my son is now 18 months old and was born two months early and has been seen by a speech therapist for his eating issues. he has what is call sensory intigration issues and some other problems with the whole eating process which are mostly being or have been corrected. the problem is i have the absolute worst time trying to get him to eat. a lot of it is his whole premee issue but some of it i know is just plain irish stuborness. there are not many foods i can get him to eat. he doesn't eat any meats except bologna (if you want to call that meat) because he doesn't or cant grind it up. i have gotten him to eat vienna sausages but who wants to eat those. the only veggies he really eats is carrots and greenbeans and maybe a few others. he doesnt eat peas because he gets gagged on the skins and the same with corn. my point is a lot of foods with either gag him up or he cant chew them or wont chew them...he will sometimes hold them in his mouth for hours. and i guess that is one of the bigest issues...i have to trick him into swallowing his food by slipping in a bite of applesauce or yogurt. i need advice on how to get him and me through this. and some ideas on some good finger foods for him and easy meals.
thank you so much for any advice you can offer... i am completely open for all ideas.
i would just like to say thankyou for all of your help and advice.
Hey,
O.k now this may sound strange, but my husbands grandmother used to cook filet mignon and put it into a food processor for him and his brothers when they were'nt even 2 years old. Maybe that will work.Good luck.=)
I HAD THE SAME THING HAPPEN WITH MY SON. HE IS NOW A LITTLE OVER 2 YEARS OLD. HERE ARE A FEW THINGS I DO. HE STILL IS A PICKY EATER. VEGGIES - I LET HIM FIND A DRESSING HE LOVES, WHICH IS RANCH, I LET HIM EAT AS MUCH OF THE RANCH ON HIS VEGGIES. THAT SEEMS TO GET HIM TO DEVOUR HIS VEGGIES. WITH THE MEAT IT IS STILL AN UP HILL BATTEL SOMETIMES. ONCE AGAIN HE DIPS HIS MEAT IN HIS FAVORITE DRESSING OR IN KETCHUP. I ALSO CUT IT UP SMALL SO I CAN SNEAK IT IN WITH VEGGIES OR WHATEVER ELSE IS WITH DINNER. OR WE PUT GROUND BEEF IN SPAGETTI SAUCE AND THEN HE CAN SPRINKLE PARM. CHEESE ON IT. I HOPE SOME OF THIS HELPS. LET ME KNOW IF YOU EVER WANT TO TALK OR EVEN GET TOGETHER, IT SEEMS LIKE YOU ARE HAVING OR HAVE HAD SOME OF THE SAME ISSUES WITH YOUR SON AS I HAVE.
My advice would be not to force him to eat or to try new things, and even if you do not think he is getting enough food his brain is telling him that he is. at least he is eating carrots and green beans. Also when he sees that you are frustrated he is going to feed off of that emotion and feel frustrated as well, it might take some time and he might always be a picky eater, but that is also what makes him special in his own way. I hope this helps, patience is key though with yourself and him.
J.
Hi there: sensory issues are sometimes hard to understand and adapt to. My daughter is borderline sensory as well. All she wanted was milk. Suck the juice out of everything & then spit it out. what helped my daughter alot was practicing the whole tounge & mouth exercises. They might seem ridiculous at first, but it got her to experiment different foods, identify the textures & learn to eat well. Allow ur son to see the foods u are cooking & involve him as much as possible in the making process. Help him to identify flavors he likes & if you know what textures he likes try to make different foods close to that texture. Meat isn't a very friendly food for kids as it is, but the way you cook it makes lots of dif. You have to try to understand that sensory issues are not fun for a child. They get very frustrated & sense they lack the vocabulary to tell us what bothers them, they learn to deal with it to their capacity. I hope this helps & hang in there. As he grows up it will get better. I was unable to nurse my daughther(she would cry,cry, cry & it was her sensory issues)...now she is coming along just fine & we both have learned to alleviate her issues. If you have any questions about it feel free to contact me...Take Care...C.
My son also has some mild sensory problems (one of the food related problems was the he would and sometimes still does, cram food in his mouth to the point of choking and vomitting), so I understand how tricky it can be sometimes! Oh, and he's got stubborn irish and pr in him! Carolyn B had some great advice. My ideas: figure out what textures he does like (sounds like he likes smooth foods?) and try to add more variety within that texture (pureed squash, very overcooked baby carrots, cooked soft beans.) Try to combine a texture he likes w/one he's not crazy about (dipping crunchy preztels or apples into smooth yogurt.) My son loves food that wakes up his mouth (pickles, mustard), so sometimes putting a vinegarette salad dressing on a veggie will get him to at least take a bite of something new (if you son ilkes yogurt, maybe try a bland ranch salad dressing?) Try offering him tastes of new foods off of your fork (everything tastes better off of mom's big fork.) I would continue to offer him two or three pieces of a new or never tried food everyday and let him watch you eat these things too. I wouldn't force him to eat it, but tell him it's going to be on his plate for when/if he's ready to taste it. Give him big praise for trying anything new, even if he says after one taste that he doesn't like it - the important thing is that he tried it. Give it a lot of time - my son would not eat peas or corn for the same reason your son won't - the skins. As a matter of fact, he refused all veggies for a long time, even found the ones I tried to hide. But, he's 2 1/2 now & has recently come to LOVE corn on the cob, broccoli and lima beans! Hang in there and good luck!
