We talked with our new Ped about some of DS2's issues with eating. Â She referred us to nutrition, which is exactly what I was wanting (to see if we were getting enough of the right foods and suggestions on how to make changes for him). Â She also put in a referral for a Feeding Evaluation. Â I was certain this was a big waste of time, but went with it anyways. Â Well, we had the Eval today and he does have some minor issues with his jaw. Â They have not been caught in speech therapy, but were with the Feeding Eval. Â Also, whenever she was getting him to chew or resist pulling things, he used his whole body or it shifted. Â So, if she was pulling on the right, he would compensate with his entire body if he was standing up. Â While doing the Eval she could see some of his minor balance and coordination issues as well. Â I told her if she needed to refer to it for anything that his ST has the evals that were done on him by the Dev. peds.
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She says his jaw was weaker than it should be for his age, and the right side was the weaker of the two. Â She doesn't think he needs Feeding Therapy, which I am fine with because that is not what I was looking for. Â She said she was going to get with his ST and have her work on some exercises and stuff to help strengthen his jaw muscles. Â His jaw also gets tired/fatigues with just doing less than 50 chews on a chew stick type of thing.
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Now if I could just get his sleep back under control. Â We are back to struggling to get him to go to bed, and I know he is tired, as he is falling asleep on the short less than 5 minute car ride home from school.
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Some of the suggestions are that we give him small bites of food (almost like what I give my 3 yo) for most meats (steak, chicken, pork) not much bigger than the size of a nickel  at most a quarter.
