Food Therapy
We started food therapy with the speech pathologist last Tuesday. In the positive, I did pick up two new ideas that start using to encourage him to eat.
In the negative, there were only two.
G is just not as bad off as most of their patients. The kids that I saw were mentally disabled or autistic and not responsive. The therapist herself said she thought we'd be there at max, ten weeks. I didn't have the heart to tell her that it'll be less than that if ...
Well there are a bunch of things.
We went into a super tiny room with a big high chair. She wanted to try to get him to eat something he really likes to see how he does things. Oh peanut butter. Predictably, they don't have peanut butter. I'm sure most or many of their clients have serious allergies. So then they bring out crackers and almond butter.
But strike one in mind. How are we going to encourage eating of all foods if the facility is allergy free? And truthfully that was strike two. Strike one was the small room, with the huge high chair. And no where for D to be. In fact, she told me at the end that I could try and get a baby sitter.
Hmm. Sweet heart I made these arrangements with the explicit understanding that his brother will have to be there. I'm a SAHM. Which means that during work day hours the care for my kids falls to me. And who can find a sitter for half an hour twice a week? During the summer maybe. But now?
And it's irrational, but I do not like it when folks say D isn't welcome. Just rubs me wrong.
Anyway, moving on.
The cruxt of it was bribery. Do this and I'll let you do this. She recommended a special meal time toy that he only gets to play with during meal times. Take a bite, play for ten minutes, mom take toy back, take a bite, play for ten minutes. Anyone else see issue with that?
It's completely impractical. And he's beyond it, truthfully. I can get him to eat pizza for a $3 matchbox car from target. And he'll eat it all and then want the toy. Yesterday he ate three bites of egg for the same result.
I was really hoping for something other than bribery, or maybe more practical advice for a woman that has another small child. I already dedicate a large amount of attention to G during meal times, leaving D to his own devices. Her special meal time toy bit would make that worse.
And truly my problems are these: I can get him to try new things now but I can't get him to add them into his diet. I can get him to eat but it takes fooooooooooorrrrrrreeeeeeeevvvver. Like an hour plus. Some nights two hours. I want to have him eating in 30min by the fall and 20 by 2016. He can not go to kinder like this.
To answer your question: but what does he do at school?
He doesn't eat well. I send the most accepted foods, pb sandwich, goldfish and raisins. Sometimes cashews. This is another huge reason I have kept him at this school rather than moving him to a 3day program. Sonshine is the rare, rare, rare (and I do mean rare) school that allows peanut butter and nuts if no other child in the classroom has an allergy. So G eats a few bites of sandwich and most of his crackers most days. But I can tell when the day was high activity because he does eat more.
The other strike against food therapy (this post is all over the place, I'm sorry) is that it's just so different from a meal time environment. Sterile, small room, toys, weird chair. A strange woman in scrubs asking him to kiss weird foods. I just don't see it translating well to meal time. Or me doing it.
What I work on at home is eating our food groups (even if it's just accepted foods) in a timely manner. If we eat everything we get a desired consequence, usually a movie or activity after the meal. For new foods, before lunch at target (these are the days I grocery shop) he can pick out one toy from the cars aisle (these are $4 max) and then if he eats all of the food he can play with it. I've only done this three times now, twice for pizza, once for eggs. Since that seems to be the method that therapy is going with, I decided to just embrace it. I mean whatever. I told Lewis about my plan and he said, so we're going to end up buying him a corvette. I laughed but then said, hey, if we're still doing this when he's 10, if he wants to eat everything I put in front of him for 10 years, I'll get a chart, I'll put stickers on every day he eats what I give him. If he even does 80% of it, I'll buy him a ferrarri. I mean that's 10 years of desired behavior.
I was kidding. Mostly. Okay not really at all. I'd buy the kid a pony if he'd eat cheese, pasta, hot dogs, green beans or broccoli. The therapist asked me what I wanted him to eat and I told her and she was glad. She said some parents come in wanting sushi or turnip greens. All noble goals. I would settle for a carb. ANY carb, other than sandwich bread and goldfish. Potatoes.
So I will go for the next few weeks. And D and I will have to wait in the lobby (which also defeats the WHOLE POINT - I'm supposed to learn how to work with him). This point really just sticks in my craw. He has a brother. The doctor and the prior speech pathologist both said D could be there and since he's there every meal time at home that it would be fine. Now that that's not the case I'm so tempted to rail against it and just quit. But I can't. I have to try. And the way she said it ... like its just so easy to get a baby sitter. Working moms with the daycare really have no idea. I'd like them to think about how hard it is for them to find a sitter for dates. Then multiply that by a 1000. That's what it's like to try to find childcare during the day when you're 100% of the childcare. And the appointment is at 245. Even if I asked one of my mom friends to watch him, that's right after preschool drop off. So it's problematic. Someone would have to rush home to be able to watch him. And then Thursday at 3. Every week. Indefinitely?
I'm going to work it out, I'm going to try. And I'm going to continue to be super positive about it when I talk to G. But my gut tells me it's a waste of time. He's beyond what they think he is. And I've been doing all of this stuff all along. Anyone that has seen me feed this kid knows I have to coach every bite. I guess other moms just let their kid go hungry? I dunno.