Hello S., My daughter was a premee as well. I have had similar problems with my daughter. I get her those little dinners in the baby food section, they look like real whole food on the package but they are very soft. Hope that will help a little bit.
D.
My son is 18 months and has the EXACT same issue. We are also going to speech therapy once a week to get his "chewing" in order. What I've found is that Kaleb (my son) loves the tyson chicken fingers, nuggets, and strips that come in the frozen bag. I also still by the Gerber graduates in the little tubs like the Chef Boyardee comes in. He loves them and I don't have to worry about him not eating them. I also buy the frozen sweet potato patties, and mashed potatoes are eaten a lot at our house =-) As far as other meat, he doesn't eat much of that either for the same reasons your son doesn't. His therapist told me to give him the fat end of a carrot or a stalk of celery for him to practice his chewing. I hope this helps, AND I'll be watching your replies so I can get some ideas too!
hi, i was wondering if you ever let him try to feed himself. my daughter can be stubborn at mealtimes as, and i've come to realize that she tends to want to do things all by herself. i know it can be messy but maybe if you give him his own plate of food, just like mommy and daddy, he might sit there and try to feed himself. something like mac n' cheese, or spagghetti would be soft enough for him i would think or even those green beans would be easy for him to pick up and feed himself with. it can be hard to get your children to explore new foods, you just have to keep reintroducing them i think. like maybe bananas, just give him some on a plate with the normal things he likes and let him try it out a few times, it'll take a while but he might start to get used to the idea of something new. well, i hope this helps!
ok if he wont chew then put in the blender and make him drink it =) if thinks hes getting juice at dinner time instead of food he may actually drink it and get his nutrients. cheerios are a good finger food. and they have good nutrients too. french fries and chicken nuggets. i thought my kid would turn in to a chicken nugget there for a while because thats all he would eat. Point is give him what he likes to eat and then slowly add the foods you want him to eat in to his diet. As long as he is eating something even if it may seem gross to you at least he is eating right? Good luck
my cousin Christian was born at 33 weeks, is a highly functioning autsitic and has really bad sensory problems with his mouth (short background- he was born with a bleeder in his brain, in the part that has to do with his mouth sensory nerves)... my aunt has adapted by using a food chopper ($10.00 at wal mart- in the small appliances section) and just making regular food smaller. Also, his therapist will put bananas or other soft foods in gauze and letting him "chew" that way, so it's not chunks of food in his mouth loose, which makes him gag.
Maybe starting him on a more smooth consistency and gradually upping the 'chunk factor' would help getting him accustomed to the texture of meat and other veggies...
My own daughter had a problem with peas for the same reason (the skins)... but by mushing them up at first, then re-introducing them when she could handle substancial textures has worked. She now eats 'regular' food, but only from a spoon... she doesn't do too well with finger foods yet. That's the next thing we're working on.
It's all trial and error. And preemies tend to have 'delays' on developmental milestones... from what I've read, some 'normal' (lack of a better word) toddlers can't handle 'real' food until between 14 and 18 months anyway- so just keep trying... and do what works for the two of you, not what someone else says he 'should' be doing.
Sorry to hear that you are dealing with this problem. My sister had a child that at 1 month old decided that she didn't want to eat - her daughter was not a premie though. I have a 10 month old and over the past month or so have been trying to get my daughter to eat more table foods - its a challege I know. She is teething at the moment as well so she really doesn't want to chew - especially meat. So - I can relate to what you are going through a little. In order to get her to eat foods with a texture or something that she needs to chew I've combined the meat with something she really likes (luckily for me she really likes the 2nd food veggies) Maybe you can try mixing things like ground meat (beef, turkey or pork) (brown it and make it into tiny pieces) in mashed potatoes or some other type of pureed vegtable, if he likes things with apple sauce on them let him eat anything that goes well with it - make it fun for him. For rxample let him dip pieces of pork chops in th apple sauce and eat it that way or even fries. Hope this advice helps. Take care.
my son doesnt eat a whole lot of meat either. he does like fish sticks and spaghetti with meat sauce. you are lucky he eats his veggies we just got our 2 1/2 yr old to start eating his. most kids i know dont like peas at that age anyways. try the gerber toddler foods. the prepacked dinners (ex- pasta stars with veggies) are good, my son likes them. if that doesnt work and you are realy worried about his eating enough, go back to baby food meats and mix it with mashed potatoes. thats what my doctor recommended for me to do when my son wouldnt eat any meats either. now he will at least try a new food, before he was 2 he wouldnt even do that.
My son is 13 1/2 months. He too was born early, he was 6 weeks early. I have a hard time feeding too. I try to give him "big boy" food, but he won't eat it. He pretty much stays with the stage 3 baby foods. I have asked his doctor at his last visit about him not eating much and his doctor told me it was normal for babies his age. Because they are very active at his age now. So I guess I'm in the same boat as you. Hope someone can help you.
S.,
Gerber Graduates makes meat sticks in beef, turkey, and chicken that look like vienna sausages but are much healthier and they have a smooth, soft texture. My daughter loves them. Also, for vegetables, I overcook broccoli and put some velveeta cheese on it then melt it in the microwave and kind of stir it together and my daughter loves that as well. She calls it "cheesy bites". My daughter was 5 weeks early and had some mild sensory integration issues with food textures, but she seems to have gotten over them now (she is 21 months old). She would refuse to eat Stage 3 foods with the mixed textures. Hopefully, that gives you a couple of new options for your son.
K.
Lutz, FL
