the drive to eat

[Guest guest]

Hi Guys,

It's again. I have yet another question. Jillie will eat

very small amounts of food and it takes her an hour or more to

consume the morsels she eats. She gets her nutrition via a GT. I sit

her down at the table 3 times a day and offer a variety of foods.

She refuses to eat anything resembling baby food like yoghurt or

apple sauce and dislikes sweet foods and drinks. She likes salty,

spicy, crunchy stuff like crackers, cheese (esp goat), salsa and

cheese puffs. On a really good day, she'll eat 6 or 7 small pieces

of cheese, a cracker and take sips of water. She goes through phases

with cheerios and baby raviolis. She has a speech therapist. My

questions are: What age do they become more motivated to eat? She

doesn't really care about the food she eats, she's merely putting up

with it and agreeing to please me. I'm stopping her GT feeds for 2

hrs before meals and giving her periactin prior to breakfast and

dinner but I see no interest in taking more in. We've been stuck at

this stage for ever. My other question is, does anyone know of a

protein food which partially dissolves in the mouth (she's not great

at chewing but tries) that is on the salty, spicy or crunchy size. I

know by it's nature, protein starts to break down in the stomach vs.

carbs which can start dissolving in the mouth because of the enzyme

amylase found in the saliva. Meat generally doesn't get swallowed

and cheese is higher in fat. She hates cottage cheese by the way.

There must be something out there that I havn't come cross yet that

is higher in protein and easier to get down. Anyone know of

anything??

Many thanks,

(Mom to Ethan 5, Jillian (RSS) 23.5 months)