Noah Berlatsky

and then I got hospitalized for crohn's disease once in high school...(haven't had another attack since, but...it was dramatic and awful, as that disease is.)

yeah; they were great.

this book looks super; thank you for writing it.

this looks like it might be worth checking out?

bsky.app/profile/mbro...

you are absolutely not a failure; you're doing the right thing.

neurodivergence is definitely genetic/heritable; not that your father or kids are, but...also they might be.

idk. I mostly grew out of the asthma and haven't had a real attack in probably decades. I ended up in the hospital more than once when I was little though.

like, I'd be fine...except when I wasn't.

I think it really is something that defined my childhood for my parents more than me?

it's kind of weird because I don't really think of myself as having been disabled, and I didn't think of myself as disabled at the time really, but...I was sick a lot. my asthma was quite bad, especially before middle school or so.

also just saw this which might be helpful; by someone who had major food avoidance issues when they were a kid. bsky.app/profile/mbro...

I wrote a food aversion cookbook and guide (COLOR TASTE TEXTURE) specifically because it was what I needed as a kid, and there wasn’t anything like it until I wrote it. Most traditional treatments are not only ineffective but can make it worse. So glad your parents gave you the environment they did!

Color Taste Texture by Matthew Broberg-Moffitt: 9780593538593 | PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books An accessible family cookbook that offers solutions rather than tricks to empower the food-averse, autistic, and picky eater, with 46 recipes. This much-needed cookbook combines tips and techniques.....

I’m an Autistic classically trained chef and I wrote a food aversion acceptance cookbook and guide titled COLOR TASTE TEXTURE, that’s all about finding out what works for specific sensory needs and how to customize food for them. It’s useful for all ages, no cooking experience necessary.

it's okay; like I said, he lived a full life. I just miss him, obviously.

it's a big neurodivergent signpost, so worth paying attention for other behaviors too. (though everyone's different, so it doesn't have to be that.)

this is absolutely the right thing to do. I know it can be maddening but yeah, forcing them to eat is just miserable and traumatizing.

it's likely to ease up in some ways as he gets older...and/or he'll figure out how to negotiate it with less stress for everyone.

the NYT laundering WH talking points because it won't do due diligence AND won't tell its readers who its sources are. just shameful.

Headline from Harvard Crimson: "Harvard President Garber Tells Faculty He Is Not Considering a $500 Million Deal With Trump."

Text of story: Harvard prez Garber says report of a deal "was apparently leaked to the press by White House officials." NYT ran with it as a story.

Important details from this story:

1) Yet another news-break by student journalists (this time @theharvardcrimson.bsky.social) www.thecrimson.com/article/2025...

2) Harvard saying "see you in court," not "let's make a deal."

3) Per Garber, WH/MAGA leaked news of a "deal." NYT then ran with it.

thank god that the trump administration is laser focused on protecting jewish people.

thanks. it is.

just, I was a weird kid in a lot of ways and I think with the wrong parents I would have been really miserable.

but I had the right parents and I wasn't and I'm grateful for that.

I miss my dad, too. he lived a long time and had a full life, but you always wish for a few more years, I guess.

anyway. tv, parenting advice, just a lot of cultural scripts encourage parents to have pointless power struggles with their kids all the time.

I'm glad my parents didn't do that.

(he was the primary caregiver; had more flexible hours than my mom.)

thinking about this in part because my dad just died.

he was a really good dad, in this as in many things. he was an extremely neurotic guy in a lot of ways but really was not into policing his kids over bullshit.

again they were right...but often parents (and for that matter doctors) think the way to deal with disability is *fewer* accomodations and more pointless power struggles with kids.

I had a ton of health problems as a kid, asthma especially, and my parents may well have just figured that I had enough problems without battles over food.

it's a short article. you could, (a) read it and talk to me about it, or (b) just leave me alone.

you're not sorry; you're being an ass. fuck off.

whether you're considered beautiful in your culture is determined by your culture, not by genes.

anyway; I'm grateful my parents didn't make a huge deal out of it, even though they didn't really know I was neurodivergent. they just figured having huge fights about it wasn't worth it. and they were right.

my parents just rolled with it; didn't try to force me to eat anything. eventually I expanded a bit. I still kind of default to certain foods though.

I was an extremely picky eater as a child; probably a mix of food allergies making me scared to try new foods and neurodivergence. 1

Or, more often than not, significantly worsen things. I don’t like this game of Russian roulette with children’s lives.