Help with a VERY Picky eater....Possibly with Sensory Integration Disorder

Because he is eating less, you will want to be careful that he gets lots of nutrients. Try new nutrient rich foods, recipes like deceptively delicious, and if he'll eat smoothies, try throwing extras in like flax seed and spinach. vitamix.com has lots of smoothie recipes, that could be a good start too. If you can use breads that are healthier, like whole wheat, Aspen Mills bread is made with honey instead of sugar, every bit of nutrition helps and when people eat less they tend to be more drawn to foods that have the nutrients they need.

You can try Toomey & Assoc. in Denver and the National Center Sensory Disorders (I think that's the name?) in Denver/Englewood to get him tested. We went to Toomey and the entrance exam was thorough to determine which one of their therapists was best. She specializes in eating only. Good luck!

Hi, K..
Whether or not your son has SID, he could still need feeding therapy. I am an IBCLC (lact cons) and LLL Leader. In my "professional" world I work alongside a Speech Language Pathologist. We can often see the beginning of feeding difficulties during breastfeeding difficulties. (If your next baby needs help, maybe add a Speech Lang Path or OT with your IBCLC). Feeding therapy includes de-sensitizing gagging, chewing so the swallow phase is better, etc. My fourth child started feeding therapy a little after his first birthday. If only I had known there was such a thing with my first 2!! We have gagging and throwing up with certain textures (not so much now), and food jags where choices were limited. Hang in there! Perhaps you can make an appointment for a screening to see where your money would be best spent.
A.

You have so much going on with your son that it sounds like you don't know where to start. If I were you, I would try to get the sensor integration disorder clarified -- does he or doesn't he? Once you get that question answered it will help you know where you can push him on things and you'll know how to start.
As for eating only a few bites some days - when my son was that age there were days he would barely eat too. Then those would be followed by days that I couldn't feed him enough. He's growing and learning to be in control of himself and not eating is one thing he knows you can't force him to do. Good luck!

Some friends of mine had a similar problem with their son--they live out of state, but their pediatrician hooked them up with an early intervention program. I'm sure there are similar programs in your area. Their son worked with an occupational therapist and it really helped him a lot, especially with the food and eating. He did go on to have some issues with potty training, so if you do see an OT you can talk to them about that topic too. Talk to your pediatrician or, as a previous poster mentioned, your school district. A diagnosis can only benefit your son!

I should add that my friends' son did not meet the criteria for SID but the program still worked with him. It's worth looking into. Good luck to you.

I can't respond to the SID question, but I would try some of the fruit and veggie purees in small quantities in the food he does eat. The two books I've used and liked are Deceptively Delicious and The Sneaky Chef. For instance, you can put sweet potato or cauliflower purees in spaghetti sauce. Hope that helps!

Yes, my grandson, Joshy. He ate only 5 foods, so your son is eating more than Joshy did. We turned his eating around in one week, by integrating multi-sensory learning at mealtimes. In only a month, he was eating many new foods, in six months most foods. First, I know it sound counter-productive, but stop giving him fast foods (chicken nuggets, French fries, and boxed pancake mix). Substitute homemade oven chicken strips and fries, whole wheat pancakes with eggs and milk). I know you'll find this site very helpful. There's tons of info and you can print off recipes, articles related to picky eating, and even a grocery list: http://www.BabyBites.info
We also saw almost an immedate improvement after he began to take Carlson's Cod Liver Oil (lemon flavored) and probiotics formulated for children. (You can put it in a fruit smoothie if he won't take it by the spoonful.)

Hi K.,
First off, I would caution against letting casual conversations label your son. Take him for an evaluation with a developmental pediatrician and get some advice from experts in the area. They will have some great ideas for you on how to find the balance between your son's comfort level and the need for you to push him in his learning and development.
Having said that, he appears, from your list, to like a lot of varied textures and tastes. For a small child to like the tart crunch of a pickle and the sweet smoothness of yogurt and especially seed covered strawberries, I would say you have done a great job at exposing him to a lot of variety and he seems to be accepting it. Just keep up with the exposures. Remember that children taste things much stronger than we do. So if a flavor is intense to you it will probably be overwhelming for him. They say it takes up to 20 exposures for a child to accept a new flavor or texture. My daughter is just now liking green beans after 6 years of being required to eat at least one each time I served them.
Good luck to you, B.

