My Picky Lil eater

So yesterday I posted a picture on Facebook that I thought was funny. I asked Sam what he wanted for breakfast and he went to the cabinet and pulled out 10 boxes of cereal, some crackers and some other stuff. Now many of you know the struggle it has been for us to get Sam to eat anything at all but for those of you who don’t here is some of the story.

Sam picking out his breakfast...He wound up eating none of it.
He ate some Lays Chips instead.

 

Forgive me if this jumps all over the place – I have been sick since last Friday and my head aint working right.

Also I know many people have their kids on the GF/CF diets, which I think is great if you feel that works for your child. Every child is different and Sam has always been very picky and we never wanted to limited his food at this time – if he ate anything we put in front of him then I would have considered those diets but for now not an option for us.

 

Sam was ALWAYS picky. It started with babyfood. That should have been my tip off about what the next few years would bring us. He hated all baby food except for Mixed Fruit baby food. That was the ONLY kind he would eat. That and milk. No water, no juice, no finger foods. When we would go out I would carry jars of Mixed Baby fruit with me. When we went to Disney in 09 (Sam was 3 at the time) I had a suitcase filled with Mixed fruit baby food jars. His Milk – Had to be in a certain brand of bottle, certain color and heated for 35 seconds in our microwave. Different bottle, color, off a few seconds on the microwave and you better watch out cause that bottle was getting thrown at your face. The doctor said he was being stubborn and he will take it anyway once he is thirsty enough. Tried that and it didn’t work – days of Sam having super milk meltdowns and he would NEVER drink it any other way. He would go days without drinking anything so I would go back to giving it to him his way. It worked for a while and I didn’t care – at least he was getting vitamins. I used to put all of his supplements and vitamins in his milk, a little each bottle….. When he was 5 he stopped drinking milk. He won’t even go near it now. Now all he will drink is Ice cold water. I was glad he started finally drinking water but hate it that he no longer drinks his milk. I can’t give him his supplements anymore because he won’t take them with water. Back when he only drank milk we would go somewhere for the day and he wouldn’t drink ALL DAY – we would try to heat up milk for him while out but he wouldn’t have it. It was scary at times when it was hot out. So now he will drink water like a fish but that’s it. No juice either.

Sam has been in feeding therapy since he was 18 months old. He was first tested to make sure it wasn’t a swallowing issue that prevented him from eating and it wasn’t. With Sam it’s all Sensory and behavior. We used to take him twice a week for an hour each session but when he started school we dropped it to once a week. At one time his feeding therapist told us there was nothing else she could do for him. That was right before we got Hagrid.

Sam lived on Lays Potato Chips and Cheez its for the first few years of his life. Im not kidding, those of you who are friends of mine now I always carry my supply on me wherever we go….Still do. Sam was the only kid in his class who at lunch time only had chips and cheez its for lunch. Last year he started eating plain bagels. So now his lunch everyday is a plain bagel, chips, cheez its and a bottle of water.

There were a handful of other things Sam would sometimes eat. Cookie Crisp, Marshmallows, Ritz Crackers to name a few but no real food.

When we first started feeding therapy I was asked to pick a “target food” we wanted him to eat. We picked chicken nuggets because it was something we knew we could get just abo9ut anywhere. So before every session I would stop at McDonalds and pick up some nuggets and he would never go near them.  He has such an aversion to food he wouldn’t ever even try anything. Many times he wouldn’t even touch it. Just seeing it or smelling food would gross him out. Many times he wouldn’t even sit with us at the dinner table.

Fast forward to A few weeks after we had brought Hagrid home Sam decided to eat some nuggets…and boy did he eat! He ate about 20 of them….he ate his and his brothers lol. Now we go in spurts with them some days he will eat 15 other days only 2. But this was way huge for us and him!

I am not sure why but since we have gotten Hagrid Sam has opened up so much more to food. Chicken Nuggets is still his only “real food” he will eat….and he will only eat them in the car while we are driving but hey that’s OK I will take that. But he has started eating so much more different foods that before I was scared that he would lose weight and wind up in the hospital but now I have hope that he will be an eater just yet.

He has been eating like a champ lately, and he ALWAYS sits with us at the dinner table now – and even eats his own food while we eat.

Some of his favorites now are – Veggie Sticks, Frosted Flakes – Dry of course all of his cereal he eats dry, cookie Crisp, Fruit Loops, Apple Jacks, Lucky Charms, Pretzels (both hard and soft), Vanilla Ice Cream (soft only) , Fruit snacks, Nilla Wafers, French Fries, Bread, Hash browns, Apples, crackers, oreos (well only the cream – its actually really gross when he eats them), ginger snap cookies, Doritos, popcorn, powdered donuts or munchkins, glazed munchkins…..and some more stuff.

Most of this stuff he just started eating within the past few months (since Hagrid came along) and he won’t eat them all of the time. He goes in spurts. Lays and Cheez its are still his go to food(thank god for Costco where I but bags of 50 at a time) but its nice to see him opening up. I hope by next time this year he is downing some steaks and yummy stuff!  I also want to start adding back his supplements somehow. Havent figured that one out yet though.