Re: Please tell me when the eating improves?

[Guest guest]

,

Just wanted to say that my son was a " horrendous " eater. He just turned 10

and he is eating me out of house and home. I am a little concerned he may

get chubby (runs in the family). When we started growth hormone, it seemed

to stimulate his appetite.

Hope this helps.

Judy

Please tell me when the eating improves?

> I'm so incredibly tired of this and need to vent to someone. Colin

> is turning 5 in 3 months and I really thought we'd be closer to

> getting rid of the g-tube than we are. It is so frustrating. Every

> meal is a struggle and he just hates to eat.

>

> After being pushed by 3 different doctors and several SLP's to

> eliminate the night time feed (he gets 590ccs at night) we decided

> to give it a trial run. It was not successful at all and we only

> lasted 6 days and went back to our old routine. He was hiding under

> the sofa at mealtime because he didn't want to eat. At least before

> he would come to the table somewhat willingly.

>

> After switching back to the old routine, we've been trying a

> different approach where he is in complete control of what he eats

> and as a result he pretty much doesn't eat anything. I don't know

> how he has the energy to get through the day. But at least we don't

> have to listen to the constant whining and complaining that was

> ruining mealtime for our entire family.

>

> Will he ever develop an appetite? He is just never hungry and

> Periactin seems to do absolutely nothing.

>

> Thanks for listening,

>

>

> Colin (RSS) and Hayden - 4-3/4

> Grant - 20 mo.

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

[Guest guest]

My son never had a tube and as a result I never had the extreme difficulties

you are describing, so if my suggestion seems too simple, you'll have to

excuse me because I haven't dealt with that.

I'm just going to throw out some ideas in case you haven't tried them.

First, I wouldn't bother having him even be at the table for meal time. He's

5 now and he will understand if you say 'this is a place for eating, you

don't want to eat, so you can go and watch t.v. or play in your room " . It's

not a punishment , just facts. You guys need to have a normal dinner

time, and as time goes on, he may hear the rest of the " family " having fun

out there and he might want to join in too. It would take time, but look at

it this way, he's upset and he's upsetting everyone else at the table and

how much does he eat in the end? Hardly anything? So that's really no

different than just not bothering to give him anything to eat!! Do you know

what I mean? He's trying for control here. That's so NORMAL for a 5 year

old. You need to show him you don't care he isn't at the table and then he

will want to join (and you would have already made it clear that he can only

join IF he eats something).

Then, I would (well I do have this) a drawer in my kitchen (the lowest one,

I think it's supposed to be a bread drawer, but it's not LOL) and I have it

filled with various foods that can be in a cupboard (some cookies, puddings,

fruit cups, granola bars, oh the list can go on) and that was always called

" Adam's drawer " (I even had potato chips in there at one time); only Adam

could " eat " from that drawer (I even had a couple of bowls in there so he

could " pour " some chips into a bowl). But the point here is that it comes to

the point where we really can't be picky.....I have gone through phases

where I don't care WHAT he eats as long as he does eat. And I guess that is

where you are at right now. So if he will choose some things at the grocery

store that he would like in " his drawer " ; then he can go there at any time

and eat. That way, SOMETHING is going in.

Later, much later on, you can modify and change these things. But right now

you want him to eat. To do that takes drastic measures.

I have had a large number of people turn their nose down at me when they

hear we haven't had a meal at the table in YEARS! Adam eats in front of the

t.v. (and my daughter and I did too, but now everyone is older, I make a

meal a night and it's " there " whenever someone wants to eat). But people try

to criticize me for not being a proper parent because my kid eats infront of

the t.v. You know what I say? I don't care a FIG what they think. I know if

Adam is involved watching a show he will mindlessly shovel food into his

mouth as he watches. If it's a good show and a dinner he particularly likes,

he will often have a second and sometimes A THIRD plate!!! These people can

not judge me because they don't know what it is like to worry constantly

that your kid isn't going to eat. Now if I made the same meal but forced

Adam to eat at the table, he might have 5 bites and then say " I'm full "

because he's bored or whatever. He has no need to " eat " ; but he will if he

can do something he likes while he's doing it.

I don't know about you, but when I am reading I have to eat. I must have

paired this several times....but I can't have dinner without reading

something and then I need to " snack " if I am reading a book and it's not

dinner time. It's totally like Pavlov's dogs.....stimulus and response. You

just need to pair 2 things together over and over again and suddenly one

MEANS the other (in Adam's case it's watching t.v. and eating!)

I don't know if you have tried this or not. But remember Colin is looking to

control his world, that is a normal developmental stage, if you can have an

opportunity to give him a choice on any level, try it, and you'll be

surprised with what he does.

But you can't chase him anymore . Dinner time must have gotten to an

incredibly stressful time of the day for all of you. Forget it, leave some

food out and see if he will gravitate to it (especially if he can open up

packages and do some choosing of what to eat on his own, by going in his own

drawer, he might feel " grown up " )

but I did want to say, you can vent here any time. We might not know what to

do or say, but on some level we have all experienced those same breaking

moments and that's when we really need each other here.

Deb

Please tell me when the eating improves?

> I'm so incredibly tired of this and need to vent to someone. Colin

> is turning 5 in 3 months and I really thought we'd be closer to

> getting rid of the g-tube than we are. It is so frustrating. Every

> meal is a struggle and he just hates to eat.

>

> After being pushed by 3 different doctors and several SLP's to

> eliminate the night time feed (he gets 590ccs at night) we decided

> to give it a trial run. It was not successful at all and we only

> lasted 6 days and went back to our old routine. He was hiding under

> the sofa at mealtime because he didn't want to eat. At least before

> he would come to the table somewhat willingly.

