Jake has what's called a feeding disorder. It means he has extreme anxiety when it comes to eating food. He can't handle most textures and as a result he gags and throws up a lot when foods are placed in his mouth. When offered food he covers his mouth and almost has a panic attack of some sort. He is not a scrawny kid thanks to Pediasure but he is not a well nourished kid either. His diet consists of yogurt, pancakes, an occasional grilled cheese, crackers, pizza, frosted mini wheats and Pediasure. Over the past couple months my mom and I (most of the hard work credit goes to my mom) have been working with him. We pulled the old potty training trick and gave him a sticker chart. For every new thing he tried he got a sticker and after filling a chart with stickers he got a prize. We started slow and simple. VERY slow and simple. At first he got a sticker for licking the piece of food. It took a lot of bravery on his part to even do that. Then after a while we moved to putting the food all the way in his mouth and after a while of doing that we progressed to sinking the teeth in to the food. It didn't matter if he spit it out after each step as long as he completed the task. I am very proud to say that he now eats grapes, (loves them) apples with peanut butter, (even chuncky) meat balls, cheese, peanut butter and honey sandwitch, milk, (huge) smoothies, (including my moms green veggie smoothies) oatmeal, almonds, raisins, and most healthyish cold cereals. He now gets excited to eat and is happy rather than stressed out. I can't even begin to express my joy in this. It has been such a relief. He still has a long way to go but he has been more willing to try and is excited about his own progress.
Being silly while waiting for lunch.
I'd ask him how his yogurt tasted but I'm not sure he knows.
Eating meatballs and apples with peanut butter. I love to watch his eyes get big when he is putting something in his mouth. It shows his excitement about what he is doing.
WAY TO GO JAKE!!!! We love you and are so proud of you. (now if only we could have the same success with potty training. One thing at a time I guess.)
Eating meatballs and apples with peanut butter. I love to watch his eyes get big when he is putting something in his mouth. It shows his excitement about what he is doing.
WAY TO GO JAKE!!!! We love you and are so proud of you. (now if only we could have the same success with potty training. One thing at a time I guess.)
6 comments:
That is awesome!!! I'm SO glad he's making good progress. It sounds like you've found the perfect solution for him. Way to go, Jake (and Kat and Carol)!!!!
Wow, what a change! Isn't it nice to see that when the doctor's fix doesn't work, that the mom fix does. Good work!
I saw the chart the other night and was going to comment that it looked like he'd been doing so well--lots of stickers! Awesome!
That is so hard! Luke is our difficult eater too and just recently he got sick and threw up about 25times in 24 hrs and continued to throw up for 5 days. We think his stomach is like beaming down. It's freaky! And sad. W are thinking he's getting better, but we'll see and we are on vacation! Crappy! I'm glad its slowly getting better!
That is so hard! Luke is our difficult eater too and just recently he got sick and threw up about 25times in 24 hrs and continued to throw up for 5 days. We think his stomach is like beaming down. It's freaky! And sad. W are thinking he's getting better, but we'll see and we are on vacation! Crappy! I'm glad its slowly getting better!
I had no idea that even existed! I'm glad things are getting better. You are an awesome example of patience to me!!
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