Pease Someone tell me how to get my child to EAT

[khaoskat]

I am so frustrated.  It has been a battle for at least a year.  Dev. Ped has him as Sensory Integration Issues.  OT eval tells me everything is developmentally appropriate.  That his eating is what you should have for a 5 year old.  Heck my 3 year old has a more varried diet than he does.  My 7 year old eat way more foods than he does at the same age...

Right now, except for the food he has snuck/horded/stolen today, he has 5 pizza rolls and 1/2 a biscut.  I think he had some cereal for breakfast.  Oh, and he had some strawberries and part of an apple as a snack. 

He is anemic..well ya, how the heck can he get iron when he wont eat except candy and sweets.  I am sure I could sit him down right now, give him a plate of cookies and they would be gone in no time at all.

Again, this has been going on for a year.  He might eat a bite or two of meat, will eat several different fruits, will only eat raw carrots, will only eat crunch peanut butter.

He wont sleep at night, so therefore I don't sleep at night.  He wont sleep because of RLS/PLM -- all because he has low serum iron levels.

I CANNOT break this cycle with this child.  And I can get no help.  Only way I can get help is if I take him an hour away, and that is just not possible basically being a single parent of 4 kids.

Anyone have any suggestions.  He is out eating candy right now for dinner.

[marge234]

Are you familiar with Ellyn Satter's work?  She's a highly recommended feeding specialist whose web site has a lot of information. Our slp says her approach is very good. Might be worth browsing through the site, links include age-specific info.  If you think it sounds helpful, her phone number's on the web site.  It can't hurt to call her and see what she/her colleagues say.

Wish I could be more helpful.  So sorry you're going through this.

[camracrazy]

Well this may not be a popular view considering that these forums lean towards more natural, healthy eating and foods, but sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do.

My 5 yo has Cystic Fibrosis and has a hard time gaining weight. She is a pokey eater and can take up to an 1+ to eat a meal if you let her. Her weight is important because better weight = better lung function. She was in the hospital earlier this year with a pseudomonas infection and lost 2-3 lbs. She just wasn't rebounding from it no matter what I tried so in desperation I started making her shakes. Some she liked, some she didn't. Right now she likes drink shakes made with Benacalorie, chocolate milk and powdered chocolate Boost. I have to make the shakes as calorically dense as I can, because she will not drink a large quantity. The Benacalorie has a texture like Milk of Magnesia, so you have to blend it really well in the blender.

Another thing that has helped her is bringing a stuffed animal to the table. The stuffed animal "eats" her food and we all act surprised and shocked that the food is gone from her plate. Yeah, some days it gets old but she is eating a lot more than she used to.

[Emmeline II]

I agree with "you do whatcha gotta do." My sister's son (PDD-NOS) would not eat ANYTHING with texture thicker than pudding for about 10 years. He had a very limited diet but his doctor's said to just get in him what she could.

I would work on getting the best nutrition out of what he will eat. When my children were in a generally picky eating phase around 2yrs I was making them smoothies with yogurt, frozen fruit, a couple of kale ice cubes, juice, flax seed, and wheat germ. Maybe protein shakes with a little bit of ice milk or ice cream would be a good idea. You can even make healthyish cookies. There are also several cookbooks out with kid friendly recipes with "hidden" nutrition--I think Seinfeld's wife wrote one and I think we have a healthy eating board here.

[Village Mama]

I don't know if you would consider food sensitivities as well? My youngest was a lot like you are describing... the food hoarding stands out to me as well as a bit of a flag!

With my youngest guy we ended up finding a health food meal replacement that he liked. We used the Vega one ( couldn't believe he liked it!) which they sell in sample sizes too. That way I didn't have to worry quite as much, or make him have some sort of eating complex! Along with some good  multivitamin and some good oils I felt a little bit more covered.

I have to say though, when we cut out the foods he was sensitive to he improved hugely( gained 4 pounds in a month) and his behavior and sensory issues improved greatly as well.

[khaoskat]

Thanks.  A bit of background, he used to be an excellent eater.  He would eat almost anything.  Then about 2 years ago, he would get extra picky about food.  Here is a great example.

