Food in our house is a major issue. I LOVE food and so does Aaron, so having a child with a texture aversion is a big challenge. It is difficult to get Hank to eat anything at all, let alone meet his daily nutritional requirements. Three times a day, Hank and I engage in a battle over food: me trying to encourage/entice/bribe/coerce/pressure/force him to eat, and him trying to cooperate as little as possible. My goal for Hank is to have a normal, healthy relationship with food where he will be able to enjoy the mealtime experience and eat 'normal' food. I find it frustrating that there is very little information or resources available on the topic and so many people confuse Hank's aversion with common "picky-ness." Often when I explain Hank's eating behavior to people, the response is something like, "oh ya, my son was the same way--he refused to eat anything but grilled cheese." Nope. Not the same. Is he able to sit at the table during mealtime without feeling anxiety? Can he tolerate picking up the food with his fingers? Will he gag if any peice of the food is in his mouth? Does he only eat single-ingredient food? Ok. Then its not the same. In August, we made the decision to go cold turkey and cut out baby food entirely from Hank's diet. While I worry that Hank has lost some of the nutritional benefits that he was getting from the baby food, he has made MAJOR progress in the past three months. With serious coaching, he will eat foods that he never would have eaten before, like macaroni, bread, apples. I acknowledge the progress that Hank has made and I have hope that he his food reportoire will continue to expand. Just for future reference, I wanted to record what Hank's typical daily menu consists of.
Breakfast:
Poptart and juicebox
Lunch:
peanut butter sandwich
chocolate milk (fortified carnation instant breakfast meal replacement)
Dinner:
oatmeal
applesauce
vs. Max:
Breakfast:
wholewheat waffle
yogurt
banana
Lunch:
chicken noodle soup
crackers
apple slices
Dinner:
homemade pizza
peaches
cottage cheese
Thursday, October 15, 2009
Food Rant
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3 comments:
Oh boy. What a challenge for you guys. Sometimes I take for granted the simplest things in raising a child (like having a kid who will eat what I put on the table). But I guess every kid has their quirks. I hope things keep improving. Good job on handling it so well- and good job to Hank for trying some new foods.
That is great that Hank is making progress. I know that is a challenging thing to do. I don't know how you guys do it.
not fun, I am glad you've found some foods he will eat!
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