Another challenge besides hearing loss

As background, Thomas suffered from severe reflux as an infant/early toddler. Throwing up was a constant battle for him and wore the both of us out almost every.single.day. This was later compounded by sensory integration issues with soft and mixed textures. We went to OT for 6-months and graduated once his hands and feet were desensitized to texture, along with progress in other SI areas.

As of right now, we still face eating issues with our little man. He wants and demands to eat the same thing at every meal. We have been fairly successful with having him eat out but, still ordering the same thing for him. It has been difficult to say the least, especially when we travel and stay at hotels. I can't order the exact same meal for him as I personally make him at home. It makes social gatherings nearly impossible unless we feed him before we go to dinner at a friend's house, or take his food with us to prepare.

When we were at John Tracy this summer, the OT that observed Thomas recommended our getting back into OT but, focusing on his eating issues. I have to admit that this made me cry, not little tears but, huge, fat mombo-jombo tears. I can't go back to him throwing up all the time, making 2 meals 3 times a day, all the tears and the struggles. I know that this sounds so selfish but, I'm being totally honest!

Heeding the OT's recommendation though, Sean and I tried (okay, maybe bribed) to get Thomas to eat a peanut butter sandwich this past weekend...what kid doesn't love peanut butter? I practically lived on it when I was his age! He ate almost half of a sandwich and then, yep you guessed it, he vomited all of it up at the kitchen table. Additionally, he hasn't really eaten any of his lunch at his mainstream preschool, even with encouragement from his teachers. Peer pressure doesn't seem to impact our little man, unlike all the information that I've been reading lately.

When I took him to preschool this morning, we agreed that he would eat three bites of everything (the typical lunch that I make everyday at home) that I packed in his lunchbox. I arrived at school to pick him up and Thomas proclaims, "I didn't eat my lunch, Mommy. You're not mad or sad. I'm not going to timeout." I kneeled down and said, "I'm disappointed that you didn't eat any of your lunch. You need to eat to become big, strong and learn all of the great things in class." His response to me? A big hug, kiss and he said, "I love you, Mommy." Nice try to get me off the subject. It almost worked and then I said, "Nope, we are going to go home and make a special snack." His response, "I'm not going to eat peanut butter sandwich." I said, "Okay, you don't have to eat peanut butter sandwich today."

We walked out of school and I was seriously trying to come up with an idea of what to make him, keeping in mind that I have to get him eating something that I can pack in his lunchbox. Then, I remembered my husband's recommendation of toasting the bread. So, I told Thomas that we were going to make a toasted cheese sandwich. I talked about the ingredients, the process and how it would taste. We walked into the house, took off our shoes, washed our hands, I lifted him up onto the kitchen counter and we began making his snack. I even let him pick out the cookie cutter to make the sandwich fun (of course, he chose the train engine).



While he didn't eat the whole thing, he ate probably half of what would have been an entire sandwich...small victory for him...yes? Not throwing up...huge victory for us both...definitely.

It still makes me wonder and need help from all the awesome parents out there in "blog-o-sphere." Who else faces these issues? What do you do to help your child? We've tried food chaining in the past without success, does it really work? What has been successful for all of you? Should I get him back into OT again? Or should I look at feeding therapy only (which we did before and wasn't successful)?...sigh! Help! And, thank you for any responses that I get!