Eating issues

March 18, 2009

Hi Christy,

My son just turned 2, he's Apraxic (or maybe severly speech delayed) and before

he was 15 months he ate everything under the planet that I gave him. All types

of textures etc. Sweet potatoes were his favorite. I would mash them with butter

(since he was a skinny baby) and he could eat an entire cup of the mashed sweet

potatoes and still ask for more.

Then one day, he started gagging at them.

Then another day, he gagged at just the SIGHT of them.

A few month weeks passed, and i introduced it again and was able to get it in

his mouth, but he spit it out (no gagging).

He's been the same with many of his foods.

The same happened with Play Dough. He played with it one day. The next, he

gagged when touching it, and then later he gagged (and vomited) just from the

sight. The therapist and myself, decided to take a small break from the play

dough and reintroduced it weeks later. Now he plays with it and loves it.

He currently receives OT, ST, and SI. I spoke with all his therapists and they

all said to 'watch' the behavior and keep trying to introduce the so called

offensive item, but without force. The therapists that have kids (without any

delays etc, standard development) say that toddlers and kids go through phases.

And many times a reaction or an adversity to food or texture many times sound

alarms in our minds b/c we are concerned of not acting appropriately or fast

enough in the case there is a sensory issue developing. But many times its just

normal developmental behavior.

There are tons of more examples that I can give you how one day my son eats one

thing and the next he gagged (yogurt, strawberries, blueberries, chicken, meat,

carrots, etc) He also will not eat mixed foods like a casserole.

As a mom who deals with this every day, i would say, that I don't make an issue

or react in a bad or negative way. I find alternative foods that are nutritious

and high calorie/good fat if you are concerned about his weight. When he was

really skinny (b/c of dehydration) i gave him natural potato chips once in a

while just for calories and fat. And if i ever notice that he gaggs from

something, I remove the object and then introduce it later. Sometimes hours

later and sometime I wait days /weeks.

As another example, my niece, who is 6, a couple of month ago refused to eat

meat. Chicken is ok, but not meat. We don't know if its something she got from

school, or maybe she understood that meat comes from cows, etc.. When my

mother-in-law tried to give her something that had ground meat inside she spit

it out. No gagging, but she really spit it far and got very upset. She developed

regular and had no sensory issues growing up.

Don't know if k nkowing any of this is going to help you, but I hope it does.

>

> This post is about my 5 year old who does not have apraxia but I thought you

all may have some insight.

>

> He eats a variety of foods with no problems. Crunchy, smooth, mashed, etc.

He doesn't avoid any certain texture. He does not like his food mixed like in a

casserole.

>

> Tonight I made shepherd's pie. He has eaten it before but tonight he did not

want any. I picked out a nice chunk of ground beef and wiped all the offensive

other parts and pieces off of it so that it was a plain piece of ground beef. I

put it in his mouth and he immediately gagged. He eats ground beef ALL THE

TIME! It had no bits of vegetable on it whatsoever. He worked it up in his

head that it was bad and it made him gag. What is this??? Is it a texture

issue? Sensory issue? Could some kind of OT help with this? I asked his

speech therapist about it but apparently he's not severe enough to warrant any

help from the school.

>

> His aversions are completely random and can even change from time to time.

The one consistent thing is that he doesn't like casseroles or mixed up foods.

Especially if they include meat. But he will eat meat by itself.

>

> This issue has been driving me crazy and I don't know what to do anymore.

He's super skinny and needs to gain weight but he just doesn't eat enough of

what he needs to eat in order to do that. We eat extremely healthy at home and

he very rarely has sugar or junk food.

>

> Sometimes I get mad but I try so hard not to make a big deal out of it because

I know that can make food issues worse. So what is a reasonable solution? I

can't force him to eat something that makes him gag. Do I keep giving it to him

until he tries it? Like for breakfast the next day? I don't want to be mean!

But I'm so tired of this.

>

> Any advice??

>

> Christy

>

March 19, 2009

I would try supplementing with Zinc. My son is much younger than yours (he is

almost 3 and weighs 34 pounds), but he takes 30 mg a day.

A world of difference in our house at mealtime since adding this supplement.

Penny

http://twoplusoneequalsfive.blogspot.com/