WHAT to feed my SPD toddler????

[TzippityDoulah]

a bit of background: I have three kids. one average. one severe SPD and my 3rd kid is 11 months. He has never been evaled but it is clear he follows in his sister's footsteps. almost identical in every way! we have started treating him like we did her with a lot of success. one thing for having been down this road before is when you start recognizing things earlier you an usually handle them better. That said there area few things we can't seem to move past. I'm unable to get him to an OT or EI yet b/c we are in the middle of moving to a new state.

My son struggles with swallowing and. he's an intense sensory seeker so he climbs, runs, hits, yells, screams, thrashing... you get the idea. we try to give him lots of stimulation but I struggle to keep ahead of his needs! lol But as far as food... he is totally BF. up until I was fine with it... but lately he REALLY wanted foods. he begs for it, puts it in his mouth and gags, sometimes violently til he pukes. sometimes he chokes and scares me half to death.

His constitution is rather angry and frustrated. He's intense about everything. He's very physical and though he has a very sweet side - he lends himself towards being EXTREMELY fussy. (much like his older sis)

I've been working on coming up with ideas on what to make him so he can better eat it. he likes anything cookie like - crumbly that easily dissolves. unfortunately those things usually have something he is allergic to and are dreadfully undernourishing. So far I've got him to eat rice cakes, brown rice cereal (the puffs), some GF/CG/SF cookies I made, some french fries and some bread... I can't get him to swallow any veggies or fruits in any form thus far. nor meat.

he can't do any kind of puree - he gags worse than on hard things. he can take a bottle, so I thought about some kinda smoothie but as he has so many allergies/intollerances I can't think of what to put in it!

Things he can't eat:

• dairy
• gluten
• soy
• rice (maybe a few bites but anymore has him puking)
• bananas
• citrus
• strawberries
• most fruit
• butternut squash (or anything in that family)
• sweet potato
• pureed anything
• meat chunks
• anything in the lettuce family

he has serious texture and taste issue too... but that's a given.


any ideas on what to feed him? He's clearly hungry! He is so upset about not being able to eat an I can't think of how to help him. nothing they sell ready made is an option and I already cook from scratch so I'm scared of recipes - I just can't think of anything!

[KimPM]

Wow, do you have my son in your house?!?! Seriously, my DS has SPD w/ severe texture issues. (He's been through feeding therapy since about 22 months old). He also has a list of allergens that nearly match your DS's "can't have" list.

We are doing goat milk products, because he's able to have those just fine, and milk products were the primary part of his diet (read: wouldn't eat anything else) when we realized he needed to get off cow's milk.

It's a blessing if your DS can do a smoothie (my DS won't, unfortunately). Smoothies may be your best bet for nutrition (next to breastmilk). You could use almond milk as the basis for a smoothie. You could also try coconut milk as the basis as well.

Strange, but some the first foods my DS would even touch, and then eat, were hard foods...like pretzels. Weird, huh? Kinda scary, too. But this was around 2 years old...a long time away for your DS. I just found some GF corn cakes (like rice cakes, but only made of corn) I just found at the store. If you can find something like that and it works, perhaps working your way to some kind of nut or seed butter either put on top or some on the side for him to dip in. Consider cashew, almond, and sunflower seed butters. I see that your DS is 9 months, so it's kind of early for starting this kind of stuff. But perhaps keep this as a suggestion for working on later, if he still can't and won't eat other things.

You could also post in the allergies forum, because those ladies are working with similar "can't have" issues with their little ones, though most of their little ones don't have SPD.

One thing I thought of is to ask if he's had a swallow study. There are a couple of clues in your post that suggest a swallow study would be useful to perform.

Your breastmilk is good enough nutrition for him, for now anyway. Since he seems hungry, keep trying things. At 9 months, you have a long way to go to see if he will "warm up" to eating food. At that age I was exclusively BFing my son. In fact, that kept up until he was at least 18 months. He just wouldn't eat anything else.

You can also start working on getting him to touch/feel/play with various textured things (as long as he doesn't try to eat the non-food items). I'm thinking a bin of raw split peas, or rice, or sand. Encourage him to get his hands in there and play with it, to really feel the texture. Maybe you could hide some toys in there and help him put his hands in there to retrieve the toys. The hands and mouth are connected, texture-wise. So if you can get him working on texture this early it might help his texture issues.