She is a nice woman. I'm glad we're attempting this. I will try to remain open minded when I go back.
In the negative, there were only two.
G is just not as bad off as most of their patients. The kids that I saw were mentally disabled or autistic and not responsive. The therapist herself said she thought we'd be there at max, ten weeks. I didn't have the heart to tell her that it'll be less than that if ...
Well there are a bunch of things.
We went into a super tiny room with a big high chair. She wanted to try to get him to eat something he really likes to see how he does things. Oh peanut butter. Predictably, they don't have peanut butter. I'm sure most or many of their clients have serious allergies. So then they bring out crackers and almond butter.
But strike one in mind. How are we going to encourage eating of all foods if the facility is allergy free? And truthfully that was strike two. Strike one was the small room, with the huge high chair. And no where for D to be. In fact, she told me at the end that I could try and get a baby sitter.
Hmm. Sweet heart I made these arrangements with the explicit understanding that his brother will have to be there. I'm a SAHM. Which means that during work day hours the care for my kids falls to me. And who can find a sitter for half an hour twice a week? During the summer maybe. But now?
And it's irrational, but I do not like it when folks say D isn't welcome. Just rubs me wrong.
Anyway, moving on.
The cruxt of it was bribery. Do this and I'll let you do this. She recommended a special meal time toy that he only gets to play with during meal times. Take a bite, play for ten minutes, mom take toy back, take a bite, play for ten minutes. Anyone else see issue with that?
It's completely impractical. And he's beyond it, truthfully. I can get him to eat pizza for a $3 matchbox car from target. And he'll eat it all and then want the toy. Yesterday he ate three bites of egg for the same result.
I was really hoping for something other than bribery, or maybe more practical advice for a woman that has another small child. I already dedicate a large amount of attention to G during meal times, leaving D to his own devices. Her special meal time toy bit would make that worse.
And truly my problems are these: I can get him to try new things now but I can't get him to add them into his diet. I can get him to eat but it takes fooooooooooorrrrrrreeeeeeeevvvver. Like an hour plus. Some nights two hours. I want to have him eating in 30min by the fall and 20 by 2016. He can not go to kinder like this.
To answer your question: but what does he do at school?
He doesn't eat well. I send the most accepted foods, pb sandwich, goldfish and raisins. Sometimes cashews. This is another huge reason I have kept him at this school rather than moving him to a 3day program. Sonshine is the rare, rare, rare (and I do mean rare) school that allows peanut butter and nuts if no other child in the classroom has an allergy. So G eats a few bites of sandwich and most of his crackers most days. But I can tell when the day was high activity because he does eat more.
The other strike against food therapy (this post is all over the place, I'm sorry) is that it's just so different from a meal time environment. Sterile, small room, toys, weird chair. A strange woman in scrubs asking him to kiss weird foods. I just don't see it translating well to meal time. Or me doing it.
What I work on at home is eating our food groups (even if it's just accepted foods) in a timely manner. If we eat everything we get a desired consequence, usually a movie or activity after the meal. For new foods, before lunch at target (these are the days I grocery shop) he can pick out one toy from the cars aisle (these are $4 max) and then if he eats all of the food he can play with it. I've only done this three times now, twice for pizza, once for eggs. Since that seems to be the method that therapy is going with, I decided to just embrace it. I mean whatever. I told Lewis about my plan and he said, so we're going to end up buying him a corvette. I laughed but then said, hey, if we're still doing this when he's 10, if he wants to eat everything I put in front of him for 10 years, I'll get a chart, I'll put stickers on every day he eats what I give him. If he even does 80% of it, I'll buy him a ferrarri. I mean that's 10 years of desired behavior.
I was kidding. Mostly. Okay not really at all. I'd buy the kid a pony if he'd eat cheese, pasta, hot dogs, green beans or broccoli. The therapist asked me what I wanted him to eat and I told her and she was glad. She said some parents come in wanting sushi or turnip greens. All noble goals. I would settle for a carb. ANY carb, other than sandwich bread and goldfish. Potatoes.
So I will go for the next few weeks. And D and I will have to wait in the lobby (which also defeats the WHOLE POINT - I'm supposed to learn how to work with him). This point really just sticks in my craw. He has a brother. The doctor and the prior speech pathologist both said D could be there and since he's there every meal time at home that it would be fine. Now that that's not the case I'm so tempted to rail against it and just quit. But I can't. I have to try. And the way she said it ... like its just so easy to get a baby sitter. Working moms with the daycare really have no idea. I'd like them to think about how hard it is for them to find a sitter for dates. Then multiply that by a 1000. That's what it's like to try to find childcare during the day when you're 100% of the childcare. And the appointment is at 245. Even if I asked one of my mom friends to watch him, that's right after preschool drop off. So it's problematic. Someone would have to rush home to be able to watch him. And then Thursday at 3. Every week. Indefinitely?
I'm going to work it out, I'm going to try. And I'm going to continue to be super positive about it when I talk to G. But my gut tells me it's a waste of time. He's beyond what they think he is. And I've been doing all of this stuff all along. Anyone that has seen me feed this kid knows I have to coach every bite. I guess other moms just let their kid go hungry? I dunno.
She is a nice woman. I'm glad we're attempting this. I will try to remain open minded when I go back.
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