{"id":1974,"date":"2025-04-03T06:30:17","date_gmt":"2025-04-03T06:30:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1974\/"},"modified":"2025-04-03T06:30:17","modified_gmt":"2025-04-03T06:30:17","slug":"my-son-ate-nothing-but-heinz-peppa-pig-pasta-for-12-years-he-would-scream-if-i-gave-him-anything-else","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1974\/","title":{"rendered":"My son ate nothing but Heinz Peppa Pig pasta for 12 YEARS &#8211; he would scream if I gave him anything else"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A BOY who ate only Heinz Peppa Pig pasta shapes for 12 years has finally had a proper meal \u2014 thanks to hypnosis.<\/p>\n<p>Curtis Maxwell, 14, who used to polish off five cans a day, gagged if made to eat anything other than the tomato-sauce coated novelty food.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Person eating Heinz Peppa Pig pasta shapes surrounded by many cans of the product.\" height=\"640\" width=\"960\" data-credit=\"SWNS\" data-img=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/cure-food-addiction-heinz-peppa-983978398.jpg\" data-caption=\"Curtis Maxwell, 14, only ate Heinz Peppa Pig pasta shapes for 12 years\"   loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/cure-food-addiction-heinz-peppa-983978398.jpg\" role=\"img\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>2<\/p>\n<p>Curtis Maxwell, 14, only ate Heinz Peppa Pig pasta shapes for 12 yearsCredit: SWNS<\/p>\n<p>Mum Kylie decided to seek help after a friend\u2019s parents looked at her as if she was mad when she sent him to tea with two tins.<\/p>\n<p>She contacted David Kilmurry, a specialist in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thesun.co.uk\/fabulous\/9888789\/children-afrid-eating-disorder-treatment\/\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">obsessive eating conditions. <\/a><\/p>\n<p>He diagnosed <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thesun.co.uk\/fabulous\/26667691\/food-phobia-arfid-not-eaten-for-year\/\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">ARFID <\/a>\u2014 avoidant\/restrictive food intake disorder. <\/p>\n<p>It can make sufferers oversensitive to the taste, texture, smell, look and even temperature of certain foods.<\/p>\n<p>After four two-hour sessions, Curtis is willing to try ten things including passion fruit, mango, balti mix, sugar snap peas, blood oranges and peanuts. <\/p>\n<p>A favourite meal now is a six-inch turkey sub.<\/p>\n<p>Cleaner Kylie, from Rugby, Warks, said: \u201cHis obsession with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thesun.co.uk\/topic\/peppa-pig\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Peppa Pig<\/a> pasta began as soon as we started weaning him. He wouldn\u2019t eat anything else. Fruit and vegetables were a definite no go.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe\u2019d scream or moan if I put anything other than pasta shapes in front of him. He had tests done in hospital because he couldn\u2019t stop vomiting \u2014 ultrasounds, blood tests \u2014 but they couldn\u2019t see anything wrong.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey said it could be his restrictive diet causing him to be sick.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI knew we had to do something to break this cycle because it\u2019s difficult for him to be able to go out and socialise.<\/p>\n<p>Mum gets shamed after revealing she bulk buys EIGHTY McDonald\u2019s chicken nuggets at a time to keep her picky-eater son happy-<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHis friends will pick up chips and pizza and he just can\u2019t eat that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Single mum Kylie, who spends more than \u00a3100 a month on Peppa Pig shapes, added: \u201cI think the therapy is opening up his pallet.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Hypnotherapist David said: \u201cI\u2019ve absolute faith that he is fully recovered from the food phobia.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>What is avoidant-restrictive food intake disorder?<\/p>\n<p>Avoidant-restrictive food intake disorder (ARFID) is a condition characterised by the person avoiding certain foods or types of food, having restricted intake in terms of overall amount eaten, or both.<\/p>\n<p>They may have had a distressing experience with food, such as choking or vomiting, or experiencing significant abdominal pain.<br \/>This can cause the person to develop feelings of fear and anxiety around food or eating, and lead to them to avoiding certain foods or textures.<\/p>\n<p>Some people may experience more general worries about the consequences of eating that they find hard to put into words, and restrict their intake to what they regard as \u2018safe\u2019 foods.<\/p>\n<p>Significant levels of fear or worry can lead to avoidance based on concern about the consequences of eating.<\/p>\n<p>Source: Beat eating disorder charity<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"A mother and son stand close together, smiling.\" height=\"960\" width=\"640\" data-credit=\"SWNS\" data-img=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/curtis-maxwell-mother-kylie-maxwell-983978411.jpg\" data-caption=\"Mum Kylie contacted David Kilmurry, a specialist in obsessive eating conditions\"   loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/curtis-maxwell-mother-kylie-maxwell-983978411.jpg\" role=\"img\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>2<\/p>\n<p>Mum Kylie contacted David Kilmurry, a specialist in obsessive eating conditionsCredit: SWNS<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A BOY who ate only Heinz Peppa Pig pasta shapes for 12 years has finally had a proper&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1975,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[443,786,105,1276,437,118,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-1974","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health","8":"tag-diet-nutrition-and-weight-loss","9":"tag-food-and-drink","10":"tag-health","11":"tag-peppa-pig","12":"tag-section-healthnews-health","13":"tag-the-sun-newspaper","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114272627785382935","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1974","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1974"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1974\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1975"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1974"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1974"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1974"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}