Nailsea community rallies to find family Hula Hoops for autistic daughter - one of the only things she will eat

A Nailsea family have thanked their local community after it rallied together to find dozens of bags of ‘hula hoops’ for their blind and autistic daughter - one of only three foods she will eat.

Bella Mildon, 13, has a mental age of a one-year-old and like many children with autism will only eat certain foods - in her case beef-flavoured Hoola Hoops, Jaffa Cakes and McDonald’s chips.

Efforts to try and introduce other food have failed due to her losing her sight in January last year as she has to feel and taste everything before she will eat it.

She would normally eat about ten bags of the beef-flavoured hula hoops a day as her main food source.

But her mum Sam Mildon was forced to put out a desperate appeal on social media as they were unable to find any due to shortages.

And locals in Nailsea, near Bristol have responded by helping to provide around 100 bags to keep Bella in stock.

Local pubs and shops were quickly able to provide large boxes of the hula hoops, sometimes refusing to take payments in a show of support and other neighbours raided their cupboards.

Sam posted her initial appeal on Facebook and wrote: “OH NO, British Hyper Market do not have them in stock, so we are back to square one, desperately seeking Beef Hula Hoops, not the big ones”.

Despite her fears though, Sam says she was ‘bowled over’ by the response to her appeal.

She later added: “Sawyers Arms just came through with 31 bags......Yes result. Thank you”.

And followed up with: “Becky from The Ring O Bells Pub, has sourced a box of 48 for Bella. You are amazing thank you so much.

“Bailey from Lost and Grounded Brewers has just delivered a box of hula hoops for Bella.

“Would not take any payment and came out of his way before going home to make sure Bella had them.

“Speechless from the love today”.

Bella currently eats around ten bags a day which Sam said was her main source of carbohydrates and food.

“There was a serious risk she would end up back in hospital again if we couldn’t find them,” Sam added.

The shortage was a result of a ransomware attack on their producer KP Snacks earlier this month that ruined the supply chain for the popular snack.

The company sent a letter to stores earlier this month warning about potential shortages after the attack damaged the company’s IT department and communications.

The appeal comes as part of Bella’s parents Sam and David campaigning to prevent the what happened to her affecting other children.

She suffers from non-verbal autism, Sensory Processing Disorder and AFRID - a restrictive food intake disorder that makes children extremely picky eaters.

She also collapsed back in January last year and spent days in hospital – but when she woke up she was blind. A routine blood test had failed to identify a vitamin A deficiency.

Her parents, both full-time carers for their girl, became worried about her eyesight when she began knocking into objects and took her into hospital several times the following week.

Sam added: “Bella collapsed and was in the hospital – when she woke up, she was blind. We vowed at the time we have to stop this happening.

“Autistic children often have eating disorders and restrictions.

“Our daughter is blind, and it appears irreversible. Currently there are no guidelines for children with restricted diets to have regular vitamin A tests.

“If this had been the case, our daughter would not now be blind.”