Dear PediaSure: Your Commercial is Offensive!

"They Are What They Eat"

I saw this commercial on TV last night. Boy, did it strike a nerve! A very painful, raw nerve! The mom in the commercial--the one all smug cause she gives her kid PediaSure, and now little PediaDrinker's the star of the soccer field--is a smug, self-righteous bitch. What a snotty thing to say to her friend who's concerned about her child being a little slow on the field (might have something to do with that giant Box-of-Fast-Food-Fries costume her kid is wearing), "Well, they are what they eat!" Judgmental much? Who says something like that to another mom?!

Some of us have children with Sensory Processing Disorders (very common among children with Autism Spectrum Disorder), which limits their food choices. Some children, like my son, have brains that mix up the signals their senses are sending them. To him, many foods the rest of us with normal-functioning brains find delicious and tantalizing, smell like vomit. Or garbage. Or poop. How could you eat something that smelled as nasty as that?

Food is a big issue in our house. To his credit, Jack won't touch anything made of potatoes (my favorite vegetable!). He abhors french fries, mashed potatoes, baked or fried potatoes, as well as potato chips (Lays Original are my crack cocaine). I made this discovery when he was about a year old, and we were in a public restaurant. I gave him a small spoonful of mashed potatoes and gravy (Yum! What kid doesn't love mashed potates and gravy, right?). He gagged and threw up, right there in the crowded restaurant. So sorry, other diners!

His main food choices consist of plain white rice (no butter!), cheese pizza, Ritz crackers, and grilled cheese. He also likes Chinese chow mein noodles, as long as I pick out every tiny bit of vegetable matter. Spaghetti is a favorite, but only with Ragu Original sauce (no chunks of tomatoes, please). His only palatable vegetables are corn and raw carrots (as long as ranch dressing is provided). He's also allergic to cow's milk, so will only drink vanilla soy milk.

I've actually thought about looking into PediaSure, but doubt he would drink it unless it tastes like the soy milk he's used to. But I have to say, their marketing people are clueless, as well as really insensitive. I've been trying to educate other moms, like the one in this commercial, for years. I get so tired of people offering suggestions like, "Just make him eat it. I made my little Susie sit there until she ate everything on her plate. If she doesn't eat it, I give it to her for breakfast the next morning!" Or, "He'd starve to death at my house, cause I wouldn't fix him anything special." Well, yes he would. If he doesn't like something, he will say he's full and shove it aside, even if he's hungry. He'll tell you he's not hungry, but it really just means he can't (not won't, can't) eat it. His brain is telling him it tastes and/or smells nasty. It's that disordered signals thing. Not his fault.

Children with ASD very often have food issues. And the "no thank you bite" doesn't work for us either. Even if I can get him to unclench his jaws long enough to taste something new, he'll usually just run to the garbage can and spit it out. We're hoping that as he gets older and observes other people eating and enjoying various gastronomical delights, he might learn to be a little more adventurous. But for the time being, we just have to feed him what he'll eat and accept him the way he is. He was born this way. Different, not less. Not defective, just different.

"Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle." -- Plato

Am I the only one offended by the rudeness of this commercial? Please feel free to share your feelings in the comments section below.