texture issues perspective

[Anonymous]

not sure where i am headed with this title, but i am thinking of hannah’s progress from a sleep-feeder, to a poor solids eater/ gagger, to feeding therapy, and now almost 3 years old. she is better at eating, in general (yesterday we had a long talk about her favorite foods: “noodles, twizzlers, and brocolli. noodles are the best. i like them the most.”) and expresses what she’d like to eat for meals when asked or when she is hungry. i still can’t believe it when she tells me she is hungry. we have kind of let go of what foods should be eaten when or where and still watch television during supper and maybe have lunch in the car or out more than most people. but what i think i have seen the most is the more autonomy we give her with regard to eating, the better off. i think i read this in dr. spock way back when…that to cure a gagger, the best thing to do is to let them alone and let them feed themselves completely. i still put chicken nuggets in her hands and remind her that there are carrots to be eaten, i can’t completely separate, but i know she appreciates the space.

she only recently started being able to drink flavored liquids with meals. chocolate milk and juice. previously this would have made her barf, but i just look away and cross my fingers. similarly, she only started eating foods that have more than one texture at a time, ie pizza, peanut butter or cheese sandwiches, etc, as opposed to eating them separately (and cake with frosting, i forgot to mention). her texture aversions seem to be fading, but she will still occasionally gag when trying something new…not ever related to taste?

she will still not eat fruit unless it is dried. she won’t eat eggs unless they are cooked really hard. but she loves cooked vegetables, potatoes, corn, brocolli, green beans, carrots, etc. won’t touch anything with red sauce. nothing that resembles baby food texture either: applesauce, yogurt. though she eats cottage cheese.

the most interesting perspective i have now is seeing a lot of my friends with their “good eaters,” complain about feeding issues. now i give them the same annoying advice that others gave me, don’t stress, it’ll make it worse.

anyhow, i am not sure what my point is, guess i am interested in hearing how some of the little ones are progressing (or not)…it took two full years to get to this point with table foods and i credit rich cooking for hannah maintaining a 50% growth chart in weight. now i’ve begun to integrate low-fat dairy and am losing the butter in alot of the food i prepare. old habits die hard…

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the update, Becky! Puts things in perspective for me… so there is hope. How is she volume-wise? Other than variety, and the fact that Hailey is still a sleep feeder, I’d say that volume (or lack thereof) is the biggest issue.

Hailey graduated from feeding therapy at 15 months (she’s now 18 months) with a report of having “age appropriate feeding skills, ability to self feed, chew, drink from a cup independently, but with a low appetite and small variety”. Little has changed since then- she can feed herself, but is rarely hungry we find and has a small appetite. When she isn’t sick, which is rare since starting daycare, she will indicate she’s hungry and ask for milk in her cup, but when she goes to eat, she only takes a tiny amount of her favourites and then is full and wants out of her chair. We do occasionally still feed in front of the TV, but now find that Sarah is a bigger motivator and entertainer to her so we don’t do it often. We do take advantage of snacking in the stroller, and still feed high calorie snacks that most people would cringe at. Her favourite foods are rice, plain spaghetti, cheezies (is that a food??!!), corn, tofu, cheese, cottage cheese, yogurt, carrots sliced very thin, strawberries, grapes, melon. Actually, that’s the whole list. She is particular about texture and flavour, and even the way things are cut. She won’t eat bread, no more purees, no meat of any kind, no eggs, no fish. She used to taste these things at one time, but since won’t go near it. We still sleep feed twice at night due to her dropping weight over the past few months.

It has certainly been a challenge, but I try not to get hysterical about it anymore, now that she is a bit older. Also, as the other kids start to enter the toddler fussiness phase, her eating habits don’t seem as extreme, though I know the difference.

At daycare, she is willing to try more foods out of peer pressure, but try literally means a few bites if that. She’ll often go most of day eating very little, or even almost nothing, and just a few ounces of soy milk from a sippy cup.

I know that we have a long way to go, and often wonder if we made a mistake sleep feeding instead of tube feeding. But I try to look forward and not back, and I’m thankful that we’re at a point where she’ll at least sit and eat, and has some favourite foods, even if parents of typical children would cringe if their child ate like Hailey. I know how far she’s come, and we’re proud of her accomplishments (though I do hope for improvements, especially volume-wise!!!)

Thanks for starting this thread.

[Anonymous]

Hi Becky

Glad to see you around. Well i have to say that Matthew has both texture and volume issues. Less volume i would say than texture. We are not getting anywhere with feeding therapy at home (it is going really slow) so we will be going to a feeding clinic at John Hopkins in a couple of months….. so if you are interested i will copy you on our progress and what they are doing there…

[Anonymous]

Alexis is getting better, finally trying new things on her own. She still chipmunks foods that she doesn’t really like we have to continue to remind her to chew and swallow. Whatever she can swallow whole she still does. She is the same way, not hungry very small amounts. Whenever she says she is hungry we jump and get her whatever she wants right away, most of the time it is waffles, lately she is requesting for pizza and and icee (cherry) oh well whatever she is willing to eat is fine with me. Still refuses to sit still and eat runs around and most of the time refuses to feed herself, she still wants me to put food in her mouth and spoon things for her but she if perfectly capable of doing so, since she will eat cookies, and ice cream feeding herself. Still has yet to eat veggies only corn, and not a big meat eater. I can’t complain, she has come a very long way, from completely refusing to eat, gagging, vomiting, chipmunking for hours to now. I’m just very thankful and hopefully things progress with Taylor a lot faster!!!

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