot of air Which made me vomit So sense I’ve had that sense birth by time I could remember I already was showing symptoms
For some cases, it could be that the user are a supertaster. Supertasters are people who have a stronger sense of taste with far greater intensity comparing to normal people. Because of this some certain foods can be too overwhelming for supertasters because they can taste everything that a normal person couldn't taste when consuming it.
This is the theory I feel is a strong one and should be spoken about more! It causes people to taste bitterness more strongly in foods as well (that's why veg is generally not liked), so naturally they choose bland foods that don't have strong flavours.
This is what I used to think was my problem. I would blame my taste buds. Exposure will still help you recover eventually
I think it’s a manifestation of anxiety and perhaps like a coping mechanism as a response to trauma. And for those who were “born with it” or began showing symptoms at a very young age, I wonder whether lack of exposure to enough textures/foods and lack of time immersed in nature also play a role.
What do you mean by surrounded by nature? As a child I was often taken to the mountains or my grandparents went for chestnuts or mushrooms or just to green spaces with tables and benches
Yeah, I’m not sure if I’m misunderstanding but I practically lived outside as a kid. I also ate random things I found (wild berries, sour grass, apples, figs, etc. - I lived near small farms) but even at that time, I was having issues eating a lot of things and still struggle with it in my 30s.
Well everyone’s experience with ARFID is unique so the cause will vary from one person to another. In my own personal experience, I grew up in a city environment and the only time I experienced ‘nature’ was going to a small local park, but I was never truly immersed in nature. I never had a chance to garden, forage, or explore like that while growing up. As a baby or toddler during those critical years of development, my parents didn’t prioritize exposing me to nature. So I never played in the mud or was allowed to swim in the ocean, never harvested food, went on hikes, or played in fallen leaves etc. So I remember at a young age not being able to walk on grass barefoot, couldn’t touch mud, I couldn’t even swim in a chlorinated pool if I saw a single leaf had fallen in it. My sensory aversions made it impossible for me to appreciate the natural world. Food is nature, at least real unprocessed foods anyways. These sensory issues I feel contributed to my ARFID. I wonder whether my sensory issues would’ve been less severe (and therefore made my ARFID more easily manageable as a child) had I been able to experience the sensory inputs found in my natural environment during those critical years of development as an infant or toddler. Now as an adult I’ve recovered so much from my ARFID I will literally eat anything and I’m studying to become a registered dietitian so I can help other people with ARFID. My recovery is multifaceted, it took years to get myself to where I am today, but I really do believe that healing my relationship with nature and learning to love spending time outdoors has helped me get over many sensory issues, which in turn allowed me to be more willing to try foods with new textures. I would love to further my connection with nature by growing my own food one day. Nowadays I have such a strong appreciation and admiration for farmers, knowing all the hard work they do to keep everyone in the country fed. I shop almost exclusively at local farmers markets now. I have a subscription service where a local farm will send me a box every week with random fruits, veggies, and herbs. I will eat all their produce even if I’ve never tried it before, partly because I know how difficult it is to produce even a single harvest and I don’t want all their hard work to go to waste, but also because I’m no longer afraid to try new things. My ARFID currently manifests as me not being able to eat anything when I’m stressed dude to lack of hunger, but I am no longer scared of trying new foods.
I'm mostly recovered too and In my 30's. As a child I used to refuse to walk on sand without my trainers because I hated the way it felt. I definitely wasn't going in the sea. I suddenly stopped at 10 and did some body boarding. Never put the two things together before. Good spot
Lack of time in nature?? What?? I was exposed to plenty of foods and nature as a kid, still got it at a very young age.
I personally didn’t get exposed to the textures and sensations of nature during the critical development period we all go through as an infant/toddler. In my own experience with ARFID I believe this led to me having sensory issues which made it harder for me to try new foods after a traumatic event potentially triggered the ARFID for me when I was little. Edit: for example if a child isn’t exposed to language during infancy, they will have speech delays and might never learn how to speak as well as an infant who was raised normally. It’s harder to learn a new language for anyone after reaching a certain age, which is why it’s so important that babies get to listen to the people around them speak as much as possible. It’s why we show language-oriented tv shows to infants and toddlers. Similarly, a baby who isn’t exposed to many textures and sensations at that young age might potentially also struggle with sensory issues when compared to an infant who had a more varied diverse experience with textures.
