Daniel has allergies and was told send his lunch daily. The problem was the parties the kids still have foods at parties even ones on the allergie list. I would ask for ot this sounds like some fine motor problems also. Our issue is no oneelse tries to help with diet except me. My mil is the biggest pain in our lives.She let her kids eat there allergie foods when they were little. He recieves OT and speech at school. Would his OT therapist be the one to corner about this? I send his lunch but by the lunch time his sandwich gets kind of soggy and it makes him gag and he cant eat it... he needs one freshly made that he can handle eating.
I would ask the OT about this. Maybe sessions could be held during lunch to help him work on opening his food containers.
Our school has parent volunteers in the lunch room. At the very least, someone like that should be able to help him out.
A lot of kids on the spectrum have food issues. I don't personally have any experience with this, but many here do. If you do a search, you'll find lots of threads.
Talk with the ot. When Daniel was still in school I fixed fresh meals and put them in containers in his luch pale. I did this while he dressed for school. I even sent his breakfast to eat with his class.i dont know where you are located but alot of states through local hospitals that deal with children have what is called a feeding clinic. here in md we have mt washington and kennedy kreiger. my son is going into kreigers in 2-3 weeks. they will probably have some prereqs to see what might be causing it, usually a long eval. my son had to be allergy tested, when only egg came up, we had to put him under for a much needed upper and lower endoscopy and sigmoidescopy. we found in addition to gastro esoph reflux he has alot of allergy cells in his intestines-probably what is causing the gerd. tomorrow we are going to univ of md to a new allergist to do an elisa test to check for food intolerances. then clinic. weve met the team at clinic an they are great. my son also has issues with sensory processing disorder, asd ritualism, ocd, adhd, and behavior issues. they will address all. we are there for 2 mos m-f from 8-5. very grueling, and yes, at times adversive. he will have a gi doc, speech therapist, ot with sensory integ. a nutritionalist, and behavioralist/psych. they will even teach other friends, family, caretakers, and school personnel how to help him. my son is younger but going into preschool in a few months. if it helps 40-50% its worth it becus he has a limitied diet and everything has to be made a certain way. for ex, i put stars, #s and colored spiral pasta in chicken broth with grated chicken (to powder) and potatoes. if he sees chicken he wont eat it. he loves pasta and spag. sauce, but you cant use any of the formentioned pastas for anything but the soup becus "thats where they belong" sound familiar? he also doesnt eat cold foods or left overs. ive tried taking pancakes from the day before where he cant see them and mixing plain flour, preparing the pan and putting them on their to warm so he cant see its not fresh and he still wont eat it. ugh! i cant cook a homemade meal to his liking and bring to school hot everyday.
i hope the info helps, andyou are soooooo not alone. if you have a local yahoo/asd group, or rolling access provider, asd school, asa chapter, etc. please see if one of them can find a local feeding clinic. it helps alot of children like mine.
Im sorry if something similar to this has been posed, I am new here and to frustrated at the moment to search through previous posts. Not frustrated about anything here, but with my sons school.
I have a 6 year old son with PDD-NOS and sensory issues. I am wondering if anybody here has a selective eater, and how you deal with school lunches? My son will only eat about 7 diffrent foods and they have to be prepaerd just so- and he is not eating his school lunches. I am sending lunch with him but by the time lunch rolls around the sandwich is no longer "fresh" and he does not eat it (it gets kinda soggy like) He also has been unable to open some of his food containers he would eat- so the last 3 days of school he has come home without having eaten any lunch.
Last year (he was half day K last year and had lunch at home) I brought up my concerns to his IEP team for lunch this year (now full days) but nobody had any answeres and they kind of ignored my concern.
I told them I would be willing to provide the food (bread and jelly as he only eats jelly sandwich on white bread) if the kitchen could make him a fresh sandwich at lunch but they said they didnt know if they could do that (??) so besides my bringing a fresh lunch right at lunch time daily, I dont know what else to do.
It seems the school would be responsible for helping him to get a lunch while at school, and if he has special needs or requirments for his eating, dont they have to figure out a way to meet these? Im nto asking for much, just somebody to help open his containers, and somebody to smear a little jelly on some bread at lunch time.
