Wow! I dont know where to start! Here goes...C has alot of oral motor issues. He does not chew any foods except grahm crackers and blueberry muffins. Obviously, these are easy to chew. His diet is very limited.He likes mushy stuff that doesnt come apart on his tongue....mac and chees,yogurt,oatmeal,gerber graduate meals mushed up,pudding,applesauce. When a teacher at his old school force fed him he threw up
Sorry I don't have any advice, but I get ya!
Have you guys looked at Namastefoods.com
I swear their GFCF Spice cake mix ( which you can make muffins out of ) is to die for
they also have awesome pasta
I would try bit by bit - it really is overwhelming
My son had the same issues when he was little. The oral motor stuff, drooling and lots of it until about 4 or so, eating soft foods, it would take him forever to eat, very, very limited diet, used a paci until about 4 1/2 or 5. He too had reflux when he was a baby, I had never seen a baby spit up like that before, but it was way more than just spit up (projectile).
We never changed his diet in any way, of course it was 9 years ago that we got the dx. I had heard about gf/cf but I really didn't have enough information/confidence in it working so we didn't try it. He now will eat almost anything, even vegetables, meat, etc. He still chews with his mouth open (we have tried to get this to change and just realize it may not and we're ok with that) Maybe with age?
He is very healthy and doesn't (and didn't, other than the reflux) ever seem to have any "gut" issues. That has been our experience.
Hi Zachsmom! Wow that sounds so much like my C!How did youget him to eat meat and veggies?????THnaks!Hi Our son had a similar issue. He drooled alot until just recently and he will be 4 in november. His speech therapist found he had open mouth posture. She suggested chewy tubes and lots of oral motor exercises. SHe used whistles etc. His mouth is definately stronger so no more drooling and now we are working on introducing new foods. Just to touch them in the beginning. Snack wise Evan likes rice cake , pancake , waffles, pretzels, and archway oatmeal cookies.
I know we started with chicken and it sounds gross but we would cook it and then kind of puree it with stuff like applesauce. It wouldn't be like liquid but soft, very soft and then we kind of increased the texture gradually. It was alot of trial and error. But we just made things mushy and gradually increased the different textures of the food. I think alot of his food choices looking back were just ease of chewing. Part of it might have been age also and increased motor control of his mouth. Even once he began eating chicken and other difficult textures on their own whole, he would take forever to chew each bite. Carrots were always our easiest vegetable to get in him because we could make them really mushy, but as he got older we were able to incorporate other things. He'd never make it on a vegetarian diet but I'm pretty happy with what he eats now.Anyway my son is a puker- I have gotten so used to it, it does not even phase me now. We had tests run, and he has nothing wrong with his stomach or GI tract- it is ALL sensory for him. We tried the OT thing for 1.5 years with chewy tubes, NUK brushes, oral exercises, force feeding, nothing helped. In fact since we started over after moving to a new town with a new OT he is now eating better than ever without doing all of this.
My son is almost 3 and he eats this: baby food, anything crunchy like crackers, chips, cereal, pancakes, waffles, yogurt, milk, Pediasure- thank God for that!, and bananas on a rare occasion. NO meat- pockets it in cheeks then pukes, and no noodles, no eggs, no rice, and heaven forbid you mix cereal with milk or try mashed potatoes or pudding- guaranteed to puke
Anyway as I said before these are all sensory issues with him- we offer him "real" food and if he tries it great, if not we crack out what we know he will eat. He is huge for his age (42 inches tall and 40 pounds) so whatever we get in him is working. He is as tall as most 5 year olds. Best of luck to you- I know how frustrating it can be- we can't try the GF/CF diet either or he would starve. My youngest son is a picky eater, and I know what a frustration that can be. Your concerns are legitimate -- it's important to think about what your son's diet would consist of on the GFCF diet. Oral defensiveness I've heard that early trauma can cause oral defensiveness. For my son, it might have been the feeding tube he had as a newborn (he was fighting an infection since my water started leaking on Saturday and he wasn't born until Wednesday!!!). For your son, it could be the reflux. Here's my collection of free online resources connected with pickiness and other eating difficulties, including some articles with an OT/sensory focus. Personally I would investigate this aspect and experiment with it before trying the GFCF. http://www.autism-pdd.net/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=18317&am p;KW=pickiness To chart your son's sensory issues in general, you can use this checklist: http://www.sensory-processing-disorder.com/sensory-processin g-disorder-checklist.html Lactose intolerance My autistic son is not too picky but he has lactose intolerance. This was obvious from the age of 1 -- when he got the runs from increasing dairy in the diet, and had normal bowel movements as soon as we cut back. No stomach pain. He tolerates some dairy, but milk and ice cream are the worst, and we avoid dairy on an empty stomach (ie at breakfast). He drinks lactose free milk, and gets ice cream if he wants (he knows the trade-off). Yogurt is also okay. GFCF diet Here's a very non-overwhelming overview/checklist of how to make the decision, plan and carry out the GFCF diet, a summary of a brochure from the Norwegian government. One of the steps is to consult a nutritionist. I think this is extra important with kids who have feeding issues. http://www.autism-pdd.net/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=19595&am p;KW=Norwegian Lactose intolerance (a reaction to milk sugars), milk allergy (a reaction to milk proteins), and celiac disease/gluten allergy are all good reasons to avoid these products and a regular pediatrician or allergy doctor can diagnose them. People who choose the GFCF diet don't necessarily do so for these reasons. As I understand it, the problem it fixes is peptides (detectable by urine test) which result from the inability to digest these products fully. I think the urinary peptide test is still on the fringe of mainstream medicine, but my son was tested here for it by the hospital here in Norway. Good luck with everything!
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