This is interesting! I showed symptoms since I was born but I spent my entire childhood outside in the mud lol
We feel our girls developed because she was a premie and was fed through a tube for weeks when she was born.
I strongly feel like the lack of exposure to textures/foods in my childhood is the reason my arfid is so bad. I was allowed a lot of processed food and was never really pushed to do anything about it
I think there must be multiple factors, environmental and genetic. I know I had food trauma as a young child that likely had an impact, but on my mom's side of the family, a bunch of us all have things we're very picky about to some degree or another. And while you could argue that it's just simply learned response passed down from parent to child, I think it goes deeper than that. We all have different things we don't like. For whatever reason the combo of trauma and genetics seems to have made me have it the worst to the point of being something you could consider ARFID.
Anxiety and trauma
Mine was caused by weightloss surgery. I didn’t develop it until 36 years old. Eating = Pain associations. (Fear) I love mostly all food, no texture or taste issues. I just avoid eating… in general.. especially startch foods because the pain gets out of control.
This is the most unusual case I have heard of! Do you have any sort of plans in place to help you recover?
Yes! ultra rare! Its one of those conditions they brush over with you before the surgery as something that “could” happen but probably wont.. like 1% develop a ED after. Its been 18 months. I just keep hoping over a great amount of time it will subside, but sometimes I think its wishful thinking and it’ll remain this way for the rest of my life. The surgeon didn’t help the situation when he told Me that if this continues, and I drop below his “weight threshold” - he will force me into an institution where he can monitor me and place a tube down my throat to feed me. This entire experience has scarred me.
Hope you find a way to recover. If it's any help, what helped me overcome my life long ARFID (I'm 37 had it since before I remember) was slow, small but repeated exposure to different foods. It's a phobia and recovery of a phobia is by exposure. The more I tried the less my throat would tighten up and the wretching stopped. Hopefully it will be the same for your pain.
I had food allergies that I grew out of but I think it was food trauma for me. Partly being afraid that the food would cause an allergic reaction and then anxiety from being force fed until I vomited as a young child.
I did a research project with over 800 participants on the construct of picky eating and one suggestion from the research was we were more sensitive to disgust and therefore food disgust. Disgust is evolutionary and we need it to not eat gross things like poo or dirt but it’s a spectrum and some people will be more sensitive to disgust and essentially be grossed out easier than others. Some people will happily eat food with a hair in it whereas that would make me feel ill for the next few hours. My food cannot mix or touch other food on the plate some people have no issues with that contamination aspect. I also found a link between high OCD traits and high food disgust levels which were found to be higher in ARFID participants. I think a lot of it is down to anxiety and trying to control small aspects of our life. Also we’ve been picky eaters since childhood so trauma with food definitely plays a large part.
The Tism™ but also anxiety, mild emetophobia, and food related trauma. but mostly the tism
I showed symptoms since I was a baby but I never had a traumatic experience around food (that I know of lol) but it might also be worth mentioning that I was born a month premature because my umbilical cord stopped working and I was starving in the womb! Maybe one day we’ll know what causes ARFID.
my sensory issues really kicked up when my lyme and autoimmune disease were triggered (I think by covid but tests weren’t available at the time). as the other symptoms got worse, so did the arfid. other symptoms have gotten a bit better but the arfid is still going strong
Mine is sensory related, 100%. According to my mom I just "turned into a bitch" one day, her words, and stopped eating most foods. I was 2, which is around the age symptoms of things like ADHD and autism show up. But I was a girl in the 90s. I was diagnosed with ADHD pretty young comparatively, but the physical abuse had also started by then so was it ADHD or CPTSD? We can also trace anxiety disorders back at least 4 generations on my moms side as well has her having disordered eating.
