[Empress]

My son is three years old. We're currently doing medical testing to investigate his issues, but in my gut I think he's autistic.

He has always had feeding problems, and has self-limited his diet to a few things. Currently he will eat some dry cereals, peanut butter sandwiches, french fries, chicken nuggets, pizza, and some crackers and chips. He can be brand specific at time. He stopped eating plain chicken and broccoli over a month ago. He will eat fruit, but it gives him diarrhea so no more apples for him.

He does have poop issues and we are seeing a GI. Eliminating fruit helped a lot, though.

Enough backstory. We are working with an OT and she brought up the subject of feeding therapy. I sort of hemmed and hawed, and asked her what her opinion was, and she said it could be beneficial for him. But then she described it, and how behavioral it is, I just can't get past that.

Please, if you can share your experiences with it I would love to have more perspective. I do want him to eat a wider range of foods. But on the other hand, he is growing and overall healthy.

 

[WuWei]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Empress he is growing and overall healthy.

It sounds like he has a varied diet with fats, proteins and carbohydrates and adequate calories.

Could you try adding several easy nutritious foods that optimize his intake? Our son will go on binges of not wanting much "nutritional", but I'll make smoothies with protein supplements, vitamins, flax seed oil, coconut oil, probiotics, yogurt, and fruit and it is filling, quick, easy, convenient and portable. I also add protein powders to pancake mix, muffins, banana bread, etc.

Another idea is to supplement his diet with simple nutritional alternatives. We give our son a Whole Food supplement. It is literally made from certified organic vegetables and fruit concentrates of apples, blackberry, blueberry, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, carrots, cauliflower, papaya, parsley, plum, purple grapes, raspberry, spinach and tomatoes. You can see the flecks of green vegetable even. It has no artificial colors, flavors, free of yeast, wheat, milk, egg, soy, gluten, salt, salicylates and preservatives. The brand is Hero Nutritionals Yummi Bears 'Whole food plus antioxidants', and separately 'Multi-vitamins', which are a vitamin and mineral supplement. They look like gummy bears and taste great.

We also give Natural Factors Vit. C natural flavors (chewable); Solaray Vit. C powder (for mixing); Nature's Plus Children's chewable Calcium; Nordic Natural's Berry Keen 100% Cod liver oil (natural strawberry flavored and ds LOVES it!)

I make a well enriched smoothie once a day and there is enough for several glasses throughout the day. I include both animal (egg) and vegetable protein powders, fruit and healthy fats for calories. Ds (and all of us) love them. I am not sure which fruits specifically that cause your son trouble, but there are many that can be tried individually. Also does fruit juice have the same GI affect?

I firmly believe that there is a mutually agreeable alternative that meets your son's nutritional needs without it being a burden or a battle.

Pat

 

[kchoffmann]

We have our son in feeding therapy - just about 5 times so far - and I can relate to your feeling uncomfortable with behavioral techniques. It is indeed behavioral in that there is a gradual exposure technique. For my son, he has both hyper and hypo sensitivity issues in his mouth, and this has kept him limited to exactly three foods, none of which are actually food. He really lives on a liquid diet since we sneak so many supplements and nutrients into his drinks, so we felt concerned enough that we knew it was time to get help. And it is helping. He hasn't eaten anything new yet, but he's letting us into his mouth more easily. Last night he actually took the vibrating toothbrush and at our request proceeded to brush his own teeth! We were in shock. I do believe he will begin to eat more food eventually - it's just a long, slow climb.

For me, the key in any therapy I allow for my son is that the therapist be truly skilled and sensitive to who my son is (not whatever they've read about children like my son). There are so so many out there who would push my son to the point of his getting upset, and I always got him out of there quickly and we would never go back. Exceptional therapists will always be able to ride that bridge between challenge and repose. I'm thrilled that he now has both a ST and OT who he is happy to see because they always back off if he begins to get upset (which is rare) and they honor his need for breaks, etc. In other words, they are good at what they do because they are sensitive to the child as a whole person, not just a case. His therapists really took the time to get to know him (not just the other way around), and they understood that there would be no use in therapy without a relationship that involved lots of trust. If you do decide to do the therapy, keep these ideas in your mind.