[TzippityDoulah]

Kim,

thanks for your ideas My son is actually 12 months now.... my siggie is just in need of an update. I personally wouldn't be as concerned about trying ot get him wanting foods if it wasn't for the fact that he wants them so bad. and my milk just doesn't seem to fill him up all the way anymore. Part of me is a little concerned too b/c with my daughter we waited til about 15-18 months to tackle some of her issues and they got so much worse during that time. part of me feels the need to try and de-sensitize him now. I have no if it would make any long term difference - maybe it's jus stuck in my head that I have some sort of imaginary window or something?

as far as textures - he has NO issue with touching things with his hands. he will grab anything and play with it... it's his mouth that has the issues. it's not as bad as my daughter (she could have NOTHING touch her face whatsoever or she would scream for litlerally hours!) He just hates thing sin my mouth. it's definitely a swallowing issue though - no doubt about that. he loves food, wants food and can't swallow it so he gives up.

I'm just not sure if i should let him go at his pace an continue avoiding more and more things, or if I should be activily encouraging more and more things.

When we move and settle in our new home (in a new state!) I will look into EI and what resources there are out there for him. I'm almost worried he wont qualify b/c he's one of those kids that's charming when we go out to see people, and a screamer all day at home. you know what I mean? people actually say to me "he is so happy!" when we are out. and I think are you kidding!? he spends most of his life fussing and unhappy! He just craves that constant attention and interaction with people and things. So going out is a good distraction for him. new stuff is like a drug to him! and I'm happy he has something that brings out joy in him! unfortunately I can't take him to the park all day every day! (but believe me we go as much as possible!)


anyhow thanks for your ideas and support.

[TzippityDoulah]

p.s. is almond milk a good iea at 12 months? we hve no known allergy to nuts... but I always hear it so stressed not to introduce them young.

he doesn't do well with coconut - it makes him puke all day. I have no idea why.

[KimPM]

Originally Posted by HennyPenny

p.s. is almond milk a good iea at 12 months? we hve no known allergy to nuts... but I always hear it so stressed not to introduce them young.

he doesn't do well with coconut - it makes him puke all day. I have no idea why.

Wow, coconut is out too. Hmmm.

You could try just a tiny little bit of almond milk, and see if it agrees with him. Worth a try. Sounds like your DS has so many can't haves already...why withhold nut milk on a theoretical maybe.

[stephienoodle]

Can he do eggs? If he can, it might be worth trialing a nut of some sort. My son doesn't have SPD but he does have multiple allergies and was very anti-food for quite a while. I make him cookies that are based on the no-flour peanut butter cookie recipe. That recipe is 1 cup peanut butter, 1 cup sugar, and 1 egg. That's a little too... not nutritious for my liking with a kiddo who needs nutrition, so we do 1 cup almond butter or finely ground almonds, 1/3 cup sucanat, and 2 eggs. You can do them with just about any nut as far as I know, so if you can get any safe nuts and the eggs are ok then he could eat those.

Have you also thought about anything pancake-y? Again, kind of needs the eggs (though you could try flax), but you can sneak veggie purees or fruit purees into the batter... you could use nut flours or gluten free flours as the base. I worked in a classroom with a boy with autism who pretty much lived on pancakes that his mom doctored up. I think she included purees of just about everything at various points in time... I think even meat. They wouldn't be quite the same texture as cookies, but maybe close enough that he'd like them?

(BTW, I vaguely recall you mentioning on another thread somewhere that you were perhaps moving to Charlottesville? If you are and want to get hooked up with some local moms, let me know!)

[TzippityDoulah]

Originally Posted by KimPM

Sounds like your DS has so many can't haves already...why withhold nut milk on a theoretical maybe.

yes that is a very good point. he's had a little almond flour already in some cookies he stole a bite of (or rather slobbered on!) from the older kids and he seemed fine. I think I will give it a shot.

[TzippityDoulah]

I am moving to Lake Monticello on Saturday If you know any good resources let me know. and for sure i'd like to hook up with other moms... but I want to do things that include my older kids as much as possible - 10 and 5yrs.

