Food Therapy
Our first foods at therapy were cheese and an omelet with cheese. He could choose which one he'd eat. If I was going to pick a food battle, I wanted things worth the fight.
Eggs just aren't his jam. He never chose eggs. On Tuesday he ate an entire cheese stick (size of traditional string cheese). So today she wanted me to bring something different. I want spaghetti, so that I can have at least one meal I can make that the whole house will eat. So that's what I brought. Plain spaghetti noodles with butter.
When we went back to join them and see how the session went he was sitting in the big kid chair (not the high chair table thing) with the door open waiting for me. I said, "uh-oh, what happened?"
The therapist said, absolutely nothing. He ate the spaghetti like it was nothing.
I was pretty well floored. I mean, not totally shocked because he's been agreeable to everything she's asked him to do up until this point. But I was impressed. No gagging? No refusal?
She said no gagging at all, he hesitated but they did the touch it, kiss it, lick it, try it, eat it approach and he ate like four or five strands.
He had chicken and spaghetti for dinner tonight. He wraps it around his fingers and then eats it. He didn't eat a ton. But he ate it.
I do not know what has happened. Truly. She doesn't do anything revolutionary. The touch it, kiss it thing is pretty good my mind never thought of the kiss it stage, which is the key for him, I think. But other than that it's all bribery. Three bites we play with the toy. Okay now three more bites and you can play more. Which is practically what we do at home, truly, only it goes more like, okay no more toys until you eat your dinner. Or, I'm going to pause the show until you eat three bites. The show thing is what I've done since the beginning. Because in the beginning I couldn't get him to sit for a meal at all.
I mean last year getting him to try new things and he threw up. Every time. Gagged like I was poisoning him. THis year? Now he'll try it. What gives?
I dunno. Four is a magical year for logic. Actually 3.5. And G is very logical. He understands cause and effect and likes knowing that if he does x, y will happen.
So. My plan (and I'll discuss it with her at the next appointment, Tuesday) is to continue going through the end of the year, maybe to introduce three or four other new foods because this stranger telling him to eat seems to work better (another key), and then by Memorial Day be done.
Do I think it was beneficial? Hmmm. I think it triggered in G a sense that we were serious. I think when I told him we were going to see Miss K to "get some tricks on how to eat different foods" the word "tricks" resonated because he tells everyone he gets tricks on eating at food appointments. He has liked Miss K and trusts her and she is super nice (duh she's a therapist). She believes that since his problem isn't sensory, it was all in his mind, and the sessions have given him confidence that foods aren't going to hurt.
I believe all those things could be true. Has it been revolutionary? Until today I would have said no, because he still wasn't eating cheese or eggs at home. But Miss K believes, and I agree, that he just doesn't like them. And I am fine with that. Especially in front of today's evidence that he does in fact, at least a little, like macaroni (what he calls spaghetti).
But the therapist knows and I know that he is way past her. He is a totally normal kid who had an abnormal start to food eating. And I believe by the end of this month we can stop going.
Eggs just aren't his jam. He never chose eggs. On Tuesday he ate an entire cheese stick (size of traditional string cheese). So today she wanted me to bring something different. I want spaghetti, so that I can have at least one meal I can make that the whole house will eat. So that's what I brought. Plain spaghetti noodles with butter.
When we went back to join them and see how the session went he was sitting in the big kid chair (not the high chair table thing) with the door open waiting for me. I said, "uh-oh, what happened?"
The therapist said, absolutely nothing. He ate the spaghetti like it was nothing.
I was pretty well floored. I mean, not totally shocked because he's been agreeable to everything she's asked him to do up until this point. But I was impressed. No gagging? No refusal?
She said no gagging at all, he hesitated but they did the touch it, kiss it, lick it, try it, eat it approach and he ate like four or five strands.
He had chicken and spaghetti for dinner tonight. He wraps it around his fingers and then eats it. He didn't eat a ton. But he ate it.
I do not know what has happened. Truly. She doesn't do anything revolutionary. The touch it, kiss it thing is pretty good my mind never thought of the kiss it stage, which is the key for him, I think. But other than that it's all bribery. Three bites we play with the toy. Okay now three more bites and you can play more. Which is practically what we do at home, truly, only it goes more like, okay no more toys until you eat your dinner. Or, I'm going to pause the show until you eat three bites. The show thing is what I've done since the beginning. Because in the beginning I couldn't get him to sit for a meal at all.
I mean last year getting him to try new things and he threw up. Every time. Gagged like I was poisoning him. THis year? Now he'll try it. What gives?
I dunno. Four is a magical year for logic. Actually 3.5. And G is very logical. He understands cause and effect and likes knowing that if he does x, y will happen.
So. My plan (and I'll discuss it with her at the next appointment, Tuesday) is to continue going through the end of the year, maybe to introduce three or four other new foods because this stranger telling him to eat seems to work better (another key), and then by Memorial Day be done.
Do I think it was beneficial? Hmmm. I think it triggered in G a sense that we were serious. I think when I told him we were going to see Miss K to "get some tricks on how to eat different foods" the word "tricks" resonated because he tells everyone he gets tricks on eating at food appointments. He has liked Miss K and trusts her and she is super nice (duh she's a therapist). She believes that since his problem isn't sensory, it was all in his mind, and the sessions have given him confidence that foods aren't going to hurt.
I believe all those things could be true. Has it been revolutionary? Until today I would have said no, because he still wasn't eating cheese or eggs at home. But Miss K believes, and I agree, that he just doesn't like them. And I am fine with that. Especially in front of today's evidence that he does in fact, at least a little, like macaroni (what he calls spaghetti).
But the therapist knows and I know that he is way past her. He is a totally normal kid who had an abnormal start to food eating. And I believe by the end of this month we can stop going.
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