>

> After switching back to the old routine, we've been trying a

> different approach where he is in complete control of what he eats

> and as a result he pretty much doesn't eat anything. I don't know

> how he has the energy to get through the day. But at least we don't

> have to listen to the constant whining and complaining that was

> ruining mealtime for our entire family.

>

> Will he ever develop an appetite? He is just never hungry and

> Periactin seems to do absolutely nothing.

>

> Thanks for listening,

>

>

> Colin (RSS) and Hayden - 4-3/4

> Grant - 20 mo.

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

[Guest guest]

Deb,

We also had Matt eat in front of the tv too. He ate so much more. We

definitely were of the mind set that as long as he eats something. He

actually had bottles until he was four because I knew he was getting in the

formula. As he got older, I would give him the choice to eat or he would

need a tube feeding. Definitely gets to be more of a control thing.

It does get better though, eventually.

Judy

Please tell me when the eating improves?

>

>

>> I'm so incredibly tired of this and need to vent to someone. Colin

>> is turning 5 in 3 months and I really thought we'd be closer to

>> getting rid of the g-tube than we are. It is so frustrating. Every

>> meal is a struggle and he just hates to eat.

>>

>> After being pushed by 3 different doctors and several SLP's to

>> eliminate the night time feed (he gets 590ccs at night) we decided

>> to give it a trial run. It was not successful at all and we only

>> lasted 6 days and went back to our old routine. He was hiding under

>> the sofa at mealtime because he didn't want to eat. At least before

>> he would come to the table somewhat willingly.

>>

>> After switching back to the old routine, we've been trying a

>> different approach where he is in complete control of what he eats

>> and as a result he pretty much doesn't eat anything. I don't know

>> how he has the energy to get through the day. But at least we don't

>> have to listen to the constant whining and complaining that was

>> ruining mealtime for our entire family.

>>

>> Will he ever develop an appetite? He is just never hungry and

>> Periactin seems to do absolutely nothing.

>>

>> Thanks for listening,

>>

>>

>> Colin (RSS) and Hayden - 4-3/4

>> Grant - 20 mo.

>>

>>

>>

>>

>>

>>

>>

[Guest guest]

Judy,

That is funny. I have done the same thing with - " If you

don't eat I will have to bolus you. " Most of the time he will then

eat, but once in a while he will say he wants a bolus.

, with , his jaw gets tired. That is why he has " dessert "

after every meal. Sometimes it is pudding or yogurt and sometimes

it is soup. Anything he wants that he doesn't have to chew.

also eats with the TV on most of the time.

Good luck,

Judith, Steve, (RSS) and (non RSS) 5 year old twins

> Deb,

>

> We also had Matt eat in front of the tv too. He ate so much

more. We

> definitely were of the mind set that as long as he eats

something. He

> actually had bottles until he was four because I knew he was

getting in the

> formula. As he got older, I would give him the choice to eat or

he would

> need a tube feeding. Definitely gets to be more of a control

thing.

>

> It does get better though, eventually.

>

> Judy

> Please tell me when the eating improves?

> >

> >

> >> I'm so incredibly tired of this and need to vent to someone.

Colin

> >> is turning 5 in 3 months and I really thought we'd be closer to

> >> getting rid of the g-tube than we are. It is so frustrating.

Every

> >> meal is a struggle and he just hates to eat.

> >>

> >> After being pushed by 3 different doctors and several SLP's to

> >> eliminate the night time feed (he gets 590ccs at night) we

decided

> >> to give it a trial run. It was not successful at all and we only

> >> lasted 6 days and went back to our old routine. He was hiding

under

> >> the sofa at mealtime because he didn't want to eat. At least

before

> >> he would come to the table somewhat willingly.

> >>

> >> After switching back to the old routine, we've been trying a

> >> different approach where he is in complete control of what he

eats

> >> and as a result he pretty much doesn't eat anything. I don't

know

> >> how he has the energy to get through the day. But at least we

don't

> >> have to listen to the constant whining and complaining that was

> >> ruining mealtime for our entire family.

> >>

> >> Will he ever develop an appetite? He is just never hungry and

> >> Periactin seems to do absolutely nothing.

> >>

> >> Thanks for listening,

> >>

> >>

> >> Colin (RSS) and Hayden - 4-3/4

> >> Grant - 20 mo.

> >>

> >>

> >>

> >>

> >>

> >>

> >>

[Guest guest]

,

I just want to give you some words of encouragement. Our son was a very

poor

eater at Colin's age; he had a G-tube, and got most of his calories through

night-time

feeds. It took several more years of struggle and slowly weaning him off before

we finally

removed his G-tube at age 8. Now at age 10, he eats pretty well, even says " I'm

hungry "

sometimes, and often asks for seconds at meals.

- Joe

> I'm so incredibly tired of this and need to vent to someone. Colin

> is turning 5 in 3 months and I really thought we'd be closer to

> getting rid of the g-tube than we are. It is so frustrating. Every

> meal is a struggle and he just hates to eat.

>

> After being pushed by 3 different doctors and several SLP's to

> eliminate the night time feed (he gets 590ccs at night) we decided

> to give it a trial run. It was not successful at all and we only

> lasted 6 days and went back to our old routine. He was hiding under

> the sofa at mealtime because he didn't want to eat. At least before

> he would come to the table somewhat willingly.

>

> After switching back to the old routine, we've been trying a

> different approach where he is in complete control of what he eats

> and as a result he pretty much doesn't eat anything. I don't know

> how he has the energy to get through the day. But at least we don't

> have to listen to the constant whining and complaining that was

> ruining mealtime for our entire family.

>

> Will he ever develop an appetite? He is just never hungry and

> Periactin seems to do absolutely nothing.

>

> Thanks for listening,

>

>

> Colin (RSS) and Hayden - 4-3/4

> Grant - 20 mo.