Also, wondering if there are any services of therapies I can look into for him to start eating more foods- he will try somethign new every once in a while and gags and throws up almost instantly. His food list he will eat is very small and while he IS growing and thriving, I still want to make sure he gets a nutritous variety.
Thanks everybody
i think this is gonna vary by state, county, and district. theres alot of variance. here in my ne distric of balto co md the school system is willing to do nothing and will fight you tooth and nail or simply just say NO! they do that alot here.
what state is everyone from?
Jer is in 5th now- but in K, 1 and 2- we put it on the IEP that the school HAD to heat lunch up for Jeremy....
I sent in Celeste Pizza's, fish sticks, - whatever Jer would eat- and someone heated it up EVERY DAY.
He is older and eats at school now- and gets lunch OR brings from home- but that is what we did.
Put it on the IEP, they HAVE to do it then- and if they don't....growl at them!
Gail
PS-
I'm a MEANY....
We are in Washington State.... thanks for all the great advice guys!I wish I had some advice for you....my dd is also a VERY finicky eater, has many textural sensory issues when it comes to food. She's only in half day right now though, so even though the teachers said something to me about her not eating lunch, I figured she's only there for 2 1/2 hours. I'll feed her before she goes and have lunch when she gets home. Have wondered myself what I'll do in the future.....I hope you find some answers......definately talk to the OT though, as they should be very familiar with all sensory issues. Good luck!my main contact is the sped teacher.
that is who i go to.
I have started working as a professional special education advocate and I've used the book FROM EMOTIONS TO ADVOCACY both for myself and for classes I've taught for parents. I recommended it as the ultimate "how-to" book for special education in the US. You can order it from www.wrightslaw.com or from Amazon (at a discount, usually). I feel it's the best a parent of a special education child can spend. It will take you through what is EVERY sped child's right in this country, although particular states can give even more rights.
Your child's IEP needs to be the guide for all teachers and staff to use to be able to help your child make progress in areas of deficit. Read the one you have. If it doesn't seem to be adequate, see where it needs more attention and focus on those areas for the new IEP. An IEP Meeting MUST take place AT LEAST once a year, tho you can ask for as many meetings during the year as you think you need, if you believe the IEP needs fixing.
I live in Vermont, but come from NY State originally.
I also work in a lunchroom and part of my job is watching these kids eat....
I am proud to be a lunch lady.
This is a FUNCTIONAL NEED for your son. Call an IEP Meeting and ask to revisit OT intervention with a focus on sensory needs and/or feeding therapy. Ask that the sandwich issue be addressed in his IEP, too. The cafeteria policy CANNOT trump the IEP. BTW -- Virtually ALL ASD kids I've known over the years are extremely picky eaters. Some, so much so, that they starve themselves to the point where they need feeding tubes. You might need to ask for a Functional Behavioral Assessment with so that a positive Behavior Intervention Plan can be created with learning to eat other things being the goal. A BCBA will be the one to seek for that sort of intervention.
Ok, so I went ahead and emailed the school psychologist and am hoping he returns my call tomorrow so we can maybe arrange a new IEP meeting. We have not had one since Sept. of last year. I went into that IEP clueless and not sure what to do and kind of had the "Whatever you guys think is best- you are the professionals" t ype attitude.. very inimidated to walk in to what I thought was a small meeting and be at a table with like 10 people and myself... was not prepared for that! At least this year I hopefuly will be.
Does anybody have any links for information on IEPs and our rights and what is standard in them so I can be sure im doing all the right stuff and getting him the help he is entitled to?
Also do you guys have like a "main contact" at the shcool for IEP type stuff- I have never been told who to contact so I usually just email the school psych and let them point me in the right direction. But this year I want to be more involved and really know whats happening when and who does what.
Thanks :)
[QUOTE=whosthatgirl]Does anybody have any links for information on IEPs and our rights and what is standard in them so I can be sure im doing all the right stuff and getting him the help he is entitled to?
[/QUOTE]
Here is a link to an IEP guide on the U.S. Department of Education's web site:
http://www.ed.gov/parents/needs/speced/iepguide/index.html
Also, here is an IEP resourse thread started by Norway Mom that has lots of great information:
http://www.autism-pdd.net/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=16265&am p;KW=NorwayMom
Good Luck!