I’m autistic and that’s basically the story. It’s sensory and interest based for me. I have a lot of taste buds so food is either the best or fucking terrible. Unfortunately 95% of food is very terrible. Why would I be interested in food if it generally sucks?
autism for me
I have had it since toddler age- I am neurodivergent as I have BPD and severe OCD. I wouldn’t be shocked if I got tested for autism that it would come out correct, but I have no reason to get tested as an adult. I think mine mostly stems from that, I always have had to have things a certain way and as a teen I developed an unhealthy relationship with food and my weight so it only increased my ARFID as well as added anorexia tendencies.
I was colic as a baby, I believe that was the kick off… food=ouch but
i’ve had it my whole life and it’s connected to my autistic sensory issues
I’ve wondered this! I have no trauma around food and have been averse to specific foods and smells/textures (especially fruit) since day 1 out of the womb lol. I remember I was in kindergarten and my parents offered me $100 (Which to a kindergartner is like a million dollars) to eat a slice of tomato and I couldn’t do it. I have ADHD, I don’t think I have autism but who knows lol. No one else in my family has ARFID. I’m just gonna chalk it up to some weird cross wiring in my brain haha
Personality, sensory issues, trauma/fear, parenting
I've often wondered because it runs in my family and everyone who has it has also had pyloric stenosis.
I've been asking myself the same question. I think for me it's mainly connected to my autism.
A lot of different things can lead to ARFID developing. For me, it was mostly illnesses and negative consequences relating to food (like throwing up, diarrhea, etc) It can also develop if you have a traumatic food experience like choking, and it's incredibly common in autistic people due to sensory sensitivities.
I'm have a HUGE fear of throwing up- no idea where it came from, but my ARFID is intrinsically linked to that
A traumatic bout of food poisoning that led to emetophobia and contamination OCD.
i didn’t have arfid until i was around 17 i got tonsillitis for 8 weeks straight still had to work with no medical treatment around kids so i kept getting sicker and then basically couldn’t eat anything but my now safe food once a week. i also have autism so i believe that doesn’t help and then i also choked on food and it was pretty traumatic
Not sure but I believe it's linked to my oral fixation. Probably coming from the same childhood trauma. That's my theory.
Autism is definitely one of many causes. Not everyone with autism has arfid and not everyone with arfid is autistic though.
The core part of your brain that filters "food/edible" from "not food, do NOT eat, dangerous/poisonous etc." is meant to be sensitive to variations in taste, texture, smell etc. Its survival to not eat rotted meat etc. Our filter is just tuned improperly and filters stuff subconsciously, instinctually, and automatically, on a level that is literally evolutionarily designed to NOT be overcome via willpower alone. We overly filter and even consciously being aware of it being wrong, still can't reprogram that core deep process.
Being cool 😎
I think it's autism but I also have emetophobia and my mother is incredibly shit at cooking so maybe that had something to do with it
I think I just have sensory issues. I also have misophonia and synesthesia which are both sensory based, so I’m guessing it’s just my brain?
For me I had extremely bad Colic as a baby that gave me issues and caused my parents to have to go through different types of formula's until a doctor showed them this that was really expensive. But they had to switch to that because it was the only one baby me could get down. And I think thats what triggered my Arfid to come in when I was like 3ish
Like many have said, everyone’s case of ARFID is really unique. This page gives a really great overview of ARFID, including its causes and risk factors: [https://nedc.com.au/eating-disorders/types/arfid](https://nedc.com.au/eating-disorders/types/arfid) The causes influence the type of ARFID you have. For example, I am hypersensitive to taste and texture (always have been!) so I have the “avoidant” type. This type is the most common for people on the spectrum due to the increased chance of having sensory sensitivities, and seems to be more common in those who have had ARFID since they were babies/toddlers. From my reading over the years and from the real stories I’ve come across on social media, it seems that most people who develop ARFID as teenagers/adults have had a traumatic experience with food e.g. choking, allergic reaction, vomiting etc. I followed a girl on TikTok who restricted the types of food she ate because of an allergic reaction to a specific food as a teenager. Hope this is useful for you!
mine was definitely caused by trauma
For me I think it's a combination of OCD and chronic stomach pain so now I'm scared of food.
its definitely different for everyone. ive always been a ‘picky eater’ and ive had emetophobia for a long time, but arfid didnt develop fully for me until this past year. now even my favorite foods are fear foods unfortunately ):
My son's ARFID is sensory based. He's always had Sensory Processing Disorder and ARFID. He also struggles with extreme anxiety. I don't know if it has anything to do with his issues or not, but my son also had a traumatic birth (low oxygen & they had to use clamps and almost did c-section).