You are describing my son! He was diagnosed with SID in kindergarten. He is now 9. I would definately recommend talking to your peditrician and have him evaluated. My son was in OT for awhile, but unfortunatly our insurance didn't cover it, and we couldn't afford to pay for it ourselves. We did learn alot during the time that we went, and have been working with him ourselves. Definately don't push the eating thing - it will for sure backfire. SID is different than just a "picky" kid. We encourage our son to "play" with his food. Touch it, smell it, lick it, smoosh it, dip it, etc. If that's all he can do to a food he doesn't want to eat, it's ok. It's baby steps. There is a great book out there that I would recommend - called "The Out of Sync Child". I found a ton of useful info in there as well. Good luck to you, and feel free to contact me if you want to chat!

Since your son is over three call the local school district and they can start getting a diagnosis. The earlier they work on it the less they have to do as he gets older.

S.
Mother to Kai
www.HomeWithKai.info

K.,
My daughter was diagnosed with Sensory Integration Disorder when she was 8 months, in part, because I am a Physical Therapist and could identify what I was seeing. Since then, it has taken us on a long journey.

First, I would agree with a lot of other posts. You need to have your son evaluated to get an accurate diagnosis so that accurate treatment can take place. It is better to know what you are dealing with and go from there.

Second, your son is actually eating a pretty good variety. For example, we were on the "bacon and muffin" diet for a year. I learned that my child COULD, in fact, starve to death after going from the 50% percentile in weight to off the chart (less than 3% on the weight chart). She gained less than a pound between age 2 and 3. I found a nutritionist that is superb, works only with kids that have these issues, and has even recovered her own child from such difficulties. She directed me to a pediatrician that also works with these types of kids. We drive 45 minutes to see him, and it is worth it. My daughter was put on a medical food and we have since increased her weight gain to close to 10% on the chart.

I know a lot about this topic. If you'd like to contact me to discuss nutritionists or doctors, books, or recipes, I'd be glad to help.

One more thing....in an effort to give my daughter more nutrition, I developed a healthy, natural product that you can add to the things HE ALREADY EATS. If you are interested, just let me know.

Good luck.
R.

Strictly on the nutritional side, I would just give him more of the same, my son goes through phases where there are things that he WILL NOT eat and thats fine. If there is stuff he will eat, just give it too him. Try to balance it, and just give him more of the same. PB&J, strawberries, and glass of milk and cherry tomatoes for lunch, sounds good to me. Yogurt, apple slices and toast for breakfast.. Spaghetti and milk for supper... It all sounds healthy to me, I don't really push my kids to eat to many "new" foods unless they want too. If they see me eating it, they usually want to try and if they like it, great, if not, well, maybe next time. There are lots of foods that I didn't like until I was an adult that I would never have tried as a kid... I would just give it time. As for the sensory part, diagnosis is key, you need to find out what you are dealing with and figure out ways to work with you son that are going to benefit him in the long run, the sooner the better. The longer it takes to get a diagnosis the less time you have to work with him before he is school age and teachers are trying to figure him out... Good luck!

S.

All I can say is just be sure you keep only healthy foods in your home. He won't starve, trust me. If he's hungry, he's going to find something to eat that he likes and it will be healthy, if those are the only options you have in your house.

I have a friend in a similar situation. Her son was drinking water & juice just fine from a sippy cup but would not drink his soy milk from it at all.
Does your son have any food allergies? Her son has a sensory issue too & tons of problems w/food too. Turns out, before they discovered his milk allergy, while his brain was still trying to work things all out, he got a negative association w/food ("if I eat this, it hurts me, so food must hurt me")
Her son is only 2 but she's learning to pick her battles. She bought a sippy lid for the bottle & called it "good 'nuf".
She also got a recipe book called "deceptively delicious". I'm guessing it has something to do w/food allergies. Maybe you could disguise some of the stuff he won't eat as something else & see if he'd try it that way.
I'd let the potty training go for now-you're about to introduce a new person into the family, things are going to get hectic. If you start now, he's going to backslide anyway-and heaven forbid he feels that you want him grown up & potty trained to make room for a new baby!
Go see his doc & push to get him tested for sensory problems & food allergies. If they tell you they can't test for allergies until age 4, remind them that babies can be allergic to formula & need soy & it's considered an allergy, so why can't your child have allergies before age 4 too.
From friends w/sensory issue kids experiences, I know that if he does have a sensory issue, it's going to be a long road. It's manageable, but not as "easy" as it could be. You've just got to be creative!
Good luck & congrats on the new baby!

