Food Issues

I would have him evaluated by a sensory trained OT at OTA in Wakefield or Watertown. There are books that can help but works best in conjunction with OT - the two books that I have seen best results with (I work in Early Intervention) are "Just Take a Bite" and "Food Chaining" - both available on Amazon.

This sounds like my neice she gags on certain foods & is not sure why. I whole heartedly believe in homeopathic medicine as well as western medicine. I had eczema for so many years and not one dermatologist & I saw many could help me. I finally went to a homeopathic doctor Mark Mincolla, phd in Cohasset, MA for my eczema and guess what I no longer have eczema. I found out that my body could not handle yeast and yet just about everything we eat is made with yeast. Once I stopped consuming all yeast products my eczema was GONE!
So I am not technically allergic to yeast but my body is sensative to it. So maybe this is what your son is going through. I feel bad for him too because we want our kids happy & healthy but when we cannot figure out what their issue is it is heart breaking and frustrating. Check out his website at www.maxhealing.com maybe he or someone else in your area can help you? Also their is a place called Bright Morning Star (Health food store with a homeopathic phd as well (cheaper than Dr. Mincolla as well) his name is Bob & he is in Raynham, MA. Good luck & i hope you find out quick what the problem is.
Oh I also agree with Sensory Integration Therapy I am going to talk to my sons Pedi about having him see a SI therapist for certain fears he has when we are in the car & he hates loud noises.

When my daughter was being picky, I started hearing everyone in our lives describing her as a "picky eater." I was worried that it would be a self fulfilling prophecy. So I made a big poster for the wall. It said A is NOT a picky eater. Then I wrote the whole alphabet and every time she ate and liked a food that started with that letter, I would draw a picture of the food. It encouraged her to try new foods to see if she was willing to add it to her poster. I can't say she ever filled it up, but it helped. I also didn't really have to push. The poster was the motivator instead of me.
Good luck!

For the longest time my 6yr old only drank milk he now drinks water at snack time. I wouldn't worry about him being a picky eater I babysit for a little boy that eats nothing but mac and cheese and granola bars. Maybe whatever the uncooked cake batter looked like when he saw it set him off or maybe he has a sensitive nose but I would discuss that with your pedi as for the picky eater its normal they claim the more you offer foods or if you give it off your plate the more likely your child will be to eventually eat it but maybe there are some books on this at the library you could take a look at. Good luck.

I have a friend who son is like this and he has the same issues. They diagnoseed him with Autism. This could not be the case but it sound just like my son. I hope it works out for him.

I have a strong belief that kids, especially, shy away from food that doesn't work for them. It sounds like he is eating some protein, some veggies, some milk. I wouldn't be too worried. Is he growing normally??? Have you thought about having him tested for food allergies? That may be at the root, or he may just be picky and need to grow out of it over time. I was a very picky eater as a kid. Now I eat anything except for the shell fish that I eventually realized I was allergic to. Interesting that as a kid I wouldn't go near it........

I LOVE the cookbook Deceptively Delicious. Every recipe has a fruit or veggie puree in it. I cook from it almost every meal. It was at the Christmas Tree Shop for $6 last month. But even if you have to pay full price, I think it's totally worth it.

I just had to fill out a sensory evaluation for my son and on it there was a section about food. It asked questions about aversions to smells, textures, colors, tastes, etc. It also asked about gagging and vomiting. It was really interesting. I don't know what it all meant (meaning, I don't know what the diagnosis would be if you were to mark "always" or "frequently" to many of the questions), but you might consider speaking to a sensory specialist (PT or OT) to see what they say.

That sounds exactly like my son. He would have eaten just milk and cheez-its if he could. Just looking at foods could make him gag.

We found out he had food allergies. Maybe your son should have a blood test for food allergies. I think the blood test is better because it picks up food intolerences as well as allergies.

Dear P.,

here is a simple rule that works great for us: We decide what our children eat, they decide how much they eat (this is a rule of thumb by the swiss pediatrician Remo Largo, and does not apply to desserts ect).