He loves Mac N Cheese.  It is one of his staples.  For the longest time, he would eat only Kraft Mac N Cheese.  Then about a year or so ago, I learned how to do homemade.  It took about 4 months but we finally got him to stop eating the processed one and eating home made.  Now if you even offering him anything but my homemade, he will not eat it.  He doesn't like the taste/texture of the cheese sauce.

Here is basically what his currently willing to eat..

Home made Mac N Cheese

Sams Club Brats (has to be these only, or he wont eat it)

Cheese Pizza

Raw carrots (can only be raw, not cooked and not part of something like pot roast)

Strawberries, Blueberries, peaches, oranges, apples (and apple sauce)

Cheese Pizza rolls

Cinnamon Rolls

Cereal

Pasta w/ sauce and w/ parmasian cheese

Crunchy PB sandwhiches

Rice cakes - prefers to have the big round ones vs the snack size ones.

Yogurt (right now wants the ones with the granola crunch to be mixed in with it)

With regards to meat...if I am lucky I can get him to take a couple of bits of hamburger, chicken nuggets (he will eat more if they are my homemade), chicken, and pork.

Oh, he says he will eat chicken noodle soup if I make it or him homemade.

Right now family meals are a bit difficult.  I am usually having to pump during meal time, and hubby is traveling a lot for work.  In the past, we haven't had a big enough table.  So, the kids would sit at the table, and hubby would sit in the kitchen with them at a tray table.  I would go sit out there after hubby got done (he eats much faster than I do).  I do try to sit down with them as much as possible, but it is not often possible.  It is one thing I am working on now that we have a bigger house and can use more than 2 sides of the table.  We had been doing it, until the baby got sick and I had to start pumping/expressing for him.

A hard part about just letting him eat whatever he wants, is that his school does not serve lunch, so we have to pack it, and they do not allow a lot of the things he would eat readily (the junk food).  Most of the time he gets Mac N Cheese for lunch, with gold fish crackers, and fruit with water to drink.  My other son has such a huge palate of food tastes - fish, beef, pork, chicken, turkey - even eats a lot of what you would consider to be "adult foods" - salmon; cabbage rolls.  I often send him to school for lunch Salmon with rosemary and garlic seasoning; salad; fruit.

[camracrazy]

You said he likes yogurt and fruit. Would he drink a smoothie made with his favorite yogurt and fruit? You could still sprinkle the granola on top. You could mix protein powder with it. Just be sure to blend it well in the blender so that the powder doesn't taste gritty. You could even do that with just yogurt. Put it in the blender with some protein powder and mix it well, then return it to the container (if it is a single serve container).  

Usually when my dd doesn't want to eat it is:

1) Her GERD is acting up

2) She has an infection. She doesn't always present with a fever and other symptoms when she has an infection. Sometimes the only sign is a cough that sounds like post-nasal drip.

3) She has stool backed up. This can happen even if her stools are soft. There can be soft stool managing to pass around a small blockage.

As for the meat, would he eat it in a sauce if it was ground up really fine? We had a food mill when dd was younger and we used to ground up her meat really fine and mix it with her mashed potatoes. It was the only way she would eat meat.

[RiverTam]

You could get more iron into him by putting a liquid iron supplement in juice or yogurt. Gummy vitamins would help with the rest of the  missing nutrients. 

[Zan&Zav]

im taking notes, right now my son will eat

Kraft dinner

chicken nuggets

fries

garlic fingers

bread and butter

salami

bologna

specific types of pepperoni

yellow oreos

macaroni noodles with butter ( and he gags and pushes them away if they are the whole wheat kind)

eta- he has autism , spd , ocd , seizures , ect

[khaoskat]

RiverTam - we were originally given liquid Iron.  He wouldn't take it any anything - applesauce or juice.  He could taste it and refused.  They were amazed that a 5 year old was able to take the pill form better, even though I have to cut them in half.

It is almost as if he is a textural eater.  For the longest time he would chew his food till it self dissolved in his mouth and was liquified.  Now he prefers stuff that crunches.

[camracrazy]

Originally Posted by khaoskat 

They were amazed that a 5 year old was able to take the pill form better, even though I have to cut them in half.

