We have a difficult obsession, maggots

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We live near fields and get a lot of flies now that summer is here (supposedly). My son is now obsessed by maggots and flies laying baby eggs and he thinks its in his food, we have to turn his food over or if its left for about a minute out of his eyesight he will not eat. How do I get around this one!

tell him maggots are high in protein, and in some places considered a delicacy.

on a serious note, i don't know. Perhaps inform him that maggots mostly stick to rotting or spoiled food ( which you food probably isn't of your eating it). Those that don't are parasitic and kill the host anyway ( may want to leave that last sentence out, its just so ya know). That being said, most would be killed by you chewing you food or by stomach acid. If some made it past that you would probably get gastroenteritis ( fancy word for stomach ache).

How old is your son?

Yeah, I'd try explaining that the reason he does not see maggots in the house even though he sees flies is due to the fact that you don't have the things in the house that maggots live off of.
That's why he sees them outside where their food is.

If you're inclined to tell him people eat bugs, you can look for the books;

Man Eating Bug

and

Eat-a-Bug Cookbook


I used to teach wilderness survival and have eaten a variety of bugs.
I also used to do demos at the local schools and I'd serve up crickets and mealworms to the kids... plain and chocolate coated
These are good books on the subject.
There are others.. some out of print.

not a solution or anything but what about letting him cover his food with another plate or one of those covers that you can put on your food in the microwave so his plate stays "safe"
if none of the other explainations work.

Yeah, covering the dish could be a good help.

I thought of something else...

Perhaps giving the issue more attention would be detrimental to your goals?

Here's an example based upon your issue that I might have done with our daughter when she was younger...

Kid: "I think there are maggots in my food!"

Parent:(in a nonchalant manner & voice) "Have you looked underneath?"

Kid: "No... you look!"

Parent: "Just use your fork and take a peak underneath... see anything?"

Kid: "No"

Parent: "Good Job! You checked and it looks okay." (parent nonchalantly returns to eating, not making any further comments about the incident).

My grandma got a really unique gift for her birthday once.

Most kids draw flowers for their grandparents but me? Nooooooooo! I not only had a facination for maggots but dead fish as well.

My grandma got a lovely drawing of a dead fish complete with maggots and flies buzzing around to put on her fridge.

I was very proud of my drawing but couldn't understand grandma's dissappointment. She urged me to draw flowers and butterflies instead. I never got over my facination with bugs, bringing them in the house, giving my parents jars full of yellowjackets as gifts, etc...

But hey I'm glad I never gave up my facination no matter how many adults misunderstood me and tried to discourage the habbit.

See for yourself what my maggot and bug facination turned into:
http://thedb.com/antfolk

I seriously hope some day I can make it great with my bug facination and unique twist.

Edit: Okay I read this and see he didn't like the maggots... Oh well... My bad... But my story stays...

I hate to admit it, but I can see his point of view...I have pretty much become vegan because I can't stand that where I live it seems that every other week there are maggots in the trashcan...(the heat, humidity, food out in the trash for a week...that'll do it...) Anyway, one time even our darn barbecue grill had maggots because my husband forgot to clean it...It was disgusting...He's cleaned that thing for two years now and I will NOT under any circumstances eat anything cooked there. Pretty much, after that, I can't stand seeing anything in a grill...makes me sick...

I am VERY sensitive to stuff like that...Actually, just thinking of it now, it'll be a while before I eat rice and other things that might remind me of maggots...

PS: beware of the ketchup despensors at Mc D's... If I never cared about ketchup, I certainly don't anymore...

I had to work at a really cruddy poorly managed Mc D's... I found the PUPA stage.......when I was about to refill... Apparently people just kept refilling it without cleaning out the old stuff. (My manager never told me I needed to wash it out and likely she didn't tell any of the other employees either...

After that day I made sure to dump out all of the ketchup at least once per shift and scrub that thing out thououghly... That way no more health hazzards....

Sometimes being/having an autistic is not so bad... That way you get someone who can spot those details and take action.

An NT likely would have freaked out....if they knew what they were looking at.

EEEEeewwww, thats gross, maybe my son has a point!
Some of these posts made me giggle.
I will have to try covering it and maybe I talk too much with him about them when he gets on the subject, will make an effort not to see if it helps.
Im sure he will write a book on one of his obsessions one of these days, he knows so much about everthing!

Maybe we should both write a book. The more I post these topics the more I jog some really strange memories.

Seriously if anyone here or at autism speaks thinks I am not an autistic and far too normal... They never had me as their kid.

I was a STRANGE strange child. I'm blessed to remember my moments twirling around the carpet until I couldn't stand no more... Scrunching up in tight spaces, using a bar stool as my stem of choice, holding male bumble bees for a stem (males don't sting but they do vibrate quite nicely), I used to stuff my hands full of male bumble bees. Hey they are furry and they vibrate. Not only that but the irate bees make a high pitched buzzing different than their normal buzz... Not only that but if I pressed my hand lightly I could manipulate their sound to be something like "BSSeet BZZEEt EEET!"

Oh yeah... I can go on with all these strange but true tales... My parents are lucky I grew up to make it to 24. I'm lucky they survived that long too.