Ever since our son was old enough to eat real food (i.e. a little over a year), he has been eating what we eat. If he does not want it, we offer no alternative, but we do not pressure him either. he is a good eater, and eats a great variety of foods. I have noticed that i am prejudiced to what he may like in my cooking sometimes, and he teaches me over and over again that only he knows what he will like (e.g. sardines, fish soup, cauliflower, cabbage, squid). So i just cook good, fresh food and let him decide. We do not eat processed foods like fish fingers or chicken nuggets. But we are easy on him having that outside the home.

I think there is no reason to offer kids anything but what we ourselves eat, if that is fresh, diverse and healthy. So far this has worked very well for us! Even if our son sometimes goes a day without eating much, he sure catches up later, on the choices we offer. His daycare mom loves his eating attitude and reports that he eats very well at her place too, with occasional days of not eating.

For snacks inbetween we offer fresh fruit, nuts, wholemeal crackers, rice cakes, natural yoghurt, bread.

Our daughter is too young yet (mostly breast-fed), but we will approach eating in the same way with her when it's time.

good luck,
D.

Is everything else normal developmentally? I only ask because this sounds symptomatic of autism. If this is the only thing, then I don't have any advice other than to check in with his pediatrician as well. Good luck.

I have a house full of picky eaters. Although their tastes do not surround the color of the food, only the taste, I feel your pain. My husband grew up as a picky eater and he only ate peanut butter and fluff sandwiches for lunch and dinner every day until he left for college (even on Thanksgiving!). He survived and is healthy now and eats almost normally, but when you say the gagging thing it makes me laugh becuase he does that with new foods and new smells. My daughter does it too. My kids are way more diverse in their eating than he ever was, and I think that is becuase I just keep giving the food to them over and over and over again and not give them the alternative. They get praise and rewards for trying new things and sometimes get sent to their room if they refuse to try something new and cry instead. We haven't had many battles lately because they know the routine. My M-I-L who (raised my husband) always visits and makes them their typical plain pasta and chicken nuggets meal while we have our dinner and I have to tell her every time they eat what we eat. She always seems shocked by that. My husband sometimes thinks I'm being harsh, but he is also impressed with their wide range of foods they now eat. Good luck!

I would look into an OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder)therapist. He may only show symptons toward food because it is something he can control. Sometimes they say don't give in to all of your kids OCD tendencies because it doesn't teach them to live in the real world, it only caters to them. He may need modification therapy. Check out the OCDfoundation.org for more information. You don't want to stress him out but you also can't let him have his way all of the time because he will have to deal with it eventually. A lot of kids at this age have different issues with food, some extreme some not so extreme, at least he eats something, which is good!! Good luck!

You child sounds a lot like my middle son. He is now 15 and continues to be a very picky eater. When he was 4, he only ate hotdogs, a (grocery brand) chix nugget and fries, and baby carrots were the only veggie we could get past his lips. He would eat raisin bran of all things, and peanut butter sandwiches, and pizza.
As a teen he has added, apples and grapes, chicken stirps but only if in buffalo sauce and now hates hotdogs.
He still will not eat any other veggies.

I recall being at my wits end, judged by others and feeling like a bad parent but my other two ate normally. People suggested he was OCD, on the spectrum of autism due to his dislike also of the feel of seams in socks and sweatpants.
Well...they were wrong. It was just him.
He is well behaved, a typical teen, strong, athletic, does well in school and someday, he will have a girlfriend whose mom will cook him beef or spaghetti and he will eat it and come home saying, how come you never made that for me!?! HA!

The advice I was given by his pediatricias was to not engage in this battle of food as he was in control and he would win. We did try the 'go to bed' if you don't eat what the rest of us eat and the boy would tank up on peanutbutter sandwiches for lunch the next day.
We just made available the foods he liked..granted at 4 we taught him to use the toaster oven and he cooked his own chicken nuggest and got his own carrots...but, meal time was far less stressful, and I would put a small amount of what we ate on a small plate at his setting in hopes he'd try....nope...

You best bet is to sneak in some whey for protein or greens into milk shakes for him...or homebaked cookies...they always eat stuff like that don't they? :)