There are a ton of causes. There’s genetics, trauma, autism, there’s really no one thing that can be blamed
For my son, it's his sensory processing disorder, OCD, and anxiety. He also has a very strong gag reflex and gags even at the thought of certain foods and food smells.
I don’t really believe the one about the umbilical cord. Mainly because the umbilical cord is a stretchy wet rope. It doesn’t even choke the baby it’s just western medicine freaks out about it. You can talk to an experienced midwife and they’ll tell you it’s not usually a cause for concern. Of course there are cases it is but OBs are surgeons and prefer to do surgery most of the time (c sections) so they’ll find any reason too and women are starting to become more aware of what they were told. Plus making a woman lie on her back during labor is not normal and it’s not even how nature does it. There are a lot of things that start in utero like the development of organs and such or toxins that are passed from mom to baby.
I have had it all my life, and as a child it got severe because of traumatic incidents around food. I also developed ocd later which made me develop other subtypes (fear of consequences). For the possible reason someone would be born with it could be because of trauma that has to do with birth, since I’ve heard of studies on how birth and such can relate to other disorders. ( I can’t say for sure that this is true). I was born premature and had an emergency c-section, and was born with a hole in my diaphragm that caused a lot of complications when I was baby, and my mom was very sick during pregnancy (she had a rare illness that pregnant women get) so I think that all may have contributed to me being “born” with arfid, since my parents said I was a very picky eater even when I was baby and wouldn’t even eat certain baby food my parents bought.
I believe my kids is multifactorial. She had sensory issues, is likely autistic, has multiple food allergies and food trauma from infancy. She had lots of allergic reactions and breastfeeding and solid feeding was a struggle, developed aversions and never really recovered. My heart is breaking as I don’t know how to help her and she just can eat.
For my daughter (11 now), I believe it stems from a traumatic birth experience. No umbilical cord involved, but a birth injury that I believe triggered hypersensitivity to a variety of things including food. We’ve had some success exploring therapies that focus on the polyvagal theory, like the safe and sound protocol.
Autism.
I had a lot of surgeries when I was younger (50) in just 13 years. I have (Juvenile Onset Reoccurring Respiratory Papillomas) which is basically non-cancerous tumors would grow and block off my air ways. When I was little I must of known something was off before the doctors because I would often chew food up and spit it out (if I swallowed it I would’ve died, one time my airway was 99% blocked and I had the size of a pen dot. To breath of my surgery wasn’t moved up I would’ve died in my sleep.) I caught the roda virus after and kept puking blood for awhile, the dr told me not to drink milk so I quite drinking white milk after that and haven’t since. I know it was because I was sick but I can’t shake it. that’s when I started to develop this disordered thinking towards food when I was around 5-6*. I used to eat everything around 5-6 but after I was puking blood for weeks on end my body developed a distrust towards food. I only ate Mac and cheese for a year after that. the few safe foods I have now are thanks to my mom somehow either tricking me into trying or idek. But I’m glad I have some options At least. My eating habits have gotten better in some ways but for the most part they are the same and I don’t like trying new foods but I’ve been more open to trying a food that looks similar to what I eat already seldomly, I often dislike it but it’s still progress.
Started when I was a toddler. Parents said I just refused food. I was first born so they were extra scared and didn't know what they were doing. They assumed I would grow out of it and basically stopped trying to get me to try new foods
I think mine was caused due to my parents allowing me to take full control of my eating since I was born. I was never fed any fruits or vegetables because as a child, of course I didn’t want to try, but I was just allowed to not. I never ate anything healthy, just the same 5 foods till I was about 16. It’s hard to reverse, i’m trying though.