I actually made him pancakes yesterday! how funny to mention that! he picked at them but can't seem to swallow them well. but I offer food at least 2 times a day even if he doesn't eat much and only plays with it. our pancakes are almond meal, arrowroot flour, white rice flour, almond milk, eggs and honey.

thanks for the thoughts!

Originally Posted by stephienoodle

Can he do eggs? If he can, it might be worth trialing a nut of some sort. My son doesn't have SPD but he does have multiple allergies and was very anti-food for quite a while. I make him cookies that are based on the no-flour peanut butter cookie recipe. That recipe is 1 cup peanut butter, 1 cup sugar, and 1 egg. That's a little too... not nutritious for my liking with a kiddo who needs nutrition, so we do 1 cup almond butter or finely ground almonds, 1/3 cup sucanat, and 2 eggs. You can do them with just about any nut as far as I know, so if you can get any safe nuts and the eggs are ok then he could eat those.

Have you also thought about anything pancake-y? Again, kind of needs the eggs (though you could try flax), but you can sneak veggie purees or fruit purees into the batter... you could use nut flours or gluten free flours as the base. I worked in a classroom with a boy with autism who pretty much lived on pancakes that his mom doctored up. I think she included purees of just about everything at various points in time... I think even meat. They wouldn't be quite the same texture as cookies, but maybe close enough that he'd like them?

(BTW, I vaguely recall you mentioning on another thread somewhere that you were perhaps moving to Charlottesville? If you are and want to get hooked up with some local moms, let me know!)

[PatchChild]

Have you tried Popsicles? Or any other frozen food? My son did much better when things were really cold. I'm still not sure if it was psychological or physical help, but it worked. We froze all kinds of crazy blended things, just for calories

[TzippityDoulah]

interesting! never heard of a kid that liked everything frozen. that's awesome that you figured that out!

[BetsyNY]

I know EI services vary a lot from state to state--but we were able to get a nutritionist through EI, and she was very helpful to us.

[ASusan]

I, too, was going to suggest pancakes. YOu can get any number of nutritional things into them, and you can use them as bread for a vehicle for sunflowerseed butter, etc.

Some suggestions for purees to add nutrition to pancake batter -
greens (this time of year - great! Not sure why your LO can't do lettuce, but DH can't do raw greens. If they're cooked, they're fine.)
A cube of liver, pureed in the blender. Can't taste it in the final pancake, I promise.
maybe cooked carrots.
2 T blackstrap molasses
Hemp milk has tons of protein (compared with rice milk, say) and I don't think it has the allergic risk of nut milks
The usual suspects of banana, any fruit lying around, apple...
pureed cauliflower
goat milk kefir.
raw cider (promotes fermenting if you mix up the batter the night before)

[TzippityDoulah]

Originally Posted by ASusan

I, too, was going to suggest pancakes. YOu can get any number of nutritional things into them, and you can use them as bread for a vehicle for sunflowerseed butter, etc.

Some suggestions for purees to add nutrition to pancake batter -
greens (this time of year - great! Not sure why your LO can't do lettuce, but DH can't do raw greens. If they're cooked, they're fine.)
A cube of liver, pureed in the blender. Can't taste it in the final pancake, I promise.
maybe cooked carrots.
2 T blackstrap molasses
Hemp milk has tons of protein (compared with rice milk, say) and I don't think it has the allergic risk of nut milks
The usual suspects of banana, any fruit lying around, apple...
pureed cauliflower
goat milk kefir.
raw cider (promotes fermenting if you mix up the batter the night before)

these are great ideas!! thanks!

(we follow ad gf/cf/sf diet but we also try to stick to a very traditional way fo eating. so i cook from scratch. I just added grains back into our diet so I'm in the process of learning how to soak different flours for things like pancakes. I'm not afraid of hard work )

[Leatherette]

Hi, not sure if I have much to help, but I have a daughter with SPD and food allergies, and I think that if she were that texture averse, I would take her to a speech therapist that focuses on feeding and oral aversions. It did turn out with my daughter that she was avoiding things she was allergic to, only we didn't know it at the time.

She stayed on formula for a long time as we figured out all of her allergies. She has outgrown some - dairy, corn, which were hard to avoid. We eliminated gluten for a while but that did not help.

So, the allergies may evolve into something a little less daunting, and the speech therapist - that's all I've got. And a hug for knowing that it's hard.

PS - Her favorite food: pancakes.