I'm afraid I don't have any experience or advice with the Sensory Integration. But I just thought, if he'll drink pediasure or something like that, it would help get calories and nutrients into him when he won't eat. Might be worth a try.

Hi K.,

I highly recommend Body Balance. My 4-year-old is an extremely picky eater as well... and I get total peace of mind knowing that she's getting the nutrients she needs on a daily basis, regardless of what she's eating/not eating. Both of my kids drink it every day (as do I)... it's liquid so it's easy for them to take and it tastes great so they actually love it and ask for it (otherwise you could mix it w/ water or juice). It's all natural and it's sweetened w/ black cherry juice and honey (no refined sugar). It's a whole food made up of aloe vera juice and 9 sea veggies... a great way for us to get the nutrients we aren't getting from our foods even if we ARE eating well, as our soils are so depleted.

I'd be happy to give you more info or answer any questions... I'm super passionate about this stuff.... I work as a post-partum doula and put all of my clients on it. And I firmly believe every child should be on it to prevent illness and all of the things that are so common now due to nutritional deficiency (ADD, ADHD, allergies, migraines, asthma, etc).

Here's a link to the website:

http://lifeforce.net/body-balance.php

And please let me know if I can help. I can be reached @ ###-###-#### or ____@____.com, there's also a money-back guarantee so you can try it and see if you like it, risk-free.

-A.

Looks like you have gotten alot of good advice. I would also recomend "The Out of Sync Child", we found ours at Borders. Try to get a diagnosis as soon as you can. My son is now 12 and was not diagnosed until he was 10. We are struggling to get him help at his age and alot of his "habits" are very hard to change at this point because he has been this way for so long. I will be honest it is not an easy thing to deal with and can get very frustrating. I have learned you have to have alot of patience with these kids and not to push too hard as that only makes it worse. Some days are better then others and it will be something to deal with on a daily basis, but I have noticed that my son is improving. He has not had any therapy as I can not seem to find anyone to help him but I work with him on a daily basis. Hope this helps and just remember patience, patience, patience. Good luck

K.,

My son has sensory integration disorder and I thankfully found out and started the treatments in preschool. There are some similarities in both of our son's traits, and Alex's have changed over time. Therapy has helped tremendously. We see a wonderful therapist at Children's Hospital in the Littleton location. Insurance has also covered it for him. I hope you seek out professional treatment - it's made a world of a difference for our family. Best of luck to you.

I'm afraid I can't speak specifically to the problems you've brought up, but I can offer some more general information that I hope will be helpful.

My best friend's two older children both have Sensory Integration Disorder. If you have not already done so, I suggest that you see whether your state offers any early intervention programs. In states that offer them, they are usually available through age 3, and in the case of her family, were extremely helpful. She was able to get an occupational therapist to come to their house once a week to work with the kids, and it cost her nothing other than the usual government-induced mountain of paperwork and a little persistence.

If you haven't already read it, you might also find a book entitled The Out-of-Sync Child helpful. For my friend it was a real eye-opener.

Both of these children are older now, and outsiders would never know that they had faced the challenges of sensory integration early on. The oldest still balks occasionally at new textures, and is a bit wary of new situations because the sensory input can be a bit overwhelming. He is nine, and self-aware enough to identify what is going on, which helps him, plus his hyper-sensitivity has lessened over time.

Good luck.

My son had problems with food textures, too. We found a "feeding therapy" clinic--it was affiliated with Primary Children's Hospital in Utah. While I wouldn't say he was ever "cured," I would say that he is a little more adventurous now. In fact, he recently informed me that he hates zucchini, I told him we weren't eating zucchini, that is was summer squash. He ate it without complaint! :) As for the nutrition--try Carnation Instant Breakfast shakes for supplementation. That's what we were told to do.

Hi there. My daughter is now 2 1/2 and has Sensory issues as well. She has been receiving occupational therapy for a year now, and is doing much better. I agree that it sounds like your son has a lot of the "triggers" that a sensory kiddo would have...props to you for recognizing it! There is a feeding clinic that Children's Hospital has to deal with some of these feeding issues. i would ask his pediatrician about it at the next visit and see if you can get a screening done. His school district might also be able to provide some help. Good luck!