 LOL

My daughter has to take digestive enzymes with each meal so we started teaching her how to swallow them whole at one or two. When she was in the hospital all the nurses on the floor would stop in (even if they weren't hers) to see this little toddler swallowing her pills like it was nothing. She will be 6 tomorrow and I request all her meds in pill form if they come in the right dosage.

[mamaChe]

I'm wondering if to get more iron into him, if tricking him would be the answer. Cookies or sweets with molasses, kale hidden in brownies, that sort of thing. Remember that in order to access the iron, leafy greens need to be paired with a vit c. So serve those brownies with orange juice. So, shred spinach up very finely with spaghetti sauce and make your own cheese rolls. Another thought, would he eat it if he made it? or if he grew it? My kids will hardly touch peppers in the fridge but I cannot keep enough peppers growing in the garden to satisfy them!

My main thought is that if you get the iron levels under control, and when you and he both feel better about his basic nutrition/sleep/etc, then tackle the seonsory issues. Work on oral stimulation with chewies and flavored gum. Talks about eating the colors of the rainbow, balancing sweets with not sweets even if you don't always want to eat those things...

Good luck!

[khaoskat]

He notices almost anything I put into food.

Although last night, I got him to eat chicken.  He will eat my "chicken fingers" but he wont eat cut up chicken breast.  It is the same thing..I just thinly slice the chicken breast into strips and cook it in a pan.  I am using cast iron, as that will put a bit of added iron into the food.

I will have to try the brownie trick and see if he notices.  I swear he ate oatmeal raisen cookies the other day, and didn't complain an iota.  He found the left over box of McDonalds cookies (special treat after school last week), the night we bought them.  I went looking for them the next day and couldn't find them.  I figured hubby had eaten the last couple, as he is really bad at that.  I asked him a few days later, he had no clue about them.  There were only the oatmeal cookies, and he wont eat them normally.  He must have snuck the box into his bedroom at some time and he ate them in the middle of the night.

Sorry if nothing is making sense.  I have been up most of the night with DS3.  Cannot put him down w/o screaming and he wont sleep unless he is being snuggled and held.

[Emmeline II]

Here is a thread from another forum on those cookies:

I love, love, LOVE McDonald's Oatmeal Raisin Cookies - is there a ...

Perhaps you can ask the

Nutrition and Good Eating

forum to "healthify" it if you don't know much about making those kind of substitutions.

[camracrazy]

Originally Posted by khaoskat 

He notices almost anything I put into food.

 Are you aure you don't have my child living at your house part time?? :)

I swear she can taste something if it is a teeny bit different, different brand, etc. It drives me nuts sometimes and is the main reason we can't do a lot of shakes/smoothies because she can tell when I have tried sneaking something into them. She also goes through phases where she absolutely loves a certain food and will ask for it everyday, and then one day she will announce that she doesn't like it anymore and that's it. She refuses to eat even a bite of it after that.

I put two of Ellyn Satter's  books on hold at the library. I will be reading them this week and if there is anything that jumps out at me that might help you I will post here.

ETA: Have you thought about cell salts for the iron problem? It looks like Calc Phos (Calcium Phosphate)  is good for iron deficiency . They are tiny white "pills" that dissolve on your tongue. They don't have much of a taste.

[melissa17s]

Dairy is an issue for anemics.  It can stop your body from absorbing.  When you feed him iron rich foods, do not do it at the same time as dairy.  Also combine iron with fruit or veg containing vit. C.  This makes iron more absorbable.  Have you tried nuts, dried fruit, eggs, soy (tofu), molasses, fortified cereals and oatmeal, or beans?    My friend would make box chocolate brownies and replace the oil/liquid called for with a can of mashed black beans; the kids never knew the difference.  I have success with cutting up health parts of meal really small, so kids can pick it out, like in tomato sauce adding vegs that are nearly pureed... could you try this?  There is a yeast at the hfs that is called nutritional yeast, and you might get it to sprinkle in some of the food because it is a lot like parmesan cheese- you will have to look at the different brands because some will be better than others.    Another thought, start cooking with an iron skillet... it can help because small amounts of the iron transfers to the food.  The more acidic foods leach more iron.