Oral sensitivity preventing expansion of diet

February 22, 2001

Hello,

My son has been GFCF for almost a year now. He still will only eat a

handful of different things. We have gotten nowhere with expansion.

Although, he is thriving as an extremely fussy GFCF eater. This is

handicapping my whole family as he is occupying all my time, and I am not

serving one meal for everyone. We have very disfunctional dinners!

I know many kids will not eat at all in the beginning and terrify their

parents into believing they will starve to death. THe reason I do not

" force " him to eat any meals (GFCF of course) is because of his oral

hypersensitivity. He still gags so easily and many times just at the

sight of some foods. Food strike because of taste is one thing, but

gagging and vomiting is another.

We are working with the ST and OT to try to reduce the sensitivity, but

haven't gotten very far with it. Does anyone have some advice here?

Should I offer him a meal, and let him starve (he definitely will hold

out on me) even though it seems to be a sensory issue? Will starvation

cause him to gag stuff down and consequently reduce his sensitivity? I

hate to start a " get ie to eat new food campaign " and then have to

back out of it.

I need to do something - this seperate meal for ie routine has got

to end. I don't mind scrambling around for breakfast and lunch, but

dinner has got to be all together. My other two kids are extremely fussy

too and this meal thing is undermining our family life.

Help ..........help.........please! I'll take opinions, experiences,

advice, criticism.....

Charlene

Brats: ie (5), Caroline (5), (2)

Recommended Posts