Birds Eye send 2,000 old-style chicken nuggets to boy with Asperger’s who stopped eating after recipe of his favourite meal changed
Parents launched desperate Facebook appeal in search for old recipe nuggets, which William eats every day for lunch and dinner
BIRDS EYE has sent an eight-year-old boy with Asperger's 2,000 old-style chicken nuggets after he refused to eat when the recipe of his favourite meal was changed.
William Stocker has Asperger's and Avoidant-Restructive Food Intake Disorder, which mean he only eats Birds Eye chicken nuggets and a few other sugary foods.
William's parents Mandy and Julian were worried when he stopped eating the nuggets, which he has for lunch and dinner every day.
But, they soon realised the recipe had been changed and with it the colour of the nuggets.
The couple launched a appeal to try and find stockists of the original recipe.
When Birds Eye heard about their search they delivered 40kg of old recipe nuggets to their home in Malvern, Worcestershire.
Mandy, 44, said: "I cooked the last four nuggets on Tuesday morning and at 10.30am I had a delivery.
"They sent 2,000 free nuggets.
"Birds Eye promised to bring us the old recipe and they did. I think they cooked them especially for us. I was so happy.
"I'm pleased to have the nuggets back. I knew they had changed when I took them out of the bag and realised they are using wholegrain breadcrumbs.
"William eats them all year round, even for Christmas dinner.
"It's so hard, we can't take him to a restaurant, he won't eat with us, he can't even look at other foods.
"The amount of time people say put the food in front of him and he'll get hungry. But he won't, he would rather starve."
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Mrs Stocker said her son's food has to be orange or red and when Birds Eye changed the colour of the nuggets to a darker brown, William stopped eating them.
She added: "Autistic children stick to the same routine. The food has to be cold.
"He is brand specific. They are in their own bubble and they stick with safe food."
Mandy had turned to Facebook in desperation and was overwhelmed by the level of support from friends and strangers.
She said: "We had people dropping nuggets off for us. Friends of friends have brought round nuggets. That's how we kept him eating four a day for lunch.
"It has been so nice how many people I've met from this appeal who have the same or similar problems."
Julian, 47, said William stopped eating when he was two-years-old and health visitors told her to find a way to get him to eat.
She said: "He found Birds Eye chicken nuggets when he was two-and-a-half. He had been eating bread and jam up to that point for breakfast lunch and dinner."
A spokesperson for Birds Eye said: “We have changed the recipe for our chicken nuggets so that they now contain a wholesome wholegrain packed crumb, as opposed to a golden crumb, hence the difference in appearance.
"Changing a recipe of any of our products is not a decision we take lightly and our first priority is always about making our food even better.
“We know that sometimes children find change a bit hard, particularly when it comes to favourite things. To make life a little bit easier for Amanda and her son, we would like to give them a supply of the original nuggets so they have a bit longer to get used to that change.”
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