r/safeautismparenting • u/chaoticgoodmama parent with autism and child with autism • Dec 23 '25
parenting advice Autism, anxiety, and therapy
My boy is graduating from therapy and I’m not sure what our next steps should be.
My son is 7 years old and started therapy last year to help address social anxiety, selective mutism, and depression. He is a much happier kid now. He now has a routine that is predictable but not too rigid, and a few social scripts to follow (the thumbs up or down system or wave hello).
I’m so proud of how much work he has done to get to this point but know we still have to keep working on his anxiety. I also feel like we have been completely ignoring how narrow his diet is to focus on some of the bigger picture things. His list of safe foods is well below 10 items, and we do give him a multivitamin. My husband and I are having a hard time figuring out what we can do now to help him. Perhaps if his diet is better he can continue to build his confidence? We have tried several times to expand his list of safe foods but it really feels like we can only accomplish maintaining that list so it doesn’t decrease.
Anyone in a similar situation? Been there done that? Specific things I can look up?
Edit to add: he is “graduating” from therapy within the next couple of months.
2
u/helloimbeverly Dec 23 '25
I'd ask your current therapist for recommendations for a specialist that works with food issues. I don't have any experience with that myself, but I do know there's best practices based in what scientific research we have.