Your son or daughter has autism and consistently pushes for the same foods at every meal time. Cereal for breakfast. Macaroni and cheese for lunch. Chicken nuggets for dinner. Every day. While a parent may at first interpret this as a child’s personal preference, it’s actually a typical behavior associated with autism often referred to as a food jag.

For children with autism, food jags are incredibly common, however, the circumstances surrounding the jag are different for everyone. Typically, food jags will involve factors like the same foods, same plate, same cup, same fork, or the same way the food is on the plate. Food jags can become incredibly costly and frustrating, and can even sometimes become a serious nutritional issue for a child. As a parent, it’s best to not support your child’s food jags, as in many cases, it’ll eventually lead to the child never going back to that food again.

The best thing that you can do if your child develops a food jag is not to ride it out. Depending on where your child is on the autism spectrum, he or she may develop a jag for weeks, months or even years. It’s important to start exposing your child to small changes immediately. Try changing up the brand of food or the bowl that’s used. Add a little bit of texture to the food, use food color to introduce your child to something different without altering the taste. Switch from chicken to turkey. Add sauces. Anything you can do to change things up, try.

Remember for long term success make the changes gentle and be consistent in introducing changes.